Hancock photographer, environmentalist, master gardener and world traveler Eleanor Briggs will be the first speaker at the Jaffrey Civic Center’s “Stories to Share” series for 2024-2025, which opens Friday, Oct. 4, at 5 p.m.

The series, which highlights residents of the region with unique stories to tell, takes place the first Friday of every month September through June at Jaffrey Civic Center, 40 Main St. Other upcoming speakers include Mel Allen, editor of Yankee magazine, on Nov. 1; Ophelia Dahl, co-founder of Partners in Health, on Dec. 6; and local veterinarian Charles Devinne on Jan. 3. 

While Briggs is best-known in the Monadnock region as founder of the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock, she is also a globally recognized wildlife photographer and conservationist.

“I really have a lot of stories to share” Briggs said. “Recently, I was in India, photographing tigers on a reserve. We are trying to increase their number. There are quite a few things I could talk about.” 

While she grew up on Long Island, Briggs spent every summer as a child at  her grandmother’s summer home in Hancock. As a child and teen, she saw the landscape of Long Island change due to development, and cherished her time spent in the woods of New Hampshire. When Briggs was in her late 20s, her father decided to sell part of the family land in Hancock. Briggs was determined to save the land, and in 1970, found a way to buy it back. She then donated the old summer house for use as an environmental education center. 

Today, Briggs lives in the oldest house in Hancock, adjacent to the Harris Center land. Her gardens have been featured in nationally noted garden tours. 

Briggs named the new center after Harris, her beloved cat. She served as chair of the board of the Harris Center and led the fundraising campaign for the first 18 years of the center’s existence.

“After 18 years, it was time to get off the board. I didn’t want the Harris Center to get ‘founder’s disease’ And it has been thriving and expanding for 34 years, ever since,” Briggs said. 

Today, the Harris Center “supersanctuary” includes 35,000 of acres of conserved land, with contiguous tracts of preserved land in Antrim, Dublin, Hancock, Harrisville, Greenfield, Nelson, Peterborough and Stoddard. At Friday’s talk, Briggs will tell the story of how her lifelong relationship with nature led to the creation of the Harris Center and discuss some of challenges that faced the new organization as it grew.

Briggs is also a professional photographer, and has traveled the globe with the Wildlife Conservation Society, of which she is a director emerita.

“The WCS is the foremost wildlife conservation organization the world. They have a program at the Bronx Zoo. They have programs at 60 countries. There are 20-year programs in each country,” Briggs said. “WCS is a little different and maybe not as well-known as some other organizations because they are not adversarial. They try to cooperate with the governments in different regions, to work with them and to preserve as much as possible. The goal is to preserve the natural heritage of these nations.”

Briggs has also worked for decades with the International Crane Foundation, including to help establish a biosphere reserve in Cambodia. She has spent significant time in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, as well as to India. She has also been able to travel to Myanmar at certain periods when the country was open to visitors, and has raveled extensively in South America and Africa. 

In 2008, Briggs was awarded the Sahametrei Medal by the nation of Cambodia for her contributions to wildlife conservation. She is noted for photographing a family giant ibis birds, proving that the birds were not extinct as previously thought.

“We’re just trying to do what everyone is doing – keep up with the destruction of the planet,” Briggs said. 

For more information about Jaffrey Civic Center “Stories to Share,” go to jaffreyciviccenter.com/stories.