George M. Stirrett Preserve

This preserve was named after an eminent New Brunswick biologist, George Stirrett, who worked for the Canadian Wildlife Service in Ottawa. He searched for and found a feathery, foliaged plant known as Furbish's lousewort which is a rare plant globally, since it occurs only in a few places in the upper reaches of the St. John River valley in both Maine and New Brunswick. Furbish's lousewort, Pedicularis furbishae, grows at the foot of steep forested banks above the lower riverbank. The soil is frequently disturbed by ice action and flooding.
The Nature Trust provided contacts, expertise and a small amount of money to help the Nature Conservancy of Canada to obtain this site. Other organizations involved in acquiring this preserve were The New Brunswick Naturalists, Xerox Canada, and the Canadian Wildflower Society. In 1991, the Nature Conservancy asked the Nature Trust to manage the site and in 1992 the Nature Conservancy deeded the site to the Nature Trust.