In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with Bill Hunt, Chairman of the Conservation Commission, and Anna Boudreau, founding member of the Open Lands Committee, about their combined 40-plus years of volunteer service preserving Dover's natural resources. Hunt, a retired teacher and farm owner, discusses the Conservation Commission's role in providing environmental guidance to the Planning Board for development projects. Boudreau explains how the Open Lands Committee works with willing landowners to preserve land through conservation easements, emphasizing that properties must meet specific criteria for conservation value. Both guests highlight Dover's balanced approach to development and conservation, with Boudreau noting the importance of meeting housing needs while protecting natural resources. The conversation concludes with Hunt discussing the Commission's urban tree initiative to replace and maintain trees in downtown Dover, and Boudreau expressing the Open Lands Committee's need for volunteers to help with outreach, education, and easement monitoring.

In This Week in Dover History, we learn about Dover's oldest hook and ladder fire company, formed on Dec. 21, 1831. Initially called the Volunteer Hook and Ladder Company, it later became known as the Lincoln Hook and Ladder Company No. 1. The company was famous for its annual banquets and became the oldest horse-drawn fire apparatus in New England before transitioning to its first motorized ladder truck in 1924.