Carl Michael Wallman

Carl Michael Wallman, 75, of Pittsfield, New Hampshire, left this world on Friday, February 14, after a long struggle with cancer. Wallman was father to Evan and Gabriel, grandfather to Matalyn, late in life partner to Fran Berman, and by turns an environmentalist, ecologist, farmer, breeder of championship cattle, apostle of naturalist philosopher Aldo Leopold, lifelong fan of the New York Yankees, good neighbor, and dear friend. He was proprietor of Graylag Cabins on Wild Goose Pond and co-founder of the Northwood Area Land Management Collaborative, which began in 2004 as a means by which neighbors working together could be good stewards of the land.

Wallman was born in New York City on September 20, 1944, the second of two sons. While his brother Joshua was a science prodigy who won the national Westinghouse Award, Carl was drawn to the worlds of basketball, music, and nature, exploring the wilds of Central Park during his free time. His father, Frank Wallman, arrived at Ellis Island in 1922 from the Ukraine with only the shirt on his back, uneducated, speaking no English, after his own father was murdered in the Kiev pogroms of that period. Carl’s mother, Dorsha Zambrowski, left Poland with her family as the Nazi party rose in Germany, settling in Buffalo, New York. The Zambrowskis had a rich legacy as learned Orthodox rabbis going back 13 generations.

Frank was a tireless laborer. He eventually opened a linoleum store on First Avenue. In the early 1940s he bought inexpensive tenement buildings on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which was then an immigrant ghetto.

Frank Wallman died suddenly in 1966 while Carl was studying math at Northeastern University in Boston. In 1969, Frank’s brother Lou urged Carl to buy some farmland in NH. Carl said, “Jews couldn’t own land where we came from, so owning land was very meaningful to him and to all the Jews of his generation who suffered severe persecution.”

Carl didn’t know anything about farming, but in 1969 he bought 180 acres in Northwood, and he eventually made a go of it, learning the basics of farming and raising Angus cattle, and over the next 25 years turned Harmony Hill Farm into a great success. Carl developed innovative breeding techniques that had cattle ranchers from around the country studying his methods and buying his cattle, and in 1989 he was awarded the coveted Grand Championship Pen of three Angus Bulls at the National Western Stock Show in Denver.

In 1994 he sold his herd and purchased the main house and lakeside cabin of Graylag, a property on Wild Goose Pond in Pittsfield that had been a basketball camp in the 1960s and 1970s. Carl’s appreciation for the healing power of the woods, rock ledges, and boulders would deepen every day for the rest of his life. He would read deeply in Leopold’s land ethic, and open his eyes and ears to the poetry of the seasons. With that inspiration, he became even more determined to reach out to neighbors and build community, to think of the land as part of a larger system that knows no boundaries. He worked with NH Fish and Game to understand and map the watersheds and habitats, and he began a dialogue with neighbors about their common interests, across property lines and very often across ideological lines, too. That’s how –- over many potluck suppers -- NALMC was born in 2006.

The lessons learned in that experiment in community land management only fed and further enlightened the Graylag experience. After lovingly restoring some of the cabins and adding artistic touches throughout the property, Carl began renting cabins to city folks, watching them connect with nature and themselves, and building community around the campfire. Gradually, Graylag grew and evolved as a place of healing and beauty.

The joy of bringing people together on the edge of Wild Goose Pond sometimes left Carl without words. But for him, Graylag represented the deep spiritual life of the Zambrowski tradition combined with the Wallman tradition of the hard work of one’s hands. It stands as a living and eternal tribute to both families that healing is possible.

In his final months, Carl succeeded in establishing paths for both Harmony Hill Farm and Graylag to continue in their current form well beyond his lifetime. The farm is being donated to Southeast Land Trust under an innovative easement so that it will remain a farm forever. And his beloved Graylag has been reborn as Graylag Nature Preserve, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting people with nature and one another.

Carl is survived by sons Evan Wallman of Pahoa, Hawaii, and Gabe Wallman of Pittsfield, NH; granddaughter Matalyn Wallman of Pahoa, Hawaii; partner Fran Berman of Exeter, NH; cousins; and many friends and neighbors.

The funeral is on Monday, February 17, at 1 PM in the Chapel at the Manchester Hebrew Cemetery, 316 South Beech Street, Manchester, NH, followed by a meal of condolence at Chabad Center for Jewish Life, 1234 River Rd., Manchester. The family will receive visitors during shiva hours, 4-7 PM on Tuesday and Wednesday, at Carl’s home, Graylag, in Pittsfield, NH.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Carl’s memory may be sent to Graylag Nature Preserve, PO Box 398, Pittsfield, NH 03263.