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The Connecticut River has long been a conservation priority for The Nature Conservancy. Now the conservation efforts will get a major boost, thanks to a significant donation from Northeast Utilities. Lora Gerard photo © TNC.

Grant Launches Conservation
Effort for Connecticut River
Northeast Utilities issues challenge
grant for Connecticut River work

The Northeast Utilities Foundation has awarded a $500,000 grant to The Nature Conservancy to launch a large-scale, multi-state effort to improve the longterm viability of the Connecticut River and its key tributaries, from the Canadian border to Long Island Sound.

The Connecticut River program will examine conservation of New England's longest waterway by looking at its entire watershed.

"With its founding sponsorship, the Northeast Utilities Foundation is recognizing the need to protect this vital natural resource and expand on the progress that has already been made," said Charles W. Shivery, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Northeast Utilities. "The Connecticut River is too often overlooked as the natural, economic and cultural asset that it is. With this grant, the NU Foundation is challenging others to recognize with their financial support the value the river brings to their lives and to their organizations."

The new program allows The Nature Conservancy to coordinate its efforts in the river's four states toward unified and strategic conservation goals. A comprehensive planning process has already begun with the expertise of dozens of program partners representing a diversity of disciplines.

"The Connecticut River has certainly rebounded in recent decades from the condition it was in, but the work is far from over," said Steven J. McCormick, president of The Nature Conservancy. "The NU Foundation's gift allows The Nature Conservancy to take conservation efforts to the next level, on the scale of the entire watershed, for the benefit of generations to come."

The Conservancy has identified eight major focus areas for conservation: They include the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters and Ashuelot River in New Hampshire; the West River in Vermont; the Westfield River Highlands in Massachusetts; and the Eightmile and Salmon rivers and Meshomasic Forest landscape in Connecticut.

TNC's Connecticut River Program seeks to:

• Inhibit the spread of invasive plant species and safeguard unaffected areas;
• Restore the natural flow, form and other dynamics of the river to improve aquatic diversity in and along the waterway;
• Promote and improve river connectivity - unbroken river access throughout the length of the river and its floodplain - which is essential for the movement of fish and other species; and
• Protect and preserve lands critical to the river's health.

The Nature Conservancy has worked for more than 40 years protecting the Connecticut River and its habitats. So far, TNC has protected nearly a quarter of a million acres within the river's watershed, including its source at Fourth Connecticut Lake in Pittsburg and its terminus in Connecticut near Long Island Sound.

The classic pitch pine and scrub oak of the Ossipee Pine Barrens has had a long relationship with fire. The Nature Conservancy is preparing to carefully restore the pine barrens ecosystem with a combination of mechanical treatment and prescribed burns. Eric Aldrich photo © TNC.

First Phase of Restoring Ossipee Pine
Barrens Expected to Begin this Fall
Information meeting set for Nov. 4 in Madison

The Nature Conservancy is preparing to begin the first phase of management to restore and maintain a globally rare habitat in the Ossipee Pine Barrens.

The work will likely begin this fall with mechanical treatments of pitch pine and scrub oak near East Shore Drive to reduce fuel loads and help ecological management.

Ultimately the Conservancy will use carefully prescribed burns in this pine barrens ecosystem that has depended upon fire for its maintenance and regeneration for thousands of years. In the coming years prescribed burns will be conducted by trained Conservancy staff, local and state firefighters, the White Mountain National Forest and other organizations.

The Conservancy will hold an informational meeting on the restoration and management efforts on Thursday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m., at the Madison Library. The meeting will include an overview of restoration efforts -- including mechanical treatments and prescribed burns -- and scientific projects to understand fuel loads and biodiversity.

The Conservancy has undertaken a thorough review of fuels present in the Ossipee Pine Barrens (such as twigs and limbs, anything that can burn) to better understand how fire might react and how to manage different parts of the property.

Due to improved fire suppression capabilities and changing land use patterns, fire has been virtually eliminated from the Ossipee Pine Barrens. The last fire in the area was in 1957 when several hundred acres burned north of Ossipee Lake Road. The lack of fire since then has enabled fire-intolerant species (like white pine and some hardwoods) to gain a foothold, while pitch pine and scrub oak have declined. At the same time, the lack of fire has led to an accumulation of leaf litter, branches and limbs, which has drastically increased the possibility of a difficult to control fire.

Mechanical treatment will improve the Ossipee Pine Barrens habitat and reduce fuel loads before prescribed burns are implemented.

To learn more, come to the Nov. 4 meeting in Madision, or click here for a brochure.

Nature Conservancy Field Trips

TNC field trips are free and open to members and non-members. Please leave pets at home.

Saturday, October 16:
Fall Mountain
Please join The Nature Conservancy for an autumn walk at Fall Mountain to see one of our latest protection efforts.

The hike is Saturday, Oct. 16, 10 a.m. to noon, and will be led by Duane Hyde, TNC-NH's director of protection.

Fall Mountain harbors the globally rare and federally endangered northeastern bulrush and has an exemplary complex of forest and wetland ecosystems.

The hike is free and open to the public. You're welcome to join us for apple cider and donuts after the walk.

Saturday, October 16:
Stamp Act Island, Lake Wentworth
Join TNC staff for a rare opportunity to see this remarkable preserve. Bring your canoe or kayak and life jackets and meet at 10 a.m. at Lake Wentworth State Park in Wolfeboro.

Saturday, October 30:
Ossipee Pine Barrens
See why and how the Conservancy plans to carefully restore fire to this ecosystem, one of the country's best examples of northern pitch pine/scrub oak habitats. Meet at 10 a.m. at TNC's West Branch entrance off Route 41 in Madison.