|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||
|
|
The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire Home Projects Chapter News Contact Places We Protect Field Trips & Events Press Releases Volunteer Ways of Giving Slide Shows Conservation Buyer |
|
|
|
||||
Nature.org Donate Nature.org/newhampshire
|
About this e-newsletter Find out how you can support The Nature Conservancy's conservation work in New Hampshire. Support TNC. The Tsunami Disaster: TNC scientists begin assessing damaged marine and coastal resources that will impact local economy and livelihoods for years to come. Read the story. You can help:
|
| LCHIP Funding Lawmakers to consider funding Land and Community Heritage Investment Program The New Hampshire Legislature will consider many environmental bills this year, including a few closely watched proposals to fund the state's Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, or LCHIP. Lawmakers have filed several bills that offer ways to fund the program. Among them is a proposal by Rep. Neal Kurk of Weare to fund LCHIP from a property tax on electric transmission. Another bill, sponsored by Rep. Judith Spang of Durham, would fund the program via a surcharge on recording documents with the registry of deeds. Currently, LCHIP has no funds for awarding grants to communities for land conservation projects. LCHIP's board of directors is seeking $12 million to fund the program over the next two years -- $6 million a year. That's the funding level during the 2003-2004 biennium and half of what was recommended by a blue-ribbon panel that examined New Hampshire's conservation needs. Since its start in June 2000, LCHIP has funded 112 projects in 89 communities across the state, protecting a total of 200,000 acres. Making it possible has been a total of $16.5 million in state funding since 2000 and more than $103 million from additional private and public funding. So, for every $1 of public money allocated, an additional $5.95 is raised from other sources. That ability to use state funding to leverage additional dollars for local conservation projects has made LCHIP hugely popular throughout the state. LCHIP supporters, including The Nature Conservancy and host of local and statewide conservation organizations, say the program needs not only a meaningful level of funding, but a dedicated source of those funds. "LCHIP's success for conservation in New Hampshire can be measured in many ways, like acres protected, communities involved, dollars leveraged," said Daryl Burtnett, state director of The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire. "But its keystone of success is a reasonable level of public funding. That's what makes it possible for many communities and organizations to leverage additional dollars and to move forward with great conservation proposals. The end results are communities galvanized for conservation and an array of places protected for future generations." New challenges and opportunities for Alice Chamberlin, chair of the board of trustees for The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire since 2003, has accepted a staff position in the new administration of New Hampshire Governor John Lynch. Chamberlin is serving as one of Governor Lynch's senior policy advisors, handling environmental issues among other responsibilities. Chamberlin, who lives in Warner, has stepped off the Conservancy's board of trustees. The remainder of her term as chair will be served by Hank Swan of Lyme, a trustee for the New Hampshire chapter since 1997. "This is, of course, a mixed blessing for The Nature Conservancy," said Daryl Burtnett, state director of TNC in New Hampshire. "While we'll all miss working closely with Alice as Chair, I know we'll be working with her on many issues and projects in her new role. It is a testament to our new governor that he has recognized a great talent, and it is great news for conservation in general that we have someone with Alice's experience insight and passion filling such an important role. I cannot express how grateful I am for the tremendous job Alice has done as our chair over the past year and a half." This is not the first time that Chamberlin has been advised a New Hampshire governor on environmental issues. Chamberlin was environmental policy advisor for the administration of Governor Hugh Gallen in the early 1980s. From 1994 through 2001, Chamberlin was commissioner of the International Joint Commission of the U.S. and Canada, which has jurisdiction over water issues of the two countries' boundary waters.
Vickie Bunnell Preserve: Where there were once logging roads and altered stream beds there are now regenerating forest and naturally flowing streams. That's the upshot of this fall's restoration work at the Conservancy's Vickie Bunnell Preserve in Columbia and Stratford. The recent work was the second part of a multi-phase project to restore forests and streams along a network of former logging roads. The roads were built for timber operations in the early 1990s by the former landowner. Working with private contractors, the Conservancy this fall removed 14 culverts from former logging roads in the Moran Notch area of the 11,000-acre preserve. "We re-graded and restored the natural hydrological flow to Sims Stream," said Peter Benson, TNC's Northern New Hampshire program manager. The Bunnell restoration project's first phase began in 2003, when contractors removed two bridges and three culverts from the Gore Brook watershed. They also stabilized streambanks and returned the stream to a more natural flow and condition. Light scarification on some of the former log-hauling roadbeds also helped speed up the natural regeneration process. "We now have two beaver flowages where the road was," Benson said. The project's most intensive phase will come next year, when the Conservancy will remove gravel, replant vegetation, stabilize streambanks and remove culverts from a steep spur road up Bunnell Mountain. "What we're trying to do here is un-fragment the landscape as much as we can," Benson said. "There is lots of documentation that roads can create a range of ecological impacts, such as increased predation, increased or introduced invasive species, soil hardening, and causing an impediment to amphibian migration. So, in the big picture, we're trying to put the forest's pieces back together." The project is supported in part by a grant from Sweet Water Trust.
Committed to the Resource: Look at a map of New Hampshire's permanently protected places and you're seeing, in many spots, the work of Bob Miller. Since 1993, Miller has worked tirelessly for The Nature Conservancy, negotiating with landowners and arranging sometimes intricately complex land deals for the purpose of conservation. He was instrumental in land deals that protected more than 11,500 acres for the Conservancy. A good chunk of that land -- some 3,200 acres -- Miller helped protect through the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership. With The Nature Conservancy as lead acquisition agent, the partnership also includes the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, Ducks Unlimited, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Since 1994, Miller has been the point man for the partnership, working as Great Bay Project director for the Conservancy. Before coming to the Conservancy, Miller was a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Realty Division, where he earned an extensive background in natural resource protection and built a strong record of accomplishment. At the Fish and Wildlife Service, Miller's direct oversight and leadership led to the protection and addition of over 127,000 acres to the nation’s Wildlife Refuge System in the Northeast and much more land in the West. Miller's work helped to establish the Lake Umbagog and Great Bay National Wildlife Refuges. In 1989 he was awarded a Citation of Meritorious Service by the Interior Department. In 2003, Miller was recognized with one of New England's highest honors for environmental leadership. Nominated by U.S. Senator Judd Gregg, Miller received the Environmental Merit Award for Lifetime Achievement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's New England Regional Office. "Current and future generations of people in New Hampshire and throughout New England will benefit from the quiet, steady work of Bob Miller," Gregg said "His commitment and accomplishments have greatly improved not only the natural world and all the species that rely on it, but also the quality of life for countless numbers of people in the Northeast." Those who know Miller know that he has always stayed true to the goals of conservation and protecting our precious natural resources. "This whole Great Bay project from the get-go has been based on water quality and habitat," said Ed Robinson, waterfowl biologist from the N.H. Fish and Game Department. "And Bob has always kept that at the forefront of the partnership's work. And Bob is unbelievably good at what he does. He has a great ability to negotiate with a whole range of landowners." Miller will officially retire in April. Until then, he'll be scrambling to conserve additional habitat around Great Bay, and hopefully train his replacement. Meanwhile, The Conservancy is now seeking to hire a Great Bay Project director. For information, visit http://nature.org/careers. Volunteers Needed to Help Gather Information
|
