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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 |
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Postcards from the Field TNC-NH's annual meeting will be Sept. 10, at Camp Calumet in West Ossipee. Learn more. TNC Worldview Around the world, The Nature Conservancy's Global Climate Change Initiative works on projects to implement these strategies at places on the ground. Learn more about TNC's Global Climate Change Initiative. |
A Culvert Operation: Let’s say you’re a brook trout. When the water in your stream gets too warm, it's time to find some cooler water, maybe in a nice, deep pool. In a perfect world, you’d swim freely up or downstream to reach the cooler water you need. Unfortunately, your upstream journey leads to a narrow waterfall, pouring down from the culvert a foot above you. That’s the end of the line for your upstream passage. If you spill over another culvert like that on the way down, don’t expect to get back up again. And even worse, your chances of reproducing and feeding well decline dramatically. In TNC science-speak, culverts like that are considered “fragmenting features on the aquatic landscape.” Not only do they block brook trout, but also sediments and many organisms, from mussels to salamanders. In the Ashuelot River watershed of southwestern New Hampshire, The Nature Conservancy is about to take a close look at all sorts of fragmenting features, not just culverts, but other places where streams, rivers and wetlands meet roads, bridges, dams and other potential barriers. By preliminary count, there are more than 150 dams and 1,400 road-stream crossings in the entire 420-square-mile watershed. Why the Ashuelot River watershed? For one, the Ashuelot is a refuge for the globally rare and federally endangered dwarf wedge mussel. The river has been designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an aquatic priority area of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. After a vigorous scientific review, TNC and its partners recently identified 13 terrestrial and 20 aquatic areas as having exceptional habitat significance. And meanwhile, TNC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are examining how flow regimes influence aquatic biodiversity downstream of Surry Mountain Dam. So there’s great potential to restore aquatic habitat in the Ashuelot watershed. But before restoration can even be considered, we have to understand what’s going on. Next summer, a crew of trained staff and volunteers will document and evaluate the extent and impacts of aquatic fragmentation in the watershed. Coordinated by TNC and the Ashuelot Valley Environmental Observatory, volunteers will assess all road crossings, culverts and other structures that fragment the watershed’s waters. Ultimately, the information will help guide future restoration projects with partners, including the N.H. Department of Transportation and local communities, as they plan bridge and culvert maintenance and replacement projects. "When complete, the study will enable TNC, the state, and local communities to understand exactly where are the biggest impediments to fish passage and river continuity in the Ashuelot, and to prioritize structures for improvement and river restoration," said Mark Zankel, director of conservation programs for the Conservancy in New Hampshire. "Planners and decision-makers crave this kind of detailed, site-specific information, presented in a watershed context, so they can better target limited environmental enhancement funds to have the biggest beneficial impact on the river and its biodiversity." The project is supported by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency via the N.H. Department of Environmental Services. Sept. 15, Stoddard Thursday evening, September 15, 7 to 9 p.m. Sweet Water Trust, The Nature Conservancy, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and the Harris Center for Conservation Education will present an evening with nationally renowned wildlife expert, tracker and photographer Sue Morse. The event features the most extensive wildlife exhibit in New England, a slideshow of Morse's spectacular wildlife photos and opportunity to register to study tracking with Sue Morse. A 25-table exhibit includes mounted lynx, bobcat, wolverines, pelts, antlers, bones and skulls, and track-molds. One of the evening's goals is to register people to train from October 2005 through April 2006 to collect long-term wildlife data on the Forest Society's Stoddard and Windsor forest reservations. For additional information, visit www.sweetwatertrust.org or contact Kevin Caldwell at (978) 793-1172.
Great Places: In Response to Place, a nature photography exhibit, is coming to the Boston Public Library in July. In conjunction with this event, the Conservancy has created the Preserving Place: Reflections of Massachusetts exhibit and has selected work from five artists in Massachusetts. This exhibition of extraordinary photographs exploring and celebrating the natural world, will appear at the Boston Public Library from July 16 through August 31. In creating the exhibit to mark The Nature Conservancy’s 50th anniversary, curator Andy Grundberg invited 12 visual artists to visit one of the Conservancy’s Last Great Places and record their response to that place on film. The exhibition’s range of styles, from landscape photography to portraiture and photojournalism, illustrate the rich and complex splendor of these places, as well as the diversity of artists represented. Learn more about this remarkable exhibition. Fond Farewells: After five years of ramping up and leading The Nature Conservancy's geographic information systems in New Hampshire, Lora Gerard Wise is moving on to newer challenges. Lora came to TNC in 2000 from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. With her lengthy title (conservation information and GIS manager), she has handled the increasingly complex world of geographic information systems, working with layers of data and maps to help us direct and manage conservation. Lora has helped bring TNC’s GIS technology in New Hampshire into the 21st Century, doing sophisticated modeling of forests, soils, aquatic systems and other environmental features. After studying to receive a master's in public administration degree, Lora has accepted a position at Dartmouth College with an even longer title: executive assistant to the executive vice president for finance and administration … whew! In her new job, she will assist the vice president's office in managing the financial, physical and human resources of Dartmouth College. The Dollars and Sense of
The conservation community has known it for years: Conservation makes a lot of sense from an economic perspective, especially here in New Hampshire where tourism is big business and where the natural setting defines our quality of life.
But not everyone gets it. That's why the Center for Land Conservation Assistance, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension offer a presentation for communities: The Dollars and Sense of Saving Special Places.
Newly revamped, Dollars and Sense is a lively hour-long presentation examining the effects of growth, the benefits of open space, the economics of land use, and funding sources available to support conservation projects. A 10 to 30-minute discussion period usually follows the show. A shorter presentation with fewer elements of the show can also be arranged.
The information is specific to New Hampshire and is customized for each community where it is given. With advance notice, presenters may be able to incorporate specific local issues into the presentation.
For information on The Dollars and Sense of Saving Special Places, contact Sharon Hughes at the UNH Cooperative Extension, 603-862-1029, or sharon.hughes@unh.edu.
A Likin' to the Lichens: The next time you reach a mountaintop, take a good look around. If you're above treeline, chances are the dominant form of life lichens. They've got an array of competitive advantages to survive year 'round in the alpine zone. Now there's a cool new book to help you identify, appreciate and better understand these amazing and diverse plants, a living partnership between algae and fungus. "Lichens above Treeline, A Hiker's Guide to Alpine Zone Lichens of the Northeastern United States," by Ralph Pope of Hancock, N.H., has just been published by the University Press of New England. Pope reminds us that the lichens of the Northeast alpine zones are really remnants of the retreat of the last Ice Age 14,000 years ago. "As warming continued, the boreal forests gradually replaced the tundra ecosystem and the tundra began a retreat up-slope to ever smaller patches, eventually occupying their current restricted range on the summits of mountains." Pope's book is a handy field guide, illustrated with color photos, of more than 50 lichen species you might see in the alpine zones of the Northeast. The close-up photographs are pretty slick, inviting you to take a closer look the next time you head to the peaks ... or pass near any lichen for that matter.
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