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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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Sunset at the Ossipee Pine Barrens - E. Aldrich photo
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Southwestern New Hampshire:
From the air and on the ground, you can easily tell that a stretch of land near the Massachusetts border in Richmond and Winchester is remarkable habitat for waterfowl, songbirds, wild brook trout and many other wildlife species. The future of that habitat has now attracted the interest of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy. They’re exploring a range of conservation opportunities along key tributaries of the lower Ashuelot River that meets the needs of plants, fish, wildlife and people. Among the possibilities is establishing a new division of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge – the system of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuges in the Connecticut River watershed. Representatives of the Conservancy and the Silvio O. Conte Refuge have recently met with selectmen and conservation commissions in Richmond and Winchester to discuss the idea, and have received great interest. Public informational meetings on the project will be held May 10, 7 p.m. at the Winchester Town Hall and May 11, 7 p.m., at Veterans Hall in Richmond. “The Conservation Commission is 100 percent for this,” said Gustave “Gus” Ruth, chair of both the conservation commission and the board of selectmen. “This would be a good thing for Winchester, a real source of pride for the community and we’re glad that The Nature Conservancy and Conte Refuge are looking into it.” << Learn more about this project >> << Read the Keene Sentinel's article >> Protecting Great Bay: Fifty-five acres in Greenland are now protected from development, including two brooks that flow directly into Great Bay. On behalf of the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership, The Nature Conservancy has purchased a conservation easement on 54.96 acres from the Underwood family. The project, funded by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, protects a mix of forest, scrub and shrub and open field. The property also includes part of Foss Brook and an unnamed brook that flow into Great Bay. Had it not been protected, the property could have been subdivided into 25 or more lots. Now the property creates a block of protected land totaling about 158 acres on Great Bay. The conservation easement will be held and monitored by The Nature Conservancy. As part of this project, the Underwood family also strengthened a previous 32.6-acre conservation easement on Great Bay. The new easement now includes an additional 2 acres of salt marsh and includes measures to protect the bay and wetlands during forestry activities. The Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership uses a comprehensive approach to identify Great Bay’s most critical habitats and to protect them. The Nature Conservancy is lead acquisition agent, and partners include Ducks Unlimited, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Natural Resources Conservation Service, New Hampshire Audubon, 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 the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership has protected some 4,000 acres of critical habitat in the Great Bay area. Local communities and other organizations have protected an additional 3,020 acres that the partnership has been able to use as match to leverage federal funding. The leading sources of funds include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, North American Wetland Conservation Act and private donations.
Stories from the Field: A national partnership that works to restore fire-adapted ecosystems has published a fact sheet about the Conservancy's fire restoration efforts at the Ossipee Pine Barrens. The U.S. Fire Learning Network is a cooperative project of the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, U.S. Department of the Interior and The Nature Conservancy. It was created in 2002 to accelerate the restoration of fire-adapted ecosystems, those places where fire has been an essential natural process for centuries. The 60-site network promotes learning and innovation among communities, public land managers and conservation practitioners around the country. The Network's "Stories from the Field" publication describes the Conservancy's use of mechanical treatments in the Ossipee Pine Barrens preparation for carefully prescribed burns. Those burns are expected to take place in September and will involve local, state and national partners. An estimated 84 percent of places identified by scientists as important for global conservation are at risk from altered fire regimes. The Nature Conservancy launched a Global Fire Initiative in 2002 to help combat the threats that too much, too little or the wrong kind of fire pose to biodiversity conservation. The Initiative is active in 11 countries where we are working with partners to find solutions that allow fire to play a role in places where it benefits nature and people, and keep fire out of places where it is destructive. One ecosystem that has long relied on fire are pine barrens, parts of which are found in New Jersey, Long Island and elsewhere. The Ossipee Pine Barrens is the state's best example of a pitch pine-scrub oak woodlands and provides important habitat for declining songbirds (like whip-poor-will, nighthawks and Eastern towhee) and several rare moth and butterfly species. Since 1988, The Nature Conservancy has been working to protect the landscape, and so far has conserved 2,285 acres, of which almost 1,000 are excellent pine barrens habitat. Meanwhile, the Conservancy has been intensively studying the area's flora, fauna and the fuels that have gradually built up over the past five or more decades without fire. In recent years, the Conservancy has worked to protect homes in the area by clearing a 500-foot-wide buffer near East Shore Drive in Madison. The U.S. Fire Learning Network has a Northeast group that serves as a clearinghouse for information about pine barrens management across the region. Through this forum, Ossipee staff have benefited from exchanging ideas with other FLN sites, such as Waterboro Barrens in Maine, where a similar management approach is being used. The work conducted at Ossipee has national relevance as well. Public agencies and private landowners alike are increasingly facing up to the need to restore forest health by selectively removing small trees. April 22: Celebrate Earth Day by bringing the family to the N.H. Fish and Game Department's biggest community event of the year, Discover WILD New Hampshire Day, on Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the grounds of Fish and Game headquarters on Hazen Drive in Concord. Free admission. There will be many exhibitors who work for conservation in New Hampshire, including The Nature Conservancy. Be prepared for hands-on fun for all ages, including archery, casting and nature walks. Build a duck box, tie a fly or learn to find your way with a map and compass. Watch retriever dogs in action. Let the kids try a scavenger hunt or make wildlife arts and crafts. See the huge mount of "The Battling Bull Moose of Fowlertown," plus live animals, big fish and trained falcons. For information, call (603) 271-3211. "People in New Hampshire care deeply about their environment. Join us for Discover WILD New Hampshire Day and find out how you can help maintain the wildlife and natural places that add to our quality of life," said event coordinator Judy Silverberg, a wildlife educator at Fish and Game. April 24: Can we afford to conserve the forests of the world? Can we afford not to? Join a panel of distinguished experts for a thought-provoking discussion on the future of global forest conservation. This intriguing discussion will be on Monday, April 24, 4 to 6 p.m., at Moore Hall at Dartmouth College in Hanover. The event is presented by The Nature Conservancy in collaboration with The Rockefeller Center. It's free and open to the public. Whether you are an investor or a naturalist, a forester or simply an inhabitant of Earth, the success or failure of innovative approaches to forest conservation will affect you. Led by George Woodwell, founder of the Woods Hole Research Center for the global environment, the panel members will share their global perspectives and unique insights on forest conservation. Audience members will have an opportunity to pose questions and participate in this engaging discussion. Panelists include:
For more information, click here. To reserve seating for the panel discussion or to attend an evening reception with the experts, call 802-229-4425. Tending Nature: The Nature Conservancy is seeking a few hearty volunteers willing to help clean up recently protected land in Kingston. We'll gather on Saturday, May 13 (morning and early afternoon) to clean up wood and metal debris at the Powwow River. There will be an optional short boating trip on the Powwow River after the site clean-up for those interested. Contact Krista Helmboldt 603-224-5853 ext. 17 for more details and to sign up. And the winner is ...
Heartwood Media, a Manchester-based TV commercial and video production company, has earned a prestigious award for its video about The Nature Conservancy's New Hampshire chapter. In the 27th Annual Telly Awards, Heartwood Media landed two awards, one for a promotional video of the Conservancy. The Telly awards, which were founded in 1978, honor outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions. The awards showcase the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, and television stations in all 50 states and many foreign countries. “It’s great news.” says Chris Conroy, Creative Director of Heartwood Media. “We are particularly proud of both of these projects, and to have the work honored is the icing on the cake.” The winning productions can be viewed on Heartwood’s website at http://www.heartwoodmedia.com/portfolio.htm. Saturday, May 6: Please RSVP to Megan Lepage at 603.224.5853 x 23 or mlepage@tnc.org by Wednesday, May 3.
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