© Mark Godfrey/TNC

2006 Photo Contest
The Conservancy invites you to enter your stunning nature images in our first-ever digital photography competition.

We're looking for beautiful nature photography representing the diversity of life on Earth. Your own original digital images of our lands, waters, plants, animals and people in nature are all eligible for the competition.

Nature Stories podcasts!
Each week, Nature Stories brings you interesting and unexpected tales of people's connections with the natural world in a high-quality audio download.

This week's Nature Stories podcast:
A Painting a Day — Harry Orlyk talks about why he’s painted a different New York landscape every day…for the last 30 years.

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A Gift that Goes a Long Way:
Conway Land Sale Advances
Conservation for Three Organizations

A gift of land to The Nature Conservancy in 1998 is now a gain for two Conway conservation organizations, the Conway community, and the Conservancy's efforts to protect the Ossipee Pine Barrens.

The Nature Conservancy announced that it has donated a conservation easement on five tracts in Conway (totaling 1,181 acres) to the Upper Saco Valley Land Trust (USVLT), assuring the permanent protection of the lands from development, and simultaneously sold the parcels to the Tin Mountain Conservation Center. Proceeds of the sale are boosting the Conservancy's land-protection work in the Ossipee Pine Barrens.

The five parcels were part of a gift of more than 8,000 acres in New Hampshire and Maine by the family-owned Bear Paw Timber Corp. to the Conservancy. At the time, it was the largest private gift of land for conservation in both states. In New Hampshire, the gift consisted of 2,825 acres on 23 parcels scattered around three counties, including several tracts in Conway. Some of those lands (1,410 acres) created a significant expansion of the Conservancy's Green Hills Preserve. The remaining five Conway tracts don't directly adjoin the preserve, but provide important forest buffer and recreational access.

"This transaction is a win in so many ways," said Daryl Burtnett, state director of The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire. "We are advancing the conservation goals of three organizations, and ensuring that these lands will forever provide scenic, recreational, and open space benefits to the town of Conway and its citizens. From the outset, our interests have been to stay true to the donor's wishes that these lands be protected from development and managed with sound forest stewardship principles. We're proud to be working with such great partner organizations in fulfillment of those wishes, and grateful that their stewardship will enhance the long-term health of these forests near the Green Hills preserve."

Learn more about this conservation project

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A Science Partnership:
A Land Conservation Plan for
New Hampshire's Coastal Watersheds

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Piscataqua Region supported this effort as a regional approach to setting land conservation priorities and strategies, and provided substantial matching funds.

Check out the Land Conservation Plan for N.H.'s Coastal Watershed.

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Oh Give Me a Home ...
Durham Bison Farm Protected by
Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership

Marley Langley and his family have owned and farmed a large part of the Durham Point area since 1890. Now the bison farm and woodlot here are protected for future generations. Eric Aldrich photo.

A Durham landmark known for its grazing bison and scenic pastures on Great Bay’s Durham Point is now protected from development, thanks to the work of the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership and the town of Durham. On behalf of the partnership, The Nature Conservancy has purchased conservation easements on two parcels that have been owned by the Langley family for five generations. The easements – covering a total of 86.9 acres – allow the family to continue to own and manage the land for farming and forestry, but safeguards important habitat for a variety of birds and other wildlife.

The project is one of several recent acquisitions of the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership, among them:
• 133 acres off Bennett Road in Durham;
• a 22-acre donation off Jenkins Road in Madbury; and
• 8.6 acres off Bay Road in Newmarket.

Learn more about the Great Bay Partnership's recent projects

For Nature ... and People:
Farming Family Protects Additional Land in Warner

The annual Courser Farm Pumpkin Carving Festival in Warner was a bit sweeter this year, as the family that makes it possible has protected additional farm, forest and wetland through a conservation easement.

The Courser family has placed a conservation easement on 138 acres of their land off Schoodac Road in Warner. The easement will be held by the Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust.  

This is the second easement that the Coursers have placed on their lands. Last year, the family donated a conservation easement protecting 317 acres of wetlands and forests in Warner and Webster.

"We are excited and proud that we are able to protect this scenic and beautiful property forever," said Rebecca Courser. "The purchase of this easement enables us to continue our farming tradition spanning several generations and hopefully, several generations to come."

The Nature Conservancy assisted the project with fundraising, conservation science and easement transaction.

Learn more about the Courser farm and forest project

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Great Works in the Field of Botany :
TNC's Bill Nichols Honored by
New England Wild Flower Society

The New England Wild Flower Society has awarded its New Hampshire State Award to Bill Nichols, a plant community ecologist and botanist for The Nature Conservancy and the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau.

The award honors an individual or organization that has done great work in the field of botany or horticulture benefiting a New England State. Sally Cook, society overseer, presented the award to Nichols for his dedication in “promoting conservation, biodiversity and stewardship of rare and endangered plants through inventories, research and evaluation of New Hampshire’s natural communities.”

Nichols has documented over 220 rare plants and 320 natural communities for the Natural Heritage Bureau. He has revised New Hampshire’s Threatened and Endangered Plants list, which directly informs conservation efforts in the state. He is the co-author, with Dan Sperduto, of “Natural Communities of New Hampshire,” which describes where and how native plants occur and in what habitats with associated species they will typically be present. He has made conservation of native plants his life’s goal and in doing so, has imparted his skills as a dedicated botanist and ecologist to foresters, plant conservation volunteers, and field assistants.

The New England Wild Flower Society is the oldest plant conservation organization in America, dedicated to preservation of native North American flora.

For more information about the awards, or to nominate an individual or group for next year’s award, contact Karen Pierce at kpierce@newfs.org or visit www.newfs.org. Phone 508-877-7630 x 3204.

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The Science of Life:
N.H. Natural Heritage Bureau Releases Book on Natural Community Systems

The N.H. Natural Heritage Bureau has just published a companion book to "Natural Communities of New Hampshire."

It's a 133 page techincal document that classifies natural community systems for the state and provides detailed information about each.

There are hundreds of natural communities in New Hampshire, compared with 46 natural community systems. Natural community systems refers to the ways in which natural communities work together, offering conservationists a broader way to think about -- and conserve -- their function.

For instance, the natural community system of a kettle hole bog may include several natural communities within it. To conserve these natural communities, it makes sense to understand and protect the bog itself that ties those communities together.

Check out N.H. Natural Community Systems

Hard copies are also available by mail for $15 each.

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Measuring Progress:
2006 State of the Estuaries Report

The New Hampshire Estuaries Project has issued its 2006 State of the Estuaries Report, outlining the status of 34 environmental indicators.

This report is produced by the NHEP every three years to provide current information on the status and trends of a select group of environmental indicators from the coastal watershed and estuaries. It is intended to assist natural resource managers, local officials, conservation organizations, and the public to make informed management decisions and actions.

For each key indicator, the report provides the Estuaries Project's management goal and an explanation of supporting data.

Among the findings in this year's report:

• The environmental quality of New Hampshire’s estuaries is good compared with estuaries across the country; but, conditions are changing. Some of the changes are positive, although more of the trends are troubling. Several indicators of water quality show improvement.

• Bacteria concentrations in the water are decreasing during dry weather conditions. Toxic contaminant levels in the water and sediments are at levels of minimal concern. Mussels, clams, and oysters have decreasing toxic contaminant concentrations that are below national guidance values. Tests indicate that organisms living in the sediments are affected by toxic contaminants in only 0.3 percent of the estuary.

However, more indicators suggest that the ecological integrity of the estuaries is under stress or may soon be heading toward a decline.

• Oyster and clam populations are at or approaching the lowest levels ever recorded. Trends suggest that clam populations follow a cyclical boom-and-bust pattern, but the oyster populations appear to be experiencing a slow, steady decline.

• Impervious surfaces are being added to the watershed at an average rate of 1,185 acres per year. In 2005, eight percent of the watershed’s land area was covered by impervious surfaces. Land consumption per person is increasing, which is an indicator of sprawling growth patterns.

• Nitrogen concentrations in Great Bay have increased by 59 percent in the past 25 years. Negative effects of excessive nitrogen, such as algae blooms and low dissolved oxygen levels, are not evident. However, the estuary cannot continue to receive increasing nitrogen levels indefinitely without experiencing a lowering of water quality and ecosystem changes.

Check out the State of the Estuaries Report

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With your support ...

Working together, we can ensure the diversity of life on Earth and enrich the quality of life in New Hampshire now and for future generations.

You can make a significant impact by helping us preserve and steward land now, which will improve the quality of life for you, your children, your grandchildren and for the future of life on Earth. Please consider:

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A life-income gift (charitable gift annuity)
•  
Including us in your will
•  
A gift of stock or mutual funds
•  
A gift of land
•  
Becoming a volunteer
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Introducing us to others
•  
A gift of cash

For more information, contact Tiffany McKenna, director of philanthropy, at 603-224-5853, ext. 15.

Click here to find out how you can help The Nature Conservancy's conservation efforts in New Hampshire and beyond.

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About The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy's mission is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. The Conservancy has protected more than 98 million acres of valuable lands and waters worldwide. The organization accomplishes its mission through the efforts of state and country chapters, which are responsible for protecting and managing conservation land, and for raising operating and capital funds to support their programs.

Since establishing its first preserve here in 1961, The Nature Conservancy of New Hampshire has helped protect more than 265,000 acres of ecologically significant land and currently owns and manages 28 preserves across the state.

The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire:

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22 Bridge St., Fourth Floor, Concord, N.H., 03301. 603-224-5853.
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Great Bay Office: 112 Bay Road, Newmarket, N.H., 03857. 603-659-2678.
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Northern New Hampshire Office: P.O. Box 310, 2760 White Mt. Hwy, North Conway, NH 03860. 603-356-8833

About this e-newsletter
Granite State Glances is the electronic newsletter of The Nature Conservancy's New Hampshire Chapter. It is distributed via email on or around the 15th of every month.

All subscribers (email addresses) on this list are kept confidential and are not shared by The Nature Conservancy.

For questions about this e-newsletter, contact Eric Aldrich, The Nature Conservancy, NH Chapter, 603-224-5853, ext. 26.

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