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Winter's Icy Grip on Blueberry - E. Aldrich photo
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Forests & Water:
Ossipee Pine Barrens Project
Included in President's Budget
The Ossipee Pine Barrens, a globally rare habitat for uncommon birds and insects that overlays a critically important aquifer, has moved one step closer to protection. New Hampshire's conservation community today applauded the inclusion of $2.38 million for the Ossipee Pine Barrens conservation project in President Bush's Fiscal Year 2008 budget for the Forest Legacy Program.
Map of Project Area
The Forest Legacy grant would enable the state of New Hampshire, working in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, to acquire conservation easements on 2,264 acres, including several of the largest and most important remaining tracts in the Ossipee Pine Barrens landscape.
Developed and led by The Nature Conservancy, the Ossipee Pine Barrens project ranked second among among more than 80 projects submitted nationally, and is one of only 14 Forest Legacy projects nationally that made it into the president's budget.
“We are very encouraged to learn that our Forest Legacy application has made it into the president’s proposed budget, and with such a high national ranking,” said Daryl Burtnett, state director of The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire. “Conserving the Ossipee Pine Barrens is a great fit for the Forest Legacy Program and it’s a project that’s widely supported by the state and local communities."
Read the rest of the story
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Plainfield & Lebanon:
Donation by Two Families
Protects Rare Forest Type
As a professional forester who has worked throughout the Upper Valley, Ehrhard Frost had first seen the woods off Loomis Road in Lebanon back in the early 1980s and wasn't very impressed. "I was really only looking at the trees at the time," he said.
But years later, after the Thetford, Vt., forester had learned more about wildflowers, natural communities and rare plants, Frost and a colleague visited again. This time he was really seeing the forest for more than the trees. And this time he was hugely impressed.
What he was seeing was a type of forest that's pretty rare in New Hampshire, called a "rich mesic forest." It's considered "rich" because its soils are enriched by traces of calcium and magnesium, rare commodities in the Granite State's bedrock. And it's "mesic" because the soils are moist, but not too moist -- right in the middle.
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TNC's Doug Bechtel checks plants at recently protected lands in Plainfield and Lebanon.
E. Aldrich photo. |
Frost was so now impressed with the site that he encouraged his clients, the Pipas and Loomis families, to consider protecting their two tracts from development, a total of 259 acres. He suggested they offer conservation easements to The Nature Conservancy, which has long sought to identify and protect places like this.
Now, thanks to Frost's encouragement and the generosity of the Pipas and Loomis families, this remarkable forest is now permanently protected.
Learn more about this remarkable gift by two families
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LCHIP Action Update:
Proposed Legislation Would
Create Dedicated Fund
Senator Harold Janeway (D-Webster) and Representative Judith Spang (D-Durham) are co-sponsoring legislation that would establish a dedicated fund for the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP).
The bill would establish a fee on the recording of real estate transaction documents at New Hampshire’s 10 county deed registries, providing $6 million per year in funding for LCHIP. The counties would in turn retain 4 percent of fee revenues to cover their cost of collection.
The dedicated funding proposal recognizes that conservation provided by LCHIP is an integral part of protecting significant landscapes in New Hampshire's communities and connects this program to a funding source with a rational nexus to the program goals.
To fulfill its original legislative mandate, LCHIP requires a significant, sustained, and predictable revenue source to ensure much needed program consistency and stability. Six million dollars per year will leverage another $30 million in non-state funding and volunteer commitment, leading to the protection of New Hampshire's natural, cultural, and historical resources for this and future generations.
The legislation would exempt anyone from paying the proposed recording fee who buys a home (including manufactured housing units) valued at $170,000 or less.
Action: Please call, write or e-mail your state senator and your representative(s), and encourage them to support the LCHIP bill providing $6 million per year from a dedicated fund. To find out who represents you in the state legislature, go to the New Hampshire General Court website at www.gencourt.state.nh.us/ns/whosmyleg.
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Choosing Conservation:
Great Bay Partnership Protects
70 Acres in Durham and Madbury
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The Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership has protected 4,783 acres since 1985.
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The Nature Conservancy, on behalf of the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership, has acquired conservation easements that protect about 70 acres in Madbury and Durham.
The project involves several parcels owned by Gerald and Dorothy Smith of Durham and his grown children, Gordon Smith, Jeff Smith and Carol Smith Tuveson, who decided that they wanted to see their lands protected and not developed.
All but one of the tracts are in the Cedar Point area of Durham, near Back River Road.
Under the conservation easement, the Smith family members still own, manage and pay taxes for the lands, and can even sell the properties. But with a conservation easement now in place, the tracts can't be developed. The Nature Conservancy will ultimately transfer the conservation easements on the Smith tracts to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, which holds easements on other adjoining or nearby lands.
Learn more about this conservation easement
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"To the Batcave!"
Bats of Mascot Mine
Now More Secure
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Chris Sanders welds a gate into place at Mascot Mine in Gorham. Wink Lees photo.
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New Hampshire's largest wintering refuge for bats is now better secured, thanks to the work of a bat-loving welder and some funds from the N.H. Fish and Game Department.
Once a source of lead until the late 1800s, the abandoned Mascot Mine in Gorham is now a perfect place for bats to spend the winter. While a few New England bat species migrate south for the winter, those remaining will travel as far as 300 miles to be in a safe, dry, dark place that's between 38 and 48 degrees F for the winter months. Such a place is called a "hibernaculum."
In winter, the old Mascot Mine holds more than 1,500 bats from five species: little brown bat, big brown bat, Eastern pipistrelle, small-footed myotis, and long-eared bat. The mine near Mascot Pond is now owned by the state, while The Nature Conservancy holds a conservation easement.
While the mine is a good place for a bat, it's treacherous for people. So since 1992, steel barricades have blocked the entrances, keeping people out, while allowing bats to fly in and out. Because the years have taken a toll on those gates, Fish and Game and the Conservancy recognized the need for some repairs.
So, who do you call to fix a "bat gate?" Why, Chris Sanders, of course, from Sanders Environmental Inc.
Sanders, who's from central Pennsylvania, has merged a strong background in bat ecology and research with an expertise in steel and other types of construction. He's built more than 40 gates over caves and mines, many throughout Pennsylvania.
With his ultra-compact generator and welding equipment, Sanders did the work in a day and a half, making Mascot Mine safe and secure for its wintering bats.
"Considering the varied involvement of Fish and Game, the Division of Forests & Lands, The Nature Conservancy, and neighboring landowners, this effort is a good example of how partners come together to protect our native wildlife," said Wink Lees, TNC's northern New Hampshire land steward. "
N.H. Fish and Game and the Conservancy thank Roger Guilmette of Gorham for letting the crew use his land as a staging area, and Ed Reichert for allowing access across his property.
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The Hot Issue:
A Climate Change Roundup
From N.H. Public Radio - Jan. 29, 2007:
Legislators Hear from Climate Change Experts
New Hampshire lawmakers heard testimony from a panel of scientists on future climate change. The scientists recently released a two year study that looked at global warming in the Northeast.
Blunt Evidence:
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report Confirms the Urgency
The report verifies that human activities have increased greenhouse gases to their highest level in the atmosphere in 650,000 years, outweighing all other factors in causing global warming.
One of TNC's 5 Big Initiatives:
The Nature Conservancy's Global Climate Change Initiative
Climate change is already affecting our lives and the places we live, and has the potential to dramatically impact the lives of future generations.
Democracy in Action:
Carbon Coalition's March 2007 Town Meeting Campaign
The Carbon Coalition’s Town Meeting Campaign is a bipartisan grassroots initiative to bring a resolution to March 2007 town meetings statewide calling for action on global warming at the national and local levels.
A Model for Change:
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
Seven Northeastern states, including New Hampshire, have signed on to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a historic multi-state agreement that takes great strides toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.
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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)
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Including us in your will
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A gift of stock or mutual funds
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A gift of land
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Becoming a volunteer
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Introducing us to others
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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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