None The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire Press Releases Search All Press Releases Eric Aldrich 603-224-5853, ext. 26 E-mail: ealdrich@tnc.org

Powwow River Ecosystem Gets Additional Protection

The Nature Conservancy protects 50 acres in Kingston

Concord, N.H.—Feb. 10, 2004—The Nature Conservancy announced today that it has protected 50 acres along the Powwow River in Kingston, including a large basin of globally rare Atlantic white cedar and some of New Hampshire's best streamside wetland ecosystems.

The Conservancy has purchased 50 acres of ecologically sensitive lands from Peter and Marilyn Coon. It includes more than 3,000 feet of river frontage along the Powwow, with significant portions of exemplary streamside wetlands and nearly all of a large Atlantic white cedar basin swamp. In addition to the ecological values, the land also has tremendous scenic value with its broad swath of grassy marshlands and two prominent islands that emerge from the river.

"Canoeing this tranquil stretch of the Powwow River, it's easy to forget that you're just a stone’s throw from busy southeastern New Hampshire," says Mark Zankel, the Conservancy's director of conservation programs in New Hampshire. "I’ve seen great blue herons, flushed black ducks, and watched countless painted turtles sunning themselves, all the while amazed at the integrity of the river and its natural shoreline. It's gratifying to know that these special places will be available for people and wildlife in perpetuity."

The central Powwow River in Kingston supports one of New Hampshire's most extensive complexes of globally rare Atlantic white cedar swamps. Part of these lands are now protected, thanks to a recent deal completed by The Nature Conservancy. © Eric Aldrich/TNC

This is The Nature Conservancy's second phase of land protection in a year along the Powwow River. Last January, the Conservancy, the town of Kingston, N.H. Fish and Game Department and Friends of Kingston Open Space combined efforts to protect 123 acres of uplands that had once been eyed by developers. That piece, owned by the town of Kingston with the Conservancy holding a conservation easement, is across the river from the newly protected lands.

In partnership with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and the Town of Kingston, The Nature Conservancy is involved in a major land conservation effort to protect rare and imperiled biodiversity features in the central portion of the Powwow River watershed. The Powwow River, a tributary of the Merrimack River, is a remarkably diverse non-tidal river system in southeastern New Hampshire. The Powwow watershed is largely forested and intact, but is increasingly threatened with encroachment, development, and fragmentation. Expanding population centers on the border of the watershed, recent residential subdivisions within the watershed, and population and development trends in southeastern New Hampshire pose increasing threats to the area's natural resources.

The Nature Conservancy is focusing its conservation efforts on the central portion of the Powwow River watershed, which contains biological and ecological resources of tremendous local, regional, and global significance. The N.H. Natural Heritage Bureau has found that the central Powwow contains the most extensive complex of globally rare Atlantic white cedar swamp forest wetlands in New Hampshire, an exemplary streamside fen ecosystem, high quality swamp white oak floodplain forests, and productive emergent marshes, all of which overlay one of southeastern New Hampshire’s largest and most productive groundwater aquifers. Atlantic white cedar swamps are a globally rare habitat type that are known to support imperiled species such as the Hessel’s hairstreak butterfly, and which serve as breeding grounds for many birds, including downy woodpecker, brown creepers, veeries, magnolia warblers, black-throated blue warblers, and ovenbirds.

The Conservancy still needs to raise an additional $212,200 to complete this effort. To find out how you can help, contact Tiffany McKenna, the Conservancy's director of philanthropy in New Hampshire: 603-224-5853, ext. 15, or tmckenna@tnc.org.

EDITORS: Print-quality photos of the Powwow River are available; contact Eric Aldrich: 603-224-5853, ext. 26, or ealdrich@tnc.org.