The Nature Conservancy Acquires Two
Critical Tracts in the Ossipee Pine Barrens
Acquisitions protect 235 acres of rare forest in Freedom and Ossipee
Ossipee, N.H. — Feb. 9, 2006 — The Nature Conservancy has announced that it has purchased two key parcels in Freedom and Ossipee, protecting outstanding examples of a globally rare and imperiled forest type.
The Conservancy has purchased 170 acres in Freedom and 65 acres in Ossipee, both of which contain the unique and rare pine barrens habitat that the organization has been working to protect since 1988. The Conservancy has also secured a contract to protect an additional 25 acres in Madison.
Because of the rarity and importance of the Ossipee Pine Barrens, the Conservancy has been actively protecting land in the area for 17 years. The Conservancy currently owns 2,285 acres in the Ossipee Pine Barrens, almost 1,000 acres of which is excellent pine barrens habitat. Most of this land is between Silver Lake and Ossipee Lake in Freedom, Madison, Ossipee and Tamworth. The Conservancy’s goal has been to protect 1,500 to 2,000 acres of areas of well-connected pine barrens habitat, buffered and linked by natural forest and wetland habitats.
The purchases reflect the Conservancy’s recent decision to significantly ramp up efforts to conserve the Ossipee Pine Barrens. The decision is driven in large part by the threat rapid growth and development poses to the pine barrens ecosystem, as well as the rapidly emerging statewide recognition of the ecosystem's wildlife and water resource values.
This young pitch pine-scrub oak woodland in Freedom are among the 235 acres recently purchased by The Nature Conservancy. The acquisition protects a globally rare forest type, helps safeguard the community's drinking water and ensures public access for a variety of uses, including hunting, hiking and snowmobiling on designated trails. Eric Aldrich photo.
The Conservancy’s recent purchases include a 65-acre tract in Ossipee that consists mostly of pitch pine and scrub oak, a natural community type that has become increasingly rare because of development, gravel mining and other land conversion. The Conservancy purchased that tract from Malcolm Bacon of Freedom. The parcel is on the southern end of the Windsock Village aviation community off Red Baron Road and abuts an 84-acre tract that the Conservancy purchased in 2004. The West Branch River forms the tract’s eastern edge; additional Conservancy land is on the other side of the river.
The second purchase is a 170-acre tract in Freedom, sold by the Kennett Company. One part of the tract (about 119 acres) is almost entirely comprised of high quality pine barrens habitat. The other section (about 51 acres) is about half pine barrens, with the rest consisting of an old gravel operation that can potentially be restored to pine barrens.
“We are very fortunate to have The Nature Conservancy as a buyer because this purchase adds significantly to the pine barrens protection here in Madison and Freedom,” said Bayard Kennett, general manager for the Kennett Company. The company has also done previous land transactions with the Conservancy in the Mount Washington Valley.
"With New Hampshire being one of the fastest growing states in the Northeast, now is the time to protect critically important areas like the Ossipee Pine Barrens," said Jeff Lougee, Mount Washington Valley program manager for The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire. "Protecting this ecosystem is important for so many reasons, from safeguarding clean water for local towns to conserving one of the most critical wildlife habitats in the state. In five to 10 years, we will no longer have the opportunity to adequately protect this very special place."
While The Nature Conservancy's main objective here is protection of the Ossipee Pine Barrens habitat, the land protection provides many other public benefits. Prime among them is protection of groundwater for local communities . The sandy soils that support the area's unique habitat of pitch pine and scrub oak also overlay and recharge the Ossipee Aquifer, the largest stratified drift aquifer in the state. Additionally, the Conservancy's purchases help ensure public access for hunting, hiking and snowmobiling on designated corridors.
"Thanks to the Conservancy’s internal Land Protection Loan Fund, we were able to move quickly to purchase these properties, and not risk waiting to complete fundraising first,” said Daryl Burtnett, the Conservancy’s state director in New Hampshire. “Although we are fortunate enough to have received temporary funds for emergency land acquisition, we are now in campaign mode to repay this generous loan. The protection of the Ossipee Pine Barrens is a multi-million dollar commitment that only The Nature Conservancy has taken on. The window of opportunity to preserve this last remaining viable example of a unique habitat is closing, so it is among our top priorities this year.”
The Conservancy is exploring additional land protection opportunities in the Ossipee Pine Barrens and is currently working on a comprehensive fund-raising strategy to achieve these important conservation goals. The Conservancy expects that a combination of public funds and private donations will help protect this critical habitat.
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s recently completed Wildlife Action Plan recognizes pine barrens habitat as one of the state’s significant habitat types in greatest need of conservation. While there are small remnant patches of pine barrens in Concord and elsewhere in the Merrimack River valley, the Ossipee Pine Barrens are far and away the state’s least fragmented and most extensive. The Ossipee Pine Barrens have been documented to contain 17 rare moth species and several species of declining songbirds, such as whip-poor-wills, Eastern towhees and common nighthawks. The habitat is so noteworthy and distinct that, after careful review by biologists, New Hampshire Audubon has designated it as one of 15 Important Bird Areas in the state.
While the Conservancy continues with land protection, it is increasingly focusing on managing this habitat that has for thousands of years been sustained by periodic fires.
Usually started by lightning, those fires historically burned the ecosystem’s dry fuels once every 25 to 50 years. In recent times, however, the area has not had a major fire since 1957, allowing fuels to build up and allowing the growth of white pine and other species that can eventually overtake and threaten the pitch pine and scrub oak.
Last year, after several years of intensive scientific research and detailed planning, the Conservancy began mechanical treatments of part of its Ossipee Pine Barrens Preserve. On the northern end of the preserve, just behind homes on East Shore Drive in Madison, contractors working for the Conservancy thinned a 500-foot swath of trees and brush to achieve a two-fold mission: First, to protect homes on East Shore Drive from the possibility of wildfire; and second, to mimic the effects of fire, thus encouraging rare moth and bird species.
Later this year, the Conservancy plans to carefully introduce prescribed burns as a way to further manage the habitat for the benefit of wildlife, the long-term maintenance of the ecosystem and to reduce the risk of wildfire. Burns will be conducted on Conservancy land, with help from state, local and federal partners, under carefully controlled conditions that take into account an array of weather and on-the-ground considerations.
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The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 14 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 83 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Since 1961 The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire has protected nearly 118,000 acres of ecologically significant land and has worked with partners to protect an additional 148,000 acres in the state. The Conservancy owns and manages 30 preserves across the state. For more information, visit nature.org/newhampshire.
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