Exploring Management Options:

The Ossipee Pine Barrens

The Ossipee Pine Barrens -- a rare woodland of gnarled pitch pines, scrub oak thickets, and blueberry/lichen openings -- are the result of fire and ice. Melting glaciers 15,000 years ago sent torrents of sediment laden water into a broad valley in Ossipee, Freedom, Tamworth, and Madison. As these rivers entered the plain, they lost their momentum and deposited layers of sand and gravel more than 150 feet thick.

It is hard for plants to grow in pure sand. Water percolates through quickly and the soils are acidic and contain few nutrients. Because of these conditions, decomposition is slower, so leaves and branches that fall to the ground pile up and create tinder for wildfires. The wildfires that swept the Ossipee Pine Barrens, whether small burns of a few acres or the great fire of 1947, were an ecological factor that fostered the growth of certain species.

This distinctive group of plants and animals makes up a pitch pine/scrub oak barrens, one of New Hampshire's and North America's rarest forest types. Pitch pine (Pinus rigida) trees survive wildfires with thick, insulating bark. Scrub oaks (Quercus ilicifolia) grow most of their mass underground, much like icebergs, and their extensive roots send forth vigorous green shoots after their tops have burned off.

New Hampshire once had four pine barrens. Now we have one. The Nashua and Manchester barrens are paved and gone. The Concord Pine Barrens have been reduced by 90% from about 4,500 acres to less than 450 fragmented acres. The Ossipee Pine Barrens are the state's last intact example of this globally rare ecosystem.

Because pine barrens are the result of a dynamic interplay between plants, animals, drought, and disturbance, conserving them requires more than protecting land. Pine barrens must be managed. The wildfires that once swept through these woodlands have been quenched for public safety. In the absence of fire, species such as white pine can invade, and the pine barrens are gradually changing into a more common type of forest. With this homogenization of the landscape, many wildlife habitats could disappear, and the Ossipee Pine Barrens' distinctive fauna (which includes at least 13 rare moths and butterflies) will change as well.

Managing the Ossipee Pine Barrens involves a range of tools that recreate the effects of light or intense wildfires. Carefully-controlled "prescribed" fires can be set and contained within designated areas or trees can be selectively removed. The Nature Conservancy is in the process of conducting the research needed to determine the best way to manage this rare ecosystem.

The Nature Conservancy's lands in the Ossipee Pine Barrens are worth a visit. As you walk through this dry forest, look for burn scars and charcoal on the lower trunks of pitch pines. Watch for birds such as Rufous-sided towhees and brown thrashers during the day, and whippoorwills and common nighthawks at dusk. The Ossipee Pine Barrens flora and fauna are unlike those anywhere else in New Hampshire, and will persist only with our active help.