Newfound Lakes Region Association receives a $25,000 grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
In July 2009 the NH Charitable Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant to the NLRA to develop land conservation capacity in the Newfound region. To launch this important initiative and ensure its long-term success, the Newfound Land Conservation Partnership (NLCP) was formed. The NLCP is a collaborative agreement between the NLRA, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (Forest Society), and the Lakes Region Conservation Trust (LRCT). According to NHCF Lakes Region grant coordinator Ellen Koenig, “this collaboration among three strong organizations reflects the kind of initiative our donors appreciate, where experience and resources can be enhanced.” The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation also helped support work that led to the formation of the Newfound Land Conservation Partnership in January of 2009. Pictured in the photo at left are Dick Beyer, NLRA Land and Watershed Committee, Ellen Koenig, NHCF coordinator for the Lakes Region, and Martha Twombly, NLRA Land and Watershed Committee member and driving force behind this initiative.
The NHCF grant will support public workshops and provide educational outreach to families in the Newfound watershed, as well as help fund staff to coordinate conservation planning and project assessments. One very important element included in the grant is a seed fund for “landowner transactions,” the up-front costs associated with putting land into conservation, such as surveys, appraisals and legal expenses. Martha notes that “landowners may be land rich, but not have easy access to cash for some of these initial costs. This is an important area where we may be able to help, and we hope to significantly increase this fund.” One of the goals of the grant is to help families keep land that may have been homesteaded by their grand- or great-grandparents in family ownership.
There are a number of conservation lands dotting the Newfound region and offering recreational opportunities, but very few directly related to water resource protection around the rivers, headwater streams, aquifers and the lake. The public enjoys all of these lands, which include Wellington State Park, Cardigan Mountain and Sculptured Rocks State Forests, and the Cockermouth Forest. Because the Newfound region also contains very high quality wildlife habitat, increasing land protection for water quality would also preserve some wildlife corridors between these forests. See the NLCP brochure.
The Newfound region is a pristine area for high quality water resources and wildlife habitat, historic and cultural resources, healthy forests and farms, and scenic qualities - resources that drive our local economy. The Newfound Land Conservation Partnership was established to create a local resource for land conservation planning to preserve these valuable resources.
As demographics show, growth and development have been steadily increasing and marching northward into the Lakes Region. While development is good for the economy, it can also pose threats for pristine forests, aquifers, rivers and lakes. Recent studies show that the five major uses of these resources annually contribute an estimated $247 million in property taxes, and $1.5 billion in sales to the state’s economy. Loss of these high qualities could negatively impact local and state economies. Land conservation is an effective non-regulatory option for permanently protecting some of these areas, while still encouraging working farms and forests. Conservation also goes hand and hand with water resource protection. According to Boyd Smith, Director of the NLRA, “if you want to protect high quality water resources, then you protect the land surrounding them.”
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"Newfound Land Conservation Partnership” is Born!
The NLRA is proud to introduce the Newfound Land Conservation Partnership (NLCP). The NLCP is a creative collaboration between the Society for the Protection of NH Forests, the Lakes Region Conservation Trust and the NLRA, to provide local landowner education and outreach, create a resource center, and increase the pace of land conservation in the Newfound watershed. The Newfound watershed is a special place filled with productive forests, richly diverse habitat, productive agricultural lands, pristine waters and beautiful villages. Conserving critical lands is one way to protect these priceless natural resources, and the NLCP provides a means to facilitate this work.
Under the guidance of coordinator, Martha Twombly, the NLRA "Land and Watershed Committee" will become a local resource center for interested landowners, and help assess and prioritize potential conservation opportunities. The Forest Society and the LRCT will share their expertise in conservation transactions and will hold easements. Then, the NLRA will help coordinate volunteers to perform long-term monitoring of protected lands to help maintain easement agreements. Funding for this initiative was provided by the NH Charitable Foundation, with matching gifts from private donations.
Members of the NLRA Land and Watershed Committee include: Pete Carey, Chair, Dick Beyer, Mason Westfall, AnaLeyah North, Jon Martin, Jennifer and Roger Larochelle, Kate Barrett, Mark Coulson, Ed McNierney, Jack Scarborough and Vin Broderick.
If you are interested in land conservation, contact Martha at 744-8689, or nlra.martha@metrocast.net.
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| LAND CONSERVATION
Land Conservation is a very important part of land use planning and preserving the water quality of lakes and streams. The Newfound Lake watershed contains some of the highest quality habitat for wildlife, and for natural forest communities. The number one “cultural treasure” of the Newfound Lake region, selected in a 1995 survey by the Newfound Lakes Region Association, was the lake itself. The next six treasures included a number of geologic and historic sites including Sculptured Rocks, Profile Falls, Wellington State Park, Cardigan Mountain, Paradise Point and Hebron Common. Some of these areas are already preserved and protected. What about the many other spectacular areas around the lake that have been highlighted in numerous studies since 1995? What about the lake?
Nationally and regionally, communities have begun to understand that land conservation has many benefits, particularly in protecting water supplies and groundwater, wildlife habitat, and in maintaining community character. Water resources are also critical to the real estate industry: clean lakes and rivers add value to property, and enhance the strength of businesses in the area.
One way to protect water quality is through conservation of critical lands surrounding lakes and rivers.
The Newfound Lake Region Association sponsored a workshop on February 22, 2007, at the Bridgewater Town Hall, for local town board members and residents to learn about the importance of land conservation, and significant federal tax incentives that are available to landowners in 2007. The legislation providing these incentives will be reviewed in the fall of 2007, with a movement to make the legislation permanent. www.lta.org
Will Abbott, Vice-President for Policy and Land Conservation for the Society for the Protection of NH Forests, put land conservation in perspective from the national scale down to a regional scale, including a discussion of larger land conservation strategies, such as the Quabbin to Cardigan Mountain initiative the SPNHF is spearheading. www.forestsociety.org
Don Berry, President of the Lakes Region Conservation Trust, described the LRCT’s work in a number of different watersheds, including Newfound Lake. “It’s important for towns to identify important properties that should be protected, and to work together over town boundaries on a more regional scale,” he noted. Several of the Newfound Lake towns have expressed through their Master Plans that land protection is a priority for them. www.lrct.org
Roger Larochelle, Executive Director of the Squam Lakes Conservation Society, provided an example of successful land conservation efforts at a watershed scale, working with several other partners in the Squam Lakes area. "The process has been slow and steady," Larochelle reports, "but that consistent effort has paid off in linking small waterfront parcels to larger land areas and critical habitats extending from Squam Lake up to the mountain tops." Mr. Larochelle also explained the tax incentives for land conservation. www.squamlakes.com
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