Monadnock Community Conservation Partnership
Project Description
This project provides community-based conservation planning and education that integrates and disseminates New Hampshire Wildlife Action Plan objectives, data, and priorities at the critical town scale. More than a century of land conservation experience in New Hampshire demonstrates that the most successful conservation efforts are those initiated and managed at the community level. Local communities overwhelmingly support land conservation, but only when they feel that their unique values and voices have been heard. Top-down regulation and planning are often resented, and conservation eff...
Project Map
County: Cheshire County, NH; Hillsborough County, NH
Project Size:
- 141.0 acres
Project Sites
- Town of Alstead Conservation Plan adopted and implementing
- City of Keene Natural Resource Inventory; Conservation Planning in process
- Greenfield - Carbee easement
- Jaffrey - Shattuck Farm Easement
- Lake Warren Frontage Easement 1
- Prentice Hill Easment
- Silver Lake Land Trust - NRI and Cons Plan
- Town of Chesterfield Natural Resource Inventory (Moosewood Ecological)
- Town of Dublin Conservation Parcel Analysis
- Town of Fitzwilliam Conservation Plan adopted and implementing
- Town of Francestown - NRI and Cons Plan
- Town of Gilsum Land Conservation Plan adopted and implementing
- Town of Harrisville - NRI and Cons PLan
- Town of Marlow Conservation Planning (Moosewood Ecological)
- Town of Sharon Conservation Plan adopted and implementing
- Town of Surry Natural Resources Inventory; Conservation Planning Fall 2013
- Town of Swanzey Conservation Plan adopted and implementing
- Town of Troy Natural Resource Inventory (Moosewood Ecological)
- Town of Westmoreland Conservatin Plan
- Walpole - Great Brook Farm easement
- Walpole Conservation Plan adopted and implementing
- Warren Brook Easement
Goals and Targets
Primary Motivations:
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Conservation Mission
To increase the pace and quality of wildlife habitat and natural resource conservation in the Monadnock Region by building the social and financial capacity of communities to identify and protect conservation priorities. -
Financial Incentive
For towns to raise conservation funds to be used to assist landowners with easement donation transaction costs (creating an incentive to donate) and to be used as matching funds for grants to purchase conservation fee acquisitions. -
Regulation
To assist towns with revising local land use plans and regulations to discourage new development in areas with important conservation values and focus new development in places most appropriate to accommodate growth. -
Climate Change Adaptation
For towns to consider wildlife climate adaptation needs in land use planning
Consistent With Plans:
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Local Land Use Plan
This project seeks to build on and enhance local land use plans by developing locally informed wildlife action plan and natural resource inventory based conservation priorities and implementation strategies that are formally adopted as part of each town's master plan.
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State Wildlife Action Plan
This project seeks to implement NHWAP strategies: Engage towns in conservation planning, mapping wildlife corridors and buffers, develop priorities and implementation strategies resulting in conservation of key habitat; educate and advise town boards and land owners re natural resources and wildlife habitats; engage in activities that will result in protecting land high-priority habitat types; develop financial incentives for land owners to maintain private land as open space.
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Watershed Plan
This project seeks to integrate the Ashuelot River Management Plan and the Contoocook River Management plan with local conservation plans
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Conservation Plan
This project seeks to integrate the Quabin to Cardigan regional conservation plan with local conservation planning
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Federal Land Management Plan
This project seeks to integrate the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Planning with local conservation planning
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Land Trust Strategic Conservation Plan
This project will augment and enhance the Monadnock Conservancy's Strategic Conservation Plan
Targeted Habitats:
- Aquatic
- Lakes and Ponds
- Open Water
- Rivers and Streams
- Forests and Woodlands
- Mixed Hardwoods and Conifer
- Appalachian (Hemlock)-Northern Hardwood Forest
- Acadian Low-Elevation Spruce-Fir-Hardwood Forest
- Human Habitats
- Agriculture
- Pasture / Hay
- Agriculture - Pasture/Hay
- Cultivated Crops
- Old Field, Abandoned Cropland or Recent Clearcuts
- Recently Logged
- Urban and Residential
- Suburban Habitats (Moderate Intensity Developed)
- Rural Residential (Low Intensity Developed)
- Urban Habitats (High Intensity Developed)
- Shrublands and Grasslands
- Grasslands
- Wetlands and Riparian Habitats
- Forested or Shrub Wetlands and Swamps
- Lowland Riparian Forests and Shrublands
- Laurentian-Acadian Floodplain Forest
- Marshes, Bogs and Emergent Wetlands
- Montane Riparian Forests and Shrublands
Targeted Species:
No targeted species were identified for this project.
Conservation Actions
| Action | Status | Start Year | End Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Develop a wildlife management plan | Ongoing Management | 2008 | 2013 |
Working with towns to identify local wildlife conservation priorities and strategies to proactively conserve high priority parcels |
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| Conservation easement | Ongoing Management | 2008 | 2013 |
Resulting from community implementation of conservation planning strategies |
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| Education | Ongoing Management | 2008 | 2013 |
Provide conservation and natural resource training to community leaders and volunteers |
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Outcomes
Is the success of this project's actions being monitored? YesMonitoring Activities
Periodic follow-up with towns that have completed conservation plans. Providing assistance with on-going community outreach activities in towns. Providing land-owner outreach support to town volunteers. Assisting towns with conservation project fundraising. Convene meetings of neighboring towns to provide forum for sharing conservation priorities, and sharing approaches and challenges for implementing conservation plan activities.
Lessons Learned and/or Suggestions for Similar Activities
When developing capacity of community volunteers, it can take a long time to see tangible results. Progress is often a function of the local volunteers self-confidence and passion for talking with other people. The extent to which land conservation is misunderstood by the public is far greater than expected. It is critical to find ways to reach people who otherwise do not participate. This means going to them, finding out what they care about, what matters to them, and exchanging information with them about their communities natural resources, in a way that strengthens their sense of place. This becomes a foundation for building support for conservation activities.
Any Additional Information About The Project
Accomplishments 2010 to 2013: • Assisted two towns and a small all-volunteer land trust with natural resource inventory mapping projects (Francestown, Surry with assistance of Keen State College senior seminar, Silver Lake Land Trust) • Partner organizations independently completed natural resource inventory projects in four towns (Chesterfield, Marlow, Troy, and Greenfield) • Assisted five towns with conservation planning and implementation projects (Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Sharon, Francestown, Harrisville) • Provided consultations with five towns (Friends of Keene Open Space, Jaffrey, Troy, Westmoreland, Chesterfield) • Assisted five towns with specialized mapping and community outreach support (Sharon, Alstead, Westmoreland, Chesterfield, Francestown) • Supported landowner outreach activities in six towns (Gilsum, Alstead, Fitzwilliam, Dublin, Francestown, Westmoreland) • Supported three towns with efforts to prevent the elimination or reduction of municipal conservation funding (Walpole, Harrisville, Gilsum – 3 times) • Provided transaction assistance for 59 town supported land conservation projects in 16 towns. Included in these: • Assisted four towns with community fundraising for land conservation projects (Greenfield, Walpole, Jaffrey, Dublin) • Assisted 21 conservation projects with accessing municipal funds from 10 towns to help cover transaction costs, stewardship donations or fee purchases. • Assisted 8 towns with conserving town owned land. • Grant writing assistance for community assistance projects (Fitzwilliam, Sharon, Francestown, Harrisville) • Delivered five comprehensive conservation training programs reaching 98 participants from 29 of the regions 35 towns • Delivered six natural resource workshops reaching 104 participants