A sampling of important conservation victories the Forest Society has been a part of -

Town meeting conservation funding

Backed by the Forest Society's research, technical assistance and outreach services, town meeting voters in 20 communities approved nearly $25 million in 2004 for land conservation. This is a significant accomplishment in the absence of any matching funds from the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP). Since 2001, town meeting voters in 50 communities have supported more than $75 million for land protection projects.

Connecticut Headwaters landed!

Thanks to a unique collaboration of conservation and recreation organizations, concerned citizens, and state and federal officials, 171,500 acres of the Connecticut Headwaters in Pittsburg are now permanently protected from development. At a signing ceremony on October 10, 2003, Senator Judd Gregg, co-chairman of the Connecticut Lakes Partnership Task Force, made the following remarks.

“Together, we have seized a once-in-a-generation opportunity to preserve the multi-use tradition of the North Country. Accounting for more than three percent of New Hampshire, the Connecticut Headwaters property is a strategic economic, recreational and natural asset for the entire country,” Gregg said.

The Forest Society was among the project's earliest supporters, along with The Nature Conservancy and other conservation, forestry, and recreation groups, helping to bring key partners together and raising $4.8 million in private gifts and pledges. The total project cost $42 million, including $11.5 million in federal Forest Legacy money; $1 million from a North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant; $10 million in a state bond; $775,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and $2 million from the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program.

Lyme Timber Company, a New Hampshire-based timber investment company, purchased 146,000 acres, subject to terms of a state-owned conservation easement, and will operate the land as a working forest. In addition to the easement on that land, the state purchased 100 acres at Deer Mountain Campground in Pittsburg, seven acres around the Magalloway Fire Tower and all of the property's major roads. Other agreements have secured 25,000 acres of natural areas, which will be managed for wildlife habitat.

$57 million in federal funding awarded since 2001

$2.53 million secured for Pillsbury-Sunapee project

After years of persistent effort, the Forest Society secured a $2.53 million grant last year from the federal Forest Legacy Program to conserve nearly 7,000 acres, much of it in the highland region surrounding Pillsbury and Sunapee state parks. The state will use the money to acquire a conservation easement on land owned by New Forestry, LLC, a timberland investment company. These working forestlands are located primarily in Newbury, Goshen, Washington, and Bradford, with some additional parcels further north near Mount Cardigan State Park.

Water resource protection

The Forest Society was instrumental in helping the state create a new grant program to safeguard lands around public water supplies. The Drinking Water Source Protection Program has, to date, awarded $3.8 million in grants to protect 3,300 acres of watershed land. We also helped broker a compromise between major users of water taken from the state's rivers to develop flow standards using scientific evaluations tailored to specific rivers. The Forest Society played a central role in securing $600,000 in federal funding for the first of these scientific studies on the Lamprey and Souhegan Rivers. We're also serving on a new commission that is developing legislation to protect the state's groundwater resources.

Carbon Coalition launched in 2003

In April 2003, the Forest Society launched the Carbon Coalition, a new partnership that will, like the acid rain campaign of the 1980s, “act locally” here in New Hampshire to combat global climate change. Co-founded by the Forest Society and Clean Air-Cool Planet, the Carbon Coalition has rapidly grown into a broad coalition of citizens and organizations across the state calling for a national policy to cap and significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Contribution to the creation of the Clean Power Act

In 2001, New Hampshire became the only state in the nation to set emission reduction targets for the four major pollutants from the state's three fossil fuel power plants in Bow, Newington and Portsmouth. The law requires the reduction of carbon dioxide by 2010 and sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by 2006. In the future, mercury emissions will be accurately determined and then capped based on forthcoming regulation and a standard set by the U.S. EPA.

The Forest Society played a key role in the passage of the Clean Power Act by drafting some of the language in the bill and offering strong backing of the measure.