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Bear-Paw Print - Spring 2010

Here are some selected articles from our latest newsletter. For a complete copy, click here. An archive of all of our previous editions can be found on the bottom of this page.

More 2009 Success Stories
By Daniel Kern

The end of 2009 was just as busy as the beginning for Bear-Paw Regional Greenways. For the year, we completed nine projects that included 19 properties in five of our member towns – protecting 944 acres in all. We have already mentioned several of the projects in past newsletters – the Clay Pond project in Hooksett and Candia, the Bond and Robinson Hill projects in Raymond, and the Cahill Estate project in Strafford. In addition to those, we wanted you know about these other projects that were completed in 2009. As always, we need to thank the landowners, and all our members, Towns, and other partners who made these possible!

Harvey & Barbara Harkness, Epsom

Harvey and Barbara Harkness donated a 62-acre conservation easement on their 64-acre property on Baybutt Road in Epsom. The Harkness’ land has a wide variety of wildlife habitats with prime agricultural soils in field, mixed forest, and over 1,000 feet of frontage on Deer Brook. Small streams cross the property and wetlands surround them and the brook. The easement is part of a 2,300-acre unfragmented forest that includes Little Bear Brook, Deer Brook, and Pease Brook and adds to over 9,900 acres that is already protected by Bear Brook State Park and other conservation lands in the area.

Fred Carlson, Epsom

Fred Carlson donated an 87-acre conservation easement on his 90-acre property in Epsom. Fred moved to the land in 1970 with his wife, Ena, whom he lost in 2008. The property includes 11 acres of prime agricultural soils, several small streams, and 1,200 feet of undeveloped frontage along New Orchard Road. It is part of a 1,900-acre unfragmented forest that includes Nudd’s Hill and almost two miles of frontage along the Suncook River. The easement adds to 143 acres of nearby land that is already protected by the Popple Island Wildlife Sanctuary owned by NH Audubon. One of Fred’s neighbors has an active dairy operation and uses a portion of the property to grow feed.

Jay (John) & Patricia Hickey, Epsom

Jay (John) and Patricia Hickey also donated a conservation easement on their 47-acre property in Epsom. The Hickey’s land includes a portion of their Christmas tree farm, prime agricultural soils, forestland, small streams, and 787 feet of undeveloped frontage along Sanborn Hill Road. The property is part of one of the largest forests in southeastern New Hampshire – more than 8,000 acres of unfragmented woodland that stretches from Old Center Road in Deerfield to Black Hall Road in Epsom. More than 1,100 acres of land has already been protected in the vicinity and we’re planning to complete another conservation easement on the remainder of their property in 2010. You’ll have to wait to see a picture their property until the next newsletter!

Steve & Elaine Pike, Strafford

Steve and Elaine Pike donated a conservation easement on 38 acres of their 46-acre property that straddles the Strafford and Rochester town line. Their land includes over 2,000 feet of spectacular frontage along the Berry River, a drinking water source for the Town of Rochester, and wetlands and floodplain forest associated with the river. It adds to 306 acres of protected land nearby that has been conserved by the Rochester Water Department for drinking water source protection. The property also includes 400 feet of frontage along Crown Point Road.

Bear-Paw would like to thank all these landowners again for their generous gifts! The year 2010 also promises to be a busy year for Bear-Paw. The Evans Mountain project (see the newsletter article on pages 6 and 7) and others planned will probably result in Bear-Paw’s most productive year ever – maybe as much as 1,500 acres!

A Note From the Chair

It was great to see so many of you at Bear-Paw’s Annual Meeting last month and for those of you who missed it, we have a new challenge for 2010. The Campaign to Save Evans Mountain is an opportunity to preserve one of the last 1,000-acre tracts left in our region. It is part of the 6,828-acre Parker Mountain/Evans Mountain Forest Focus Area in our Conservation Plan. We will feature this project in various workshops and programs in the coming year and it will be the focus of our fundraising efforts in 2010. This parcel includes the top of Evans Mountain which is one of the most beautiful views of Bow Lake in Strafford. Join us in protecting this special place in the Bear-Paw region.

Kind regards,
Mark West
Board Chair

A Farm Grows on the Comte Conservation Easement
By Mark West

The soils on Cooper Hill in Nottingham are Paxton fine sandy loam or, in layman’s terms, prime farmland soils. This is the home of the Comte family on the 133-acre conservation easement, a land protection project completed in 2005. Dan and Susan Comte gifted some of the development rights value, Bear-Paw secured grant money, and the town of Nottingham contributed conservation fund money to protect this farm forever.

Dan has decided to sink some deep roots into these fine soils and is making a go of full-time farming on this land. In 2009 he farmed about four acres of the soil, growing mostly root vegetables and selling them at the Northwood and Nottingham Farmers Markets. He calls his business The Root Seller, and I haven’t tasted carrots like his since I was a kid on my own family farm. Dan plans to expand to farming eight acres, and he is reclaiming even more Paxton soils from the forest and studying the local food markets to find his niche.

Dan also has an expanding maple sugar operation named Mapleview Farms with over 700 taps in 2010 and plans for up to 1,200 next year. If you’re interested in this year’s supply, get in touch with Dan at comtedan@aol.com. So look for him at your local farmers market and enjoy food grown on land that is protected forever.

Finding Your Local Farmer

Dan Comte’s story is just one example of what is happening all over New Hampshire – more and more people are interested in eating locally grown farm products and more family farms are producing them. An article on the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food website, www.agriculture.nh.gov, shows an increase of more than 800 productive farms in the state during the five years between 2002 and 2007, the latest date with exact figures. Our experience with the growing number of area Farmers’ Markets would indicate that the number of farms has only risen since then.

So where and when can you find a Farmers’ Market in your area?A good place to start is on the New Hampshire Farmers’ Market Association website, www.nhfma.org. The site predicts a banner year for 2010 with more than 75 markets posting schedules already.

But why wait for a market day? Many farms are happy to sell directly with just a phone call or e-mail for an appointment. In the Bear-Paw area you can find farms at www.seacoasteatlocal.org/seacoastharvest or for a statewide listing of farms go to www.nhoutdoors.com/farms. Whether you are looking for honey or hamburger, certified organic or goats’ milk cheese, it may be just around the corner!

Designated Status Sought for Lamprey River

A nomination is being prepared for the Lamprey River and several major tributaries to be included in the NH DES
Rivers Management and Protection Program (RMPP).

The benefits of designation include:

1. Increased protection against water qualityimpairment, channel alterations, and new dam construction

2.Expansion of the local river advisory committee to coordinate management and protection of the river at local and regional levels, providing riverfront communities with a direct avenue for formal input into state decisions affecting the river

3.Development of a locally written long-range management plan for the river that coordinates local values for water quality and supply, historic resources and recreation.

“The Lamprey River is an important natural and cultural resource providing abundant clean water, wildlife habitat, scenic beauty, historic character, and recreation for all the communities within the watershed. State designation will ensure that these qualities are protected,” said Jim Hadley of Northwood, Chair of the Nomination Committee (LRNC). Designation will bring citizens and communities together to develop an integrated strategy to manage and protect the river.

A public hearing on the nomination will be held at 7pm at the Deerfield Town Hall on Tuesday, April 13.

New Hampshire’s Wondrous Woodcock
By Eric Orff

Peent, peent, peent…………..what is that weird sound in the twilight of an evening? Well, that peent is the sound of a male woodcock trying to attract a mate. In fact a male woodcock will be trying to attract several mates over the course of a spring. Woodcock peenting can be heard very early each spring, by mid March, as the males are one of the earliest migrants to return to New Hampshire from the deep south.

Woodcock are technically a shore bird in terms of appearance, but are rarely found on any shore. Often called timberdoodles, or even bog suckers, they are birds of the woods, meadows, cow pasture edges and openings in the forest canopy.

Described as squatty, dumpy, chunky or even plump, woodcock may not be as regal as a ring-necked pheasant, or even a ruffed grouse, but they more than make up for their appearance with a very majestic aerial dance. Woodcock are famed for the aerial acrobatics each spring when males stake out an opening in the forest canopy, or nearby field and offer a spectacular display of flight at last light each night and before sunrise each morning. A male casts numerous peenting calls into the darkening skies, then leaps into the air and begins a spiraling flight starting with about a 200 foot circle and narrowing his circles as he twitters and spirals upwards of 300 feet into the sky, all the while emitting a twittering sound from his wings that gets more intense with altitude before suddenly stopping. He then glides back down to within feet of where he took off. This is all to entice a female, or females as the case may be, during their two-month flights of fancy. Males will be displaying from mid March to mid May across most of New Hampshire.

Female woodcock are even chunkier than the males, with a longer bill to boot. And what a bill it is at nearly three inches long on a bird of 10 inches long. This unique bill is prehensile, that is, the seemingly stiff bill can be manipulated at its tip to grab earthworms as it is probed into the ground. Females will be nesting by mid April often with snow still on the ground. The four eggs will hatch in 20 to 22 days, and unlike most other game birds’ chicks that feed on their own at hatching, woodcock mothers must find food and feed their young in the nest area the first week of life. The cryptic color of both the adult female and chicks perfectly blends into the leaf litter and dead grasses of early spring. Woodcock are simply invisible right in front of your eyes.

Woodcock are a wondrous wild bird of New Hampshire’s forests and fields. Be sure to get out this spring for your evening woodcock walk.

Join Us for an “Earth Day” Woodcock & Owl Prowl
April 22 • 6:30-8:30pm • Harkness Easement, Epsom

What is the best part of a Bear-Paw Annual Meeting?

For the February 13, 2010 event, was it the celebration of 944 acres of land protected in 2009 and more than 1,000 acres already in the works for this year?

Winners might say it’s the raffle of all those interesting articles donated by kind supporters, while others would counter with, “No, it’s the food!” And certainly all those home-baked coffeecakes, steaming crockpots, and sandwiches made on Northwood Diner’s handmade bread are a big part of the day. Wini Young and Jean Cumings and their student crew laid it all out for us and topped it off with the Coe-Brown Culinary Arts cookies which set everyone up for the afternoon hike.

But many would say the best part is the guest speaker, and this year Vince Walsh, naturalist and expert tracker from the Adirondack Mountains of New York, shared four display tables of stuffed animals and animal artifacts, his slides, and his knowledge with the crowd. Fifty or more people followed him to Strafford for a trek on Evans Mountain where they had a good chance to put that knowledge to work.

Thanks to all who made another great Annual Meeting possible!

Tracking with Vince on Evans Mountain
By Richard Moore

With the group on one side of a track, Vince darts along the other side, measuring, drawing lines on the snow, kneeling, sniffing, blowing drifted snow out of a track from last night. Which way was the animal going? How do you know? (The leg enters at an angle at the rear of the track, and pops straight up out of the front, leaving a scattering of snow. Think of the size of each print, the width of the track, the length of the stride, the gait. (Here Vince gets on all fours to demonstrate the trot.)

The tracks get closer together – the animal is slowing down. Someone asks, “But what IS it?” There are guesses – coon? coyote? fisher?. Vince smiles and asks more questions. Why would it slow down just here, look, just before this arched blade of grass. See how carefully it jumped over? Why? Imagine how quiet it is here without us. If that animal catches one paw on that thin reed, a coyote 100 yards away will hear it. (Uncannily, Vince does a convincing imitation of a coyote perking its ears forward.)

Vince concluded that the track was from a coon – there is no certainty, but when we paid attention, we could see the life of the creature and a bit of its world. It was a heartfelt lesson, taking place on a hardscrabble ridge which is being protected forever for these creatures which are there this minute, making tracks, sniffing at our tracks, and listening.

Lakeside Barbeque Planned for Bequest Society Members

Plans are well underway for a barbeque at a private beach and boat trip on Bow Lake for members of Bear-Paw’s Bequest Society, Leaving Tracks. When the date and details are confirmed, Bear-Paw will mail invitations – but we wonder, do we know all of our generous bequest supporters?

Simply including Bear-Paw in one’s estate planning automatically makes one a member of the Bequest Society. Since 2007 when we initiated the program, several members have identified themselves to us, but there may be more of you than we know. If you have identified Bear-Paw as the beneficiary of a planned gift we would very much like to honor you.

The Bequest Society began after Bear-Paw received an unexpected and very generous bequest from Dan Morris, a research scientist in the Physics Department of the University of New Hampshire who passed away in 2003. We never had the chance to thank him. We understand that some may wish to remain anonymous, but hope that others will let us know so that we may express our thanks this summer by Bow Lake.

The Campaign to Save Evans Mountain

Bear-Paw, the Blue Hills Foundation, and the Town of Strafford are combining efforts to conserve 1,015 acres of valuable wildlife habitat on Evans Mountain overlooking Bow Lake. The property is part of a 6,000-acre unfragmented forest connected to conservation focus areas identified in the NH Wildlife Action Plan (WAP) and the Conservation Plan for New Hampshire’s Coastal Watersheds. Permanent conservation of the Evans Mountain property has been a goal of the Town of Strafford for over three decades and is recognized as a priority in the town’s Master Plan and Bear-Paw’s Conservation Plan.

The 1,015-acre Evans Mountain property includes some of the most ecologically significant natural lands in southeastern New Hampshire. According to the Wildlife Action Plan, New Hampshire requires a network of permanently conserved lands that effectively represents the state’s wildlife and habitat diversity.

Protecting threatened and essential habitat resources such as this – large unfragmented forests (including both uplands and wetland habitats), riparian/shoreland habitats, and wildlife corridors connecting significant habitat – is a priority.

Property Features Large, Unfragmented Forest

The area that includes the Evans Mountain property is one of the largest remaining blocks of forest in southeastern New Hampshire – more than 6,000 acres of unfragmented habitat that includes several Town forests, Blue Hills Foundation conservation lands, and Bear-Paw easements. Large, unfragmented forests of this size are rare in the rapidly developing southeast and south-central regions of our state. What remains offers vital support to the region’s biodiversity. Moose, bobcat, fisher, and bear depend on these large areas of habitat to survive and some birds, such as goshawks and veery, depend on these forest interior habitats to breed. Large forests also provide a refuge from roads and other human impacts and an area large enough that allows natural processes to play themselves out without interference.

Connectivity

Maintaining connectivity for wildlife – north to south, east to west, and across elevations – is becoming increasingly important in a fragmenting landscape. Permanent protection of the property will help maintain these connections with other areas of significant conservation and ecological value that are already protected. The property adds directly to over 1,000 acres already conserved and it serves as part of a permanent connection between town forest lands and the privately conserved lands owned by the Blue Hills Foundation further to the north and west.

Habitat and Species Diversity

The property has a mosaic of habitat types and a wide variety of tree, shrub, and herb species as well as a varied topography. It includes upland forests of hemlock-hardwood-pine and Appalachian oak-pine, more than two miles of ridgeline with north and south-facing rocky ledges and steep slopes. Headwater streams and riparian areas, basin swamps, beaver-influenced wetlands, scrub-shrub swamps, marshes, peatlands, and vernal pools add to the diversity.

Several species of conservation concern have been recorded near the property. Blanding’s turtle, wood turtle, and small whorled Pogonia occur in the area. The property’s south and southwest facing rocky ledges and slopes provide good habitat for black racers and ideal habitat for one of the southern-most breeding populations of bobcat in the state. The Isinglass River is home to American eel and the bridled shiner. Loons and bald eagles use nearby Bow Lake and this unfragmented forest block may provide a buffer to their territories and help protect water quality in the lake. Considering its size and remoteness, there is great potential for the discovery of other species with further study.

Headwater Streams and Water Quality

The property includes the headwaters streams of three important watersheds – Bow Lake, the source of the Isinglass River, Huckins/Nippo Brook, a tributary of the Isinglass River, and the Big River, a large tributary of the Suncook River. It also overlooks Bow Lake, the second largest lake in Strafford County, and includes frontage on the Willey Ponds. Intact headwater streams are increasingly recognized as critical components of healthy ecosystems – providing important wildlife habitat and protecting water quality downstream.

Ecosystem Function, Biodiversity, and Climate Change

Climate change threatens to exacerbate existing stressors on wildlife, biodiversity, and other ecosystem functions. Land use change, habitat fragmentation, pollution, spread of invasive species, and disruptions of natural processes are major threats to natural systems. Dealing with these threats is one of the most important strategies for adapting to climate change. Evans Mountain is mostly free of these existing threats and by conserving this property we are maintaining resiliency within the larger region.

Education, Recreation, and Viewshed

Evans Mountain also offers many outdoor recreation and education opportunities. The property includes a portion of a local snowmobile trail and is used for a variety of other non-motorized recreation uses, including hiking and hunting. The property also offers spectacular views of the nearby Bow Lake to the south and of Mount Washington and the White Mountains to the north. Visitors quickly get a sense of the landscape setting of this property. Public access will be assured by the conservation easement protecting the property.

Plans for the Future

Once conserved, a comprehensive management plan will be prepared to guide activities on the property. The project partners plan to raise enough funding for both the acquisition of the property as well as the restoration of wildlife habitat and wetland and riparian areas damaged in prior years. Although the property was heavily logged in the past and much mature forest was removed, it provides an opportunity for managing early successional habitat to benefit snowshoe hare, bobcat, small mammals, beaver, and moose, among other species. Eventually, the property will succeed to mature forest – New Hampshire forests have shown to be quite resilient to logging and other disturbances.

And now we need to pay for it.

It is not our usual way of doing business on a land protection project, but as you can see from the article, the Evans Mountain tract is so important that Bear-Paw, the Blue Hills Foundation, and the Town of Strafford were willing to secure loans to make it happen. Blue Hills and Strafford came up with almost half of the $765,000 purchase price, and private individuals provided loans for the remainder – loans which need to be repaid! Additional costs associated with completing the project bring the total to $500,000 we need to raise. Bear-Paw executive director Dan Kern is already at work applying for grants, and because of the high conservation values of these 1,015 acres, prospects are good, but certainly not assured.

Bear-Paw is looking for energetic people to help with the Campaign to Save Evans Mountain – volunteers to help with fundraising. A couple of ideas already on the table are a contra dance at the Bow Lake Grange Hall and a harvest fundraiser in the fall. What else? Will you work with us to save the mountain? Please contact the Bear-Paw office at 463.9400 or info@bear-paw.org.

If you would like to make a contribution to this incredible opportunity, please contact Daniel Kern at the Bear-Paw office or use the envelope included here.

Grants and Project Support

Bear-Paw thanks our member towns, private foundations, and other organizations that have generously supported our efforts over the last year. We couldn’t continue our work without them.

Bear-Paw and Hooksett secured a $300,000 Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) grant to help complete the Clay Pond Headwaters project. We’re still in the process of collecting another $400,000 in grants that were awarded to that project. Bear-Paw also received a $40,000 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant to help conserve the Bond property on the Pawtuckaway River.

Bear-Paw’s member towns contributed almost $100,000 to help cover the transaction and stewardship costs associated with the nine land protection projects that we completed in Candia, Epsom, Hooksett, Raymond, and Strafford. The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership contributed a $4,000 transaction grant for one of our Strafford projects.

The Adelard A. Roy and Valeda Lea Roy Foundation presented Bear-Paw with another $10,000 grant to support our land protection program and we received another $5,183.75 Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership grant for the implementation of Bear-Paw’s conservation plan. Bear-Paw also acted as fiscal agent for a $20,000 New Hampshire Charitable Foundation grant to support the Northwood Area Land Management Collaborative (NALMC).

Thanks!

Bear-Paw Members Support Conservation in Tough Economic Times
By Bruce Adami, Treasurer

Despite the challenging economic environment in 2009, the members of Bear-Paw gave generously to support land protection in our region. Business and individual member contributions increased from $40,664 in 2008 to a record $48,109 in 2009. We thank all of our supporters who make the work we do possible!

In particular, I would like to highlight two very special groups of people that made 2009 such a successful fund-raising year. The first is our new members. We added 85 new members, bringing our total membership to 328 as of the end of the year. Welcome, and we look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming events! The second group is the 123 members that were able to dig a little deeper last year and increase their financial commitment to Bear-Paw. Whether it was a 10% or a 100% increase, that show of support is one of the things that makes Bear-Paw strong!

So, while we celebrate the successes of 2009, we also know that much work remains to be done. Precious places still remain vulnerable and as long as that is the case, thanks to you, Bear-Paw will continue to protect land and water for life.

Calendar of Spring & Summer Events

All programs are free and open to the public. Please pre-register at info@bear-paw.org, www.bear-paw.org, or 603.463.9400, unless noted otherwise, so that we can provide adequate materials for everyone and notify you in case of any last minute changes.

Earth Day Woodcock & Owl Prowl
April 22 • 6:30-8:30pm • Harkness Easement, Epsom

Bear-Paw and the Epsom Conservation Commission are planning a special fieldtrip for Earth Day. Please come along with Mark West, Bear-Paw Board member and wildlife biologist, on a woodcock and owl prowl at the Harkness property in Epsom. Mark will lead the walk and provide information on woodcock and the owls that call the Bear-Paw region their home. Thanks Harvey and Barbara for letting us visit!

Spring Migration Bird Walk
May 16 • 7-9am • Evans Mountain, Strafford

Bear-Paw and the Strafford Conservation Commission are hosting a beginner’s bird walk on Evans Mountain. Scott Young and Len Medlock have volunteered to lead an early morning walk to identify birds by both sight and song in the midst of the spring migration.

Biothon!
June 19, 2010 • Evans Mountain, Strafford

Bear-Paw invites its members and friends to participate in its sixth annual Biothon – a species identification treasure hunt to discover and promote the biodiversity of the lands Bear-Paw works to protect. Two to three teams of skilled naturalists will compete to identify as many plant and animal species as possible on the Evans Mountain Property in Strafford – a property recently purchased by Bear-Paw, the Blue Hills Foundation, and the Town of Strafford. Proceeds from the Biothon will benefit the $500,000 Campaign to Save Evans Mountain!

The 1,015-acre Evans Mountain property includes the summit of the mountain and a wide variety of wildlife habitat including Appalachian-oak-pine and hemlock-hardwood-pine forest, ledges/steep slopes, marshes, swamps, beaver ponds, and headwater streams for Bow Lake, the Isinglass River, and the Big River. We are asking contributors to pledge any amount to the Biothon to support the Campaign to Save Evans Mountain and Bear-Paw’s land conservation program – a pledge form will be available on our website. All contributors to the Biothon are invited on a tour of Evans Mountain starting at 10am on the day of the event. Please pre-register (and pledge) for directions!

Hawkwatch
September 12 • 9am-12 • Evans Mountain, Strafford

Bear-Paw is hosting its first hawk watch on Evans Mountain and Scott Young will be on hand to offer help with bird identification. If the birds don’t cooperate, we may explore this 1,000-acre property looking for other signs of wildlife.

Town Tracks
Updates from your neck of the woods

Conservation issues were absent from ballots in Candia, Epsom, Hooksett, and Strafford this March, but required attention in Deerfield, Northwood, Nottingham and Raymond.

Deerfield: Voters agreed to place conservation easements on seven town properties totaling more than 500 acres. Towns own many tracts such as these and people assume they will always be conserved. In fact, a town vote could turn them to development or sale. Permanent protection of these properties in Deerfield will now be assured.

Northwood: Voters defeated an attempt to reduce the amount of Land Use Change Tax (LUCT) going to the conservation fund from 50% to 25%. They also approved changing the status of a portion of Old Mountain Road from a Class VI road to a Class A trail.

Nottingham: Residents maintained the LUCT contribution to the conservation fund at 100% by rejecting a warrant asking for a reduction to 50%. They also refused to cap the fund at $100,000.

Raymond: Voters approved placing a conservation easement on the 370-acre Lillian Cassier Memorial Town Forest and rejected a petition article that would have rescinded their Conservation Commission. Unfortunately, they also elected to have their future LUCT and Timber Tax monies go to the general fund instead of the Conservation Fund.

Click here for a complete copy of the "Spring 2010 Bear-Paw Print" newsletter (PDF).

Here is an archive of all of the previous Newletters: