With our members, local landowners, and our project partners, Bear-Paw has protected over 4,686 acres in our region.  The following table summarizes the properties that Bear-Paw owns or holds conservation easements on. Many of these properties remain in private ownership and public access is at the discretion of the landowners. Brief descriptions of the properties follow.

Name	Town	Public Access Provision*	Acreage
Anderson	Strafford	No	31
Auger	Strafford	No	96
Bacon	Nottingham	Yes	50
Bedford / Town of Strafford	Strafford	Yes	79
Bock	Nottingham	No	16
Brownell	Strafford	No	47
Cahill Estate	Strafford	No	55
Carlson	Epsom	No	87
Cassier Memorial Forest	Raymond	Yes	364
Clay Pond - Candia	Candia	Yes	9
Clay Pond - Hooksett	Hooksett	Yes	530
Clifford	Deerfield	Yes	82
Colwell	Strafford	No	150
Comte	Nottingham	Yes	132
Cooper/Walworth	Strafford	No	158
Cournoyer	Strafford	No	55
Cramer	Raymond	No	158
Cruikshank	Deerfield	No	27
Cumings	Deerfield	No	17
Deerfield Road Town Forest	Candia	Yes	82
Doane / Schorr	Deerfield	No	70
Evans Mountain Forest	Strafford	Yes	1,015
Fowler	Candia	No	63
Freese Town Forest	Deerfield	Yes	174
Harkness	Epsom	No	62
Hickey	Epsom	No	47
Isinglass River Conservation Reserve	Strafford	Yes	286
Kimball (Owned by Bear-Paw)	Nottingham	Yes	22
Lindsey	Candia	No	30
Menard	Deerfield	Yes	1
Pike	Strafford	Yes	38
Robinson Hill	Raymond	Yes	56
Rooney	Strafford/Northwood	No	29
Rosenfield/Mallette	Deerfield/Nottingham	Yes	85
Southeast Land Trust of NH - Bond Tract	Raymond/Epping	Yes	61
North River Forest (Bear-Paw)	Nottingham	Yes	52
Stewart	Epsom	No	51
Strafford School District Property	Strafford	No	290
Willoughby	Deerfield	No	28
Total			4,686

*  The properties with a "Public Access Provision" include some form of a public access provision in their conservation easement. Some properties have limited rights of public access so please see the easement or contact us for details if you have any questions. Please respect all property owners.


Anderson Easement (30 acres) - In 2006, Harmony Anderson was one of two Strafford residents who protected their properties by donating conservation easements to Bear-Paw. Harmony and Betty Rooney live at opposite ends of the town but both wished to ensure that their wooded acres would remain as undeveloped plant and wildlife habitat and productive forest lands.

Harmony Anderson protected her 30-acre tree farm on Route 202A beyond the Mohawk River. Through the easement, more than 1,250 feet of road frontage will remain undeveloped. The property lies at the beginning of a large unfragmented tract of woodland between Second Crown Point Road and Route 126. Harmony hopes that her neighbors will consider conservation options and help create a corridor of protected land linking them to the Blue Hills Foundation lands further to the west.

Conservation funds from Strafford and grants secured by Bear-Paw from the New Hampshire Estuaries Project covered the transaction costs of setting up this donated easement. Bear-Paw thanks Harmony and the Town for adding to the region’s protected resources.

Auger Easement (96 acres)

Bacon Easement (50 acres)

A pile of house-sized boulders that rival the ones in nearby Pawtuckaway StatePark, an ancient white oak that lords it over a thriving younger forest, and a half dozen or more vernal pools are among the special features that were protected by the easement on April Bacon's 50-acre Nottingham property. This parcel has enormous development potential with its 860 feet of frontage on Route 156, but April agreed to give up the right to develop it for only $20,000 (a "bargain" sale). The Town agreed to pay this amount as well as the transaction costs associated with the project. The Town also holds an executory interest in the easement. The public may enjoy the passive use of her woods for non-motorized activities such as hiking, bird watching, or educational field trips.

Bock Easement (16 acres)

This historic farm and forestland on Nielson Road in Nottingham comprises an organic farm and a rich mix of natural resources including valuable wildlife habitat. The generous donation of a conservation easement on 16.3 acres by Dina and Peter Bock protects wetlands and prime farmland soils, as well as traditional agricultural and forestry uses. It also saves scenic values by protecting over 380 feet of undeveloped road frontage and the summit of Cooper Hill, one of the highest hills in Nottingham.

Brownell Easement (47 acres)

Cahill Estate (55 acres)

Carlson (87  acres)

Cassier Memorial Forest  (364 acres)

Clay Pond - Candia  (9 acres)

Clay Pond - Hooksett (530 acres)

Clifford Easement (82 acres)

Colwell Easement (150 acres)

Comte Easement (132 acres)

The Comte property is also located on Cooper Hill, one of the highest points in Nottingham, and it abuts the Bock Easement. There are 15 acres of fields that have prime farmland soils and are home to bobolinks, a species of concern in the state, plus bluebirds, indigo buntings and a variety of more common species. The remaining upland portions of the property are entirely wooded. The forest land, a certified Tree Farm since 1984, had been very well managed by previous owners, and Dan and Susan Comte, the current landowners, have continued this forest stewardship. The forest today is an excellent example of what can be done to improve woodlands that, in this case, had two liquidation timber harvests since 1920. One of the more interesting and unique aspects of this property is a five-acre black gum dominated wetland. Staff from the USDA Forest Service Laboratory in Durham extracted tree ring samples from three of these trees and found them to be over 500 years old. Bear-Paw, the Town of Nottingham, the New Hampshire Estuaries Project, and the William P. Wharton Trust partnered with the Comte's to protect the property with a conservation easement completed in 2005. The Comte's generously sold the development rights at a significant discount from their appraised value. The public may enjoy the passive use of the woods on this property for non-motorized activities such as hiking, bird watching, or educational field trips.

Cooper/Walworth (158 acres)

Cournoyer (55 acres)

Cramer Easement (158 acres)

Cody Cramer and Katherine Evans generously donated two conservation easements to protect approximately 168 acres of land on Ham Road in Raymond. The easements protect valuable fields, forest, and wildlife habitat. The acreage under this easement greatly expands and enhances an area of approximately 93 acres of protected land adjacent to the property.

Cruikshank Easement (26 acres) - Steve Cruikshank Memorial Conservation Easement Closes a Gap
By Al Jaeger

As Steve and Irene Cruikshank grew up in coastal Rockingham County, they saw the disappearance of woodlots separating neighborhoods, fields for back-lot baseball, and other wild and semi-wild places. So when Steve and Irene bought their land in Deerfield in 1989, they always planned to place it under permanent protection. Steve was a carpenter and Irene assisted as they built their fine handmade post and beam house, brick hearth for the wood stove, and solar disc and batteries for electricity. The lands abutting three sides, altogether six private woodlots totaling almost 400 acres, comprise the Great Brook Corridor protected with conservation easements.

Steve and Irene's land was the "missing tooth" for the brook, for protection and movement of wildlife, and for a four-mile footpath open to the public from HarveyRoad to Coffeetown Road. Two brooks from the western boundary of the Cruikshank land flow down to GreatBrook. One of them passes through mature mixed hardwoods and over stones and roots creating small ledgy waterfalls. It drops into a black pool surrounding a mossy boulder where Irene often sits thinking of Steve who died 3 ½ years ago at 51, still full of dreams. Both streams create sunny marshes as they enter Great Brook creating an isolated paradise of cattails, red-winged blackbirds and dragonflies now completely surrounded by protected land.

Stunning granite outcrops cross the land in east-west ridges sheltering the two little streams and forcing dramatic turns of Great Brook as it emerges from forest to wide marshes. One outcrop looms 90 feet above the south bank of one of the streams.

Irene owns 30 acres of extra-ordinary land. Her home is at the southern tip and her donated conservation easement on the remaining 26.4 acres to be held by Bear-Paw, is no longer "the missing tooth" in the Great Brook Corridor. The Town of Deerfield will contribute $3,500 to the transaction costs associated with the project and will hold an executory interest in the easement. Irene says, "Steve loved wild places. For recreation he always went to somewhere as untouched as possible. Protecting our own wild and natural land is a perfect tribute to his memory."

Cumings (17 acres)

Deerfield Road Town Forest (82 acres)

The Town of Candia purchased this 82-acre property and permanently protected it with a Bear-Paw conservation easement in 2008. The parcel is part of the wildlife corridor between Bear Brook and Pawtuckaway State Parks, making it an important piece of the “greenway” of protected land between the two parks. The Deerfield Road Town Forest is a mosaic of several ecosystems, with the change in elevation on the property having a major impact on the forest communities found there. A walk along the loop trail will lead you through a number of habitat types. Near the parking area you’ll find an area of new growth. Further into the property, at the trail split, a deciduous forest system can be found on the higher ground along the northern property boundary. The southern portion of the property is covered by a variety of wetlands associated with the North Branch River and smaller streams draining into it. The streams help create a series of forested wetlands through the property’s mid-section with speckled alder, royal ferns, and sphagnum moss.

Click here for a map and a short description of the property.

Doane/Schorr Easement (70 acres)

This 70 acre property includes several acres of garden, field, and orchard land which Greg Doane and Wendy Schorr manage organically. Most of the land is forested and has been well cared for over the years. The property also has wetlands, including interesting basin swamps. This easement has added value because it abuts 89 protected acres protected by Kay Williams. Both properties lie at the watershed divide between the Lamprey River/ Great Bay Watershed and the Suncook/Merrimack River Watershed. Wendy and Greg generously donated the easement to Bear-Paw. The Town of Deerfield contributed to the transaction costs associated with the project and holds an executory interest in the easement.

Evans Mountain Forest ( 1,015 acres)

Fowler  (63 acres)

Freese Town Forest (174 acres)

Harkness  ( 62 acres)

Hickey  ( 47 acres)

Isinglass River Conservation Reserve (286 acres)

Kimball (Bear-Paw) (22 acres)

This property was purchased by Roland and Charlotte Kimball in 1975. During his life, Roland and his family enjoyed many happy hours on this woodlot.  The Kimball family donated a conservation easement on the property in 2008 and then donated the property itself to Bear-Paw in 2010 so that it would be permanently protected.

The Kimball Family Forest is an interesting mix of forested uplands running along the edge of a stream corridor and interconnected wetlands though the center of the parcel combined with outstanding North River frontage – all on just 22 acres! The family’s hard work shows in this vibrant forest which is dominated by white pine with a mixture of red and white oak, red maple, and other hardwood species.
The wetlands are quite evident along the northern sections of the Freeman Hall Road frontage where one can see through the red maple swamp to a fairly open sedge dominated wetland and an open water area that was an active beaver flowage and small great blue heronry not long ago. Just south of this is an overgrown path that leads into a small man-made pond that has been in place for long enough that it looks quite natural. This is a great place to look for tracks and to peer out into the wetland edge beyond. On the other side of the property, the North River frontage is a challenge to walk but well worth the effort. At this point in the watershed, the river is a good sized brook with
bordering wetlands and many twists and turns. This is ideal habit for wood turtle, otter, and other wildlife that rely on wetlands and water as well as veery, winter wrens, and maybe an occasional Louisiana waterthrush.

Click here for for a map and a short description of the property.

Lindsey Easement (30 acres)

This 30 acre property in Candia was protected by a conservation easement generously donated by Judi and James Lindsey in August 2003. The parcel is important in many ways: it contains a beaver pond, provides scenic enjoyment for the general public with its 500 feet of undeveloped road frontage on North Road, preserves open space in accordance with Candia's Master Plan goals, and enhances and expands the wildlife habitat in nearby Bear Brook State Park. The Lindsey's worked with Bear-Paw and the Candia Conservation Commission to complete this easement.

Menard (1 acres)

Pike (38 acres)

Robinson Hill (56 acres)

A vernal pool on Betty Rooney's property provides a safe nursery for a variety of salamanders and frogs.

Rooney Easement (28 acres) - In 2006, Betty Rooney was one of two Strafford residents who protected their properties by donating conservation easements to Bear-Paw. Betty and Harmony Anderson live at opposite ends of the town but both wished to ensure that their wooded acres would remain as undeveloped plant and wildlife habitat and productive forest lands.

Betty Rooney's 35-acre tract lies across the Strafford/Northwood town line off Route 202A, and stretches down toward the Acorn Ponds Conservation Area, considered by NH Fish and Game Department to be among the most significant wildlife habitat resources in the state. Betty’s easement on nearly 30 acres includes a section of Hall Brook with an active beaver dam, an area of wetland, several vernal pools and a well-managed tree farm.

Conservation funds from the Towns of Strafford and Northwood as well as a grant secured by Bear-Paw from the New Hampshire Estuaries Project covered the transaction costs of setting up this donated easement. Bear-Paw thanks Betty, her family, and the other project partners for helping to complete this project.

Rosenfield/Mallette Easement (85 acres)

Avis Rosenfield and Tim Mallette of Nottingham Road in Deerfield granted a conservation easement on 85 acres of their property through a bargain sale of development rights (i.e., sale of the rights at less than the appraised value) to Bear-Paw, the Town of Deerfield, and the Town of Nottingham. This land abuts the north side of Pawtuckaway State Park and lies a short distance from the protected land of neighbors Jack and Susie Sherburne. In addition to the vital connectivity value of the Rosenfield-Mallette easement, this exceptional property has several acres of very productive field land and managed forest land and it provides a prime view of North Pawtuckaway Mountain from a town road. Its high elevation portion supports an uncommon natural community with acidic summit rock outcrops and their associated plant and animal species. The south facing ledges provide important habitat for wildlife, which take advantage of the solar exposure. The public may enjoy the passive use of her woods for non-motorized activities such as hiking, bird watching, or educational field trips.

Southeast Land Trust of NH - Bond Tract (61 acres)

North River Forest (Bear-Paw) (52 acres)

Stewart (51 acres)

Strafford School District Property (290 acres)

Williams Easement (87 acres)

This 100-acre property on North Road in Deerfield faces northerly toward Pleasant Pond. About twenty acres are open and hayed; the remaining property is managed forest and a registered Tree Farm. Kay Williams generously donated an easement to protect 89 acres of the property. The easement is held by the Town of Deerfield with Bear-Paw as an executory interest holder.

Willoughby Easement (28 acres)

The Willoughby Property on Cilley Road in Deerfield is a well-cared for wooded parcel that abuts a large property with a conservation easement held by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. That parcel abuts Pawtuckaway State Park, making the Willoughby Conservation Easement a direct addition to this very important core conservation area in the Bear-Paw region. The easement protects 28 acres in one of the largest unfragmented blocks of land in the Bear-Paw region. Don Willoughby generously donated the easement to Bear-Paw with the Town of Deerfield holding an executory interest. The Town and the New Hampshire Estuaries Project both contributed to the transaction costs associated with the project.