September 2020 - The Piscataquog Land Conservancy and the Town of New Boston have joined forces to place a conservation easement on the town’s five Town Forests, which together total 470 acres. Once completed later this fall the conservation easement held by PLC will ensure the properties are protected in perpetuity. Two of the parcels – the Colby & Siemeze Forests -- are located on Middle Branch Road, just across the Piscataquog River from PLC’s Thomas and Houghton sanctuaries. The other three – the Lydia Dodge, Sherburne, & Todd Forests -- are located along Old Coach Road, and also include the town’s transfer station and ball fields. About seventeen acres encompassing these areas will be excluded from the conservation easement.
Under New Hampshire law, town-owned land can be designated as a Town Forest by the voters at spring town meeting or ballot voting. The designation transfers control of the land from the select board or town council to a Forestry Committee charged with ensuring the its continued viability as a forest. While Town Forest designation gives town-owned woodlands land a degree of protection from being developed or sold off, it can also be undone at any time by another vote of town residents. For this reason, many municipalities have sought the additional protection of conservation easements held by a third party like a land trust. A 2019 study by UNH Cooperative Extension and the NH Association of Conservation Commissions found that 69% of New Hampshire’s Town Forests had been permanently protected through conservation easements or other legal restrictions.
The idea of placing a conservation easement on New Boston’s Town Forests had been discussed on and off for the better part of two decades. In late 2019, the town’s Conservation Commission and Forestry Committee decided the time had come to make the idea a reality. Laura Bernard, who chairs the New Boston Conservation Commission, says “every December, the Conservation Commission hosts a holiday party, and we invite all the town committees and local organizations who are focused on protecting the New Boston’s natural resources. Our December 2019 meeting was attended by members of the Forestry Committee, Open Space Committee and the Piscataquog Land Conservancy. With everybody in the same room, we once again discussed our desire to permanently protect the New Boston Town Forests. By the end of the evening we had a plan.”
PLC’s land protection specialist Tom Jones first put together the required tasks and budget for completing a conservation easement, and then presented the information to a public meeting of the Forestry Committee. The committee voted to support the plan pending funding from the Conservation Commission, which at its next meeting approved the funding required to complete the project from the town’s conservation fund. The two committees and PLC then presented the project to the New Boston Board of Selectmen, who agreed to place a warrant article on the March 2020 ballot to see if town residents supported granting the easement to PLC. The article went on to pass overwhelmingly.
PLC has worked through the spring and summer to complete all the due diligence needed to complete the easement including a boundary survey, environmental assessment, title work, easement drafting and baseline documentation. As of this writing, the project is on track to close by the end of 2020. The New Boston Forestry Committee’s Chair Tom Miller says “the Forestry Committee is really pleased to be part of this collaborative effort with the Conservation Commission and PLC to preserve New Boston’s five town forests for the benefit of future generations.”
