Newport
The New Hampshire Fish & Game Commission — which last summer committed to purchasing several properties in Croydon, Newport and Grantham that are rich in forests, wetlands and other natural features — recently received a total of $675,500 in assistance toward the project.
A $475,500 grant from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services’ Aquatic Resource Mitigation Program nearly matches the $500,000 that New Hampshire Fish & Game had allotted from its own wildlife habitat account to what is known as the North Branch Sugar River conservation project.
Another $200,000 grant recently was awarded by New Hampshire’s Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, or LCHIP, to The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit with regional offices in Gorham. The Conservation Fund purchased the properties — the nearly 2,000-acre Brighton parcel in Newport and Croydon and the roughly 1,250-acre Loverin parcel in Grantham and Croydon — from William Ruger Jr. in July, two months before the former chairman and CEO of gun-maker Sturm, Ruger & Co., died.
The remaining $2.4 million for the properties is being paid for by U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Sport Fish Restoration Program, according to state Fish & Game wildlife biologist Joe Oehler. A closing date for the New Hampshire Fish & Game Commission to purchase the properties from The Conservation Fund is being targeted for early 2019, Oehler said.
“We still have some T’s to cross and I’s to dot,” Oehler said. “The fitting part considering (Ruger’s) role in this is that the Sport Fish Restoration Program is funded by a (federal) excise tax on firearms and ammunition.”
Combined with the adjacent Corbin Park, a private game preserve, the properties comprise nearly 49,000 acres of unfragmented natural lands, one of the largest such areas of New Hampshire wildlife habitat outside of White Mountain National Forest.
The lands include 416 acres of wetlands, 28 vernal pools and nearly 11 miles of streams, and includes more than 1,900 acres identified as high priority habitat in the New Hampshire Wildlife Action Plan. Another 1,157 acres are identified as supporting habitat.
The vastness of the lands will help Fish & Game to implement programs otherwise impossible in smaller areas, Oehler said.
“The median size of Fish & Game land holdings is 103 acres, which isn’t nearly the range of habitat for a single black bear,” he noted. “Having lands of this size will allow us to run studies that could have an impact on (protecting) the wildlife populations on a local level.”
While Fish & Game has no plans to build trails or otherwise develop the lands for recreation, they’ve long been popular for hunting, fishing, hiking and snowmobiling, and will continue to be available for those uses.
That was one of the appealing facets of the project for The Conservation Fund’s involvement, according to Sally Manikian, the organization’s Vermont and New Hampshire representative.
“The economic and community impact of preserving these lands is a huge component,” Manikian said. “We’ve received letters of support from residents of all three towns, and they’re all excited about the vision of keeping these lands publicly accessible in perpetuity.”
LCHIP recently announced contributions to 41 projects throughout New Hampshire, including $100,000 for repairs to the Silsby Free Library in Charlestown; nearly $98,000 for exterior renovation of the Kendrick-Wood House in Lebanon, the new home of the Upper Valley Music Center; and $40,000 for a conservation easement on the 105-acre Brackett Brook Farm in Orford.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com.