THETFORD — The Upper Valley Land Trust has secured a $100,000 grant to permanently conserve land on Houghton Hill in Thetford.
The 120-acre property features two trails to the Houghton Hill summit, including a portion of Mimi’s Trail, a 5-mile route starting in Thetford Hill village, said Peg Merrens, vice president of conservation for the land trust.
The property is a “wonderful” destination for hiking and is part of about 6,000 acres of “minimally fragmented forest” and near two other Land Trust properties, so it is also ecologically important, Merrens said.
It sits across the road from the 100-acre PegJack Memorial Forest and about a mile up the road from the 32-acre Zebedee Wetland.
The acquisition and conservation plan is in the “earlier stages,” Merrens said. The Land Trust still has to secure over $350,000 for the project but, while there is “never any guarantee” that the deal will work out, Merrens said she has “great confidence.”
The Nature Conservancy announced the $100,000 award Tuesday, along with funding for three other Vermont projects through the Vermont Biodiversity Protection Fund. In total, almost $390,000 will go toward preserving 2,160 acres of land in Vermont.
“These projects were chosen for their habitat connectivity, biodiversity value, freshwater benefits, and community importance,” says a news release from the organization.
The Land Trust has known about the property and the community’s desire to conserve it for years, Merrens said Friday, so when the opportunity arose in the spring, the nonprofit “jumped right on it.”
The Hanover-based nonprofit executed a purchase and sales agreement with the landowners for the lot and has until next spring to secure just over $700,000 to close on the land and cover associated costs, Merrens said.
So far, the Land Trust has secured about half of the funding through two grants and is waiting for a decision on a third application. Merrens will also have to raise about $100,000 in local match funding.
A spokeswoman for the Nature Conservancy declined to say how many organizations applied for this round of grant funding. The nonprofit will accept additional applications in the fall.
