Mt Major Land Protection Efffort

While the state of NH owns the summit of Mt Major and the parking lot, most of the hiking trails are on private land. A consortium including a NH statewide forest protection society more famous for its work on Monadnock and a land conservation trust in the Lakes Region that previously bought the Castle in the Clouds property are hoping to buy several tracts in the Belknap Range including part of those trails.

To avoid any fundraising prohibitions, this is a news item only and those organizations are purposely unnamed.

RoySwkr said:

To avoid any fundraising prohibitions, this is a news item only and those organizations are purposely unnamed.

Click to expand...

If anti-Northern Pass sites are allowed to be mentioned and linked, I think we can mention who this is.

It's the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests that seems to be leading the charge on acquiring the land, along with the Lakes Region Conservation Trust. I suspect SPNHF donors may be experiencing some fatigue after all of the Northern Pass money requests, so who knows how this will end up. They allegedly need to come up with nearly $2 million by end of year.

Thanks for heads up. I think VFTT needs to announce things like this. We have a ton of power as a group to help projects along like this.

Without this being conserved, this could potentially turn into a Mt. Cabot!

I'm not sure of the advantage of buying the land rather than buying conservation and recreational easements. That provides leverage to conserve a lot more land and minimizes the long term costs of ownership. A large portion of the north woods of Maine have neen conserved in this way.

I don't think anyone has a problem mentioning organizations working to acquire land or easements for this purpose.

There is going to be a Press Conference this Tuesday at 11:00 AM to kick off the campaign in the Mt. Major parking area. I believe it will actually be held on one of the trails close to it as the Land is DOT and fund raising may not be allowed.
It is being headed by SPNHF,LRCT and The BRCC.
Also in the latest Forest Notes (SPNHF) pub. There is a one page announcement.

I was going to mention it here on tuesday but Roy beat me to it.

I will include more detailed info. after the Press Conference when it is sent to me by the BRCC.

Effort underway to protect Mount Major

"ALTON, N.H. —An effort to protect Mount Major, one of New Hampshire's most hiked mountains overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee, is now underway.

"Calling it an opportunity for this generation to make a lasting difference for the next, The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, together with the Lakes Region Conservation Trust, has just announced a campaign to raise $1.8 million to buy four parcels totaling 950 acres.

"While the state owns the parking lot and a patch of land at the top, most all of the hiking trails are on private land. Many are eroded and in rough shape.

"'If these lands are sold or transferred, the owners could cut off access and the recreational opportunities and the wildlife habitat may disappear as well,' said Don Berry, LRCT president."

Effort underway to protect Mt. Major

There's also a nice related article about the critical role played by Dave Roberts in preserving the trailhead access: Trail-builder Dave Roberts pushes to protect Mt. Major

sardog1 said:

There's also a nice related article about the critical role played by Dave Roberts in preserving the trailhead access: Trail-builder Dave Roberts pushes to protect Mt. Major

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Nice article about a very ambitious guy, I think his trailbuilding only stopped when he had more than he could maintain working 6 days a week!

The Belknaps aren't the only place he has built trails or made maps, the other place met with less public acclaim but fortunately somebody else took the heat there

Mt.Major Fund D.drive

CONTACT: Brenda Charpentier

(603) 224-9945 ext. 301

[email protected]











Everybody Hikes Mt. Major: Conserving the Belknap Mountains and Trails

Partnership Raising $1.8 Million to Buy 950 Acres



ALTON – Thousands of hikers exult in the view from the top of Mt. Major in Alton each summer. Most have no idea that there’s nothing to stop a ‘no trespassing’ sign from going up in the future to block the trails that cross private land on their way to the summit.

The Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests and the Lakes Region Conservation Trust (LRCT) are joining forces to prevent such a loss and to start safeguarding not only Mt. Major but the rest of the Belknap Range’s views, recreational opportunities and wildlife habitats.

The two organizations, with support from other members of the Belknap Range Conservation Coalition, are working together to raise $1.8 million by Dec. 1 to purchase and protect four key properties – about 950 acres – being sold by separate landowners. One of the parcels, 331 acres that include parts of four recreational trails, is in Gilford’s Moulton Valley and on the slope of Piper Mountain. The other three are on or near Mt. Major.

Mt. Major is on the eastern end of the Belknap Range. The state owns the Route 11 parking area and the summit (the 60-acre Mt. Major State Forest). The land in between is private.

“For thousands of people around the region, Mt. Major was the first mountain they climbed, and they’ve since climbed it many times and with their children and grandchildren,” said Don Berry, LRCT president. “If these lands are sold or transferred, the owners could cut off the access, and the recreational opportunities and the wildlife habitat may disappear as well.”

A successful fundraising campaign will ensure that all four properties are kept open to the public for hiking, hunting, snowmobiling and other recreational activities. The LRCT plans to own and manage the Gilford parcel, while the Forest Society will own and manage the three parcels on or near Mt. Major.

“For more than 100 years, the Forest Society has worked to conserve New Hampshire’s most treasured and iconic landscapes, starting with the White Mountains and including Mt. Monadnock, Mt. Sunapee, Mt. Kearsarge and Franconia Notch,” said Jane Difley, Forest Society president/forester. “Mt. Major and the Belknaps make up another beloved landscape, the beautiful backdrop for Lake Winnipesaukee, and we are excited to be working in partnership with the Lakes Region conservation community to protect it.”

The Forest Society, the Lakes Region Conservation Trust and other members of the Belknap Range Conservation Coalition view the fundraising effort as a first step in a long-term commitment to conserving and ensuring the wise stewardship of more land in the region. The Belknap Range features large, as-yet unfragmented forests covering more than a dozen mountains with extensive trail systems and opportunities for hunting, fishing, hiking, snowmobiling, and cross-country skiing. Besides their recreational, scenic and habitat value, these forests protect the water quality of Lake Winnipesaukee.

“The Belknaps, along with the Ossipee Mountains and Red Hill, form the natural setting for Lake Winnipesaukee. Protecting these uplands has been an important priority for many years,” Berry said.

The partners are aiming to raise the money to buy the properties by Dec. 1, so they can begin closing on the purchase and sales agreements that month. “We anticipate being able to announce soon commitments of up to $385,000, leaving $1.12 million still to be raised by Dec. 1,” Difley said.

To find out more about the fundraising effort and to donate, visit www.forestsociety.org or www.lrct.org.

Founded in 1901, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests is the state’s oldest and largest non-profit land conservation organization. Supported by 10,000 families and businesses, the Forest Society’s mission is to perpetuate the state’s forests by promoting land conservation and sustainable forestry.

The Lakes Region Conservation Trust is a member-supported, community-based, non-profit organization. Founded in 1979, it has protected more than 22,000 acres of shore frontage, islands, forest and mountaintops.

Mount Major in the News

http://m.wmur.com/news/fundraising-...ls/-/17440650/21908874/-/ervgloz/-/index.html

http://m.nhpr.org/?utm_referrer=#mobile/44151

Heard this morning on NHPR.

Tim

Maybe I am just grumpy this morning, so charge this off as minor rant, but I am somewhat concerned as some of the subjects of the article discuss that trails are in poor shape. Protecting the land without putting into place a formal program to upgrade the trails is short sighted but seems to be standard practice. Everyone likes building a new trail but the cost to build a proper trail is significant and requires either a very dedicated crew of volunteers or paid staff. Maybe such a group is in place in that area and I may be unaware of it as it is south of my normal hiking grounds? In many cases land is protected as it is a feel good thing for all and attracts dollars but rarely is there an endowment or funding set up to build and maintain trails once the land is protected. Given the recent large volume of land bought outright and under conservation easement in NH by SPNHF, to date I haven't seen a management plan on how the properties are to be managed. Do note I have donated to some of their recent efforts despite this so I do have some minimal "ownership" in this.

More than a few land trusts in the region have had to make decisions on managing land driven by the economics in order to keep the "lights" on rather than long term goals. The state of NH is rather infamous for this approach and recently has reportedly been aggressively reviewing state parcels for the potential of revenue cuts.

Someone I know contacted SPNHF regarding leaving a large block of forest land in his will to them. SPNHF basically told him that they would gladly appraise the land so that they could log it and sell it when the title passed to them as there was nothing in the woods that were "special". The Nature Conservancy has also resorted to the buy and cut approach in the large block they bought in the St John River area and even AMC uses this approach in the 100 mile wilderness. In all cases the cutting is represented as responsible forest management and it may be, but it does call into question how unbiased a decision can be when there is a short term revenue need.

peakbagger said:

Someone I know contacted SPNHF regarding leaving a large block of forest land in his will to them. SPNHF basically told him that they would gladly appraise the land so that they could log it and sell it when the title passed to them as there was nothing in the woods that were "special". The Nature Conservancy has also resorted to the buy and cut approach in the large block they bought in the St John River area and even AMC uses this approach in the 100 mile wilderness. In all cases the cutting is represented as responsible forest management and it may be, but it does call into question how unbiased a decision can be when there is a short term revenue need.

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You should consider how you want a property managed before donating. Most organizations will accept a gift of a condo but sell it and consider it a cash donation, the same could be true of forest land that doesn't meet their goals. Last year I went to a talk by a forester who used to be a heavy poster here, he suggested that land trusts were someday going to be swapping "preserved" parcels for parcels owned by developers that had more special features. (The USFS already does this, with politics involved of course.) Some owners have been giving easements to multiple parties to make transfers harder.

So if you have a standalone parcel in a highly-developed community, a national organization might trade it for something in a wildlife corridor while a local group that prefers open space in that community might keep it.