arghman said:
2) Got my copy of AMC Outdoors yesterday (this month's issue managed not to piss me off this time when I read it...) which had an update on a couple of land conservation projects, including Grafton Notch State Park and Philips Brook. The article mentioned that SPNHF was hopeful a yurt system could be reopened. (I'll have to go find the magazine to get exact quote)
The yurt system is already reopened, partly. See the attached photo of the yurt at Little Dummer Pond. And Philips Brook didn't do so good this time around, according to an article in today's
Coos County Democrat, which is subscription so I can't link. Here is it is:
[start quote]Phillips Brook project not in President's budget
03/01/2006 - STARK — The $3.5 million in Forest Legacy funds needed to purchase a conservation easement on the nearly 24,000-acre Phillips Brook parcel is not in President George Bush's proposed FY07 budget, according to spokesmen for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (SPNHF), which has acted as the facilitator for the effort to keep the tract undeveloped as a working forest, and the Appalachian Mountain Club. The land is in the Unincorporated Places of Odell, Ervings Location, and Millsfield, as well as the towns of Dummer and Columbia
Although disappointed, former SPNHF policy director Charlie Niebling and his successor Will Abbott believe that it is just a matter of time before a source of federal dollars is secured.
"SPNHF's plugging ahead," Mr. Niebling said on Friday at the annual meeting of the Society of American Foresters. "The Phillips Brook project scored really, really well and just missed the cut. It was just below the (funded-nonfunded) line."
The total number of dollars for land protection projects was substantially reduced from previous years, Mr. Niebling explained, noting that if last year's total dollar amount had been in the President's proposed budget, then this important project would have made the list.
Help from the four-member Congressional delegation will be sought, according to both Mr. Niebling and Mr. Abbott.
The Dummer board of selectmen took a position in favor of the project and wrote a letter of support to SPNHF some months ago. The Coös County Planning Board that concerns itself entirely with the Unincorporated Places also wrote in favor of this effort.
These kinds of letters of local support are critical to such projects, Mr. Niebling said.
The 45 outdoor enthusiasts who attended a Sept. 27, 2005, information meeting at Stark Town Hall all signed a sheet saying they favored the project. The conservation easement would keep it in private ownership as a "working" forest, ensure public access for traditional uses, and foreclose any subdivison and nearly all development.
SPNHF is acting as the agent for Black Bear LLC, a limited liability corporation established by a specialized timber investment firm, GMO (Grantham, Mayo, and van Otterloo) Renewable Resources of Amherst, Mass., under the umbrella of a Boston-based private investment firm that manages $25 billion in assets for private clients, mutual funds, and foundations. Black Bear bought the Phllips Brook tract in 2004 from the International Paper Company.
The conservation easement would also permanently protect snowmobile Corridor #28 under a separate agreement with the state Bureau of Trails. The landowner would continue to own the roads through the tract, maintain them, and and be responsible for any liability issues.
The former IP executives' lodge would be excluded from the easement along with 11 acres
Timber harvesting practices would be guided by "Good Forestry in the Granite State."
Mary Sloat of Groveton said at the September meeting that she considers the Phillips Brook tract as "a keystone" to maintaining a forested core in Coös, with space and habitat for wildlife, since it abuts Nash Stream (state) Forest and has the White Mountain National Forest to the south.
The total proposed funding for the Forest Legacy Program is $61.5 million, of which $55.7 million can be used to purchase land and/or conservation easements across the country. Total proposed funding for Land and Water Conservation Fund is approximately $83 million, of which only $45 million can be used to purchase new federal lands across the country.
Not far away in western Maine, however, the Grafton Notch Forest project was named the highest priority Forest Legacy project anywhere in the nation, with $2 million in proposed funding. The project links a much larger mosaic of existing conservation lands to protect outstanding wildlife habitat, drinking water supplies, and outdoor recreational resources.
"With forest ownership patterns in upheaval and development seemingly going on all around us, it is extremely important to secure large blocks of undeveloped land while we can, said Newry, Me., selectman Steve Wight in an AMC press release. Newry is home to the Sunday River ski resort.
In New Hampshire, the second phase of the Willard Pond/Robb Reservoir project ($3 million), that contains wetland and upland habitats that support more than 100 species of birds, and Maine's Lower Penobscot Forest project ($2.2 million), designed to protect more than 42,000 acres valued for hunting, ice fishing, canoeing, ice skating, and hiking, also made the cut.
A number of additions to the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge in the four-state region of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut as well as in the Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge in Errol and Wentworth's Location also did not get on the list
.[end quote]
