PREP Reports & Publications

Abstract

In New Hampshire communities, there is a groundswell of interest and activity in conserving land. New Hampshire currently has more than forty-five land trusts. There are conservation commissions in all but a handful of towns. Many of them are engaged in conserving their special natural lands. Over half of the towns in the state have conservation funds fueled by the Land Use Change Tax. There have been 62 applications for land conservation projects to the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program since its inception in 2000. New Hampshire voters are appropriating significant taxpayer funds to conserve undeveloped land. Twelve communities, mostly in the south central and southeastern tier of the state, including Amherst, Brookline, Newfields, and Stratham, approved bonds and appropriations totaling nearly $20.2 million in 2002 alone. New Hampshire is losing 12,000 to 15,000 acres of open space a year to development. That is equivalent to building houses, roads and shopping areas in an area half the size of an average New Hampshire town. It is open space that gives our towns their traditional character and appearance. Unless towns protect open space strategically and intentionally, it will be consumed by development. The goal of this guidebook is to help you, as a concerned citizen, elected official, or conservation commission member, achieve your town’s land conservation goals by securing local funding for land conservation in your community.

Department

Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership

Publication Date

12-2002

Publisher

Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests

Document Type

Report

Rights

Copyright by Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, 2002.

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