From the Associated Press via the Concord Monitor, by Anne Saunders
Afraid their forests are disappearing, Errol and Freedom are protecting thousands of acres by resurrecting an age-old New Hampshire tradition: the town forest.
Voters in Errol approved a $2.2 million bond to protect 5,300 acres known as Thirteen Mile Woods. The local bond is combined with contributions from the federal Forest Legacy Program, Trust for Public Land and the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, raising more than $4 million to preserve the land for recreation and as a working forest.
Selectman Bill Freedman said the town expects to pay down the bond over the next 15 to 20 years with proceeds from the sale of timber from the property.
"It's effectively creating a new town forest," said Chris Wells, policy director for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. "It's updating that New Hampshire tradition."
Historically, town wood lots were used to pay for community services. Harvested wood might serve as payment to the local schoolteacher, for example. In its modern form, the forest helps pay for its own protection.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Randolph preserved more than 10,000 acres as a town forest and now earns money from the timber, according to Rachel Rouillard, executive director of LCHIP, which was involved in the project.
Wells said his organization and others do limited logging on their properties to raise money toward taxes and other expenses involved in conservation.
"It's not an unusual situation,"he said. What's new is that more towns are recognizing conservation land can help pay for itself. Agricultural land can be leased to farmers, forest land can be harvested for timber using sustainable forest practices.
Freedom doesn't expect timber harvesting to pay for the cost of acquiring 2,660 acres, but it will help offset maintenance costs, Selectman Les Babb said. That project also was made possible by a combination of contributions from federal and other sources.
"This preserves a big piece where a lot of people hunt," he said. It also abuts the Madison town forest and Nature Conservancy land, creating a larger protected parcel of almost 5,000 acres, he said.
In both communities, townspeople were prompted to act in response to aggressive logging in and around their communities.
"The sense that you're in the wilderness is important to us,"Freedman said. It's also an economic issue as tourism grows in importance for the North Country. "We have to preserve and protect what we have there," he said.
Maine logger Thomas Dillon bought 22,500 acres near Errol and plans to clearcut about 3,000 acres a year for the next three years commercially. He also owns 5,000 acres in Errol.
"That was why it was very important to the town to do something," Freedman said.
Farther south in Freedom, townspeople watched as developers cut down trees to make way for more houses.
"Every piece of property we've got is being bought up," Babb said of his Lakes Region town.
With the Executive Council's approval last week, town officials in both communities are preparing to take over ownership through an early June closing.
Stewardship plans are in the works for both parcels and will dictate what can and can't be done with the land. Recreation such as fishing, hiking, skiing and snowmobiling will be permitted. Both communities also hope to allow some access by all-terrain vehicles.
Meanwhile towns that already own conservation land are realizing it can bring in additional money.
Barnstead recently harvested timber on five of 200 acres it owns on Suncook Lake and raised $50,000 for the conservation commission budget this year, according to Conservation Commission member Bill Carpenter.
"Any town that wakes up and sees the light is going to be doing that," he said.
