Snowmelt and rain trickle down the easterly slopes of Stinson Mountain and Bald Mountain in the southern foothills of the White Mountains. Gurgling through a series of intermittent and perennial streams, water collects in an expansive basin known as Campton Bog. Here, a wide variety of habitat types and natural communities converge, creating one of the largest peatland systems in the region, rich with plants and wildlife.
Paddling into the bog – or, to be correct, fen – reveals a wild kingdom of open water, floating peat and spaghnum mosses, pitcher plants, sundew, sedges and cotton grass, surrounded by mountain views. Adjacent lands include unique forested wetlands and managed uplands, including black gum swamp, lowland spruce-fir forest, dense shrub thickets and floodplain that offer habitat for wildlife as common as beaver, as iconic as moose, bear, fisher and brook trout, and as increasingly rare as rusty blackbird, olive-sided flycatcher and eastern towhee.
From Campton Bog, water drains southward to Bog Brook and into the Pemigewasset River, which soon meets the Winnipesaukee River to form the Merrimack. This is the trail from the White Mountains to the sea.
Peatlands, bogs, fens and swamps are increasingly critical habitat types to protect in our changing climate. In addition to sequestering and storing carbon, they serve as sponges and filters, helping to mitigate the effects of flooding by collecting and then slowly releasing water. They also harbor an exceptional diversity of plants, animals and invertebrates through various stages of lifecycles and seasons. (For more, please see Forest Notes, Summer 2024 – and enjoy Annie Proulx’s recent book Fen, Bog & Swamp.)
The Forest Society is pleased to be working with two landowner groups to protect over 750 acres that surrounds and includes almost two-thirds of Campton Bog. The property includes open water, meandering streams, and upland forested areas, all managed for decades as they returned from grazing lands to forest and fen. A NH Fish and Game access point offers a public kayak and canoe launch into the bog. By placing these lands under conservation easements, the bog will remain undeveloped, retaining the wild character of this magical place.
The property is located in three parcels, one tract of 462 acres, and two tracts of 211 and 81 acres. The total cost of purchasing conservation easements on all three parcels and establishing long-term stewardship funds comes to $997,000. Fortunately, the project was awarded funding through the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), by the NH Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP), and by the NH State Conservation Committee’s Moose Plate Program. Along with contributions by the landowners and philanthropic grants, almost $885,000 is already committed to the project and now the Forest Society must raise the final $112,000 to complete the 750-acre project.
Would you like to help? Your gift can provide the crucial funds to make this project happen. In order to close with both landowners by the end of 2025, our goal is to secure all funds needed by August 1, 2025.
