Application Deadline is Oct. 15
CONCORD -- Aug. 29, 2014 -- The Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership (Q2C) has opened the application window for its fall 2014 round of grants to support trail projects in the “Quabbin-to-Cardigan” region of western New Hampshire and north-central Massachusetts.
The Q2C region spans 100 miles from the Quabbin Reservoir northward to the southern boundary of the White Mountain National Forest, and is bounded to the east and west by the Merrimack and Connecticut River Valleys. Encompassing approximately 2 million acres, the Q2C region is one of the largest remaining areas of intact, interconnected, ecologically significant forest in central New England, and is a key headwater of the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers.
Launched in 2003,the Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership is a collaborative effort of more than 20 private organizations and public agencies working on land conservation in the Q2C landscape. The Partnership’s Land Conservation Grants program underwrites transaction costs – appraisals, surveys, title research, staff time, etc. -- on key land conservation transactions in the region. Since 2009 the grants program has funded 49 separate projects that have conserved almost 15,000 acres of land.
In 2013 the Q2C Partnership began offering small grants to support the development, improvement, maintenance and permanent protection of hiking trails in the Q2C region. As with the land conservation grants program, the trail grants are awarded through a competitive process, and are available for projects in both the New Hampshire and Massachusetts portions of the Q2C region. In its first round in the summer of 2013, the Q2C Trail Grants program funded seven projects totaling almost $50,000. The grants funded work on more than 16 miles of hiking trails in the region, and other trail enhancements projects like trail maps, kiosks, etc.
Completed applications for the fall 2014 grant round must be received no later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 15th, 2014. Successful grant applicants will be notified in early January 2015. For questions regarding the grant program and the application process, contact Brian Hotz at (603) 224-9945 x316 or bhotz@forestsociety.org. Application guidelines and materials are available on the “grants” section of the Q2C Partnership’s website: www.q2cpartnership.org.
The Q2C Trail Grants program is privately funded and administered by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests on behalf of the Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership.