LCHIP Restored!

On June 26, 2013 the New Hampshire legislature passed a new two-year state budget that fully restores the dedicated fund of the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, or LCHIP. After three years of seeing some or all of LCHIP’s supposedly “dedicated” funding diverted to pay for general government, this is huge news for conservation in New Hampshire. The restoration of LCHIP’s funding should translate to more than $8 million for state grants to land conservation and historic preservation projects over the next two years. By returning LCHIP’s dedicated fee to its intended purpose, our elected leaders kept faith with the taxpayers of New Hampshire, and made it possible for an effective and deeply popular program to get back to doing what it was created to do: protecting the landscapes and historic places that make our state special.

There is a lot of credit to go around – both inside and outside the State House -- for this  successful outcome, but most of all it was citizens of New Hampshire like YOU that restored LCHIP. You spoke up, and your elected representatives listened. Thank you!

This guest editorial that appeared on July 1, 2013 in the Union Leader sums up the bipartisan effort that restored LCHIP: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130701/OPINION02/130709973/-1/opinion01.

Questions or comments? Contact Will Abbott at 224-9945 x327, or wabbott@forestsociety.org