Q2C Partnership Grants $100,000 to 13 Conservation Projects
The Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership (Q2C) today announced the recipients of its sixth round of Land Conservation Grants, which help underwrite conservation projects that protect ecologically important forests in the highlands of western New Hampshire and north central Massachusetts. In the latest round, the Q2C Partnership awarded grants totaling $100,000 to 13 projects that will conserve a total of approximately 2,500 acres of land. The total value of the land to be protected in the latest grant round is conservatively estimated at $3.4 million.
The two-state Quabbin-to-Cardigan region spans 100 miles from the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts northward along the western spine of New Hampshire to the boundary of the White Mountain National Forest. Encompassing approximately 2 million acres, the region is one of the largest remaining areas of intact forest in central New England, and is a key headwater of both the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers.
The Q2C conservation grants are guided by a strategic plan that prioritizes the region’s most ecologically significant forests, and key connections between them for wildlife passage and human recreation. All projects are on a strictly voluntary, willing-seller/donor basis. Ninety-one percent of the acres protected in the latest grant round are located within areas identified as conservation priorities in the Q2C land conservation plan – falling within either “conservation focus areas” ranked as the most ecologically critical lands in the region, or “supporting landscapes” that buffer and connect the core focus areas.
The funded projects are:
Brewer Easement, Danbury, NH
Sponsor: Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust
Acres to be Conserved: 178
Protection Method: conservation easement
Q2C Grant Award: $6,740
Garvey Easement, Goshen, NH
Sponsor: Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust
Acres to be Conserved: 82
Protection Method: conservation easement
Q2C Grant Award: $5,930
Sahler Easement, Wilmot, NH
Sponsor: Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust
Acres to be Conserved: 16
Protection Method: conservation easement
Q2C Grant Award: $2,350
Old Reservoir Initiative, Barre, MA
Sponsor: East Quabbin Land Trust (EQLT)
Acres to be Conserved: 71
Protection Method: fee acquisition by EQLT subject to easement held by town
Q2C Grant Award: $3,890
Mayor-Niles Forest, Hanover, NH
Sponsor: Hanover Conservancy
Acres to be Conserved: 92
Protection Method: fee acquisition
Q2C Grant Award: $4,930
Wilson’s Tavern Tract, Stoddard, NH
Sponsor: Harris Center for Conservation Education
Acres to be Conserved: 382
Protection method: fee acquisition subject to easement held by SPNHF
Q2C Grant Award: $12,280
John and Rosemarie Calhoun Family Forest Addition, Gilsum, NH
Sponsor: Monadnock Conservancy
Acres to be Conserved: 20
Protection method: fee acquisition
Q2C Grant Award: $2,530
MA Working Forest, Warwick and Phillipston, MA
Sponsor: Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, Inc.
Acres to be Conserved: 473
Protection method: conservation easement
Q2C Grant Award: $12,410
Connolly Farm, Temple, NH
Sponsor: Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests
Acres to be Conserved: 69
Protection Method: conservation easement
Q2C Grant Award: $3,730
Frazien, Hebron, NH
Sponsor: Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests
Acres to be Conserved: 197
Protection Method: conservation easement
Q2C Grant Award: $11,410
Long Pond Town Forest, Lempster, NH
Sponsor: Town of Lempster, NH
Acres to be Conserved: 644
Protection Method: conservation easement
Q2C Grant Award: $17,970
King Conservation Initiative, Petersham, MA
Sponsor: Town of Petersham
Acres to be Conserved: 105
Protection Method: conservation easement
Q2C Grant Award: $7,190
Mason Pond, Orford, NH
Sponsor: Upper Valley Land Trust (UVLT)
Acres to be Conserved: 133
Protection Method: fee acquisition
Q2C Grant Award: $8,640
With this latest round of projects the Q2C grants program has funded 49 separate projects that will conserve almost 15,000 acres of land.
The Q2C 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. Non-profit land trusts, municipalities, and state agencies that have land conservation as a primary function are all eligible to apply for a Q2C land conservation grant. The next round of grants will be made in mid-2014.
Launched in 2003, the Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership is a collaborative effort of more than twenty private organizations and public agencies working on land conservation in the Q2C landscape. Over the past ten years, the partners have worked with interested landowners to permanently protect an additional 90,000 acres of land in the region - 62,000 acres in New Hampshire and 28,000 acres in Massachusetts -- an increase of almost 22% over 2002 levels.
For more information about the Q2C Partnership please contact Chris Wells at (603) 224-9945 or cwells@forestsociety.org. Information is also available at www.q2cpartnership.org