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Conservation Commission

Conservation and More

              by Bruce B. Beckley


Issue #84, June, 2000
Acquisition Priorities

Since You Asked!

Two residents came to the recent ACC hearing held to obtain public comment prior to purchase of four parcels for conservation. Afterwards I was asked, "How does the Commission select the parcels it chooses to purchase?" The gentleman went on to say he could understand most of the purchases, but why buy that landlocked, half-wet parcel. Both are good questions.

It should be said first that the parcels the Commission may put the highest priority on may not be the ones that get purchased. For us to buy land the owner must be a willing seller. Conservation commissions in NH have no eminent domain powers.

Several objectives enter into the selection process. Among them:

  • Preserving open space
  • Connecting or expanding existing holdings
  • Protecting wetland including buffers and acquifer recharge areas
  • Maintaining habitats for a diversified species mix
  • Affording education and passive recreation opportunities.

The Commission has three principal resources it employs as it identifies potential acquisitions. The town tax maps clearly show significant and abutting parcels. The Wetland Survey Report completed in 1999 ranks wetland parcels using several environmental and cultural attributes. The third resource is the commission-developed greenway system map. This shows corridors in the town which provide routes for critters to travel and for hiking or XC ski trails.

As we have written before, the principal greenway begins in Merrimack on land slated for protection by the Merrimack CC, runs through Pond Parish, on to the Bragdon Farm and then northerly into Bedford through Pulpit Rock Reservation. Another important greenway includes the Souhegan River corridor in which preserving meaningful buffers along the river is a priority.

Returning to the questions, the Commission uses all these resources to match potential properties with its goals. As to the land locked half-wet parcel, it lies on the greenway to Bedford, has a high ranking in the wetland survey and might provide one or two house lots if acquired by an abutter. Acquisition makes sense.

Some of the land deeded to the town for commission management comes as gifts or under a conservation easement. In these circumstances the Commission gladly receives the gift, not turning its back just because the land may not previously have been given priority. As it turns out, three parcels now being offered to the ACC are all in high priority areas.

Briefly, that's our plan and process. We will be glad to go into more detail with you individually or for your organization with an entertaining slide program that shows the conservation properties and some of the species found on them. Please give any commissioner a call, send an email message, or drop a note to P.O.Box 960.

Thank You Ladies

We greatly appreciate the $500 grant from the Amherst Junior Women's Club which will fund publication of a guide to trails in Amherst.

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