Bear-Paw Regional Greenways is developing a Conservation Plan to guide its land protection efforts in partnership with the seven communities that it serves: Candia, Deerfield, Epsom, Northwood, Nottingham, Raymond, and Strafford. The Conservation Plan will identify and describe priority conservation areas within the region and the strategies to protect these areas.

The conservation priorities will reflect those areas that protect wildlife habitat, rare plants, animals, and natural communities, water quality and quantity, working forests, farmland soils, and maintain connectivity between large blocks of conserved land. The Plan will also identify potential greenways to connect the Bear-Paw region to nearby conservation focus areas such as Great Bay, Moose Mountains, and the Merrimack River Valley. Our goal is to conserve areas with high natural resource values within the Bear-Paw region and to expand landowner and community support for land conservation.

The priority conservation areas are likely to encompass:

• Key wildlife habitats and associated native wildlife species, including the full array of representative habitats that occur in the Bear-Paw region including
  • Large unfragmented habitat blocks and matrix forest types such as Appalachian oak-pine forests
  • High Value habitat features such as wildlife travel corridors, riparian areas, wetlands, south-facing slopes, vernal pools, old growth forests, grasslands, and higher elevation areas

• Greenways that maintain links between existing conservation lands such as state parks, town-owned conservation lands, and permanently protected private lands

• Watersheds that harbor important wetland complexes, diverse aquatic animal communities, and other water resources such as
  • Wetland complexes and vernal pools
  • River and stream systems
  • Lakes and ponds
  • Riparian areas along undeveloped shorelines
  • Land above stratified drift aquifers and within the zones of contribution of public water supply wells

• Natural plant communities, rare plant populations, and areas of high biological diversity

• Important farmland soils and working agricultural lands

• Working forests that can provide sustainably managed and harvested forest products

• Recreational and scenic resources including trail corridors, scenic views, and historically important sites

Bear-Paw has helped to protect over 2,100 acres in the region by working with landowners committed to conservation; many of these landowners donated, or sold at significant discounts, the development rights to their land. Communities in the Bear-Paw region have created natural resource inventories; drafted open space protection plans; formed open space committees; and/or contributed significant funding to land conservation projects.

Land conservation continues as a crucial issue for our communities as New Hampshire is expected to grow by 28% by 2025, with much of that in the southeast that includes the Bear-Paw region. The New Hampshire Wildlife Action Plan specifically notes, "… species restricted to southern New Hampshire are at immediate risk." A Conservation Plan focused on the Bear-Paw region is needed to ensure that these species and their habitats are protected and that linkages among conservation blocks maximize the conservation value of existing protected lands.

Bear-Paw staff, volunteers, and consultants will develop the Plan with public and partner input and will build on priorities identified in other local, regional and statewide conservation plans. Ibis Wildlife Consulting of Newmarket was hired to assist in gathering input, researching existing plans, and writing the Plan.

The long-term value of a successful Conservation Plan, as the region continues to grow, is clean and available drinking water, healthy plant and animal populations, working forests, productive farmlands, and a high quality of life in our Bear-Paw communities.