The Nature Conservancy & US Fish & Wildlife Service Exploring Conservation Options for Lower Ashuelot River

Sites in Richmond and Winchester rank high as conservation priorities.

March 31, 2006 — From the air and on the ground, you can easily tell that a stretch of land near the Massachusetts border in Richmond and Winchester is remarkable habitat for waterfowl, songbirds, wild brook trout and many other wildlife species.

The future of that habitat has now attracted the interest of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy. They’re exploring a range of conservation opportunities along key tributaries of the lower Ashuelot River that meets the needs of plants, fish, wildlife and people.

Among the possibilities is establishing a new division of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge – the system of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuges in the Connecticut River watershed.

Sprague Brook, Richmond
Sprague Brook in Richmond -- Eric Aldrich photo

Representatives of the Conservancy and the Silvio O. Conte Refuge have recently met with selectmen and conservation commissions in Richmond and Winchester to discuss the idea, and have received great interest. Public informational meetings on the project will be held May 10, 7 p.m. at the Winchester Town Hall and May 11, 7 p.m., at Veterans Hall in Richmond.

“The Conservation Commission is 100 percent for this,” said Gustave “Gus” Ruth, chair of both the conservation commission and the board of selectmen. “This would be a good thing for Winchester, a real source of pride for the community and we’re glad that The Nature Conservancy and Conte Refuge are looking into it.”

Interest in conservation in this area is spurred in large part by the Land Conservation Plan for the Ashuelot River, a comprehensive, science-based effort to identify places in the Ashuelot River watershed that are important for plants, wildlife, ecosystems and water quality. Completed in 2004, the plan was a partnership among The Nature Conservancy, Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests, Monadnock Conservancy and Southwest Regional Planning Commission.

It identifies 13 important habitat focus areas throughout the 269,800-acre Ashuelot River watershed. Some of those areas already benefit from a significant amount of protected land, such as Otter Brook and Andorra Forest in Stoddard and Sullivan and Mount Monadnock.

Other areas, however, have high-value wetlands and other landscape features that aren’t well protected. Among them is the area of Sprague, Mirey and Roaring brooks in Richmond and Winchester, located south of Route 119 to the Massachusetts border. Many conservationists and residents have expressed a desire to maintain the area's rural character and outstanding wildlife habitat in the face of nearby population growth, development and forest fragmentation.

One potential source of funding for conservation in the Ashuelot River watershed is the Silvio O. Conte Refuge. Several factors make this area a good candidate for the refuge. The area contains free-flowing brooks, high-quality wetlands and forests that are relatively unfragmented by roads and development. It harbors a healthy diversity of wildlife, including mink, fisher, otter, beaver, black bear, white-tailed deer, moose, Jefferson salamanders, wild turkey and 62 other bird species, of which 29 are confirmed or likely breeders. Seven documented bird species are considered rare or of conservation concern, including American bittern, Virginia rail, great blue heron, American woodcock, red-shouldered hawk, wood thrush and veery. In addition, the tributaries support wild brook trout, and because of its good stream habitat, Roaring Brook is an Atlantic salmon stocking site. The area is also rich with cultural resources, such as old foundations and mill sites.

The Sprague and Mirey Brook area has also been recognized as a high priority for conservation by the Quabbin-to-Cardigan Conservation Collaborative and links with more than 4,900 acres of protected land in Massachusetts. The Collaborative is a partnership of organizations and agencies seeking ways to protect and link the forested highlands of southwestern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts.

The Nature Conservancy has talked with a number of landowners in the area that are interested in exploring options for conserving their lands. Any conservation projects would be at fair market value and only with willing sellers.

"We're looking forward to working with The Nature Conservancy and with the leadership and residents of Richmond and Winchester," said Andrew French, project director of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. "We want to know, with their help, what role we could potentially play in their communities that would benefit our objectives for plants, fish, wildlife and people, and do so in a way that is compatible with those communities' long-term objectives."

For the communities of Richmond and Winchester, there are some clear benefits of hosting a wildlife refuge. Among them:

Guaranteed long-term public ownership of the lands for conservation purposes;

Public access for hunting, fishing, hiking, and educational activities;

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investment in trailhead parking and interpretive displays;

The refuge would be an amenity for the area, a source of pride; only a small number of communities can boast that there is a national fish and wildlife refuge in their towns;

The town governments would receive annual payments in lieu of taxes from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under a federal revenue sharing program. In Jefferson and Whitefield, N.H., which host the Silvio O. Conte Refuge’s Pondicherry Division, the towns have received more from revenue sharing than what they would have received had those parcels been taxed under the state’s current use program. The towns have also received some support for fire protection; and

Land protection would safeguard local drinking water supplies, especially in the Mirey Brook area of Winchester, which overlays a productive aquifer.

At this point, the notion of a lower Ashuelot division of the Silvio O. Conte Refuge is just that, a notion. Many issues need to be addressed to make the concept a reality. Community support is an essential foundation for moving forward, and so the Conservancy and Conte Refuge representatives have enjoyed meeting with local officials and community leaders. They also look forward to meeting more interested people at the informational meeting in Richmond. Also, The Nature Conservancy is continuing discussions with landowners to assess interest and evaluate conservation options, and also to secure federal funding for land conservation.

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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge: In this 7.2-million acre, four state watershed, where 2.3 million people coexist with hundreds of other species, the Conte Refuge works with many partners to acquire key parcels, to better manage already protected land, to provide conservation leadership, and to educate the watershed citizens about important habitat issues. In this way the Conte Refuge helps to insure people's enjoyment of the special nature of New England’s landscapes and habitats. This will be the Conte Refuge legacy lasting for generations to come.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 14 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 83 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Since 1961 The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire has helped protect more than 121,000 acres of ecologically significant land and currently owns and manages 30 preserves across the state. For more information, visit www.nature.org/newhampshire.