The Nature Conservancy to Celebrate
Expanded Preserve and New Great Bay Office
Event on June 29 to recognize donation by Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation, the N.H. Chapter’s largest corporate cash gift, and other donors.
The view from the Conservancy's newly expanded Lubberland Creek Preserve.
Megan Lepage photo.
Newmarket, N.H. — June 20, 2006 — On June 29, The Nature Conservancy will celebrate the opening of its new Great Bay office and significant expansion of its Lubberland Creek Preserve in Newmarket. Also to be unveiled will be a recently completed compendium of ecological restoration opportunities in and around Great Bay.
The Lubberland Creek project was made possible in part by a grant from Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation, the largest corporate cash gift to the Conservancy’s New Hampshire chapter.
On Thursday, June 29, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., the Conservancy will host an open house of its new office and lead a hike on new trails of the expanded Lubberland Creek Preserve. At 5 p.m. there will be a ribbon cutting for an official opening of the facility, followed by a barbeque. A donation of $5 for Conservancy members or $10 for nonmembers is suggested. Please RSVP by calling Megan Lepage at 603-224-5853, ext. 23.
The facility now features a new trail that highlights grassland and estuarine habitat at the Conservancy’s Lubberland Creek Preserve, a new rock garden with native plantings, and a new outdoor spotting scope that allows visitors to see birds such as bobolinks, bluebirds, osprey, great blue heron, and meadowlarks.
Joining members, staff and supporters of the Conservancy on June 29 will be several top officials from Lowe’s Home Improvement, along with others who’ve been working with the Conservancy to protect important habitats around New Hampshire’s Great Bay. Also on hand will be staff representatives of U.S. Senator Judd Gregg and N.H. Governor John Lynch.
In December, the Conservancy purchased the 35.5 acres adjoining its Lubberland Creek Preserve on the Durham-Newmarket line. The property came with a small house that is now the Conservancy’s Great Bay office. From there, the Conservancy manages its Great Bay conservation efforts, including land protection, marine research and restoration, and stewardship of preserves. Long a priority for conservation, the project protects high quality salt marsh, 1,700 feet of frontage at the mouth of Lubberland Creek, and provides a key link in what’s now 2,300 acres of contiguous protected land.
“The Great Bay estuary is one of New Hampshire’s environmental jewels,” said U.S. Senator Judd Gregg. “While being one of the most vital natural ecosystems in the country’s coastal regions, it is also one of the most fragile. For this reason, we must continue to make its protection a top priority. Fortunately, The Nature Conservancy and all the members of the Great Bay Partnership understand the importance of meeting this responsibility. The expansion of Lubberland Creek shows again how effective you have been. Because of this dedication, the people of our state will long be able to enjoy the beauty of Great Bay.”
Funding for this $1.1 million project included gifts from local Conservancy members and supporters, a generous leadership donation from a New Castle couple, and a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership. A key player in securing funds to conserve Great Bay is U.S. Senator Judd Gregg.
The finishing gift to this project was a grant from Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation, part of a $1 million gift by the foundation that also boosted Nature Conservancy projects in Massachusetts, New York and Vermont.
The Lowe’s contribution of $200,000 was a “key part of the funding that could not have come at a better time,” said Daryl Burtnett, the Conservancy's New Hampshire Chapter state director. “This generous grant put us over the top, finishing off the campaign to protect this great and fragile place. We're grateful for Lowe’s commitment to supporting critical conservation projects here in New Hampshire and three other states as well.”
Aside from the $200,000 supporting the Great Bay project, the Lowe’s gift includes:
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$460,000 to the Conservancy’s Massachusetts chapter for forest and river restoration and to purchase 270 acres that will be included in newly expanded state park reserves;
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$120,000 to the Conservancy’s New York chapter for, among other things, acquiring 100 acres in the heart of the Rome Sands Plains that had been targeted for development. The Conservancy will transfer that land to the state Department of Environmental Conservation; and
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$205,000 to the Conservancy’s Vermont chapter that will restore forests, help farmers prevent erosion, organize volunteers to clean up waterways, and remove invasive plants.
Also during the event on June 29, Jay Odell, The Nature Conservancy’s marine ecologist, will unveil a newly completed compendium of ecological restoration opportunities in and around Great Bay. The compendium is the first comprehensive look at restoration priorities in Great Bay, including oyster reefs, softshell clam beds, salt marshes, eelgrass, shoreline buffers, macroalgae beds, beaches and dunes and diadromous fish. The project was led by the Conservancy, with support from the N.H. Estuaries Project and the N.H. Coastal Program.
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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 protected nearly 118,000 acres of ecologically significant land and has worked with partners to protect an additional 148,000 acres in the state. The Conservancy owns and manages 30 preserves across the state. For more information, visit www.nature.org/newhampshire.
Lowe's is a proud supporter of The Nature Conservancy, Habitat for Humanity International, American Red Cross, United Way of America, and the Home Safety Council, in addition to numerous non-profit organizations and programs that help communities across the country. Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation awards more than $3 million annually to diverse organizations across the United States. Lowe's also encourages volunteerism through the Lowe's Heroes program, a company-wide employee volunteer initiative. Lowe's is a FORTUNE® 50 company with fiscal year 2004 sales of $36.5 billion and has more than 1,150 stores in 49 states. For more information, visit Lowes.com/community.
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