NH Charitable Foundation Donates to Connecticut River Conservation

Connecticut River near Stewartstown

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation in Concord donated $893,958 in grant awards from its Upper Connecticut River Mitigation and Enhancement Fund to 15 projects across the upper Connecticut River watershed.

The Connecticut River is the largest river in New England, with roughly two thirds of the river in NH and Vermont.

The fund is expected to provide approximately $21 million for these projects. This is the 14th round of grants awarded from the fund, which will continue until the fund is spent down. Since 2003, the fund has distributed more than $13 million to support Connecticut River projects.

“This funding helps protect more than 600 acres of riparian lands and restore 220 miles of free-flowing stream by removing dams and replacing culverts,” says Kevin Peterson, senior program officer at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. “These projects will leverage an additional $1.3 million in funding from other sources to restore and protect one of the region’s critical environmental assets—the Connecticut River.”

Grants were given to the following NH organizations and projects:

Ammonoosuc Conservation Trust in Sugar Hill received three grants, including $68,000 to conserve a 203-acre parcel in Bethlehem, part of the Clean Water/Healthy Trout initiative; $47,700 to conserve the 117-acre Lawrence parcel in Franconia, also part of the Clean Water/Healthy Trout initiative; and $76,550 to conserve a 150-acre parcel along the Connecticut River in Bath.

Appalachian Mountain Club in Gorham received $7,000 to support an update to the MEF Priority Conservation Area and Priority Connectivity Projects reports, using new and recently revised data, such as updated Wildlife Action Plans for NH and Vermont.

Connecticut River Watershed Council of Greenfield in Massachusetts received four grants, including $5,000 for riparian buffer plantings on a conserved parcel along the Connecticut River and $5,000 for pre-removal planning for three small dams along Clark Brook, both in Haverhill.

The Nature Conservancy of New Hampshire in Concord received $114,856 to conserve a 48-acre floodplain parcel along the upper Connecticut River in NH.

Trout Unlimited received $84,997 to complete a comprehensive assessment of more than 750 stream crossings in 19 NH towns in the Upper Ammonoosuc River watershed.

Vermont River Conservancy received two grants, including $12,500 to support conservation of riparian lands and public access at the covered bridge across the Connecticut River in Columbia.