AT land proposed purchase and Success NH Township

[peakbagger]

Here is a link to an article about the attempt to purchase a large piece of land along 5 miles of the AT in the Mahoosucs to protect it and a future effort to protect the remainder of Success township

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/BerlinPDF/2008/4/25B.pdf

This is the next major part of the Mahoosuc Initiative and ongoing effort to protect the Mahoosucs area.

For those who are not familiar with the area, Success township was managed as sustainable forest land for over a 100 years by the Brown Company and its successors. Like most of the papercompany timberland in the NE, it was sold to an investor and subsequently resold to a timber liquidator, that is in the process of clearcutting the majority of township and is now looking to dispose of the land when he is done stripping it. Comments attributed to him in past is that he will cut it up into camp lots if he cant sell it outright.

It will grow back eventually, so now is the time to try to get it back into responsible ownership. (but in the short term its a poster child on how not to manage timberland!)

 

[arghman]

Yes!

about time! This one better go through. I'm putting my money where my mouth is, I hope other people do too...

 

[arghman]

NHPR had a radio story on another aspect of the area this morning.

Here's another link to a blurb from ATC. By the way, appropriations from the Land & Water Conservation Fund, some of which this project is requesting, have been cut way down by the White House and Congress -- so if you are concerned please consider expressing those concerns to your Congressional representatives. Apparently (and this is somewhat of a shock to me) the LWCF is authorized at $900 million per year but appropriations in recent years have been decreasing and FY2008 funding is/was only $255 million (source: p. 78 of http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RL34011.pdf).

 

[peakbagger]

http://www.berlindailysun.com/newsbds.shtml

This is a short term link that should work today. The gist of it is that the NH national guard is considering buying 15,000 acres in Success NH for a training ground for night vision driving and mobile rocket launcher testing.

Could be a potential future problem with access to some of the trailheads along the road, of course the Success Pond Association has a right of way so it may not affect the main road.

In theory the paper is kept in a PDF form that is archived so I will attempt to post a link at later date once its archived.

 

[arghman]

Could be a potential future problem with access to some of the trailheads along the road, of course the Success Pond Association has a right of way so it may not affect the main road.

That shouldn't be an issue -- if you look at the ATC link I posted above, you'll see the 4772-acre parcel includes the Success, Carlo, and Goose Eye trailheads. The other parcel (15000ac, Success Pond side) is the one the National Guard has their eye on.

I don't quite understand why they don't try to strike a deal with whoever it is that's trying to put windmills on the former IP lands in Dummer/Odell/Erving's Location (aka the Phillips Brook area), as that seems more remote than the Success lands.

 

[peakbagger]

The ATC purchase boundaries I have seen are for high elevation land along the AT and do not have frontage all the way down to Success Pond Road, thus if Success Pond is gated during National Guard maneuvers that would be problem for access (same issue when thye shut it down for cart rallies) . A big plus with the national guard is that they would most likely take over maintenance of the road as there is local concern that once Dillon is done cutting, the road will become impassable due to lack of maintenance.

As for the Phillips Brook area, speculation on my part is that they will attempt to renew the forest legacy conservation agreement that almost got signed prior to the wind farm. I beleive that the national guard wants to own property outright and that the Philips Brook owners want to retain ownership and continue growing trees so there wouldnt be a good match.

 

[Mattl]

Does anyone know the exact boundaries of this land deal? The sucess area has one of the largest lowland spruce and fir forest in NH as identified by the NH Fish and Game Department. The area is very important for wildlife and contains several rare/watched species. I am glad they are trying to protect it first before the national guard gets it. Lets just hope it goes through. Even more important is the Phillips Brook area. -Mattl

 

[Vermonster]

Does anyone know the exact boundaries of this land deal? The sucess area has one of the largest lowland spruce and fir forest in NH as identified by the NH Fish and Game Department. The area is very important for wildlife and contains several rare/watched species. I am glad they are trying to protect it first before the national guard gets it. Lets just hope it goes through. Even more important is the Phillips Brook area. -Mattl

I don't know the exact boundaries, but if it's Dillon's land, you can be pretty sure the spruce and fir will be pretty low by the time he's done.

 

[peakbagger]

The 15,000 acre parcel is scheduled to be sold after Dillon is done cutting it in seven years. If the Jericho State ATV park is an example, it will be stripped clean of any usable biomass before the title changes hands.

About the only good news is that moose love regenerating clear cuts and Lynx seem to like the snowshoe hare population that move in after a clear cut (gotta find something good to come out of it ) One of the reasons that it is going to be challenge to find a buyer, is that its going to be a long time to regenerate into a viable forest. I am a bit worried that with the current demand for wood pellets, that some company will buy it and try short rotation biomass trees to make wood pellets.