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New Hampshire Success Stories
Every day is Earth Day at NRCS.
This Conservation Showcase highlights stories of farmers, forest land owners,
and partners working together with NRCS to protect New Hampshire's soil, water,
animals, plants and air. We hope that through these stories, you’ll understand
how NRCS is helping people help the land every day. Many of these documents
require
Acrobat Reader.
Access Road Before NRCS Help
Access Road After NRCS Help |
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This project repaired a dirt road for better forest
and hay land access. When the landowner’s hay truck could no longer
access the field due to degradation of the roadway after a few years of
high rainfall events, she applied for a contract under the Environmental
Quality Incentives Program to help with technical and financial
assistance to repair her access road. The damaged road breeched the
lower berm of a vernal pool, inhabited with breeding wood frogs and
spotted salamanders, allowing water to escape and depositing sediment in
the pool. In order to protect the vernal pool and upgrade the road, the
berm was reinforced between the road and the pool. The road bed was
smoothed into a broad-based dip in the wet areas and geotextile fabric,
with stone, was added to provide a firm roadbed and drain water from the
road. On either side of the wet areas, gravel was added to raise
the roadbed. The landowner can now easily access the hayfield and
forestland, and the wetland is intact for its inhabitants and no longer
has sediment from the eroding roadbed.
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The New
Hampshire Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is a leader in
promoting the use and benefits of high tunnels. NRCS offered seasonal
high tunnels as a conservation practice for the first time in fiscal
year (FY) 2010 as part of a three-year trial to determine their
effectiveness in conserving water, improving soil health, increasing
yields, and reducing transport of agricultural pesticides. With
$705,469, New Hampshire obligated the fifth largest amount of money for
high tunnels, behind Alaska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri. NH
funded 79 high tunnels, the tenth most among the states, and helped
build four additional demonstration sites. NRCS continues to provide
outreach, technical, and financial assistance for high tunnels.
Learn more about the
Seasonal
High Tunnel Pilot Program
(2MB pdf) |
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The
Maple Guys of Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, recognized for the “best
maple syrup in the state” enhanced their production of the regional
product with the Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) program. They
introduced a clean-burning gasification wood burning evaporator, the
first of its kind in New Hampshire. CIG promotes innovative
conservation approaches and technologies that support environmental
enhancement, such as the evaporator.
Learn more about
The Maple Guys
(426 KB pdf) |
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Over
forty acres of active, prime farmland were permanently protected from
development through partnership with the Trust for Public Land, the Town
of Hampton Falls, the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, and the
Rockingham County Conservation District and through the Farm and Ranch
Lands Protection Program (FRPP).
Learn more about the
Raspberry Farm Conservation Easement
(445 KB pdf) |
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An “open
space jewel” of southeastern New Hampshire, Stonehouse Pond was valued
for its wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities, and beauty. Working
through the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), the strong partnership of
the Trust for Public Land, Strafford Rivers Conservancy (SRC), New
Hampshire Fish and Game, and the Town of Barrington successfully
protected over 240 acres of land surrounding and including Stonehouse
Pond.
Learn more about
Stonehouse Pond Conservation Easement and Restoration
(570 KB pdf) |
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This
on-going project involves technical and ecological expertise to protect
and restore native Eastern Brook Trout in the tributaries of Nash Stream
in the Nash Stream forest, the state’s largest forest. This site hosts
bridge construction technology that is newly used by NRCS in the
Northeast. Partners include Trout Unlimited, New Hampshire Department
of Resources and Economic Development, and the New Hampshire Department
of Fish and Game.
Learn more about
Slide Brook Crossing
(740 KB pdf) |
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