Press Release – Rosalind Page, Executive Director, Ammonoosuc Conservation Trust (ACT):

ACT celebrates the acquisition of two more conserved properties in 2025

The Ammonoosuc Conservation Trust (ACT) began with a group of friends and neighbors who were concerned about rising development in their town. If you’ve been to Foss Forest in Sugar Hill and reveled in the quiet richness the forest has to offer, you’ve experienced the drive those founders had to protect and save that special piece of land.

The inception of ACT shows the weight of the community working together to accomplish something amazing – the preservation of a local forest for the community to use and enjoy alongside the flora and fauna that call it home.

Twenty-five years after ACT had officially become a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, now with an incredible group of passionate and dedicated staff and volunteers, we ended our anniversary year with two more properties conserved.

In November, we acquired a parcel in Lisbon on the Ammonoosuc River, 4.2 acres with about 3000 feet of river frontage. The land was generously donated by the owner, and project expenses and stewardship needs have been funded by the NH DES Drinking Water Groundwater Trust Fund, US Fish and Wildlife Service and Trout Unlimited. ACT will manage this property for water quality protection, wildlife management with the installation of bird boxes along the river, and outdoor recreation by providing access to the river for anglers and kayakers.

In December we closed on a Conservation Easement of 41 acres in Franconia, on the Town Forest and an adjacent parcel abutting NH Route 18 which the town acquired in 2023. This land will now be protected forever to safeguard the water quality of over 1000 ft of frontage on Meadow Brook and about 2000 ft of frontage along Lafayette Brook for the community drinking water supplies and maintain riparian buffers along the two brooks, associated floodplains and wetlands. Conservation of this land will also protect wildlife habitat, both aquatic and terrestrial.

ACT is excited to add this land to the adjacent 114 acres it had previously conserved in 2017 with the town, bringing the total contiguous conserved area to 155 acres.

It seems fitting that twenty-five years ago a group of motivated neighbors joined together to save an important landscape from development. Now, ACT spans as far south as Piermont in Grafton County, and continues to expand throughout Coös County. Because of that drive and determination set forth by its founders, ACT has now conserved over 6,200 acres in Grafton and Coös counties, ensuring clean water and air, an abundance of outdoor recreation opportunities, a location for educational events and outreach, and above all, parts of the North Country that will remain filled with beaver ponds and wetlands, uncommon natural communities, river otters and moose, and you, the public, enjoying the greatness the natural environment holds – forever.

Conservation takes community and we are so grateful to be protecting the lands you love in the North Country. To stay up to date on our conservation progress, learn about trail workdays, or attend free educational events with ACT, please visit our website at http://www.act-nh.org or check us out on Facebook and Instagram.

Contact: Rpage@act-nh.org (603) 823-7777