Economic Opportunities for Landowners

The upper Connecticut River  valley has some of the richest agricultural land in New England. This land is a backbone of our region’s traditional economy, and renewed interest in local food and farming is a welcome trend. Much of this prime agricultural land is also floodplain. The floodplains provide natural storage that helps protect towns and communities against flood damage, and provide key habitat for a wide range of wildlife. Floodplain forests are an especially important and declining type of habitat nationwide, but are still present in our region.

Because of this intersection of the economic and ecological importance of floodplains and farmland, ACT has  teamed with several other organizations to bring the financial and technical resources to willing  landowners to do conservation work. The project, called the Farmland and Floodplain Conservation Initiative, is a partnership of ACT and the N.H. Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. We are working closely with the Coös County office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, UNH Cooperative Extension, Vermont Land Trust, and the Connecticut River Joint Commissions.

The Farmland and Floodplain Initiative focuses on conserving these important lands along the Connecticut River and its major tributaries, including the Johns, Israel, and Upper Ammonoosuc Rivers. The initiative seeks to work with private landowners willing to explore conservation opportunities that maintain agricultural use and conserve floodplain ecosystems and habitats. A variety of funding sources are available to compensate landowners for development rights, for riparian buffers, that also allow rivers to migrate naturally.

The importance of floodplains and riparian areas for the long-term health of the Connecticut River and the viability of resident and migratory fish and wildlife has been abundantly documented. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified the stretch from West Stewartstown south into Lancaster as one of the four most important natural valley flood storage areas on the entire 410-mile long Connecticut River. Conservation of natural valley flood storage areas is one of the recommendations of the Water Resources Management Plan of the Connecticut River Joint Commissions and is specifically recommended by its Headwaters and Riverbend subcommittees

The Initiative has three phases:

Phase 1. GIS Analysis and Mapping. The project team has assembled natural resources data from state, local, and national organizations and used this information to map areas where floodplain habitats, prime agricultural soils, and active farms intersect. This combination provides important economic and ecological benefits.

Phase 2. Outreach. We are now ready to share this GIS analysis and mapping with local communities and engage  landowners interested in discussing floodplain and farmland conservation opportunities.

Two community workshops for  landowners, conservation commissions, planning boards, and others, will be held at the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church parish hall at 113 Main Street, Lancaster on April 22 and April 29 from 6 – 8 p.m.

The April 22 workshop will present the project mapping; provide an overview of ecological and economic benefits of floodplains and farmland, and review strategies for conserving those lands.

The April 29 workshop will cover conservation strategies for farmland owners, funding sources, and review estate planning, farm succession, and conservation easement approaches using case studies based on real projects.

Phase 3. Project identification. The initiative hopes to engage with landowners interested in exploring conservation opportunities, potentially using funds from a variety of public and private sources. We will meet with all interested individual landowners to discuss potential conservations project in depth, based on the owner’s goals and desired uses for the land.

For more information please contact Rebecca Brown, Ammonoosuc Conservation Trust, at 603-823-7777, rbrown@aconservationtrust.org.

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