$180,000 Awarded from Aquatic Resource Mitigation Funds to Purchase and Protect Aquatic Resources in the Town of Atkinson

Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) announced that the Governor and Executive Council recently approved an Aquatic Resource Mitigation (ARM) Fund project in Atkinson for $180,000.

The Conservation Fund was awarded the grant funds, which will support the acquisition of a 15.4-acre parcel within the Merrimack River Service Area, conveyance of ownership to the Town of Atkinson, and the granting of a conservation easement to Southeast Land Trust of NH. The property is adjacent to the West Sawmill Town Forest and consists almost entirely of New Hampshire Fish and Game Wildlife Action Plan Tier 1 ranked habitat. It contains high functioning vernal pools and upland buffers providing habitat for spotted salamanders, wood frogs, and Blanding’s turtles. Adjacent to both the 223-acre Sawmill Swamp Town Forest to the east and Cluster Open Space to the west and north, the property is a missing piece of conservation land surrounding the Sawmill Swamp high priority ecosystem. The parcel will build upon existing landscape connectivity efforts in the watershed and region.

The ARM Fund Program manages mitigation payment funds paid to offset unavoidable impacts to aquatic resources. Competitive grants fund projects that restore, enhance, and preserve aquatic resources and associated upland buffers across nine watersheds, also called service areas. Over $35 million in compensatory funds have supported 141 projects, including irreplaceable-resource preservation, aquatic barrier removal (culvert replacement and dam removal), and living shoreline projects since New Hampshire’s ARM program began in 2006. The goal of the program is to meet the federal goal of “no net loss” of functions and values of aquatic resources by supporting restoration, enhancement, and preservation.
  
For more information about the ARM Fund Program, please visit the website or email des.arm@des.nh.gov. 

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