$300,000 Awarded from Aquatic Resource Mitigation Funds to Protect and Conserve Prime Wetlands in the Town of Goffstown

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 grant award totaling $300,000 for the Piscataquog Land Conservancy to purchase a 42-acre conservation easement in the town of Goffstown. The easement will protect prime wetlands and wildlife habitat and conserve important agricultural and forest soils. The easement is on a section of the Clarkridge Farm and includes a portion of the third-largest prime wetland in Goffstown, which is also the headwaters for Harry Brook. The project area is part of a broader 1,200+ acre, wildlife habitat block and a priority corridor for wildlife movement. The parcel builds new connections between existing protected habitats within the watershed and regional landscape. 
 
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 send an email to des.arm@des.nh.gov. 

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