$375,000 Awarded from Aquatic Resource Mitigation Funds for Conservation of 163 acres in Barrington

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 Barrington for $375,000. The grant awarded to Southeast Land Trust (SELT) of New Hampshire will permanently protect a 163-acre property in Barrington through a conservation easement. The property features 2,265 feet of frontage on Nippo Lake, a 16.5-acre prime wetland, three vernal pools, and two rare peatland communities. It also provides a critical link between two existing conservation lands; the 405-acre Leighton Forest and the 1,700-acre Stonehouse Forest.

Located at the headwaters of Nippo Brook, the property is part of the Isinglass River watershed, which is a Designated River in the NH Rivers Management and Protection Program. Eighty point five of its acres are part of an NHDES designated Outstanding Resource Watershed. It also includes 148 acres of the state’s Wildlife Action Plan (WAP) highest-ranked habitat. Its conservation will protect upland connections between wetland systems, 270 feet of perennial stream outflow from Hale Pond, and 1,700 feet of perennial streams, including a spring-fed cobble bottom stream system that flows into Nippo Lake.  The parcel will build upon the existing landscape while restoring 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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