Tag: massachusetts

Q2C Partnership Awards Fall 2015 Land Grants

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The Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership (Q2C) today announced the recipients of its eighth round of Land Conservation Grants, which help underwrite conservation projects that protect ecologically important forests in the highlands of western New Hampshire and north central Massachusetts. In the latest round, the Q2C Partnership awarded grants totaling $90,152 to seven projects that will conserve a total of approximately 4,442 acres of land. The total value of the land to be protected in the latest grant round is conservatively estimated at $11 million.

The two-state Quabbin-to-Cardigan region spans one hundred miles from the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts northward along the western spine of New Hampshire to the boundary of the White Mountain National Forest. Encompassing approximately two million acres, the region is one of the largest remaining areas of intact forest in central New England, and is a key headwater of both the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers.

The Q2C conservation grants are guided by a strategic plan that prioritizes the region’s most ecologically significant forests, and key connections between them for wildlife passage and human recreation. All projects are on a strictly voluntary, willing-seller/donor basis. Sixty-two percent of the acres protected in the latest grant round are located within areas identified as conservation priorities in the Q2C land conservation plan – falling within either “conservation focus areas” ranked as the most ecologically critical lands in the region, or “supporting landscapes” that buffer and connect the core focus areas. The funded projects are: Continue reading →

Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership continues preservation efforts

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Though the Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership has only been around for a decade, the effort to preserve a 100-mile swath of land from central Massachusetts to central New Hampshire has been more than a century in the making.

The Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership, known as Q2C, is a conservation project that has brought together private landowners, conservation groups and state agencies to protect as much land as possible between the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts and Mount Cardigan at the southern edge of the White Mountain National Forest.

Click below to read the full story. Photo courtesy Jerry and Marcy Monkman, Ecophotography.

Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership continues preservation efforts

Q2C Partnership Grants $100,000 to 13 Conservation Projects

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The Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership (Q2C) today announced the recipients of its sixth round of Land Conservation Grants, which help underwrite conservation projects that protect ecologically important forests in the highlands of western New Hampshire and north central Massachusetts. In the latest round, the Q2C Partnership awarded grants totaling $100,000 to 13 projects that will conserve a total of approximately 2,500 acres of land. The total value of the land to be protected in the latest grant round is conservatively estimated at $3.4 million.  Continue reading →

Anonymous donor, one loud statement

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As they stare at the reality of smaller government, organizations dependent on state and federal support are scrambling to extend critical work as funding dries up. One such program is the Quabbin to Cardigan Initiative, which for the past three years has used federal funds to jump-start land conservation on a 100-mile stretch from the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts to the Mount Cardigan area in the southern tip of the White Mountains National Forest. This two million-acre stretch of ecologically significant forestland cuts right through the heart of the Monadnock region.

Photo courtesy the Forest Society.

Northfield land protected on national scenic trail

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The room was all smiles as longstanding efforts to protect 188 acres around the Northfield route of the New England National Scenic Trail were formally completed at the Franklin County Registry of Deeds. Signing for the town, Selectwoman Bonnie L’Etoile described the day as “a perfect example of how team work with a common goal can reach results that we can all be proud of. This is a successful culmination of years of work to protect lands in Northfield for the future of our town.”

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Community Marks Ten Years on the Tully Trail

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Conservation partners ranging from state agencies to community based land trusts and trail volunteers met today in the Tully Mountain Wildlife Management Area to celebrate the tenth summer of the Tully Trail, a 22-mile loop which links together many of the area’s prominent natural landmarks.  “The tenth anniversary reminds us what the cooperation of local, state, and federal government can achieve when working together with private citizens and a fantastic land trust,” said Bob Durand, who was Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs during the Tully Initiative, “the land protection work inspired by this trail continues to support the working forests and rich biodiversity that exist in the Tully Valley today.”

Click below to read the full story.

Celebrating Ten Years on the Tully Trail [Link is no longer active.]