Status of New Hampshire’s Conservation Lands

Status of New Hampshire’s Conservation Lands

SB 388 and beyond

April 2015

Purpose of the SB 388 Study Committee

Current composition of conservation lands: • Acreage & percentage resource protection • Geographic distribution • Entities holding lands

Identify strengths and weaknesses of current portfolio (public and private) in relation to:

• Drinking water supplies • Land base for farming and forestry • Protection fish and wildlife habitat • Providing outdoor recreation opportunities

Methodology & Data Sources

Study Methods: • Best available natural resource GIS datasets • Statewide scope & scale • Augmented GRANIT conservation lands datalayer

Key datasets: • Habitat – Wildlife Action Plan, Natural Heritage EOs, large forest blocks • Wetlands – USFWS National Wetlands Inventory & hydric soils data • Land Cover – USGS national land cover data set, updated every ~5 years • Farm Soils – lands with prime, statewide important agricultural soils • Drinking water – source water protection areas, wellhead protection

areas, aquifers • Forestry – productive forest soils

What is Protected Land?

Permanently Protected: • Permanently protected by legal means • Cannot be developed • Remains in a largely natural status • Agricultural & forestry uses permitted except on ecologically

significant lands

Current Status of GRANIT data: • 4% of database is not legally protected, but has mandates to

manage for natural land cover (e.g., Dartmouth’s Second College Grant

• 1% is unprotected but 50% or more land in natural condition • Another 5% is of unknown status

The big picture…

Our State 32% protected (1.85M acres)

1996-2014 +590K acres

Agency Type 1996 Acres 2014 Acres Change

Percent Change

Federal 760,392 822,252 61,861 8.1%State 217,491 456,840 239,349 110.0%Municipal 128,163 180,280 52,117 40.7%Quasi-Public 5,673 10,320 4,647 81.9%Private 149,461 380,892 231,431 154.8%

Agency TypeNumber of

Tracts Total AcresPercent of

TotalFederal 715 822,252 44.4%State 1,376 456,840 24.7%Municipal 4,343 180,280 9.7%Quasi-Public 230 10,320 0.6%Private 3,560 380,892 20.6%

10,224 1,850,584

And more nuanced regional views…

Elevation Range

% of State

% Protected

>3,600’ 0.7% 99.99%

2500-3600’ 4.9% 92.1%

1700-2500’ 14.0% 70.1%

800-1700’ 42.7% 26.9%

20-800’ 37.5% 14.7%

0-20 0.3% 24.9%

How are we doing protecting land that is important for water?

Source water 7% land area 45% protected 7% developed

Community wells 5% land area 16% protected 19% developed

13.5% land area 25% protected

28% land area 30% protected 12% developed

Farms and forests…

Most productive soils <7% land area 12% protected 20% developed

Active farmland <4% land area 13% protected

2/3 of statewide land cover 42% protected

500 – 5,000 acre blocks 25% of all forest blocks 18% conserved

Forest Blocks >5,000 acres

Forest Blocks >10,000 acres

2.3 million acres 57% protected

1.9 million acres 63% protected

Our wildlife and natural heritage…

Significant Wildlife Habitat 40% of high-ranked habitat protected 52% of Tier 1 protected

Rare Species Occurrences More than 4,000 occurrences 37% protected

NHWAP Habitat Types

NHWAP Habitat TypesTotal Land

Area

Percent of State Land

Area Area ProtectedPercent

ProtectedDunes 192.5 0.003% 123.7 64.3%Cliffs 5,807.8 0.1% 5,445.2 93.8%Salt Marsh 6,692.2 0.1% 1,721.6 25.7%Alpine 7,716.8 0.1% 7,692.3 99.7%Pine Barrens 18,664.3 0.3% 4,695.7 25.2%Rocky Ridge/Talus Slopes 28,049.2 0.5% 18,669.5 66.6%Peatlands 57,111.5 1.0% 19,799.6 34.7%Floodplain Forests 112,705.1 2.0% 37,480.9 33.3%Marsh & Shrub Wetlands 142,073.3 2.5% 39,597.4 27.9%Grasslands >25 Acres 232,385.1 4.1% 28,687.4 12.3%High Elevation Spruce-Fir Forest 243,264.4 4.2% 228,958.4 94.1%Appalachian Oak-Pine Forest 576,639.6 10.1% 107,681.2 18.7%Lowland Spruce-Fir Forest 770,051.7 13.4% 362,692.0 47.1%Northern Hardwood-Conifer 1,027,549.5 17.9% 566,813.6 55.2%Hemlock-Hardwood-Pine Forest 2,263,495.0 39.5% 471,214.9 20.8%

5,492,398.2 1,901,273.5 34.6%

NHWAP Habitat Types in Rank Order of Rarity

Recreation opportunities…

Convenient Accessibility Municipalities >10,000 20 minute drive (10 mile radius 54% of total state population 20% of conserved land

Municipalities >20,000 10% of conserved land

Regional & Local Trails 2,700 miles mapped 82% on conserved land Regional systems = 150 miles 52% protected All long distance trails = 443 miles 30% protected

Next steps with SB 388

Committee recommendations included: • Fully fund LCHIP and constitutionally protect

dedicated funds • State funding of existing

programs: Agricultural land program (ALP) and Source Water protection fund

• Create Legislative Commission to develop NH priorities for future state investments in land conservation (SB38)

For more information… Technical Report Forest Society: https://www.forestsociety.org/resource/sb-388-final-report The Nature Conservancy: http://www.nature.org/nhlandstudy