CLARKSVILLE, N.H.—With help including snowmobilers, anglers, preservation groups and a generous anonymous donor, 2,121 acres of prime forest land in northern New Hampshire has been preserved.
The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests said 800 donors raised $2.8 million to conserve the land in Clarksville along the Connecticut River. The Washburn Family Forest is the Forest Society's largest forest reservation north of the White Mountain notches and is considered the gateway to Pittsburg and the Connecticut Lakes along Route 3.
The land will continue to be managed as working forest, and will remain open to the public for fishing, hunting, hiking and snowmobiling. It includes more than six miles of pristine shoreline along the upper Connecticut River, a significant deer yard and an important snowmobile trail.
The Forest Society bought the property from siblings Malcolm Washburn, Dallas Chase and Bruce Washburn, who acquired the land from their parents.
The land has been a working forest for generations. The Washburns' father, Reuben Washburn, and his business partner, George Hann, began buying timberland in the 1940s and early 1950s for what became the Washburn Lumber Company.
Malcolm Washburn remembers cutting fir and spruce logs with his father, then using horses to skid the logs to landings. Large spruce were sold for saw logs, while the smaller softwoods were sluiced into the Connecticut River and floated to Lancaster. From there the logs were loaded into boxcars and shipped to Bucksport, Maine, or to the Deferiet paper mill in upstate New York.
The fundraising campaign began last fall when the state's Land and Community Heritage Investment Program gave $400,000.
Ultimately, nearly 800 donors, including an anonymous donor who gave $950,000, joined the effort.
The area is one of New England's premier cold water fisheries, so the Forest Society joined with Trout Unlimited, which made the project one of two national pilot projects in its new "Land Conservancy" program. Trout Unlimited donated more than $30,000, led by $10,000 raised by the local Basil Woods Chapter.
Nearly 250 snowmobilers and several snowmobile associations donated to help maintain a key trail.
Other major grants came from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, $500,000; New Hampshire Fish and Game, $250,000; and the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund, $75,000. Another $500,000 came from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Acres for America program, with funds provided by founding partner
The EqualLogic Fund, administered by The Boston Foundation, contributed $30,000. TransCanada Hydro Northeast donated $15,000, and another $10,000 grant came from the New Hampshire Electric Co-op Foundation, which is funded by Co-op members who agree to have their monthly electric bills rounded up to the next dollar.
