Community Update

Mt. Major / Belknaps Conservation Project Wins $340,000 LCHIP Grant

Additional $50,000 Awarded by Bafflin Foundation

CONCORD
– Jan. 8, 2014 -- Two grant awards in the past week have propelled the effort
to protect access to Mount Major and conserve 950 acres in the Belknap Range to
within $400,000 of the $1.8 million goal.

            The Land and Community Heritage
Investment Program (LCHIP) award committee announced Monday that it will
provide $340,000 to the project, while the Bafflin Foundation, based in
Providence, R.I., pledged last week to give $50,000.

            More than 1,250 individual donors,
five grant organizations, family foundations and the towns of Gilford and Alton
have thrown their support behind the project, bringing the total raised to $1.4
million. The Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests, the Lakes Region
Conservation Trust and the Belknap Range Conservation Coalition are working
together to raise the money needed to purchase and protect four properties –
three on or near Mount Major in Alton and one on the slopes of Piper Mountain
in Gilford.

            “People keep telling us how much
they love Mount Major and the trails they have access to in the Belknap
Mountains, and they also keep telling us that they want this access to
continue,” said Jane Difley, president/forester of the Forest Society. “These
major grants, coupled with the tremendous support of individual donors, will
help us be able to protect that access forever, along with the wildlife
habitat, water quality and other natural resources of the Lakes Region.”

            “All of us
working on the Mt. Major and Belknaps project are very grateful for these
significant grant awards”, said Lakes Region Conservation Trust President Don
Berry.  “The strong and broad support for the project to date is a
testament to the shared commitment of people around the Lakes Region and
throughout the state to the important work of conserving the Belknap Mountains’
summits, forests and trails, and it makes us confident of achieving our
fundraising goal.”

            More
information about the project, including how to donate, can be found at forestsociety.org
or lrct.org.

Founded in 1901, the
Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests is the state’s oldest and
largest non-profit land conservation organization. Supported by 10,000 families
and businesses, the Forest Society’s mission is to perpetuate the state’s
forests by promoting land conservation and sustainable forestry. The
organization owns 50,000 conserved acres of land in New Hampshire and holds
conservation easements on another 115,000 acres.