Project: Southern Monadnock Plateau II
Location: Massachusetts
Acreage: 1,825
FY09 Forest Legacy Request:$3.3 million
Project Sponsor: group of national, regional, and local organizations as well as several state legislators
The bi-state Southern Monadnock Plateau II (SMP II) project builds on a $2.5 million Forest Legacy FY07 award to conserve working forests highlighted in the USFS “Forests on the Edge” report as facing the highest threat of conversion due to increasing development pressures. This multi-year effort is creating corridors of protected working forests, linking more than 15,000 acres of state, town and non-profit land in MA and NH. SMP II includes 14 tracts (CEs) totaling 1,825 acres of productive forests which support the local forest economy and provide excellent ecological, recreational and hydrological value. SMP II conserves Drinking Water Supply Protection Areas for 4 municipalities, and is in a US EPA’s Watershed Initiative Grant Area.
Project: Westfield Heritage Woodlands
Location: Massachusetts
Acreage: 802
FY09 Forest Legacy Request:$1 million
Project Sponsor: group of national, regional, and local organizations as well as several state legislators
The Westfield Heritage Woodlands (WHW) is a partnership between The Nature Conservancy and the state of Massachusetts, spans four towns and includes over 800 acres of ecologically important, highly threatened, forest within the Westfield River watershed. The Westfield River has received National Wild and Scenic NW&S designation, in large part due to the filtering capacity of the forest reserves and working woodlands covering more than 80% of the watershed. Protection of the WHW will enhance previous federal investment in the NW&S Westfield River and the Silvio E. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge.
Project: Metacomet-Monadnock Forest
Location: Massachusetts
Acreage: 934
FY09 Forest Legacy Request:$1.7 million
Project Sponsor: The Conservation Fund
Metacomet-Monadnock Forest (MMF) is a landscape-scale initiative that consolidates 934 acres of productive forestland with more than 17,000 acres of state forest and other protected land. MMF-1 is the first of a 3-phase strategy targeting 5000 acres of institutional and private forestland centered in some of the largest unfragmented forest blocks in the Quabbin to Cardigan (Q2C) corridor. Spanning four towns, MMF-1 is nestled in the forested viewshed of the Metacomet-Monadnock-Mattabesett Trail (MMM Trail) and includes 2 tracts with more than ¾ mile of the historic route. MMF-1 includes 395 acres held by the Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMHS) who owns another 1300 acres of unfragmented forest that is under imminent threat since the 2005 campus closing.
Project: Silvio Conte Refuge
Location: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont
Acreage: up to 1000
FY09 LWCF Request:$5 million
Project Sponsor: The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land
The Friends of Silvio O. Conte National Forest Wildlife Refuge is seeking $5.065 million from FY09 LWCF to complete important projects in all four states. In particular, this includes important additions to the Pondicherry Unit that will enhance recreational opportunities and wildlife habitat at this highly popular recreation area.
Project: Cape Cod National Seashore
Location: Massachusetts
Acreage: 57
FY09 LWCF Request:$2 million
Project Sponsor: State of Massachusetts
Cape Cod has long been renowned for its miles of beachfront, local character, and opportunities for leisure and relaxation. Its beauty has attracted many writers and painters. Describing the peninsula’s geography, Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Cape Cod is the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts: the shoulder is at Buzzard’s Bay; the elbow, or crazy-bone, at Cape Mallebarre; the wrist at Truro; and the sandy fist at Provincetown.” Edward Hopper spent many summers at a home in South Truro painting seaside houses, landscapes, and communities. Today, populations from Boston, New York, and other cities in New England and elsewhere in the Northeast continue to vacation at the Cape.
