Important to Biodiversity and resilient to climate change

Protecting New Hampshire’s Wildlife and Old-Growth Forests

WildLandscapes, in partnership with the Bear Hill Conservancy, the Kilham Bear Center, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working to conserve the ecologically rich Bear Hill Conservancy by placing conservation easements over the property to be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an addition to the Silvio Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. The easements protect the land from development, require sustainable timber management, allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage 10% of the property for at-risk wildlife, and provide public access. The Bear Hill Conservancy will own the restricted fee and will manage the remaining 90% of the forest as old-growth.

Connecting Bear Hill to White Mountain National Forest

Bear Hill is located in the Mascoma Headwaters unit of the Conte Refuge and is adjacent to several wildlife management areas, the Smarts Mountain Forest Legacy Project, and lands managed by the National Park Service as the Appalachian Trail. The mission of the Bear Hill Conservancy is to manage wildlife diversity and old-growth forests, and create connectivity between Bear Hill and the White Mountain National Forest. 

Significance of Bear Hill Conservancy

● Bear Hill is rated by the New Hampshire Wildlife Action Plan as highest conservation priority due to its rich limestone-based soils, high biodiversity, and adjacency to the Connecticut River.

● The Nature Conservancy has through their nationwide analysis determined Bear Hill’s 14,817-acres to be both important to biodiversity protection and resilient to the effects of climate change due to its topography, rich soil, abundant rain, and large size. 

● Bear Hill is connected to other large protected areas in the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire and onto the nearly 800,000-acre White Mountain National Forest. 

● Bear Hill is very important to wood turtles, brook trout, Canada warbler, black-throated blue warbler, wood and black ducks, and American black bear. 

● Bear Hill is the study area of the world-renowned bear biologist, Dr. Ben Kilham 

Project structure: 

● 14,817 acres in size - of which 2,243.5-acres has already been conserved through a conservation easement held by the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge (Conte Refuge) using the Land and Water Conservation Fund. 

● The remaining land some 11,962 will be conserved through an easement held by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 377-acres in fee simple will be added to Conte Refuge. 

● WildLandscapes International is working in partnership with the New Hampshire-based Bear Hill Conservancy, Moosewood Ecological Services, and Kilham Bear Center, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

● WildLandscapes is looking to raise an additional $12.4 million from federal and private sources to complete this important conservation project.

For more information, view our project book: