With two out of three phases complete, WildLandscapes’ efforts to permanently protect 14,817 acres of New Hampshire’s northern hardwood forest with the Bear Hill Conservancy is well on its way. Phase III will finally maintain an incredible region for biodiversity while creating connectivity between Bear Hill and White Mountain National Forest. In the last two months, we’ve identified a major source of funding that will help us complete this final phase.
Just before the end of 2022, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Congresswoman Annie Kuster included $3 million in the FY23 Omnibus Appropriations Bill for the conservation of the area encompassing Bear Hill – the Mascoma River Unit of Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge.
These funds, combined with $7.3 million obligated to the project from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service in FY22, bring us around 70% of the total funding we need to complete Phase III. Once we raise the estimated remaining $5 million needed, the Bear Hill will safeguard the following habitats and species.
Protecting Biodiversity
Through three ecological surveys, surveyors have identified and projected over 1000 species within our project boundaries, including threatened species of birds, rare plants, and what they’ve described as “exemplary natural communities, and unusual landscape features.” It is this incredible biodiversity, combined with Bear Hill’s rich limestone-based soils and adjacency to the Connecticut River that landed Bear Hill in the category of highest conservation priority in the New Hampshire Wildlife Action Plan.
Fauna
Like much of New Hampshire, the majority of Bear Hill is comprised of hemlock-hardwood-pine and northern hardwood-conifer forests, which are dominated by a combination of tall-reaching white pines and evergreen eastern hemlocks, with sugar maples, white ash, and yellow birches scattered throughout. It is what lies beneath the thick canopy, however, that makes Bear Hill so special.
Bear Hill’s forest floors — full of snags, pockets of small wetlands, vernal pools, and patches of acorn-abundant oaks — are rife with nutrients and habitat, making a haven for wildlife. Alongside forests of ferns, salamanders breed and grow up in seasonal vernal pools; just across the pond from hard-at-work beavers, wood turtles bask in the sun above the shallow water; and any number of individuals from Bear Hill’s abundant black bear population do just about whatever they want while they enjoy little to no disturbance from humans in their pristine habitat.
Flora
Additionally, Bear Hill’s smaller and unique habitats surrounded by its hemlock-hardwood forests support environments critical to eight plant species that are rare finds in the state, as identified in the March 2020 Ecological Inventory by Moosewood Ecological. These species (shown above) are all either endangered, threatened, or at risk of becoming so – but their communities will remain safe if we can successfully protect the intermittent wetlands and surrounding moist soils that they rely on.
Moving Forward
The list of reasons to protect Bear Hill is far too long to include in a single blog post, which makes us incredibly thankful for Senator Shaheen and Congresswoman Kuster’s efforts to include the aforementioned funds in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill. With this money available for conservation, we’re roughly $5 million away from what we need to close Phase III of the project and permanently protect Bear Hill. With your continued support, we hope to get there soon.
We’re excited to give you more updates soon!
Samuel Bowlin is the Communications Director with WildLandscapes International, based in Boulder, Colorado. He can be reached at sbowlin@wildlandscapes.org.