The Conservation Land Stewardship (CLS) Program is responsible for monitoring and protecting the conservation values of conservation easement lands in which the State of New Hampshire has invested. The program’s roots began in 1993 with the conclusion of the acquisition phase of the New Hampshire Land Conservation Investment Program (LCIP). The LCIP, along with its private partner the Trust for New Hampshire Lands, protected just over 100,000 acres of land across New Hampshire. Half of theses lands are overseen by CLS, with the other half held in fee by the State of New Hampshire. All state-held conservation easements are monitored by CLS on behalf of the agencies holding the easements: Department of Fish and Game; Department of Resources and Economic Development; and the Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food.
Today the CLS program continues to grow as new conservation easement lands are acquired by, or donated to, the state. Approximately 50,000 acres of new State-held easements have been added since the end of the LCIP bringing the total area of protected lands in the CLS program to just over 100,000 acres. This combined State and local acreage consists of over 370 individual properties most of which are conservation easements.
While much our work is comprised of on-ground monitoring of state held easements, a vital component of the CLS program is the provision of technical assistance, education, and field support to participating municipalities. This ensures that monitoring of the over 238 locally held easements and fee simple holdings is being conducted annually. CLS also serves as an important resource for communities to inquire about interpretation of easement language and other issues that continually arise during the perpetual life of conservation easements.
RSA 162-C:6 (formerly RSA 221-A) establishes the roles and responsibilities required for the LCIP properties, and it continues to guide that portion of the CLS program. The LCIP portion of the CLS program is funded through the interest income from the LCIP Monitoring Endowment (RSA 162-C:8). The endowment was created with public and private funds to ensure that the State of New Hampshire’s investment in conservation land protected through the LCIP would receive monitoring and stewardship in perpetuity. Other monitoring work under the CLS program is currently completed under annual contractual arrangements with the responsible agencies. |
