Reference Library

Conservation Funding

• "Saving Special Places: Community Funding for Land Conservation",  Brian Hart, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and Dorothy Tripp Taylor, Center for Land Conservation Assistance, December, 2002
• RSA 36-A authorizes a municipality to establish a conservation commission and sets forth the commission's duties and optional activities. Optional activities include the acceptance of donations and the acquisition of land and easements on behalf of the municipality, if the local governing body so approves.
• RSA 36-A:5 enables the creation of a conservation fund, by vote of the local governing body. This fund may receive the unexpended balance of the commission’s annual appropriation, which can accrue from year to year in the conservation fund per annual vote by the city council or town meeting.
• In addition, RSA 79-A allows a municipality to vote to allocate to the conservation fund a percentage and/or amount of the tax penalty when land comes out of the current-use program. That percentage can range from 0% to 100% of collected penalty assessments.
• RSA 41:29 assigns the town or city treasurer sole custody of the conservation fund, as well as any general-fund monies appropriated for a commission's operating expenses. A commission cannot spend conservation fund money without requesting it from the town or city treasurer, nor can the commission spend general fund appropriations without requesting them from the selectboard/city council. However, only the conservation commission has the authority to make requests.
• Municipal Use Change Tax Allocation Data , NHACC, December 7, 2006

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