Land, Water & Trail Stewards
Chocorua Lake Conservancy (CLC) is a nonprofit land trust founded in 1968. CLC owns and manages 800 acres of conservation land across 17 properties, and protects 2,500 additional acres through perpetual conservation covenants and easements on over 100 properties.
“Our mission is to preserve the ecology and pristine waters of the Chocorua Lake Basin, maintain trails on Mount Chocorua and conservation lands, and provide welcoming access to Chocorua Lake for nearby residents, visitors, and future generations.”
Our main areas of focus include:
Land Conservation & Forest Protection: We protect the scenic and natural resources of the Chocorua Lake Basin and surrounding area, and conduct and model sustainable forestry operations.
Lake Protection: Through monitoring and other activities, we protect the pristine water quality of Chocorua Lake, the Chocorua River, and other tributaries.
Lake Access: We are committed to providing local residents and occasional visitors with free, convenient, attractive public access to Chocorua Lake.
Trail Access: We facilitate access to and maintain trails on Mount Chocorua, Mount Paugus, and nearby conservation lands.
Education & Outreach: We offer events throughout the year to encourage people of all ages to enjoy Chocorua Lake and the trails that surround it, to learn more about the natural world we’re part of, to engage in active stewardship with us, and to have fun with friends and neighbors while doing all these things.
New to the Lake Basin?
Here are a few special places you can visit to see why so many of us love it here.
Join CLC and longtime teacher, storyteller, and outdoor enthusiast Matt Krug for an evening of stories and star gazing.
Fresh air, good company, and a chance to pitch in, all with a view of a beautiful mountain!
Good company and free exercise in the fresh air while helping care for a place we all share, with a view of a beautiful mountain as a bonus!
Come help us steward public access at a beautiful property that is home to many species of flora and fauna.
Interested in what goes into maintaining the beautiful outdoor places we are so lucky to enjoy in this region? Curious about land conservation and stewardship?
In this informal talk, Nate Harvey hopes to inspire us to look for signs of wildlife with stories about following trails and information that might help with track and sign identification.
Come spend a spring morning with friends and neighbors tidying up the detritus of winter from the stretch of Route 16 that runs along Chocorua Lake.
Join us for this online intro to Bird Language, a method for learning about what’s happening around you by noticing what the birds are doing.
What are those birds doing? Why are they making that sound? What can we learn if we pay attention to them?
For more than 100 years, Chocorua Mountain Club (CMC) members have been maintaining trails on Mount Chocorua and Mount Paugus.
Big Night comes once, sometimes twice, each spring, or can occur as several medium or smaller nights. It's the magical moment when the temperature and humidity are just right, and spotted salamanders, wood frogs, and other amphibians migrate from wherever they wintered to nearby vernal pools and wetlands where they will breed.
On CLC’s recently acquired Browne, Greenough, VerPlanck Forest property, we are making strides to manage the land with climate-smart practices for current and future climate resilience.
We had a wonderful multi-age crew for The Incredible, Edible Oak with Kyle Ball of New England Wildlife Tracking!
After several busy weeks, the first and largest piece of CLC’s eastern shoreline restoration project has been completed!
We had an encouraging start to the 2024 nesting season as the loons were successful this year in choosing a high and dry nesting area on the shoreline of the lake.
A volunteer opportunity for people who love to canoe on Chocorua Lake!
The spring wildflowers will come and go in their ephemeral way, but if you walk out into the woods and fields regularly all through the growing season, you will always find something blooming, growing, changing, fruiting, or sending seeds into the world, and some of these resources may help you to learn more about them.
CLC and the Loon Protection Committee got together this spring to install a loon nesting platform on Chocorua Lake, a “loon nest raft” built and donated by the LPC.
The Chocorua Mountain Club (CMC) Trails Committee of Chocorua Lake Conservancy (CLC) hosted its annual Trail Clearing Day on May 11, with 41 participants including volunteers, CLC staff, and U.S. Forest Service Trail Crew members from the USFS Saco Ranger District.
Banner: Kristina Folcik. Other photos: Juno Lamb