The next time you drive north along Route 16 and see the stunning view of Chocorua Lake and Mount Chocorua before you, take a moment to appreciate that all that natural beauty is no accident.
For the past 46 years, as the pressure to develop land and build houses has boomed, the Chocorua Lake Conservation Foundation (CLCF) and Chocorua Lake Association (CLA) have worked hard to preserve the unspoiled beauty of the Chocorua Lake Basin and provide public access to the lake.
Now, these two sister organizations have come together to form the Chocorua Lake Conservancy with the mission of protecting the Chocorua Lake Basin in perpetuity. The CLCF board approved the merger on August 9th, and the CLA membership approved the merger at its annual meeting on August 16th.
Land in Chocorua Lake Basin that has been protected by the Chocorua Lake Conservancy.
he CLCF and CLA, looking ahead to the challenges of sustaining two all-volunteer organizations and of keeping the promises of perpetual conservation, have been working on this merger for two years. Given their overlapping missions, it was an inevitable decision to join forces. Given their different but overlapping missions, and their mutual desire to continue their conservation work at a high standard in an age of national land trust accreditation, it was an inevitable decision to join forces.
The CLCF and CLA were created simultaneously in 1968 to fulfill the vision of early visitors who came to Chocorua in the latter part of the 19th century – the idea that they should not encroach upon the natural beauty and splendor of the Chocorua Lake Basin. For a hundred years, local residents followed that tradition.
By the 1960s, however, it was becoming clear that there were new and serious pressures for additional houses and commercial development. It was then that a foresighted group of Chocorua landowners decided to formalize many long-standing but unstated practices into binding safeguards for the Chocorua Lake Basin. So the CLA and CLCF were conceived.
Since their creation, the CLA and CLCF have relied on a corps of volunteers to accomplish their work. Their volunteers have not only regularly worked with landowners to conserve their land through gifts or purchases of land parcels or conservation easements, but they have also attended to necessary stewardship responsibilities and maintaining areas for public use. In addition, they have performed the many and various tasks that are required to keep a membership organization successfully functioning.
The membership, operations and programs of the CLCF and CLA have now merged. The result will be a more efficient and sustainable conservation organization in the Chocorua Lake Basin.
Banner: Chocorua Lake in Summer.