Thank you, Browne, VerPlanck, and Greenough families!
This tree sits at one of the boundary corners of the Browne Memorial Forest. Photo: Lynne Flaccus
The Chocorua Lake Conservancy has gratefully received a donation of a 47-acre parcel of forest land off Washington Hill Road in Chocorua, NH. The donation of the Theodore and Alice Browne Memorial Forest became official at the end of May with the gift of the property by the Browne, VerPlanck, and Greenough families.
The land will be managed as conservation open space to protect wildlife habitat and natural resources. It abuts the 150-acre Brown Lot owned and managed by the CLC. The new donation will add to this block of undeveloped forest providing important corridors for wildlife to move across the landscape from one habitat to another. Together with a previous conservation easement already on the property, the gift ensures permanent protection from development, while maintaining open space for public access and forest management to benefit wildlife.
A vernal pool in the Browne Memorial Forest. Photo: Lynne Flaccus
In addition to the new Memorial Forest, members of the extended Chamberlin-Browne family had also donated the Charlotte C. Browne Woods on Washington Hill to the CLC in 2006, providing a mix of field, forest and wetlands along the Chocorua River. The Browne, VerPlank and Greenough families had donated a conservation easement on the wetlands extending across the river, associated with the property that they continue to own. The family’s longstanding commitment to conservation guarantees that a large area of fields and forest land on both sides of Washington Hill Road will remain undeveloped. The combined 240 acres of forest, fields and wetlands provides a diversity of habitats supporting deer, fox, coyote, bear, turkeys, and a variety of nesting birds. Near the boundary on the top of Washington Hill a number of small vernal pools provide important breeding habitat for wood frogs and spotted salamanders that spend most of the year living in the surrounding forest.
Since its inception in 1968, the Chocorua Lake Conservancy has protected more than 3700 acres in the Chocorua Lake Basin, including nearly 1000 acres owned outright and managed as conservation land. The CLC also holds conservation easements that limit development on privately-owned lands around the Chocorua Lake Basin. These conservation efforts around Chocorua Lake help to protect the scenic qualities of the area, wildlife habitat, and water quality throughout the lake watershed.
Banner image: Rattlesnake plantain in the Browne Memorial Forest. Photo: Lynne Flaccus