Wetlands along the Chocorua River at the Browne, Greenough, VerPlanck Forest. Photo: Mason Browne
The Chocorua Lake Conservancy (CLC) has gratefully received a donation of a 75-acre parcel of forestland off of Savary Road in Chocorua, NH. The new Browne, Greenough, VerPlanck Forest became official on December 17, 2021 with the gift of the property by the Browne, Greenough, and VerPlanck families. “With the donation of the Browne, Greenough, VerPlanck Forest to Chocorua Lake Conservancy,” family member Mason Browne says, “our three families bring a close to their 106-year stewardship of these lands. We are grateful that an organization such as Chocorua Lake Conservancy exists so that this forest can be conserved forever.”
The land will be managed as conservation open space to help protect wildlife habitat and natural resources. Over 40 acres of the land is scrub-shrub wetland habitat on the north and south side of Chocorua River. The remainder of the property is upland forest that includes a diversity of deciduous and coniferous trees, intermittent and perennial streams, and small forest openings. The land has a long history of forest management that has resulted in diverse forest structure and composition.
The parcel abuts the CLC-owned Charlotte C. Browne Woods to the west and the CLC-owned Tewksbury Reserve to the east. The new donation will add to a larger block of undeveloped forest providing important corridors for wildlife to move across the landscape from one habitat to another. Together with the previous donation of the Theodore and Alice Browne Memorial Forest by the same families earlier this year, the property is part of a now unfragmented area extending from Chocorua Lake to the northern portions of the Chocorua River. The gift ensures permanent protection from development, while maintaining open space for public access and forest management to benefit wildlife.
Family member Ann Teese speaks of how formative spending time in this place was for her and her family. “The property in Chocorua inspired in us a deep reverence of the land and nature,” she says. The family’s longstanding commitment to conservation guarantees that a large area of fields and forestland on the north side of Washington Hill Road will remain undeveloped. The combined roughly 310 acres of forest, fields and wetlands on both sides of the road provides a diversity of habitats supporting deer, fox, coyote, bear, turkeys, bobcats, waterfowl and a variety of nesting birds. The CLC plans to work with professionals to gather natural resource information and develop a management plan that will protect unique values and important wildlife habitat, and to explore public access and educational opportunities where possible or appropriate.
Since its inception in 1968, the Chocorua Lake Conservancy has protected more than 3,700 acres in the Chocorua Lake Basin, including nearly 1,000 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: Wetlands along the Chocorua River at the Browne, Greenough, VerPlanck Forest. Photo: Mason Browne