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Town-Owned Conservation Areas
Newmarket has a diversity of town-owned conservation areas that range in size from small pocket parks (less than 1 acre) near downtown to the 160-acre Wiggin Farm Conservation Area on the west side of town. The Town of Newmarket has full ownership of these lands (called “fee simple” ownership).
These lands were acquired through a variety of methods that include town bond and conservation funds (land use change tax), state and federal grants, conservation partner contributions, tax liens, and other sources. Each offers different opportunities for public use based on size, location, natural features, purpose and source of conservation funds. Some areas were acquired to protect specific resources such as drinking water or wetlands and some were acquired to provide public access to Great Bay or the Lamprey River. The Town owns these lands and the Conservation Commission is responsible for overseeing their stewardship and managing of public uses.
The following conservation areas are town-owned and open to the public:
- Wiggin Farm Conservation Area
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Brochure
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Directions
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Photo Gallery
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Management Plan
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Schanda Park
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Description
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Directions
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Photo Gallery
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Sliding Rock
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Description
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Directions
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Photo Gallery
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Tuttle Swamp
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Description
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Directions
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Photo Gallery
Town-Held Conservation Easements
A landowner has a bundle of rights to use and modify the property that they own. A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and a conservation organization, agency, or municipality that transfers some of these rights (typically the “development rights”) to the organization that holds the easement. Typically a conservation easement is granted in perpetuity and therefore the development rights are extinguished forever, preserving the land as open space. The easement conveyed through a deed, applies to the land regardless of who may own it in the future.
Land under easement is still privately owned and managed in accordance with the terms of the easement (some publicly owned lands also have easements held by another entity). Each easement is crafted to fit the features of the property to be protected, the needs of the landowners, and the goals of the entity accepting the easement. Easements are used to provide permanent protection from subdivision or other development or uses that could degrade or destroy ecological, scenic, or other natural resources. Easements often provide for continued farming, forestry, wildlife management, and recreation. Easements don’t always require public access; although often landowners allow this access and some grant sources require public access as part of funding a conservation easement project.
A landowner who conveys a conservation easement is the grantor and the recipient organization is the grantee. Easements can be donated or sold for full or partial value. The easement document outlines the procedures for enforcing the easement, which typically lie with the grantee. In some transactions, another organization is given “back-up” or executory interest in the easement in case the grantee is unable to carry out its easement responsibilities.
The Town holds conservation easements on the following private properties. Each easement requires that the Conservation Commission monitor the property at least once a year to ensure that the conditions of the easement deed are being adhered to.
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Hilton
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Nostrom
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Silverman-Schneer
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Smith
Other Conservation Lands (not town-owned)
The Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership (GBRPP) was organized in 1994 to develop a comprehensive conservation strategy for Great Bay, and to raise funds to buy critical parcels and conservation easements throughout the Great Bay Estuary. This land conservation partnership includes The Nature Conservancy, New Hampshire Audubon, Ducks Unlimited, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, N.H. Fish and Game Department, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Nature Conservancy is the lead agency in charge of land acquisitions and manages federal grants on the partnership's behalf.
The GBRPP has actively worked with interested landowners to protect ecologically significant lands and waters in Newmarket. The focus of their land conservation work has been in Tuttle Swamp, Piscassic River, Great Bay, and Lubberland and Crommet Creek. The Partnership has conserved more than 600 acres in Newmarket through fee simple acquisition or through conservation easements. The Partnership has also contributed grant funds to several Town-led land conservation projects.
The Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire (formerly the Rockingham Land Trust) also has a presence in Newmarket. This land trust holds several conservation easements and in 2006 purchased the 316-acre Piscassic Greenway.
These conservation groups own the following conservation areas in Newmarket:
- Lubberland Creek Preserve (The Nature Conservancy)
- Piscassic Greenway (Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire)
- Shackford Point on Great Bay (NH Fish and Game Department)
- Follet’s Brook-Kwaks (New Hampshire Audubon)
- Follet’s Brook-Smith (New Hampshire Audubon)
- Tuttle Swamp (NH Fish and Game Department)
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