2,500 Acres—and Counting

Since January 1995, the Great Bay Partnership has protected over 2,500 acres in nine communities—and the pace of conservation work is accelerating. Four transactions closed in the first five months of 2001, including 461 acres of spectacular freshwater wetlands in the Exeter River flood plain in Exeter and Newfields. (The Exeter River is an important freshwater tributary feeding Great Bay, and has been singled out as a conservation priority by the partnership.) At the present time an additional 3,000 acres are under active negotiation or in earlier stages of the "conservation pipeline." Land has been protected both through outright purchases and through conservation easements where the development rights are purchased in perpetuity.

Science instructor Rich Aaronian points out some waterfowl to students (left to right) Mickey Katz, Miranda Robinson, Katharine Chamberlin and Paul Gavin.

None of this comes cheap. Costs range from as low as $1,000 per acre for an easement on wet forest land with no view or water frontage to a high of $28,000 an acre for the outright purchase of highly developable land with water frontage on Great Bay. And prices are only going up. Protecting that first 2,500 acres cost $14 million or about $5,600 an acre; to protect the remaining 11,700 acres of highest priority that the partnership has identified in its habitat protection plans could well cost another $70 to $80 million.

The conservation effort of the past two decades is a brief chapter compared to the 350-year history of degradation of the Great Bay estuary. There are signs of remarkable progress, but there are also constant reminders of the hurdles ahead. After the long history of sewage and industrial pollution, water quality has improved significantly over the last two decades. Great Bay's 2,230 acres of salt marsh have been stabilized and 430 acres have been restored or enhanced. Eelgrass beds, the vital nursery grounds for finfish and shellfish are recovering in acreage and density. Large, healthy flocks of black ducks, scaups, buffleheads, mergansers and other waterfowl and shorebirds descend upon Great Bay each year.

But many other signs are mixed. Striped bass populations are up, but flounder are down and there is no noticeable evidence of recovery in the Atlantic salmon, shad and alewives that spawn in fresh water and live in salt water. Oysters continue to decline and the recovery of clam populations is mixed. Rainwater runoff and snowmelt continue to bring bacteria, excess nutrients and various contaminants into the estuary. Nor have development pressures abated.

But the promise of what can be is there, etched in thousands of acres of rugged shoreline, productive marshlands, beaver ponds, rich forests and riverine corridors that have been protected in perpetuity through the remarkable success of the Great Bay Partnership. Acre by acre, tract by tract, dollar by dollar, Great Bay's most special natural areas are being conserved, protecting critical habitat for wildlife, recreational opportunities for communities and clean air and water for the benefit of current and future generations. And the resolve and commitment to protect and restore the estuary has never been greater.

For a region and its inhabitants, geography is often destiny. Without the Great Bay estuary, it is unlikely that the Reverend John Wheelwright and his followers would have settled at Exeter in 1638. And without the Great Bay and the wealth created from maritime pursuits over the subsequent 150 years, it is highly unlikely that John and Elizabeth Phillips would have had the resources to begin their fledgling Academy in the spring of 1781. For almost four centuries the Great Bay estuary has provided so much for New Hampshire, and at times the nation. It is now our responsibility to repay the debt-to restore and preserve for all its inhabitants the health and beauty of this historic and remarkable estuary.

—By Dick Ramsden '55

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