Preservation of Knight's Brook

Representatives of the NH Department of Transportation came to the Newington Conservation Commission's meeting on November 12, 2009 to discuss its proposal to acquire conservation easements around Knight's Brook in Newington as mitigation for expansion of the Spaulding Turnpike.

An earlier proposal under consideration was to acquire property on Great Bay in Newington. However, cost and other issues were prohibitive. As a result, a second alternative to acquire 60 to 70 acres of land around Knight's Brook is being considered. The plan shown above (click on it for a larger version), shows that three properties or portions thereof are being considered.

If the current discussions move forward, the NHDOT will purchase easements that would protect 60 to 70 acres as open space and then give the Newington Conservation Commission the right to manage those areas for conservation purposes. The Commission has proposed use of its own funds if the conservation areas could be expanded at a reasonable cost.

Town Forest Sign is UP!

The sign denoting the Town Forest opposite the old town hall is now in place. Local contractor John Bean out of Rochester NH did a great job and it looks very well.

The Conservation Commission will be meeting on Thursday November 12 at 6:30 PM to discuss a number of projects that remain to be completed for the Town Forest. First, a map will likely need to be prepared showing the location of trails and other features on the Town Forest and other public lands. There is an extensive network of trails branching off New Road that date back to the days when the Pease Air Force Base was active. There is some indication that the area was used for snow machines and cross country skiing.

Second, the Commission will also consider what rules and regulations should apply to the Town Forest and other lands managed by the Conservation Commission. One proposal to consider, especially as an interim measure, would be to make all Town-wide rules adopted by the Selectmen related to Town property applicable to conservation lands.


The third issue to consider in my mind is what to do with the many rocks and stones that have been stockpiled on New Road. The road is completely blocked at its beginning which is definately a deterrent to entering the Town Forest. This has been discussed with the Historic District Commission, the regulatory body that reviews proposals within the Historic District, and there appears to be support for moving the rocks to make a simple stone wall along New Road with the rocks that are currently there. They are far too large to be lifted by hand. It is unfortunate that they were not placed more carefully initially because they completely block the road resulting in the need to move them even though there is no real plan or need for their use at this time.

Stop by and check out the sign the next time you are at the Langdon Library, and, feel free to take a walk down New Road. It opens up after you pass the rocks and continues at least a mile beyond Arboretum Drive.

Signs of the times...

My apologies for the lack of updates. Unfortunately, being a volunteer, I am either too busy to write any updates, or there is not anything to say because I have not been busy at all. Well, several projects that have been in the works for many months are now moving forward. Here are just a few:

1. Town Forest Sign. The Conservation Commission has obtained permission from the Selectmen and the Historic District Commission to place a Newington Town Forest at New Road opposite the Old Town Hall. Building Inspector Charlie Smart prepared specifications for the installation and the Commission is soliciting one or more bids to place the sign adjacent to New Road. Another alternative would be to have the Town road crew do the installation.

Unfortunately, in bringing the sign to the necessary meetings, one of the two signs was dropped and broke (see above). The two signs cost the Town a total of $3,400, so the loss is unfortunate. Repairs may be possible but expensive.

2. Prime Wetlands & Pease Development Authority. On September 15, 2009, the Town of Newington filed a Petition for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief in Merrimack County Superior Court. The Petition asks the Court to find that the State of New Hampshire is required under State and Federal Law and the terms of its deed to recognize the prime wetlands designation previously approved by the NH Department of Environmental Services on six prime wetlands on the lands it acquired from the United States.

I've tried to convert the petition into a JPG file so that google blogs allows me to upload it to this site. To do so I first coverted it to a TIFF, then saved it as a JPEG. Your JPEG viewer probably may have a "next page" feature that allows you to see all 7 or 8 pages.

3. Fox Point. The Conservation Commission proposed to the Selectmen that the Town convey a limited conservation easement on the Town-owned lands on Fox Point. The Selectmen voted to recommend that the Commission prepare an easement for their review which would then be subject to either public hearings before the Selectmen and Planning Board, or a vote at Town meeting in March 2010. The goal is to allow the current management by the Town Selectmen to continue but to protect the property from development.

4. Conservation Easement Acquired at Tricky Cove. The Conservation Commission obtained an easement protecting one of its prime wetlands at Tricky Cove at Little Bay. The property is relatively small and there are no plans to develop recreational access or trails, but rather to maintain the shoreland in its natural state. Part of the conservation easement covers property privately owned land. There will also be land conveyed to the Town that will be subject to the conservation easement. Much of the credit for the protection goes to the Planning Board and Tom Morgan, the Town Planner.

Our Next Meeting is Thursday October 8, 2009 and we typically meet the second thursday of the month at 6:30 PM at the Town Hall. Please come by and show your support.

-Justin Richardson, Chairman
Newington Conservation Commission

In Search of Upland Sandpipers

On Wednesday July 29, Diogo Godoi, a wildlife technician with the NH Audubon Society surveyed fields on Fox Point for upland sandpipers with Dorene Stern and I on behalf of the Newington Conservation Commission.

Upland sandpipers are present on the Pease Development Authority runway, but there have been no other sightings of upland sandpipers in New Hampshire and it is on the State's list of endangered species. I understood that the PDA was interested in whether the species is present in other areas so that those living on the runway might be re-located to other suitable habitat.

Fox Point has some favorable characteristics in that I have observed bobolinks and other grassland species there. However, Fox Point, unlike the Pease runway, has a tremendous number of predators such as coyotes, foxes, raccoons and others. It is, after all, Fox Point. We learned from Mr. Godoi that of the 140 or so sites that he surveyed, no upland sandpipers were found at any locations in NH.

Town Forest & the New Road

On Wednesday Morning I stopped by the Old Town Hall to pick up the Newington Conservation Commission's Town Forest Sign. It is a 5 by 3 foot sign styled after the existing sign's at both the old and new Town Halls. Established circa 1710, it is the oldest Town Forest in the United States.

There is a road, likely established years before the PDA or even the Pease Air Force Base was established, called New Road. It runs through the Newington Town Forest from the Parsonage opposite the Old Town Hall, until it dead-ends at one of the enormous ditches constructed by the Air Force when the base was created. I believe New Road is approximately 4,000 feet to one mile in length. Its remnants can still be seen as a faint line if you look at aerial photography or satellite images of Newington, running more or less in a straight east-west direction from the parsonage to the area north of the "North ramp".

Walking its length is quite an experience. One begins at a late 17th century, or early 18th century parsonage, skips around some boulders rescued by the planning board from developed sites for future town walls, and enters an open woodland of pines and hardwoods growing on the sands typical of elevated areas in Town.

At first, it seems little more than a pleasant open woodland. However, in a short distance one crosses the former boundary of the Pease AFB, then Arboretum Drive and gradually one enters denser and denser woodlands. On the day I walked New Road, the humidity became more and more intense the deeper I entered the forest, reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkein's description of the Old Forest: hot, oppressive, and containing a hidden power.

Crossing Arboretum Drive, however, its hidden power is revealed. It gradually transforms from an open, almost tame woodland, to a secluded, savage and impenetrable fortress of leaves, branches and clinging wet tentacles, reaching over New Road as if to bury it in a memory more ancient than the years counted by men.

There are, however, roads and trails almost too numerous to count waiting for those willing to explore. One does not need to enter the savage wilderness to see it here. It lies open to view to any brave enough to venture therein.

Walking this old "New Road" you might discover something new about yourself and your perception of the world where the protection of signs, streets, brick and pavement disappear step-by-step.