New Hampshire Estuaries Project - Programs

Wagon Hill Farm - Durham NH

The New Hampshire Estuaries Project assists communities in preserving, and enhancing their natural resources through various programs and funding opportunities:

Grant Programs for Communities:

Community Technical Assistance Program

The NHEP's Community Technical Assistance Program provides assistance to communities on a wide range of regulatory and non-regulatory approaches to natural resources protection. The NHEP Management Plan (pdf/8MB) identifies many priorities that involve implementing actions at a community level. In order to implement those actions and to assist communities, the NHEP will hire Technical Assistance Providers (“TAPs”) to work with communities on natural resource topics of mutual interest to the community and the NHEP. TAPs are organizations and firms with expertise in natural resource protection issues and activities.

Communities interested in receiving customized assistance from qualified professionals should submit an application to the NHEP. The program is intended to be simple for communities to participate: the NHEP pays for the assistance and manages the contract agreement with the TAPs. Applications will be accepted from communities throughout the year, beginning January 15, 2008 and will be evaluated as they are received. Interested communities should confirm that funds remain before submitting an application to the NHEP. For more information contact Jennifer Hunter. Read Application (.pdf or MS Word)

Coastal Watershed Land Conservation Transaction Assistance Grants

In 2008, the New Hampshire Estuaries Project (NHEP) is providing matching grants of up to $3,000 per project to communities, land trusts, and conservation organizations for transaction costs associated with permanently protecting land from development. Eligible land conservation projects must be completed between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008 and be located in the coastal watershed area of New Hampshire.

In addition, projects must meet at least one of the following criteria:

Be located in one of the Conservation Focus Areas identified in the Land Conservation Plan for New Hampshire’s Coastal Watersheds
Include shoreline on streams of any order, tidal waters, or lakes
Include wetlands designated as “Prime Wetlands”

Applications deemed eligible and complete will be funded on a first-received, first-funded basis, as available funding allows. Download Application - Electronic Form (Word) or Manual Data Entry(.pdf). Dirrect questions on this program to Contact.NHEP@unh.edu or 862-3948.

*note: This program was previously administered by the Center for Land Conservation Assistance at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, on behalf of the NHEP.

Coastal Illicit Discharge Elimination, Municipal Storm Sewer Mapping, and Illicit Discharge Detection Surveys Grant

The NHEP provides funds through a grant program administered by NH DES where coastal watershed communities can submit project proposals for the elimination of illicit discharges into the storm drainage system, mapping municipal storm sewer systems, and surveying storm sewer systems for illicit discharges. The next request for proposals will be issued by NH DES in the spring of 2006. To date over 25 community projects have been funded through this grant program. Read the latest report on this grant program (.pdf/727KB). For more information about the RFP and eligible projects, contact Jeff Marcoux, NH DES, at 603-271-8862 or jmarcoux@des.state.nh.us.

Natural Resource Planning Assistance:

Natural Resources Outreach Coalition (NROC)

The NHEP funds and participates in NROC, a collaboration among 10 state, private non-profit, local, and regional organizations. NROC assists coastal watershed communities with a natural resource-based planning approach to managing growth pressures and minimizing impacts. NROC offers a customized educational presentation, Dealing with Growth, for municipal board members, staff and interested citizens. Dealing with Growth reviews the current status of a community's natural resources and potential impacts of growth, and introduces various techniques for managing them. The presentation is followed with a series of community meetings to focus on natural resource protection goals and the actions needed to accomplish them. NROC provides sustained technical assistance to help communities and conservation groups meet their identified goals. Some funds may be available for communities to implement natural resource planning and conservation actions identified through this process. Read the latest report (.pdf/430KB). NROC typically works with three new communities each year. For more information see their website or contact Amanda Stone, NROC Coordinator, at 364-5324 or amanda.stone@unh.edu.

Buffer Education Program

An educational program for communities to assist them in the protection of surface waters and wetlands through buffer protection. Read Program Brochure Contact Jennifer Hunter for more information.

Resources from the NHEP to Help Communities with Natural Resource Planning:

Buffer Characterization Project

Dr. Fay Rubin of the Complex Systems Research Center at the University of New Hampshire conduct ed a buffer characterization study. The study characterized 2nd order and higher streams within the Great Bay Watershed of coastal New Hampshire. Existing remote sensing and GIS data was used to map a suite of anthropogenic factors, including land use (1998 or more current, if available), land cover (impervious surface data from 1990, 2000, and 2005), conservation lands, and transportation infrastructure, within one or more standard buffer(s) around each stream segment. These factors were analyzed to produce a categorical indicator representing the status of each stream. The resulting data is presented on a series of town-based maps . See the Buffer Characterization Maps.

Coastal Watershed Land Conservation Plan

The Nature Conservancy, Society for Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Rockingham Planning Commission and Strafford Regional Planning Commission worked together to develop a Coastal Watershed Land Conservation Plan. The purpose of this project was to develop and distribute a comprehensive, science-based land conservation plan for New Hampshire’s coastal watersheds. The plan identified, described, and delineated important areas that should be preserved to protect water quality, unfragmented forest blocks, and recreational opportunities.

The plan is useful to communities in two ways: 1) the plan establishes a regional conservation framework and propose a watershed-scale network of conservation areas (i.e. the ‘bigger picture’) that communities can consider as they develop and pursue local conservation objectives; and, 2) the plan identifies conservation and land use strategies that can be put into place locally to protect these important areas in the future. It also serves as a publicly vetted land conservation action plan, which is a requirement to obtain funding through the federal Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program. Funds for the project were provided by the New Hampshire Estuaries Project, New Hampshire Coastal Program, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation's Piscataqua Region. Read the Coastal Watershed Land Conservation Plan

Coastal Conservation Lands Update

Dr. Fay Rubin of the Complex Systems Research Center at the University of New Hampshire updated the GRANIT Conservation Lands data layer to reflect currently protected lands in the 42 coastal watershed communities. The information is posted on the GRANIT website and the GRANIT Conservation Land Viewer; a summary table was developed including the location, ownership, type and acreage of new parcels; and a map was produced displaying the new parcels within the context of all conservation parcels in the 42 town region. For more information contact Phil Trowbridge.

Impervious Surface Mapping in Coastal New Hampshire

Dr. Fay Rubin of The Complex Systems Research Center at the University of New Hampshire developed impervious surface estimates for the 42 coastal watershed towns. The data was derived from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery, acquired in the fall of 2005. The 2005 estimates were based on the same fundamental technology as the prior impervious mapping projects in 1990 and 2000, and thus they have yielded an assessment of trends on the landscape, and their associated potential watershed impacts, over the 15-year span. The maps show the impervious surface features in the coastal watershed, the degree of impervious surface for each cell, and impervious acreage estimations by sub-watershed and by town. See the maps. For more information about the project contact Phil Trowbridge.