Headwaters Forest

Headwaters Forest is Hanover Conservancy’s latest land protection project—the largest, most ambitious conservation effort in our 62 year history.

This project reflects a bold, innovative, responsive approach to land protection from the Hanover Conservancy. The property’s prime location and scenic locale made it high risk for fragmentation, threatening its important ecological and recreational values. Needing to act fast, and working with the supportive landowners, the Hanover Conservancy was able to purchase the property outright before it entered the open market. Our partnership with The Conservation Fund made this quick purchase possible.

The effort is part of a long-term, sustained effort at protecting ecologically valuable lands on Moose Mountain that began in 2013 with the donation of the Mayor-Niles Forest, followed by easements on the Mill Pond Forest in 2015 and the Shumway Forest in 2017, and donation of the Britton Forest in 2018.

To partially offset the cost of this major purchase, the house and road frontage along Three Mile Road have found new owners. This compelling conservation opportunity is earning generous private and public support, including a historic $250,000 grant from New Hampshire’s Land and Community Heritage Investment Program—LCHIP’s second award in Hanover. Other funds have come from the Upper Connecticut River Mitigation and Enhancement Fund of the NH Charitable Foundation, The Nature Conservancy’s new Resilient and Connected Appalachians Program, NH’s Moose Plate program, and NH Fish and Game.  Contributions from neighbors, the Emily Landecker Foundation, and the Byrne Foundation have also helped close the gap. A grant from the Greater Upper Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited has helped us build trail bridges to protect water quality in Mink Brook.

Our fund-raising continues, with $25,000 needed to permanently protect and care for this special place. To allow us to protect another 6 acres of scenic farmland along rural Three Mile Road, with its beautiful views of the mountain, we must raise an additional $325,000. Your support will mean an irreplaceable piece of Moose Mountain will be conserved forever, providing a home for native wildlife, recreational access for the public, and important natural services like flood resilience and carbon storage.

Make a gift to protect this special place today. Donations toward the project are tax-deductible, and count toward the Conservancy’s $2 million Promise to Protect Campaign.

Check our Events Calendar for opportunities to get out onto the land with Conservancy staff and supporters, and experience a new corner of Moose Mountain.