NH Coastal Watershed Conservation Plan 2021 Update.  Many conservation groups in the coastal watershed have been using the 2006 NH Coastal Conservation Plan to guide their natural resources and land protection investments and efforts. That plan set priorities using the best available science at the time. In the last 15 years, many new conservation science products have been created for NH’s coastal watershed. In the summer of 2021, the 2021 update of the NH Coastal Watershed Conservation Plan was completed by The Nature Conservancy NH Chapter in partnership with the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership and conservation organizations.  The Plan synthesizes conservation science to prioritize protection efforts in Coastal Conservation Focus Areas and Coastal Priority Agricultural Resources. These priorities represent a broad set of conservation targets and values including water quality and quantity, regionally important wildlife areas and habitats, migratory bird habitat, working landscapes, recreational and educational opportunities, climate resiliency, and landscape connectivity.

Download the New Hampshire’s Coastal Watershed Conservation Plan 2021 Update Report (PDF)

Coastal Plan Water Resources Technical Report (2016) was developed to identify land conservation opportunity areas that provide the greatest benefits to coastal water resources. Opportunity areas are targeted specifically to address threats associated with existing and future development, including: Pollution attenuation and removal, Flood storage and risk mitigation, and Public water supply.

The Nature Conservancy, NH Chapter developed this report with the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership.

Download the Coastal Plan Water Resources Technical Report (PDF).

A landing page on the NH Coastal Viewer online mapping tool was developed specifically for the Water Resource analysis http://nhcoastalviewer-lptg.unh.edu/. This page only displays the data layers that are relevant to the Partnership’s Land Protection Transaction Grant Program’s eligibility criteria; to view all the Coastal Viewer data layers use the dropdown on the left side of the screen under the “Layers” heading and select “All Layers”.

Catchment Analysis Tool (2017), a companion tool to the Coastal Plan Water Resources report, is a custom GIS tool designed to help conservation practitioners and land managers identify land conservation opportunities specifically for the protection of water resources across New Hampshire’s coastal watersheds.  It operates at the catchment (i.e. small drainage area) scale based on a set of user-defined criteria for six different variables including conservation status, impervious cover, agricultural land cover, developed land cover, natural land cover, and stormwater runoff.  The tool allows users to identify lands, such as riparian buffers, that might be protected or restored to maintain and/or improve water quality.

The CAT was developed by the Nature Conservancy, NH Chapter with the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership.

For more information about the tool and how to access and use it, refer to the Quick Start User Guide (PDF).

Trails for People and Wildlife (2019) is a tool that can be used to select locations for new trails and to determine where it is best to maintain, reroute, or decommission existing trails to optimize human experience and minimize wildlife impact. The practical mapping tool highlights areas particularly important for wildlife and areas that would be more suitable for trail development. The guidebook explains in more detail how recreation can impact wildlife, how to use the tool to minimize those impacts, and provides some real-world examples of how conservation organizations are using it to make their trail planning efforts most effective. The NH Fish and Game Department developed this tool with the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership.

Visit the Trails for People and Wildlife site to read and print the entire guide and link to GIS Granitview.

Connect the Coast (2019) is a conservation plan that identifies a network of connecting lands for a wide diversity of wildlife to move across the landscape, especially in the face of continuing habitat loss and a changing climate. It focuses on the movement needs of upland species like bobcat, fisher, and New England cottontail, as well as river and wetland associated species like otter, Blanding’s and spotted turtles. Connect the Coast also identifies priority wildlife road crossings to not only improve wildlife passage, but the safety of motorists too. The Nature Conservancy NH Chapter developed this plan with the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership.

Download the Connect the Coast (2019) report (PDF).

NH Coastal Watershed Conservation Plan 2021 information is available on the Connect to Protect site.

Online viewing and download of Connect The Coast data is available from the online mapping tool NH Coastal Viewer. See “Project Data and Maps” on page 20 of the CTC report for NH Coastal Viewer instructions.