Lee residents for over 40 years, Jim and Marianne Banks have an inspiring and extensive history of volunteer contributions to the Lee community.  Their commitments have ranged from service on numerous Town and church committees, including essential support of the COOP Thrift Store.

Jim, an electrical engineer by training, has provided hours of no-charge expert service to the Town. In  2026 the NH State Commission on Aging recognized him as a distinguished older adult volunteer. Now, the Banks family has voluntarily embraced this opportunity even though their sale of the acreage as private properly would be far more enriching.

SELT is a membership-supported, non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and sustain the significant lands in our communities for clean water, outdoor recreation, fresh food, healthy forests, and wildlife. Based in Epping, SELT works with landowners and 52 communities of southeastern New Hampshire to permanently conserve important lands for the benefit of today and future generations. SELT holds conservation easements on over 250 properties and has conserved over 30,000 acres for public benefit. Learn more at www.seltnh.org.

The Banks land sits on both sides of Route 155 (North River Road) and reaches east to Tuttle Road and then beyond to the Lamprey River. It also has frontage on Wadleigh Falls Road (Route 152) and on Fox Garrison Road west of the intersection with Route 155. It is located just south of Coppal House Farm.

This project has an exemplary profile: landowners committed to conservation of the land they love; rich soils, diverse wildlife and their habitats, and critically important ecological systems.

Key Conservation Features

• Abuts 385 acres of already conserved land to the north and west, and 600 acres to the east to create a block of 1,350 acres of public and conserved land
• Contains nearly 200 acres of important farmland soils, and over 80 acres of actively managed fields.
• Contains a mile of frontage along the federally-designated Wild and Scenic Lamprey River and another mile of tributaries to the Lamprey River.
• Nearly fully contained within the NH Fish & Game Department’s Wildlife Action Plan, representing high-quality wildlife habitat. All of NH’s largest mammal species—moose, white-tailed deer, black bear, and coyote-–actively use the property. Other dwellers are smaller mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, including three state-listed species. Eighty-eight bird species have been documented on the land, including the blue-winged warbler, field sparrow, eastern towhee, bobolink, wood thrush and American woodcock, which are all recognized by the state as Species of Greatest Conservation Need.
• Entire property is within a NH Department of Environmental Services “High -Priority Water Supply Lands” including 86 acres of valuable wetlands, that protect water quality, buffer against floods and storms, and provide critical habitats for a vast array of wildlife

It is the wish of the Banks family to preserve the land’s character and heritage of farmland, forestry  and conservation. The project has thus been shaped to ensure that the working lands within the Banks landscape will allow continued farming and forestry in accordance with best management practices, thus benefitting the local economy while protecting  critical natural resources and ecosystems essential for Lee’s economy.

Conserving the Banks property protects taxpayers from the hidden deficits of residential development, which costs New Hampshire towns $1.11 to $1.16 in municipal services for every $1.00 it generates in tax revenue. In contrast, conserved land requires virtually zero infrastructure, roads, or school expenditures, demanding only $0.36 to $0.56 in services per dollar collected. By protecting this open space through the SELT partnership, the Town avoids the inevitable tax hikes driven by expanded public utilities and school enrollment spikes, securing a permanent net financial surplus for Lee residents.

Jim and Marianne Banks will continue to own the land, with individual conservation easements attached to separate segments of the acreage. Pursuing separate conservation easements allows SELT to apply to diverse fund grantors, each with their own conservation focus areas. The conservation easements will be conveyed to SELT.  The Banks family has entered into a Purchase and Sales Agreement stipulating these terms. 

A conservation easement is a legal document that establishes a set of limitations on the future use and development of a property to ensure that the land stays in conservation. Conservation easements prohibit residential, commercial, and industrial development and activities (such as mining, and extraction activities while allowing compatible uses such as commercial and non-commercial agriculture, forestry, and outdoor recreation and education. A conservation easement is perpetual and binding on the current and all future owners. A conservation easement is granted by the landowner and accepted by a qualified non-profit organization or government agency who then agrees to monitor activities and uses of the property and enforce the limitations in perpetuity.

SELT will conduct its stewardship primarily through physical ground inspections and aerial monitoring.  Ground inspections usually occur once a year and include walking the property and reviewing boundaries, trails, and areas under active management (such as a timber harvest or active fields), as well as discussing any concerns that the landowner has regarding the property.

Under the conservation easement, public access and uses fall into three categories – guaranteed, at the landowner’s discretion, and prohibited.

Guaranteed: The property is required to be open for public access and can’t be posted against:

• Pedestrian uses like walking, hiking, birdwatching, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, etc.
• Hunting and fishing, except the landowner can post safety zones during active agriculture operations and during active forest management.

Landowner’s discretion: Certain public uses may be allowed at the landowner’s discretion and oversight, including snowmobiling, horseback riding, mountain biking, and backcountry camping.

Prohibited: Off-highway recreational vehicles (OHRVs or ATVs) are prohibited by the conservation easement due to their significant resource impacts. The landowner may use  or authorize motorized vehicles for land management purposes.

Yes, the conservation easement would allow the landowner to continue to carry out agricultural activities on the property or lease the property for agricultural purposes.

The Town will be asked , through a warrant article on the Spring 2027 Town Ballot , to contribute a total of $400,000, which is approximately 12% of the project’s overall costs. There will be no impact on the Town’s tax rate. The amount would come from the Town’s Land Use Change capital reserve fund, which was created by Town vote in 1989 for acquisition of conservation land or conservation easements.

The total cost of the project is $3,399,000.  Other funding sources will provide the remaining 89%. Costs are as follows:

The purchase price of $3,000,000 was negotiated between SELT and the landowner based on an appraisal of the property completed by a qualified, independent, state-licensed real estate appraiser. That appraisal determined the fair market value of the designated land to be $6,170,000. The Banks family generously agreed to a purchase price over $3,000,000 below the fair market value, thus foregoing significant monetary return while providing critical leverage that greatly assisted in acquiring grant funds from highly competitive programs.

The Town’s funds are critical to the conservation of Banks property and will be significantly leveraged: for every $1 of Town funds, SELT will secure $8 from other sources.

The Banks project has already received the following commitments from very competitive state and federal funding programs, thus showing how important this property is at not only a local scale, but a statewide perspective:

• $1,840,000 - NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) Agricultural Land Easement Program
• $200,000 – Lamprey River Advisory Committee (LRAC)

Committed total: $2,040,000

Applications for this project have been submitted to the following programs, with awards expected to be announced in late 2026.

• $350,000 – The NH Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP)
• $350,000 – NH DES Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund
• $25,000 – NH DES Local Source Water Protection Program

Pending total: $725,000

SELT is also undertaking a significant fundraising effort in hopes of raising the remaining funds  necessary to complete the project.

SELT will apply the Town’s amount to help with the purchase as well as with the project’s transactional and stewardship costs.

If Lee voters approve support of the project, the Town will retain control of the amount until the closing date of the property purchase and receipt by SELT of $3,000,000 for the project from other parties. In the event the purchase is not finalized and/or the specified funds  are not received by SELT within the stipulated timeframe, the Town’s obligation will expire.