A Legacy Unfolding: Conserving One of
New Hampshire’s Cleanest Lakes
Disaster Averted
Merrymeeting Lake (MML) is one of New Hampshire's cleanest lakes – a gift of nature that is celebrated and curated by the community. New Durham takes pride in the lake's pristine quality and has prioritized watershed protection. The watershed is relatively small at ~5,600 acres, the vast majority of which is undeveloped and, as The Merrymeeting River and Lake Watershed Management Plan identified 2019, at serious risk for sustained water quality degradation from development.
That risk came into sharp focus in 2018 when loggers acquired Birch Ridge, 2,000+ acres overlooking the lake, and began denuding the hillside through an unsustainable and aggressive logging operation. Once completed, they planned to resell the property for a housing development.
Recalling missed chances to acquire the property in the late 2000s, the Merrymeeting Lake Association secured an option to acquire Birch Ridge and invited two land trusts, the Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire and Moose Mountains Regional Greenway, to support the effort.
The three organizations formed the Partnership for Birch Ridge Community Forest with the singular goal of raising $2.9 million in just one year to acquire, conserve, and steward this community resource. The community responded enthusiastically and by June of 2019, the land was purchased, and the Birch Ridge Community Forest was established!
Ignited and Inspired
The protection of Birch Ridge ignited the Merrymeeting Lake community’s understanding that an intact and forested watershed was crucial for keeping Merrymeeting clean, and for sustaining wildlife habitat and
scenic beauty.
Birch Ridge inspired more watershed protection. In 2020, the Collins family generously donated nearly 500 acres to SELT, establishing the Collins Family Forest at Mount Molly. A year later, the community rallied again to raise the matching funds to add more than 600 acres of forestland to the Birch Ridge Community Forest.
In the span of just three years, the protected portion of the Merrymeeting watershed increased from just 4% to 35%!
In 2023, SELT entered into contracts to permanently protect the 376-acre Mount Bet and the 617-acre Mount Jesse. Private and public support totaling $3M is needed for these two parcels, and once funds are secured and the land conserved, the total protected watershed would increase from 35% to 49%.
