Land conservancy organization seeks to partner with New Ipswich to preserve property

A private nonprofit land conservancy has reached its hand out to the New Ipswich Conservation Commission to work on at least one conservation project in town.

The Piscataquog Land Conservancy is a land conservation organization based in New Boston. In operation since 1970, it has conserved dozens of properties across 13 of the 23 towns within its territory. One of those towns which the PLC covers, but has never assisted with conserving property, is New Ipswich.

Tom Jones, a land protection specialist with the PLC, met with the New Ipswich Conservation Commission last week to discuss partnering with the town on future conservation projects, and one project in particular. He said a New Ipswich landowner has approached the PLC with interest in conserving a piece of property, and while Jones could not yet disclose the location of the property or the name of the owner, he said the parcel is greater than 75 acres and includes wildlife habitat and wetlands the PLC had interest in conserving.

While no formal agreement has been reached on whether the PLC would acquire the property for conservation, Jones said his first step was to reach out to the Conservation Commission to see if the town would be interested in becoming a partner in the endeavor. Jones said the PLC hopes to be able to enter a contract on the property within the next few months, and have it in conservation by the close of the PLC’s fiscal year this June.

Jones said this could be a starting point for the PLC to work with the town on other conservation projects. The PLC has worked to conserve properties in several other towns in the Monadnock region, including Francestown, Lyndeborough, Greenfield and Mason.

The New Ipswich Conservation Commission has compiled an inventory of natural resources in New Ipswich, and identified possible priority targets for future conservation. Jones said the PLC could assist with the conservation efforts of those properties, if the opportunity ever arose.

“I’m looking forward to a long working relationship,” Jones said. “There may be other projects they’d be interested in having us work on.”

Conservation Commission Chair Bob Boynton and Vice Chair David McTigue could not be reached for comment by press time Monday.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.