Last week, the Rindge Conservation Commission officially closed on the purchase of 222 acres of undeveloped land surrounding Rindge Stone and Gravel on Old New Ipswich Road, which will be preserved for conservation and recreation.

The Conservation Commission will manage the property. The Monadnock Conservancy, which has worked with the town on other town-owned conservation properties, including Tetrault Park and Converse Meadow, will have an easement.

Conservation Commission Chairman David Drouin said the town has been interested in the property for some time, and was working with the previous owner of Rindge Stone and Gravel to purchase the entire property. When the business was sold to current owner Jay Pitterino, who wanted to continue the commercial operation on the property, the commission originally feared that work would be for nothing.

“Luckily the new owner wanted to sell us part of the land for conservation,” Drouin said. “For years to come, the people of Rindge will be able to get outdoors and enjoy hiking, hunting, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, horseback riding and other activities in a natural environment. This is Rindge. We’re outdoors people.”

“We’re just ecstatic that we can do this for the town,” said Conservation Commission member Deni Dickler. “This is a town that really does support conservation efforts, and that has been very rewarding for us.”

Along with the official purchase of the property, the Conservation Commission has also announced the area’s new name – The Mattabeseck Wildlife Corridor.

In early 2022, the commission requested residents submit potential names for the conservation area. Several of those submissions, said Dickler, were words from the language of the Abenaki, the tribe native to this area of New Hampshire. Commissioner Doreen Richards reached out to the New Hampshire Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People for assistance in choosing a name after Conservation Commission members agreed they would like to use an Abenaki word. They recommended “Mattabeseck,” meaning “land between waters.”

“Which really describes this piece of land,” Dickler said. “It sits at a divide between the Contoocook watershed and the Lower Connecticut watershed.”

The land is also connected to multiple other conservation areas, creating a large swatch of uninterrupted wild land – which is where the “wildlife corridor” portion of the name comes in.

“It’s so important, particularly for large mammals – they need that territory and that habitat. We’re getting so much fragmentation these days, due to development. We may need the development, but that fragmentation is the downside,” Dickler said.

Conservation Commission Secretary Al Lefebvre said the commission could not have purchased the property without the support of Rindge residents.

“They really stepped up with over 51 people giving generous donations,” he said. “We were able to complete the purchase without using any money from property taxes.”

In addition to private donations, the Conservation Commission received grants from the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, New Hampshire Moose Plates and New Hampshire Drinking Water and Ground Water Trust Fund. Private foundations Fields Pond, Davis Foundations and Hunt Foundation and an anonymous donor supplemented state funding.

This summer, the Conservation Commission will be marking trails and preparing the area for visitors. There are already trails on the property, Dickler said –hikers have used it for many years – but the Conservation Commission will be deciding which trails to mark and maintain moving forward, as well as building a parking area and kiosk at the entrance on Old New Ipswich Road.

“What’s important is that we make sure the human recreation isn’t impacting the wildlife any more than it has to,” Dickler said. “We want it open for recreation, but we also must be aware we’re sharing it with wildlife.”

The Rindge Conservation Commission plans to hold a grand-opening ceremony this summer, at a date to be announced, following completion of work on the entrance and a parking area. Town-owned conservation lands are open to the public for outdoor recreation.

For information about Rindge conservation lands, send email to the Rindge Conservation Commission at rindgeconcom@town.rindge.nh.us

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