It’s a most wonderful time of the year - Site Visit Season! Throughout August and September, LCHIP staff and review panel members will have the pleasure of visiting more than forty applicant sites – all applicants except those seeking planning studies. Site visits allow project proponents to highlight the resource values of the property and respond to questions that arose as staff and review panelists read the applications. These visits are an important element in LCHIP’s grant making decision process.
Students in St. Paul’s School Advanced Studies Program data analysis class used information about LCHIP’s historic resource grant recipients to explore ways to manipulate, analyze and visualize data. LCHIP appreciates the excellent and cost-free analysis the students provided and expect to use the information gathered to further improve the grant selection process.
Dijit Taylor
Executive Director
Protecting New Hampshire's Natural, Historic, and Cultural Resources
Local Food, Biodiversity, and Drinking Water
Cattle and Sheep Farm Protected
A 2019 LCHIP award has helped the Southeast Land Trust of NH (SELT) complete a conservation easement on Clarke Farm, a 300-acre, grass-based livestock operation in Newmarket and Epping. Owners Jack and Linda Clarke have spent the last thirty years working hard to improve the already impressive natural features of this land. Cattle and sheep raised on the farm provide meat for the local food market.
Positioned amidst more than 4,800 acres of existing conservation land, Clarke Farm is part of a large biodiversity hotspot centered around the Wild and Scenic Lamprey River. The property also makes an important contribution to the region’s public water supply as part of aSource Water Protection Area for the Town of Durham and University of New Hampshire.
Aerial view of Clarke Farm
Photo Credit: Jerry Monkman/Ecophotography, LLC
Construction Season Progress
Historic restoration underway in Sutton and Tilton
A number of LCHIP-assisted historic resource projects are making progress during the current construction season. Two passed the halfway point in their work shortly after midsummer.
The 1839South Sutton Meetinghouse presides over a village common surrounded by historic buildings. Its current owner, the Sutton Historical Society, received a $52,500 LCHIP grant in 2019 to help repair the tower. As seen in this drone video, the top level of the tower was lifted off by a carefully operated crane and placed on the ground next to the building, where repairs can be completed more safely and easily.
In Tilton, the Charles E. Tilton Mansion, surrounded by porches and crowned by an expansive mansard roof, stands on a verdant hill above the town. Tilton, a successful merchant, shipowner, banker, and railway investor had the house built in stages from the 1860s through the 1880s. The mansion, which is now owned by the Tilton School, is getting a much-needed new roof, with the help of a 2020 LCHIP grant for $180,000. There is a slide show tour of the building here.
South Sutton Meetinghouse tower repairs
Roofing underway at the Tilton Mansion
The NH Conservation License Plate (Moose Plate) Program supports the protection of critical resources in our state. You can purchase a Moose Plate at any time - even for a friend! Find out more at mooseplate.com. Income from the Moose Plate Program pays for much of LCHIP's administrative expenses. Thanks Moose Plate holders for your support!
Header photo: Historic resources review panelist Dr. James Garvin checks clapboard moisture level during a 2021 site visit.