Partners for New Hampshire’s Fish and Wildlife

The partnership invests in on-the-ground restoration projects and applied science in order to:

• Strengthen the health of forest systems by improving the management of public and private forestlands and by creating a mosaic of mixed age forests.
• Promote working forests that are integral to local economies and ecosystems.
• Improve the quality of cold-water river and stream systems through targeted riparian and stream restoration.
• Reduce barriers to fish passage and increase access of fish to high-quality, cold-water habitat.
• Enhance biodiversity of forest and river systems and increase populations of species such as New England cottontail, American woodcock, Bicknell’s thrush and eastern brook trout.
• Create and sustain vital habitat for diverse native freshwater fish and bird populations in New Hampshire.

Through Partners for New Hampshire’s Fish and Wildlife, NFWF and Eversource work with a variety of stakeholders—private landowners, government agencies, academic institutions and conservation groups—to cultivate science-based conservation strategies, and cost-effective on-the-ground projects.

Competitive grants are reviewed by a committee of government and academic experts, and funding decisions are based on the ability of the applicant to implement strategies that achieve the program priorities and result in measurable conservation outcomes.

To date, 21 grants have been awarded that will restore early successional habitat, modify and replace barriers to fish movement, restore riparian and instream habitat, and engage hundreds of volunteers in forest habitat restoration and stream connectivity projects in New Hampshire. These projects are expected to:

• ​Open 242 miles of streams for eastern brook trout through barrier modification or replacement,
• Improve 1,604 acres of young forest habitat for New England cottontail and American woodcock, and
• Recruit at least 691 volunteers to engage in on-the-ground conservation.

The grants total more than $3 million  including $1.4 million from Eversource and more than $1.62 million in NFWF federal funds. The grantees are providing an additional $2.45 million in matching contributions, for a total conservation impact of almost $5.5 million.