EVERY ACRE COUNTS

The Newfound Watershed Management Plan


We can’t change nature’s ways, but we can adapt in ways that create positive environmental results.  In the case of the Newfound Lake watershed, we are working to prevent runoff pollution. In 2007, the NLRA and our partner organizations began working on a comprehensive Watershed Master Plan (WMP), with the last of three project phases completed in December 2014. The WMP project engaged the watershed towns of Alexandria, Bridgewater, Bristol, Groton and Hebron in planning to protect their water quality in practical, effective and efficient ways. The work included detailed, innovative and professional field research and analysis by the Newfound Lake Region Association, Plymouth State University, the University of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Dept. of Environmental Services, the NH Fish and Game Dept., the Newfound Regional School District, the Society for Protection of NH Forests, and the NH Timberland Owners Association.

Key takeaways:

  • An indigenous vegetative buffer zone is the most effective, and cost-effective, way to protect the watershed from runoff pollution.
  • Not all pollution is “man-made,” but it is often “human-caused” in the form of sedimentation resulting from run-off because of soil disturbance.

 

BristolandNewfound NCroxon
Photo Credit- Nigel Croxon

Special thanks to Brian Eisenhauer, Dan Sundquist, Steve Whitman, Bob Craycraft, and Steve Landry for their leadership role as the core of the technical team that made this complex and ambitious project possible.
Click on any of the following links for more detailed information.

 

2009 Watershed Management Plan: Every Acre Counts

WMP Executive Summary
WMP Report, Volume I
WMP Report, Volume II

2012 Newfound Lake Watershed Management Plan Implementation Phase I

Newfound Culvert Summary Report
UNH Water Quality Report

2014 Newfound Lake Watershed Management Plan Implementation Phase II

Newfound Lake BMP Assessment
GIS Technical Report
Final Project Report

2019 Newfound Lake Watershed Management Plan Implementation Phase III: Watershed BMPs and Stewardship Capacity

Final Project Report

2021 Newfound Lake Watershed Management Plan Implementation Phase IV: Culverts, Structural BMPs and Non-structural BMPs

Now underway