Our Role

Several generations of the Glover family were all in agreement — it was time to find a new steward for their family’s land, and they faced the choice between selling for development and conservation.  Through a vote of 13 trustees, the Glover family chose conservation with NHFG to establish a new WMA, ensuring permanent public access and wildlife habitat protection.   

Third, fourth and fifth generations of the Glover family.

However, the family could not wait for the timeline for NHFG, and NHFG requested TCF’s assistance to pre-acquire the property. They chose to work with TCF and NHFG to ensure that their land, which held fond memories of hunting, fishing, vegetable farming and raising livestock, will never be built upon or subdivided. TCF was able to work with the family as well as state and other partners to purchase the property in December 2022, allowing time for permanent conservation solutions to be implemented. In October 2023 the property was transferred to the state and established as the Glover Farm WMA.

The project, totaling over $1.2 million in cost, succeeded with using various funding sources, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife Restoration Grant Program, the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, and the Randolph Area Conservation Opportunity Fund along with private donations acquired by The Conservation Fund. Additionally, TCF leveraged its Revolving Fund, which uses bridge capital to protect large ecologically and economically important forestlands from subdivision and fragmentation, allowing time for permanent conservation solutions to be implemented.

Watch the video below to learn more about the legacy of the Glover family and the unique partnership that made this significant conservation effort possible.

^{Credit: New Hampshire Fish and Game Department}

Why This Project Matters

The Glover Farm WMA secures a variety of habitats, including wetlands and diverse forest types, which by remaining unfragmented will continue to provide tremendous benefits to local wildlife populations. Many of these habitats were carefully cultivated and stewarded by the Glover Family for generations to protect wildlife. Permanent public access to this property supports a wide array of outdoor recreation activities important to the local New Hampshire culture in general.  

The WMA’s 85 acres, or 10% of the property, of old fields, orchards and shrublands support abundant upland gamebird and snowshoe hare populations, as well as a range of pollinators and Species of Greatest Conservation Need, including the American kestrel and bobolink. The property includes a cedar wetland which provides safe winter habitat for deer, and is a habitat that has largely disappeared in the region over the last 40 years, and the woodlands have the potential to support American marten and lynx.

“By conserving this land and enabling the state to establish the Glover Farm Wildlife Management Area, we are ensuring locally cherished opportunities for public access and recreation and, as a result, supporting the economies and community vitality across the region. The foresight and commitment of the Glover family and the Clayson Glover Estate to see this landscape protected in perpetuity are to be commended.” 

– Sally Manikian, Vermont and New Hampshire Representative, The Conservation Fund 

 

Learn More 

• Press Release: “Fish and Game Acquires New Wildlife Management Area in Coos County”