From the Executive Directors Desk

The rebranding of the Piscataquog Watershed Association to the Piscataquog Land Conservancy clarified that the PLC is about protecting land. As a member and supporter, I thought you might like to know a little bit more about how we do this.

The Piscataquog Watershed encompasses 220 square miles or 140,800 acres of land. The average size of a PLC easement is 56 acres. Clearly we cannot, nor should we protect all remaining undeveloped land in the watershed. This fact immediately forces upon us a choice.

The choice is partly made for us when a project “walks in the door”. By word of mouth, referral, or any number of options, we receive more requests than we have the capacity or funds to deal with. The Land Protection Committee (the LPC of the PLC) uses a ranking system to focus the organization’s resources towards the more important projects, a ranking based on a selection of the most important conservation parameters. This approach on its own does not ensure that the most important land in the watershed is protected, just the most important of the parcels that are offered to us for protection.

The protection of the watershed’s critical land is driven by our award-winning 2005 conservation plan. It guided our work on the successful Headwaters Project, an ambitious collaboration with the Francestown Land Trust, the Russell Foundation, and the Monadnock Conservancy to protect 1,000 acres of critical habitat in the headwaters of the South Branch of the Piscataquog River.

We are now working with Dan Sundquist of the Forest Society to update our plan using new Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and newly available data. This process will allow us to further refine the geographic scope of our work. You won’t see a change in the way we do business, but we will be changing the way we do business. We will continue to work on the best projects that “walk in the door”, but we will begin to focus more attention on the conservation priorities outlined in the conservation plan.
We cannot protect all the land, but we hope to protect most of the land that keeps our water clean, our shelves stocked with fresh vegetables, our woodsheds full, and our wildlife abundant. Thanks for your support.

If you missed the opportunity to go wildlife tracking with Susan Morse the day after the annual meeting, don’t worry – she’s coming back for a second date in January. Susan was such a hit that we are scheduling a six-day tracking workshop next year. See details in this newsletter.

If you missed the annual meeting, you also missed the exciting news that a member family has made an extraordinarily generous offer in support of land conservation and PLC with a $20,000 pledge to our operating fund – with one condition: that PLC members and friends match each dollar with new or increased gifts. The pledge is intended to support the continued pace of our work as charted in the graph behind this text.
The graph makes crystal clear that we are protecting more land more quickly than ever before. This is largely due to a decision made by the Board six years ago to professionalize the organization, culminating in the appointment of PLC’s first executive director in September 2003.

PLC’s operating expenses are greater than when the organization was all-volunteer, but the amount of land protected is also exponentially greater. To continue this curve, we need to match our operations to our ambitions. It is in recognition of this that the donor has made this pledge.

For every new dollar PLC receives this year through annual fund or membership dues, we will receive one dollar toward the match, up to a maximum of $20,000. This means that any amount given by an individual in excess of last year’s support will be matched.

The donor has done his part, we are doing our part, and we ask that you do your part. When we reach our goal, we will be on a course to the financial sustainability we require to pursue our core mission of land protection. Together we can do it!