Digital Coast

Issue

The Lamprey River watershed in southeastern New Hampshire faces many ecosystem pressures. The population within watershed boundaries has quadrupled over the past four decades, contributing to increased impervious surfaces, greater stormwater runoff and flooding, and threats to water quality due to higher levels of nitrogen and chloride. Nearby Great Bay is suffering a decline in eelgrass, which filters water and supports the life cycles of waterfowl and aquatic creatures. The Lamprey River flows into this estuary, which is the site of the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership.

These ecosystem threats call for more communication about land-use planning across the watershed. However, until 2009, the residents of the 14 towns within the watershed had no mechanism that could help them share knowledge and concerns while working together to make decisions.

Process

In 2008, a graduate research fellow at the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERRS) conducted research for her Ph.D. dissertation: A Social Landscape Analysis of Land Use Decision-Making in the Towns of the Lamprey River Watershed. The fellow conducted more than 100 hours of interviews with town volunteers, local officials, and regional planners, as well as personnel from NOAA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other entities.

Many town interviewees expressed interest in sharing watershed information and concerns more widely within their communities and with residents of other towns. This feedback served as the catalyst for a conference in June 2009 that brought together watershed stakeholders, experts, community volunteers, resource managers, and officials to share land-use and watershed information, concerns, and strategies.

Impact

The conference, “Your Water, Your Wallet, Your Watershed: Why Working Together across Town Boundaries Makes Sense for Protecting Our Water,” served as a springboard for greatly improved regional communication. In addition, its positive aftermath illustrates how collaborative and interdisciplinary public engagement can produce measureable outcomes.

After the conference, attendees from many towns collaborated to increase public outreach and education on watershed threats, and the importance of watershed protection. Subsequently, a nominating committee was organized to apply to the state for protected river status for the Lamprey River and tributaries. The nominating committee held numerous public meetings, spent over 500 hours lobbying elected officials, and submitted over 100 letters from officials and citizens endorsing the enactment of a protected river status at the watershed scale.

This was the first time such a watershed-protection package was submitted to the New Hampshire State Legislature. The legislature approved the protected river status for the Lamprey River watershed, although some smaller streams in the watershed were exempted from compliance with the shoreline protection act. Governor John Lynch signed this groundbreaking legislation on June 7, 2011.

The passing of the legislation triggered the formation of a Lamprey River watershed council and expanded river advisory committee. These groups are made up of local citizens who provide input on state decisions affecting the rivers. These groups also are responsible for coordinating management and protection of the rivers at the local and regional level for fisheries, recreation, and water quality and quantity.

Furthermore, the graduate research fellow who completed the social landscape analysis and helped put on the conference received a 2010 Walter B. Jones Award for Excellence in Coastal and Marine Graduate Study.

Each of the 14 towns within the Lamprey River watershed received several GIS maps outlining the town boundary, the watershed, the subwatersheds, and other features. A map for the Town of Nottingham is shown here.