State Would Acquire 96-acre Parcel Within Jericho park in Proposed Land Swap
by Barbara Tetrault
Courtesy of Berlin Daily Sun
March 30, 2009
BERLIN — A 96-acre parcel of White Mountain National Forest land would become part of Jericho Mountain State Park under a proposed land swap that would see a similar size property in Bartlett added to the WMNF.
The complicated swap involves two governmental agencies and a nonprofit conservation group. N.H. Trails Bureau head Chris Gamache said the parcel of WMNF land sits in the middle of the 7,200 acre Jericho Mountain State Park which is being developed for ATV use. But because the WMNF management plan does not allow ATV use anywhere in the forest, the N.H. Trails Bureau has had to reroute existing trails to avoid crossing the property.
At the same time, the owner of a piece of property on Bartlett Mountain that abuts the WMNF wanted to sell the parcel. Jack Savage of the Society for the Protection of N.H. Forest said the landowner, the Cassidy family of Maine, wanted to sell immediately. Recognizing the Bartlett Mountain parcel as property with high conservation value, the Forest Society stepped in and signed a purchase and sale agreement with the owner. The sale is scheduled to be finalized at the end of April.
Savage said his agency got involved because it could move quicker than either the state or the WMNF. “A private nonprofit can make these things work,” he said. But the Forest Society Society has no desire to retain ownership of the Bartlett Mountain parcel. “We don’t intent to keep it,” Savage said. Instead, the Forest Society plans to transfer the parcel to the state which will reimburse the agency for the cost of the purchase.
The state, in turn, hopes to swap the Bartlett piece, which is within the proclamation boundary of the WMNF, for the piece of land the U.S. Forest Service holds within Jericho Mountain State Park. Gamache argues the swap will benefit both parties. The WMNF gets a piece of land that abuts other national forest property. The Jericho property, which the WMNF acquired back in 1919, will be managed consistent with surrounding land for ATV use.
A proposal to transfer the Bartlett parcel to the Forest Service in exchange for the state getting ownership of Jericho Mountain piece has been put forward and both parties have informally agreed to it.
On the Forest Service side, O’Dell Tucker, deputy district ranger for the Androscoggin District, said that kicks off a multi-step process. The first phase involves the completion of various technical studies leading to what the parties hope is an Agreement to Initiate. The second phase is the environmental analysis with either an environmental assessment or the more detailed environmental impact statement undertaken. The second phase also entails the final appraisal and a decision to move forward with the purchase. The last stage is executing the sale and transferring the property.
Tucker said the entire process can take two to three years. He said right now the Forest Service is in the process of surveying and has met with Bartlett officials and the Berlin city manager. Next Monday, the Forest Service and Gamache are scheduled to meet with the Berlin mayor and city council to discuss the land swap proposal.