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LRCT Protected Properties
Lake Winnipesaukee and Its Environs
Red Hill and Its Surroundings
Ossipee Mountain
Range
Sandwich
and Tamworth
Wolfeboro
Area
Squam Lake Watershed
Publicly Accessible Properties
Photos
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OSSIPEE MOUNTAIN
RANGE
Shannon Brook flowing through the Castle in the Clouds property.
The isolated and undeveloped mass of the Ossipee range is the largest
and least
disturbed wildlife habitat in the region. The range is 9 miles in
diameter, its tallest
summit rising to an elevation of 2,975 feet and its viewsheds embracing
Winnipesaukee, the Belknaps, Monadnock, Kearsarge, Red Hill, and the
Sandwich and Presidential ranges of the White Mountains. The Ossipees
consist of a circular land mass of more
than 40,000 acres, accessed by only three interior roads, none of
which bisect the area.
There are 25 named mountains and dozens of unnamed summits within
the range; 16
named brooks originate in the Ossipees, while scores of smaller watercourses
create
ravines within its borders. The Ossipees feed the watersheds of Lake
Winnipesaukee
(and thus the Merrimack), the Bearcamp River, and Ossipee Lake, which
in turn flows
into the Ossipee river system.
As a part of its conservation work within the Ossipees, the Trust
has commissioned a
series of scientific bioinventories which serve to underscore the
uniqueness of this
natural treasure. The biodiversity of this land has been largely unaffected
by human
hands, to the great benefit and consistent proliferation of the species
inside its borders.
Old growth softwoods dating back to the 1590’s have been discovered,
hardwood
groves exceeding 300 years of age have been catalogued, 38 natural
communities
described, and more than a score of species deemed endangered or threatened
on a
statewide to global scale. Working in cooperation with the Nature
Conservancy, the
Appalachian Mountain Club, The New England Wildflower Society, The
Society for the
Protection of New Hampshire Forests, and other groups, the Trust seeks
to protect the
remainder of the Ossipees. Their protection may be the most significant
conservation
projects presently underway within 100 miles of Boston.
Alice Bemis Thompson Lots, Tamworth 1,707 acres (1998)
Durgin Lot, Big and Little Larcom Mountain Lots, Tamworth 185
acres (1999)
Sanger Lot, 983 acres, Tamworth (1999)
Chellman Lot, 115 acres, Tuftonboro (2001)
The Castle in the Clouds, 5,288 acres, Moultonborough and Tuftonboro
(2001-2003)
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