Bow Open Spaces

These residents were concerned about how easy it was to take land classified as town forest, and managed by the Bow Conservation Commission (BCC), out of town forest classification and develop the property. For example, the high school property was once a town forest. Before the school was built, the Town was able to take the land out of town fores... t by a simple majority vote and develop the property. As a result of the high school construction, the Town was required by the State of NH to permanently protect some of its property from development in order to offset the impact of the high school on the surrounding land. Consequently, NH Fish & Game was given a permanent conservation easement on some of Bow's land to comply with the State. This easement took local control of the property away from town residents, which was worrisome to the group watching these changes taking place. BOS was born with the help of these citizens so that future conservation easements would be held by an organization controlled by the Town's residents. The organization became formal, and officers were elected. Committee members and membership began to grow. Awareness of the organization began to grow as well. It was important to stress to the Town and prospective members that the articles of agreement of BOS required, and does require, all board members to be residents of the Town of Bow. During the next few years, over a thousand acres of Town land was permanently protected through conservation easements granted to BOS. BCC and BOS worked hard in the late 90s to secure the purchase of Nottingcook Forest. Today, BOS continues their efforts to secure more conservation easements and keep Bow full of open space! Our Board of Directors, 2017Read More