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Truslow Resource Consulting LLC
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As winter slowly fades from my backyard and memory I look forward to the sunny days when I won't need a hat, can slip into my kayak for an outing, or read on the porch without an overcoat. This will be a welcome change after our long, white winter.
Other changes have occurred over the winter, too. I am very happy to welcome Anna Boudreau to our staff. I have known Anna for nearly a decade, since we compared notes on our fledgling land trusts - Anna at Strafford Rivers Conservancy and I at Seacoast Land Trust. We have kept in touch since then and recently collaborated on the successful Aquatic Resource Mitigation (ARM) grant from NH DES for the Berry Brook Farm conservation easement in Farmington, NH.
Anna brings many skills to the organization including land conservation assistance, stakeholder outreach, and project management. She will also boost the group's visibility through her superior networking and marketing skills. With her involvement, our commitment to "evaluating and resolving land and water resource issues" is further strengthened. Please see her bio included as part of this newsletter.
Please also read about the upcoming New Hampshire Rivers Council Wild and Scenic Film Festival coming up on March 28. This features not only films from across the country and world, but also two films made by folks in our own backyard. One of these films is Reflections on a River: 30 years of protecting the Lamprey River; the other film made in New England is The Strong People about the Elwha Dam Removal in Washington. Both films mean a lot to me as I have worked on and around the Lamprey for years and have closely followed the Elwha Dam removal through my brother, also an environmental consultant based in Seattle.
Finally, we are pleased to be involved in the New Hampshire Water Sustainability Initiative being launched this spring. The team of Truslow Resource Consulting LLC and Opus Advisors LLC was chosen to work with the New Hampshire Lives on Water Steering Committee on planning for the future of water sustainability in many forms in New Hampshire and developing a Coalition to guide these efforts. Stay tuned for more on this initiative.
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Working to Keep Our Water Clean:
Land Conservation
According to the 2011 "Working to Keep Our Water Clean" report by the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP), the top three priorities identified as the best way to protect our water are by "reducing pollution, conserving natural areas, and restoring rivers and bays." And the best way to protect clean water and wildlife habitat is to preserve natural areas within and adjacent to wetlands, waterways, drinking water source areas,and critical wildlife habitat areas.Strategically conserving water supply protection areas helps to maintain the quantity and quality of drinking water supplies by preserving riparian buffers, recharge zones and filtration capacity.
At Truslow Resource Consulting LLC we strive to understand and address both broad and specific water resource management and restoration challenges. By coordinating with municipalities, land trusts, private landowners and resource agencies, we can now also help communities with their land conservation needs, to help protect upland and wetlands areas of regional lake and river watersheds, ensuring that important lands remain forested or vegetated to reduce nutrient and sediment loading. We can help manage a project from start to finish or assist, review or evaluate as needed to help move important projects along.
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Honoring Lorie Chase and the CRWC
Long-time coordinator of the Cochech River Watershed Coalition retires
In 1998 a group of over a dozen enthusiastic and committed volunteers met in the old community center in Rochester, NH to figure out how to plan a course that would help clean up and protect the Cocheco River Watershed. After many months of strategizing and planning meetings, the volunteers voted to officially form the Cocheco River Watershed Coalition, with Lorie Chase acting as coordinator, to become a community based organization with a goal to "improve the environmental quality of the Cocheco watershed through restoration, community awareness and monitoring water quality." Members came from every community along the Cochecho River corridor. Founding members (including Anna Boudreau), were trained and became Volunteer River Assessment Program (VRAP) volunteers who carried out regular stream assessments. Lorie coordinated yearly cleanups and paddle trips and promoted education throughout the watershed. She effectively convinced residents and municipal officials alike appreciate the Cochecho, not turn their back to it.
In 2004, Danna Truslow and Tom Fargo began working with Lorie to review the environmental quality of the watershed, to develop a restoration plan, and prepare a detailed monitoring plan for CRWC. Lorie's dedication to CRWC was evident throughout the plan development process and has worked hard to implement the restoration plan.
One of the highlights of the CRWC's history was at a ceremony held in 2009 on the sunny banks of the Cocheco River, then Governor John Lynch signed House Bill 58 protecting the Cocheco River as the 16th designated river in the NH Rivers Management and Protection Program, along with six other bills of importance in the conservation of water resources in New Hampshire.
After 15 years of hard work, and leveraging thousands of dollars in grants, and hosting the annual Cocheco river paddle, Lorie Chase is retiring from her position as the coordinator of the CRWC. Later this
month she will be on hand to oversee the official dissolution of the CRWC and to transfer the assets of the organization to the Cocheco River Local Advisory Committee (CRLAC). This process will give members an opportunity to support the CRLAC and continue the important work that the CRWC has done to manage and restore the river. At a recent event where Strafford County Commissioner Bob Watson presented Lorie with a certificate of appreciation, Commissioner Leo Lessard said "I don't know how we're going to get along without you!" a sentiment that many of us share as Lorie will be sorely missed!
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evaluating and resolving land & water resource issues
454 Court Street, Suite 304, Portsmouth, NH 03801
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TRC Welcomes
Anna Boudreau
We are pleased to welcome Anna Boudreau as our staff
land conservation consultant.
Anna was one of the founding members of the Cochecho River Watershed Coalition in 1998 and of the Dover Open Lands Committee (OLC) in 1999, where she has played a key role in conserving over 800 acres and leveraging over $5 million in federal and state funding to conserve locally important lands and continues to serve.
Prior to coming to Truslow RC, Anna worked for more than 9 yeas as the Executive Director for the Strafford Rivers Conservancy, a non-profit land trust, utilizing her experience and passion for land conservation to help municipalities, landowners, state and federal agencies, as well as other land trusts, navigate through the compli-cated conservation easement acqui-sition process and bring their projects to a closing.
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New Hampshire Rivers Council Wild and Scenic Film Festival 2014
The New Hampshire Rivers Council will hold the Wild and Scenic Film Festival on March 28 starting at 5:30pm at Concord's Red River Theatre. This event sells out every year so purchase your tickets early!
There are a total of 11 films from across the country and world. Subjects of the chosen films include reducing plastic bags, mountain lions, dam removal, hidden rivers of Appalachia, the importance of "woody debris," and our locally hatched films:
Reflections on a River: 30 years of protecting the Lamprey River filmed by Breakaway Media based in Lee, NH about protecting the Wild and Scenic Lamprey River.
The Strong People about the Elwha Dam Removal was filmed by two Emerson College BFA students on dam removal on the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and the native Klallam peoples to whom the salmon and free-running river will be restored.
The festival includes a reception, door prizes, wonderful films, and a chance to meet the filmmakers. If you aren't yet a current member of the New Hampshire Rivers Council, your $15 ticket also includes a free year of membership.
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 | | Lorie Chase and Governor John Lynch (2009) |
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 | | Cocheco River |
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