SUCCESS TOWNSHIP, N.H. — Nature-based tourism got a boost last week when the National Park Service closed on a $2.48 million deal to conserve nearly 4,800 acres in Coos County, N.H.

Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund funds from 2009-10 enabled the Nov. 2 purchase from father and son landowners Thomas and Scott Dillon of Anson, Maine.

Acquired as an addition to the Appalachian National Scenic Trail were 4,777 acres of upper-elevation land in the Mahoosuc Mountain Range east of Berlin, N.H. It is mostly at or above 2,500 feet elevation from Bald Cap Mountain to Mount Carlo.

The Mahoosuc Range straddles the Maine/New Hampshire border and is viewed locally as a scenic gateway between the states.

The deal will protect 8 miles of the Appalachian Trail along its north boundary and the locally popular Carlo Col, Goose Eye and Success trails, and access to them via Success Pond Road, according to Mahoosuc Gateway project information provided by Nancy Bell.

Based in Shrewsbury, Vt., Bell is the Vermont director of The Conservation Fund, and works in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

The Conservation Fund works to build relationships and strengthen communities as it conserves natural and cultural resources and enhances economic development opportunities.

Also protected in the deal are Bald Cap Mountain, elevation 3,065 feet; North Bald Cap Mountain, elevation 2,893 feet; and at 3,000 feet, The Outlook, which offers hikers stunning vistas. 

The property protects the high-elevation watersheds of many streams flowing into the Androscoggin River.

Another 1,200 acres of working forest will be protected by conservation easements to the south in Shelburne, N.H.

Bell, who spearheaded the three-year project, said the land will be managed by the U. S. Forest Service White Mountain National Forest for public access and pedestrian recreation, including hunting and fishing, wildlife habitat conservation and trail protection.

“This was a big win for us,” Steve Wight of the Mahoosuc Initiative said Friday.

The Mahoosuc Initiative is a regional conservation effort of collaborating groups.

“It’s all part of an attempt to create connectivity among conserved parcels so that there is ability for wildlife travel corridors, as well as human travel,” Wight said.

The Mahoosuc Gateway project is the first phase of a three-phase project to conserve 29,000 acres. Phase two is 15,200 adjoining acres to the north owned by the Dillons, and above that, phase three, which is 9,000 acres of Success Pond land.

The 24,200 acres in the latter two phases to be protected from subdivision and development are the backyard of Berlin and Gorham, N.H. Bell said the land would be managed as a working forest.

“We think that the protection of this land enhancing the corridor around the (Appalachian Trail) can only be beneficial to local economies, as far as the recreation and tourism industry goes, and are really excited about it,” said Glen Clendenning, coordinator of the Mahoosuc Initiative.

Andrew Norkin, Appalachian Mountain Club director of Trails and Recreation Management, agreed.

“This collaborative conservation project provides important protection for the Appalachian Trail corridor in an especially notable section, as well as permanent protection for the popular Carlo Col and Goose Eye trail heads,” Norkin said by e-mail on Friday.

The Appalachian Mountain Club maintains about 350 miles of the Appalachian Trail in the Northeast, including this section.

[email protected]