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Forest society meets $850K goal 

The forest society did not object to the deed to Hebert and Dagesse that sets aside a perpetual easement for a wind farm parcel south of The Balsams that Murray said would have a greater visual impact than would a Northern Pass hydroelectric transmission line.

Credit:  Robert Blechl, Staff Writer, The Orleans Record, orleanscountyrecord.com 17 January 2012 ~~

Owing to scores of individual donations, the forest society has reached its goal of conserving land around The Balsams and keeping Northern Pass out.

“As of late Saturday afternoon, we determined we had reached the $850,000 goal thanks to more than 1,500 donations,” Jack Savage, Society For the Protection of New Hampshire Forests spokesman, said Monday. “That’s more donors than any other land conservation project in modern forest society history.”

The $850,000 will buy 5,800 acres around The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel as well as a roughly 100-acre right of way for a hydroelectric transmission line.

It was the right of way that Northern Pass had sought for its controversial 1,200-megawatt transmission line that, if it meets federal, state and local approvals, would stretch from Quebec to Franklin with the power going to southern New England.

The forest society had been negotiating for several years with Tillotson Corporation, which had owned The Balsams since 1954. In December, Tillotson directors announced they would be selling it to local businessmen Daniel Hebert and Daniel Dagesse. The total 7,700-acre resort includes the 5,800 acres slated for conservation.

Arguing it had also been in negotiations with Tillotson directors and had offered them $2.2 million for the utility right of way alone, Northern Pass asked the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office to block Tillotson’s pending deal with the forest society.

However, the attorney general’s office concluded Tillotson’s directors acted within their discretion and in accordance with the terms of the trust in which the resort was held when they decided to sell the 5,800 acres and right of way to the forest society for the lower price of $850,000.

Savage said the society was also a part of the negotiations with two previous prospective buyers of The Balsams.

“It was only Northern Pass’s last-minute entry into the fray that caused the controversy when they attempted to interfere with the sale,” he said. “That clearly enraged people and we heard from donors who told us directly, without us asking them, that they were giving us more because of the actions of Northern Pass.”

The society’s campaign to raise $850,000 began in mid-December with a Jan. 15 deadline.

Nearly all the donors were private individuals with most of those from New Hampshire and Massachusetts, he said, but some donations came as far away as Hawaii, California and Arizona from those who visited or have seen The Balsams and Dixville Notch and didn’t want to see a high-power transmission line cutting through the landscape.

“It became in the end a referendum on Northern Pass,” Savage said of the donations that poured in.

“It’s a testament to the strength of the brand of The Balsams,” he said. “We asked everybody who cares about this landscape to write a check or send an e-mail to three people they knew.”

Donations ranged from a few dollars to one anonymous donation of $150,000, he said.

“That $150,000 came at a time in the campaign when there was only a few weeks left and it gave us a boost and encouraged other donors to come forward.”

Northern Pass is now studying other locations for a right of way.

On Monday, Northern Pass spokesman Martin Murray of Public Service of New Hampshire, said, “It was something we were interested in, but since the forest society said they will extinguish the [right of way], we will have to look in other directions.”

Murray said had Northern Pass’s deal with Tillotson Corporation gone through, no one would have seen the Northern Pass right of way because the 24 acres north of The Balsams that would have been designated to it are not near the hotel.

The forest society did not object to the deed to Hebert and Dagesse that sets aside a perpetual easement for a wind farm parcel south of The Balsams that Murray said would have a greater visual impact than would a Northern Pass hydroelectric transmission line.

Savage expects the forest society will close on the 5,800 acres and utility right of way in the next few days.

Source:  Robert Blechl, Staff Writer, The Orleans Record, orleanscountyrecord.com 17 January 2012

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

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