The Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust (ASLPT) continues in its mission to help preserve the rural landscape by adding on September 18 the Lennon Conservation Easement in Warner to its list of protected properties. With the addition of this property, Ausbon Sargent now conserves 137 properties comprising 11,066 acres of land in its 12-town region.

Mark Lennon bought the property on Pumpkin Hill in 1990 and has spent years clearing fields and thinning an overgrowth of pines from his forests. He states that “conservation was always part of my plan,” and on September 18, Mark successfully placed an easement on the property with Ausbon Sargent.

The 26.46-acre Lennon Conservation Easement has over 424 feet of frontage on Pumpkin Hill Road. It protects scenic views over the property that are accessible using an adjacent Class VI road and also allows for low impact pedestrian public recreation on the trails.

The property is listed as Highest Ranked Habitat in New Hampshire, protecting abundant wildlife such as deer, moose, bear, turkeys, grouse, and the beaver found in the beaver pond wetlands at the edge of the Lennon property. Conserving this acreage also protects valuable forestry soils.

When Mark was asked why he chose to place an easement on his acreage, he responded, “It never dawned on me to do anything other than conserve the land. Every year when I was growing up, another and then another and then another of the farms where we went to pick apples and pumpkins and watch the cows got bulldozed and turned into another and then another and then another subdivision or strip mall.”

The Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust is happy for Mark’s decision and very appreciative to the Quabbin-to-Cardigan Partnership for some of the funding that helped to protect the Lennon Conservation Easement.