In the Beginning
With the real estate boom of the late 1980’s came tremendous loss of open space to land development. The Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust had its origin in the Town of New London budget cycle for the 1987 Town Meeting. Recognizing the impact of escalating property values on its goals for preservation of additional open land, the Town Conservation Commission asked for an increase in its annual appropriation. The request was not granted. However, the Selectmen felt that land preservation warranted a special study. So in April 1987, they appointed a committee consisting of a representative from the Budget Committee, the Planning Board, the Conservation Commission, a local realtor, and a State Legislative Representative.
This group of five concluded that a private non-profit land trust was the appropriate vehicle to address land protection. A land trust can offer a quick response to landowners needs, be flexible, offer confidentiality, and have the ability to fundraise. The group was expanded to include additional concerned citizens in the summer of 1987. Articles of Agreement and by-laws were drawn up and registered with the State on September 25 of that year. The name chosen, The Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust was in tribute to the man whose donation of land to the New London Common set an outstanding example of what private land preservation can contribute to a town and its people.
While the Land Trust’s beginnings were in New London, the organization has grown to serve 12 towns in the Mt. Kearsarge/Ragged/Lake Sunapee region. The mission of Ausbon Sargent is to help preserve the rural character of the region by working with local governments and landowners. Ausbon Sargent protects lands that make our region a special place to live.
What’s in a name?
The Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust is a challenging name. We refer to ourselves as “Ausbon Sargent” and we believe the action of our namesake epitomizes who we are as individual members and what we do as an organization.
Who was Ausbon Sargent?
Ausbon W. Sargent, a retired maintenance worker of no inherited wealth, at age 94 took his life savings and bought the three-acre Main Street “town green” parcel from Colby-Sawyer College. Sargent immediately gave the land to the Town of New London on condition the parcel remain forever undeveloped.
The year was 1985 and land prices had soared amid a building boom. The financially struggling college, where Sargent had worked for 25 years, had offered the parcel for sale. Fearing the town green, the center of community life of his boyhood, would go the way of the mini-mall, Sargent paid $150,000 to guarantee its preservation.
Wishing to remain anonymous, Sargent only took credit for this “living legacy” to the people of New London at the urging of his friend Mary Haddad. “I don’t care one cent about any fanfare,” Sargent told a reporter at the time. “The main thing is to keep it the way it was.” The green has been renamed the “Sargent Common” and the only structure permitted is the Mary D. Haddad Memorial Bandstand.
Our Timeline
FOUNDED in the fall of 1987 to preserve the rural character of the New London area.
The original founders saw the land trust as a temporary response to the real estate boom of the late 80s.
Eunice Bohanon (right) donates first easement – 6.75 acres. Spectacular views of Lake Sunapee and the mountains.
Board hires full-time Executive Director Debbie Stanley (left) to bring on needed expertise to compete with development concerns that a volunteer board couldn’t provide.
Partnership project among the Town of New London and two conservation groups helped raise $150,000 to protect Spring Ledge Farm and two other properties.
Acreage added this year: 424.64; 11 parcels including 1,625′ of Little Lake Sunapee shoreline.
Ausbon Sargent was the management leader in a major partnership with local, state and federal agencies raising $310,000 for the Low Plain project. The land trust did the fundraising, secured the bank loans, applied for grant monies and oversaw all legal transactions.
Frank and Dot Gordon donated a conservation easement on their 43-acre New London property which includes 1,556′ of Lake Sunapee shore frontage and 913′ of shoreline on Otter Pond.
Ausbon Sargent partnered with the Town of New London to raise $138,000 to purchase the remaining 12.75 acres at the Low Plain. The Town contributed $75,000 and the Land Trust raised $63,000 in just two months.
Service area is expanded to include Goshen. Hazel Johnson protected 60 acres of her family’s farm by giving the land to the Town of Goshen and protecting it with a conservation easement held by Ausbon Sargent.
King Hill Reservation (King Ridge) in Sutton was conserved. At 441 acres, it was the largest tract to date.
Kidder Tract, Sunset Hill in Newbury, was protected in partnership with the Forest Society.
The first postmortem easement granted by the Carroll heirs; 22 acres, 850′ along Route 103A.
First easement in Warner donated by Katharine Brown, who was the Town’s oldest citizen.
The Land Trust’s website is launched: www.ausbonsargent.org
Six properties were conserved this year including the Stiles property; the first in the Town of Danbury.
Ausbon Sargent partnered with LSPA, SRK Greenway, and Sunapee Conservation Commission to protect the 140-acre Red Water Creek wetland in Sunapee.
Membership reached 1,000.
The Putnam Family conserved their “Field of Dreams” in North Sutton.
First Land Protection Specialist is hired.
Evergreen Point in New London is bequeathed to Ausbon Sargent by Marjorie Young.
Courser Phase 1, including easements in Warner and Webster, was completed.
Clark Lookout was gifted to the Town of New London by Syd Crook and has a conservation easement on it with Ausbon Sargent.
20th Anniversary
89 properties and 4,890 acres.
Hersey Family Farm in the Town of Andover was conserved.
The office moved to its current location at 71 Pleasant Street.
2nd Land Protection Specialist is hired to handle the backlog of conservation projects.
Executive Director, Debbie Stanley received the Sarah Thorne Conservation Award.
Ausbon Sargent achieved Accreditation in August and was the 2nd land trust in New Hampshire to do so.
The Land Trust received the “Partner of the Year” award from The Nature Conservancy.
Star Lake Farm was conserved by an easement donation by Dan Thorne, the largest easement to date at 1,612 acres.
Courser Phase 4 (Trumbull Pond) was completed, totaling 1,203 acres in Warner and Webster.
Battles Farm was among three Bradford properties conserved this year.
Colby-Sawyer College students worked with Ausbon Sargent on a year-long research project to define conservation priorities in each town.
25th Anniversary Celebration “Ausbon Sargent Day”
120 properties and 9,742 acres.
The Sahler conservation easement marks Wilmot’s first easement.
30th Anniversary
142 properties and 11,200 acres.
Implemented drone technology for baselines, monitoring, and publicity.
LCHIP grant awarded to protect the Brown Family’s Frazier Brook Farm in Warner.
The Webb/Crowell Forest in Sutton was preserved in addition to three additional properties.
The Covid-19 pandemic moves through the State of NH, creating a change in events and work-life at Ausbon Sargent.
Ausbon Sargent hires its first Stewardship Manager to offset the increased work created by a growing list of conserved and owned properties.
A record number of properties protected (8), including three properties donated in fee and three purchased by the Land Trust.
$1.6 million campaign completed to purchase the 144-acre Messer Farm property in New London.
385-acre Sawyer Brook Headwaters project is complete in the town of Grantham, representing the Town’s first conservation easement with Ausbon Sargent.
Ausbon Sargent purchases the Messer Farm Expansion property in New London (raising $410,000) and the Stamper property, adjacent to the Sawyer Brook Headwaters Property in Grantham (raising $75,000)
The 28-acre “Two Brook Woods” property on Pleasant Street in New London was gifted to the Land Trust, creating a corridor of conserved land between Morgan Hill Road and Pleasant Street.
Achieved accreditation for the third time in February, 2021.
Over 20 square miles of property conserved in the 12-town region.
35th Anniversary
163 properties and 13,226 acres.
Sue Andrews retires as Operations Manager after 22 years.
Patsy Steverson retires as Bookkeeper after 11 years.
Executive Director, Debbie Stanley retires after 35 years.
Dr. Hans Carlson is hired as Executive Director.
