A large tract of some of the North Country’s most beautiful terrain has been protected from development. 

A new conservation easement is going to protect land around Pittsburg and the Connecticut River.

“We just today finalized a conservation easement on 2,300 acres up in Pittsburg up around First and Second Connecticut Lakes.”

That’s Jack Savage. He’s a spokesman for The Society for The Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

“What is particularly exciting for us is that it involves 38 miles of shorefront, about seven and one-half miles on the sort of trophy stretch of the upper Connecticut River and then shoreline around First and Second Connecticut Lakes.”

Almost 1,100 acres of land in the North Country will be protected against development under a new conservation easement that will benefit loggers, people who enjoy the woods and perhaps most important of all – a devastated bat population. NHPR’s Chris Jensen reports.

The easement will permanently protect more than 1,000 acres of land on Gardner Mountain in Lyman.

It’s an important habitat for wildlife, but especially so for bats.

Emily Brunkhurst, a wildlife biologist with Fish and Game says bats gather in the area to mate.

Right now bats badly need places where they won’t be disturbed because of a disease called White Nose Syndrome.