Sunapee Natural Resources Inventory

• 23 full-color maps.
• Illustrated report discussing:  Surface water, groundwater, habitat, wildlife, forest, wetland, agriculture, historic recreational, and climate change resilience resources.
• Conservation Action Plan.           

The Conservation Commission’s Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) and Conservation Plan is a guide for future commission efforts focusing on priority areas that contain the most valuable conservation resources in our town. 

Please find the entire 2022 Natural Resources Inventory here.

During 2022, we updated the 2008 NRI with assistance from experts at Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission to map and understand our conservation resources. 

These maps were layered to create a co-occurrence map that makes it easy to see areas of the highest conservation value, with darker areas containing more conservation resources.  Seven key resources were used for this map: Wildlife, Surface water, Farm-Forest land, Water protections, Land-based protections, and Cultural-Recreation natural resources.

Our science-driven and consensus-based Conservation Plan establishes 4 priority zones:

●  South Sunapee                             ● Red Water Creek to Mud Pond

● Drinking Water Supply Areas       ● Northwest Sunapee

With  a 32-point Action Plan for the next ten years.