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A highway winds through foggy, forested mountains.

Stories in New Hampshire

The Future of Nature: Tackling the Climate Challenge

Enabling people and nature to thrive together.

March 26, 2020

Warmer winters and hotter summers. Extreme storms and severe drought. Invasive pests and struggling wildlife. Here in New Hampshire, and throughout the Northeast, the signs are unmistakable: our climate is changing. The average temperature has increased by two degrees over the past century.

A bobcat in the snow.
Bobcat Male bobcats will roam upwards of 60 square miles in search of food, shelter and mates. © Roger Irwin

If heat-trapping emissions continue at the current rate, the Granite State is on track to feel more like South Carolina by 2050. Skiing and pond skating, maple syrup making and snow-covered woods—our New Hampshire winters are at risk. Some of our wildlife will vanish, too, fleeing northward in search of safe habitat, while southern species will seek refuge in New Hampshire. And our forest landscape will change, as trees and plants are wiped out by invasive pests or replaced by warmer-weather species. If we don’t act now the New Hampshire we love will look and feel utterly different to the next generation.

An image of a painted turtle.
Painted Turtle The painted turtle is most commonly found in and around slow-moving bodies of water. © Maggie Keller/TNC

Connect The Coast

Many native species—such as turtles and amphibians—need access to multiple habitat types to survive and thrive. However, a rapidly developing landscape, expanding road network and a changing climate fragment the land, threatening the movement of wildlife throughout the seacoast region. A new effort aims to find and restore the connections they need most. Check out the Connect The Coast project.  

× An image of a painted turtle.
A worker installs solar panels on a roof.
SOLAR POWER Deploying renewable energy to tackle climate change. © Eric Aldrich/TNC

THE SOLUTION

Here in the Granite State, there’s still time to establish a path to a more sustainable future. Our approach to the climate challenge focuses on both the lands we cherish and the energy that fuels our lives.

With your help, we will raise $13 million to:

  • Create a network of resilient and connected landscapes where biodiversity can flourish in the face of a changing climate.
  • Help to spark a clean-energy future, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to global efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.

It’s going to take both strategies—along with your support—if we’re going to be successful.  

What We're Doing

A view of fall trees on a mountain top looking over a river with more mountains in the distance.

Welcome to Surry Mountain

With its towering trees and free-flowing streams, this mountainous escape—a stone's throw from Keene—is now forever protected.

View from a plane looking out over an estuary in the background with trees just starting to show fall colors in the foreground.

Connect The Coast

A new effort to ensure wildlife the room to roam across New Hampshire’s Coastal Watershed.

Lubberland Creek Salt Marsh.

Sparking New Hampshires Clean Energy Future

For a growing number of New Hampshire businesses, employees and local governments, clean energy—such as renewables and energy efficiency—is becoming essential to success.

Shellfish Growers

The Shellfish Growers Climate Coalition

A partnership between shellfish growers on both coasts and TNC shines a light on how climate change is affecting food production in the US.

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Help Raise Nature's Voice from a Whisper to a Roar

Today, our New Hampshire landscape—so essential to our past and present, so critical to our future—faces the most daunting threat of our time: a changing climate. Let's tackle this climate challenge together.

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