December 14, 2023 
 
Trust for Public Land 
30 Danforth Street, Suite 106 
Portland, ME 04101 
 
Town of Newfields 
65 Main Street 
Newfields, NH 03856 
 
Town of Exeter 
10 Front Street  
Exeter, NH 03833 
 
Re: Open public letter of support for the Newfields-Exeter Community Forest Project 
 
 
To Whom It May Concern,  
 
As residents of Newfields, Exeter, and surrounding communities, we are writing to express our collective and enthusiastic support for the Newfields-Exeter Community Forest Project, and to urge the Newfields Select Board, Exeter Select Board, and grant funding agencies to also support this project.   

The Fort Rock regional trail network is a hallmark of our community, providing free, four-season outdoor recreation opportunities for residents and visitors alike. Spanning the towns of Newfields and Exeter, these trails serve as an important community connector and a place where we can get into nature, exercise, recuperate, and connect with friends and community. Many of us enjoy weekend rides on fantastic, well-maintained mountain biking trails; many others of us look forward to daily walks or trail runs. Still others find solace in winter snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, or fat-track biking on often groomed trails.  
 
Many of us moved to this area for this exceptional trail system and outdoor public recreation opportunities that are increasingly hard to find in the developing seacoast region of New Hampshire. Many of us also volunteer to help maintain these trails in excellent condition for the public to enjoy.  
 
The Rugg family has generously allowed the public to build and use trails across their privately owned land in Newfields and Exeter for 75 years, growing the Fort Rock trail system by about 30% and providing a connection between the two towns. They are now generously working with the towns and conservation partners through a long process to sell this land to the towns for permanent conservation, public recreation, and other public benefits.    
 
The project to conserve the Rugg property and create a joint Newfields-Exeter Community Forest is critical to saving the Fort Rock Trails, securing public recreation and access for our communities and the region, protecting mature forests and intact wildlife habitat in an increasingly developed region, protecting water quality and groundwater sources, and preventing the substantial impacts that would result from subdivision and development of this particular property.   
 
 
We understand that town residents will be asked to pass significant bonds to cover approximately 50% of the cost of the project. State and federal funding is needed to coverthe remaining half. Full funding from both local and state/federal sources is critical for this project to succeed. We strongly encourage the Town Select Boards to support the bond measures when they are proposed, and we strongly encourage our state and federal funding agencies to award full funding grants for this project.  
 
Thank you for your consideration of this important community project.   
 
Signed,