The Pemi-Baker Land Trust (PBLT), a member of the Land Trust Alliance, is a regional land trust serving the towns of the Baker River and upper Pemigewasset River Valleys. This includes all or parts of: Campton, Dorchester, Ellsworth, Groton, Holderness, Plymouth, Rumney, Thornton, Warren, and Wentworth, a region defined more by watershed than political boundaries. The Pemi-Baker Land Trust is a "trade name" registered with the New Hampshire Secretary of State by Rumney Ecological Systems for use in its land trust activities.

In considering properties for conservation protection, the Pemi-Baker Land Trust seeks those which exhibit one or more of the following characteristics:

Water Quality and Quantity:

• Land overlying aquifers and aquifer recharge areas, especially if identified as prime,
• Frontage on surface waters (rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds),
• Wetlands, flood plains, riparian zones, and other lands critical to water quality or recharge within the watershed.

Forest and Agricultural Resources:

• Substantial acreage of productive forest and/or agricultural land,
• Historic forest and agricultural land,
• Unique forest species or communities,
• Land that will reduce the fragmentation of these forest and/or agricultural lands,
• Land that will preserve or promote forest or agricultural types or diversity.

Wildlife Habitat and Plant Communities:

• Land containing ecologically significant or rare natural communities,
• Land that contributes to large tracts of undeveloped habitat and corridors for wildlife migration,
• Land that increases the diversity of contiguous natural communities,
• Land that offers significant habitat for endangered, threatened or species of conservation concern.

Community Value:

• Land with existing or potential trail corridors,
• Land that provides or contains scenic value,
• Land which preserves the region's rural and historical heritage,
• Land which provides public access for low impact recreational opportunities.

Among lands with significant conservation values, RES will favor properties that:

• Abut, enlarge, or provide linkages to previously protected land,
• Have community support through Master Plans, referenda, or other public expressions,
• Are subject to an immediate threat of change of use,
• Are available under unique circumstances that are not likely to occur again,
• Are important to the local community,
• Would be a stimulus for future protection projects.

The following may disqualify a land protection project from consideration by RES:

• Hazardous waste contamination or potential contamination
• Title problems, including lack of mortgage subordination
• Distance, location, or other site characteristics that prevent adequate monitoring
• Significant violations of federal, state, or local regulations or accepted best management practices
• Potential for another, more appropriate organization to provide protection
• A Landowner insists on provisions that RES believes would seriously diminish the property's conservation values or would make monitoring extremely difficult
• Conflict of interest
• Anticipated costs in time or money that do not have matching resources in the organization now or in the expected future