What's New
2009 NROC Applications due November 14, 2008.
Application Packet (four files) below:
Setting Goals, Redefining Boundaries booklet
Community Strategies for Protecting Water Resources (new facilitated track)
Natural Resources Outreach Coalition (NROC)
New Hampshire’s Natural Resources Outreach Coalition (NROC) is a multi‑organizational initiative offering coordinated assistance to communities wishing to protect their natural resources while accommodating growth.
NROC’s focus area is the 42 communities in New Hampshire’s coastal watershed.
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About the NROC Partners
In 1998, a group of organizations united to create the Natural Resources Outreach Coalition. The NROC Team includes natural resources and planning professionals, and works with each community to provide the educational assistance and guidance necessary for them to meet their land use and natural resource protection goals.
The NROC Team includes staff members from the following organizations:
- UNH Cooperative Extension and UNH Sea Grant
- Strafford Regional Planning Commission
- Southern NH Planning Commission
- Rockingham Planning Commission
- NH Estuaries Project
- NH Department of Environmental Services Watershed Bureau
- NH Coastal Program
- Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
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Apply for NROC Assistance
Applications for NROC program assistance are solicited each fall. Up to three
communities per year are selected to participate in the spring, summer and
fall NROC Programs.
Applying for NROC program assistance is a two-step process:
- The pre-application NROC Introductory Presentation is
required for each prospective applicant community prior to submitting an
application. The Introductory Presentation provides an overview
of the NROC Program and the level of commitment needed from a community.
Introductory presentations are being held in September and October 2007.
- If the community feels it is at the right stage of readiness to participate in the program, the next step is to submit a completed application to the NROC Team by November 14, 2008. To download an application packet, click here for the Cover Letter, the Dealing with Growth program, and the Single Project Assistance program.
- Communities may apply for either the Dealing with Growth program OR the Single Project Assistance Program.
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Description of the NROC Program
Each NROC program is tailored to the specific concerns and needs of the host community, from the initial Dealing with Growth presentation through the intensive follow-up assistance program.
Public Presentation: The NROC program starts with a customized educational presentation, Dealing with Growth, for municipal board members, municipal staff, and all interested citizens. The presentation illustrates the linkages between growth, land use change, natural resources and community character, and introduces a range of educational and technical tools to achieve natural resource management objectives. The Dealing with Growth presentation serves as the springboard to a "follow-up" phase.
Follow-up Assistance: Following the presentation, NROC staff work intensively with community members for 6-12 months to help develop and implement a one-year work plan focused on natural resource-based planning. NROC also connects community participants with professionals and programs that provide technical and educational assistance on natural resource topics.
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How can NROC help your community?
The NROC program helps community decision-makers and residents to better understand their community=s resources, the actions necessary to sustain them, and using this information as a basis for informed natural resource-based land conservation planning and land use decision making.
"…NROC helped us channel our efforts. Although there were boards and volunteers already working on projects related to growth, it wasn't until we worked with NROC that we started working together."
"…NROC has really shifted my perspective; now I feel much better equipped to 'think globally, act locally' by pursuing small neighborhood victories. In fact, the information covered in the NROC-sponsored workshops inspired me to become more actively involved with my town's Conservation Commission and Open Lands Committee."
"The program offered just the right balance of natural resource-based guidance to help our community move forward with its land and water protection goals"
"During our association with NROC, the staff have shown endless patience, understanding and tenacity in guiding us through the throes of our first year. We are all basically novices, who are concerned about loss of open space, but do not come with the knowledge and skills needed to accomplish its protection. We could not have come as far as we have without NROC's assistance."
To find out more about how NROC has worked with specific communities, read the community testimonials here.
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NROC Communities
Since 1999, NROC has worked with 16 coastal watershed communities. To find out what these communities have accomplished as a result of the NROC program, click on the list below.
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NROC Community Surveys
The following examples of NROC community surveys can help you develop a template for a survey in your community.
- Andover Master Plan Survey
- Deerfield Business Owners Survey
- Deerfield Master Plan Survey
- New Durham Master Plan Survey
- Wakefield Land Conservation Survey
For further information, contact:
Amanda Stone, NROC Coordinator
E-mail: amanda.stone@unh.edu
Community Conservation Assistance Program
UNH Cooperative Extension
36 County Drive
Laconia, NH 03246-2900
Tel/Fax: 603-364-5324
Related Links:
- Community Profile Project
- Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
- NH Coastal Program
- NH Department of Environmental Services
- NH Estuaries Project
- Non-point Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO)
- Rockingham Planning Commission
- Southern NH Planning Commission
- Strafford Regional Planning Commission
- UNH Cooperative Extension
