There was only gradual awareness by a small per cent of the general public as to the nature, location and magnitude of the two part Waterford Development project. The planned apartment complex will be situated on the north side of Countryside Boulevard, between Countryside Village and Hillcrest Terrace. Essentially, it will be a similar in nature to Countryside Village. Rents will be high and there will be a high turnover of occupants - approximately 48% annually.
Hillcrest Terrace, a
retirement community located at the west end of Countryside
Boulevard
Countryside Village, an apartment complex located near the intersection of Countryside Boulevard and Hackett Hill Road
Although it is outside of the watershed of the specialized swamps located on the Hackett property, the area contains numerous wetlands and the surrounding uplands are heavily forested. The forested areas have been untouched for centuries and serve as habitat for many plant and animal species which may not survive the deforestation and may be extirpated. The replacement of the forested areas by ornamental trees and shrubs will not change this situation. Also, much of the planned development will be very near the wetlands borders. Despite the presence of setbacks, given the magnitude of the project, degradation of these "unspecialized" wetlands is highly likely to occur.
The area north of Countryside Boulevard between Countryside Village and Hillcrest Terrace is heavily forested, as seen in this photograph taken at the roadside. The variation in the appearance of the trees indicates the presence of a wetlands area.
Moreover Millstone Brook, which originates in Goffstown and empties into the Merrimack River, will pass between the old and new apartment complexes. It is planned to build the Waterford apartment complex within 200 feet of the west side of the brook.
The brook passes through a culvert under Countryside Boulevard and flows on into the Preserve portion of the Hackett Hill property. It bifurcates and "ponds out" behind French Hall.
In 1993, investigators from the NH Natural Heritage Inventory found that beavers had destroyed 1/3 of a giant rhododendron stand located near Millstone brook. The beavers had been driven south by the residential development near Countryside Boulevard. Their new dams caused excessive flooding of the rhododendrons and the beavers also ate some of the rhododendrons. In 1998, Williams, an ecologist for The Nature Conservancy, examined giant rhododendrons located alongside the brook and attributed their poor quality to contaminants generated by the Countryside Village complex. (Several beaver dams and ponds can currently be found near the north of the Hackett Hill property.)
Credits: The comments about beaver herbivory are from
"An Ecological Inventory of Manchester, NH by the New Hampshire
Natural Heritage Inventory", June, 1993. The brook contamination is
described in Williams, P.,"Manchester Atlantic White Cedar Swamps,
Manchester, NH.". Prepared for the New Hampshire Chapter of The
Nature Conservancy (unpublished, 1998.)