May is Preservation Month — New Hampshire Preservation Alliance

To celebrate, we’ve put together some big and little ideas of ways to engage in preservation activity.

Take care of your old home

Spring is a great time to evaluate repair needs and plan for the year ahead. An energy audit can also help you prioritize investments. Get ready for the next cold season with properly-installed insulation in your attic and around your foundation. “Re-tuning” old windows keeps cold air out and preserves original features of an old house. Check our old house & barn resources for more information and our Directory of Preservation Products and Services for key contacts.

Take a second look around you

Are there places you can’t imagine your community without? Start a conversation with other interested citizens, and consider planning tools like easements and tax incentives to turn a challenge into an opportunity. Support your local farm, and thank a neighbor who has fixed up his or her barn. Visit a local historic site that you haven’t been to in a long time or a rare resource like a fire tower.

Be an advocate for preserving our heritage

Volunteer to serve on your local planning board, library board, cemetery commission, or downtown organization. Attend a local heritage event. Help with a local preservation project, or enjoy dinner in an old inn or theater in a historic venue. Talk to your legislator about the benefits of the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, New Hampshire's popular and effective matching grants program for historic preservation and land conservation projects. E-mail the Preservation Alliance to receive preservation news updates.

Give to local preservation efforts

Join the N.H. Preservation Alliance or renew your support. Become a member or your local historical society. Buy a “Moose Plate” conservation license plate where proceeds to towards programs to support New Hampshire’s natural, historical and cultural resources.

Preservation activity creates local jobs and keeps more money circulating in local economies than new construction, and is part of the landscape that attracts visitors and businesses to New Hampshire. For you, it also can be an activity that makes you feel good and connects you to special places, old friends and new ones.