Clough State Park, off-road trails in the Hopkinton-Everett System and the beach at Elm Brook Park have been temporarily closed by rising waters which are being held back by the Hopkinton and Everett dams to prevent downstream flooding.

A week of heavy rains throughout central and southern New Hampshire have raised the level of many lakes. In many cases this extra water has been welcome after a dry spring and summer.

“It has helped us,” said Dan Mattaini, chief of operations at the New Hampshire Dam Bureau. “We’ve have troubled filling up some of them.”

However, in the Hopkinton-Everett Lakes Project, controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, by Tuesday the level of water was as much as eight feet above the summer level. The excess is being held back by dams on the Piscataquog River in Weare and Contoocook River in Hopkinton, built in the 1950s and 1960s to prevent flooding in the region. 

“We have all this open land that can be utilized for recreation, natural resource management, but during times of need … those areas can be flooded to protect downstream communities,” said Steve Dermody, project manager for the lake system for the Corps of Engineers.

Clough State Park was closed Tuesday as water rose up to the toll booth and parking area at the entrance. New Hampshire Park Officials said it may be closed through Thursday, as more rain is expected.

On the north side of the lake in the flood control zone, straddling the Weare-Dunbarton town border,  scores of miles of trails have been built and area maintained by the Merrimack Valley Trail Riders.  the beach at Elm Brook Park in Hopkinton is also closed, although the park itself remains open.

This appears to be the first flood-related closure of Clough Park since floods in 2006 and 2007.

Dermody said it’s usual for this level of flooding to occur in the summer, although to a certain extent “it’s random when these events will occur.”

Climate change has increased the chance of extreme events, both drought and flooding, and is altering many well established weather patterns.

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