Summary
In 2006, Barnstead adopted an ordinance declaring water as essential to life and recognizing the subsequent rights of nature. The ordinance stresses the importance of water for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness both for people and ecosystems, and therefore declares that the town has the duty to safeguard water and rights of ecosystems in the town. The ordinance made Barnstead the third municipality to decree that corporations may not wield constitutional powers within its jurisdiction.