Years from now, Bow will likely look like an extremely different town.

New houses, businesses and other buildings will likely be built on different parcels of land, but one group hopes there will be something in town that will remained unchanged.

The Bow Open Space Committee has been working to protect residents’ property as well as town-purchased land from being developed.

According to Harold Keyes, a member of the committee, the most important aspect of saving open space in Bow is preserving its current motif.

“I came to Bow because of its rural character, and I’d like to think it will always have that rural character and not turn into a developed community,” said Keyes. “Wouldn’t it be nice if when we run out of land to build house and businesses? We’ll still have open space as well. That’s critical for our standard of living.” Committee Chairman Bob Dawkins agrees.

“I like living in Bow the way it is, and I want to maintain a lot of the open space that we have. I don’t want to live in a suburb of Manchester or Concord,” said Dawkins. “I can walk out my back door and walk around for hours without seeing houses.”

Some of the projects the group has worked on include Notting Cook Forest, where the town purchased 750 acres of around 2000. The group helped make certain that much of the $2.1 million purchase was protected by a permanent easement.

To purchase large amounts of land for the town, a vote at Town Meeting must gain two-thirds support, which happened in the case of Notting Cook. Keyes said the vote was an example of Bow’s support of the group.

“Community backing is absolutely essential. If they don’t want to protect the land, it’s not going to happen. All my friends that live in Bow care deeply about preserving the rural community for us to live in,” said Keyes.

In addition to having a board of directors, the Open Space Committee is looking for members of the community to take in interest in what the group is doing.

“If people have that approach in life where they’re concerned about the environment and protecting property, it’s a great place to come and work together, and try to accomplish those things,” said Dawkins. “I think there’s still a lot to do in town.”