Spring 2022
News from The Staying Connected Initiative
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New SCI logo, and website underway |
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In case you missed it at the top right corner of this newsletter, SCI has a fresh new logo!
Our website is also being redesigned. We are hard at work creating a new platform with easy-to-access connectivity resources, maps, and more.
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Sustaining Partnership Program |
I am very pleased to announce the official launch of the Staying Connected Initiative's "Sustaining Partnership Program" with our first round of Sustaining Partners!
In September 2019, SCI secured a Network for Landscape Conservation Catalyst grant to identify a path for securing SCI's long-term financial future. After 2 years of in-depth analysis of other conservation partnerships, as well as exhaustive interviews with SCI partners and conservation philanthropy experts, we presented the Sustaining Partnership Program at the 2021 SCI summer retreat.
The Sustaining Partnership model will allow us to achieve greater value and impact for our partners and our region. We are grateful to the following Sustaining Partners who have already either contributed or committed funds.
· The Nature Conservancy
· Two Countries One Forest
· Nature Conservancy of Canada - Quebec
· Appalachian Corridor
· Wildlands Network
· Massachusetts Audubon
· Housatonic Valley Association
· Berkshire Environmental Action Team
· Quebec Labrador Foundation
Contact us to learn more and to become a Sustaining Partner today.
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Mapping priority parcels in the Adirondacks to Green Mountains Linkage |
The Nature Conservancy and Adirondack Land Trust (ALT) collaborated with additional partners last summer to refine mapped conservation priorities in the Adirondacks to Greens linkage, merging connectivity with other priorities such as water quality improvement and recreation.
The Adirondacks to Green Mountains linkage is a mosaic of forested ridges, farms, towns, and waterbodies that provides critical connections between the Adirondacks in New York and the Green Mountains in Vermont. The region's wildlife - including bobcat, moose and the endangered eastern timber rattlesnake - need to move in response to climate change, and their ability to do so is threatened by fragmentation from development and agriculture along busy roadways like Route 4.
The 2021 Adirondack Conservation Associate Sabine Nix spent months using TNC's Resilient and Connected Network (RCN) science to map priority connectivity parcels according to modeled site resilience and species movement or "flow" under future climate conditions (see graphic above). The next step was integrating other useful protection criteria, such as parcel size and proximity to protected lands, road crossings, and structural pathways developed by TNC’s Vermont chapter.
The numerous maps and datasets Sabine produced are helping guide land protection priorities and strategy in this critical linkage and will be shared broadly among SCI partners to inform and inspire similar land protection models, since the methods Sabine used could certainly be replicated in our other linkages.
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Major acquisition: Appalachian Corridor protects 442 hectares of habitat in Eastman, Quebec |
Above: A photo of newly protected habitat in Eastman, Québec. Below: The (red) new protected area relative to core habitats (light green), privately conserved areas (darker green), and Mount Orford National Park. © Courtesy of Appalachian Corridor
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In May 2021, Appalachian Corridor announced the acquisition of two adjacent lots totaling 442 hectares of natural areas in the Municipality of Eastman in Québec. This represents the completion of one of the largest conservation projects on privately held land in the province in recent years.
The acquired land features rich biodiversity, with forested areas as well as wetlands and other aquatic habitats, and represents an essential link for conserving ecological connectivity between Mount Orford National Park and the Monteregian Hills located to the west.
The property is also located at the head of the Missisquoi River watershed, one of the most important watersheds of the region. This watershed represents essential habitat for the most regionally significant population of wood turtles, a species designated as vulnerable in Quebec and threatened in Canada.
With this acquisition, and thanks to the contributions of its many financial and conservation partners, Appalachian Corridor has now protected15,000 hectares of land in perpetuity since its founding in 2002.
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Maine Mountain Collaborative leverages partnerships to conserve working forests and wilderness |
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The 5 million-acre Maine Appalachian Mountain Corridor (MAMC) is one of the most intact and climate-resilient landscapes in the eastern United States. Encompassing the Staying Connected Initiative’s Northeast Kingdom-Northern New Hampshire-Western Maine Linkage, it is the northern U.S. terminus of the largest chain of undeveloped forest east of the Mississippi. This critical corridor contains over half of the biggest globally significant bird area in the U.S.; the last remaining U.S. stronghold for wild brook trout; and core habitat providing the best opportunity in eastern North America for maintaining Canada lynx populations.
And of course, there are people here too! This is the homeland of the Wabanaki People, who remain and continue to maintain their traditions and sacred relationship with the forest. In addition to fundamental needs like clean air and water, the communities of the region depend upon these woods to support the forest products and tourism economy, traditional recreational access, and overall quality of life.
Despite their immense value, these forests remain far from protected. Approximately 80% of the region is privately owned, much of it by timber investment companies. In the past 40 years 80% of these lands have changed hands, representing an ongoing threat of subdivision, development and forest fragmentation.
Today, land trusts in the Maine Appalachian Mountain Corridor are partnering together through the Maine Mountain Collaborative (MMC), a coalition of statewide, national and regional conservation and forestry organizations convened to address new forest conservation challenges and opportunities. With its shared focus, the MMC is raising awareness of the region and its extraordinary conservation opportunities, including 8 ongoing MMC projects totaling 120,000 acres (see map above). In the meantime, MMC and its partners are also innovating new financial strategies to accelerate the pace and scale of forest conservation and restoration. These initiatives include:
1) The Exemplary Forestry Investment Fund, a new, privately held, long-term timber investment fund that aims to attract impact investment funding to acquire large timberland parcels, then manage them for forest health, carbon sequestration, improved wildlife habitat, and high-value forest products, all while producing financial returns for investors. This is a project of the MMC, New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF), and Quantified Ventures, with support from the US Forest Service and an NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant.
2) The Maine Appalachian Mountain Corridor Conservation Transaction Fund begun in 2018 to make grants to cover transaction costs for land conservation projects, including surveys, appraisals, due diligence, legal services, and environmental reviews. The fund has granted $362,000 to 22 projects helping to conserve 89,000 acres. These dollars help reduce risk for land trusts pursuing new projects, and cover costs that are otherwise difficult to fundraise for. The grant program was initially funded with a $100,000 grant through the RCP Network and the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust, and in 2021 a $250,000 grant from the EJK Foundation will keep the fund going into 2022.
3) The Forest Carbon for Commercial Landowners (FCCL) Initiative coordinated by the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) is exploring how incentives for large commercial landowners could transform management practices on millions of acres and launch us toward NEFF's 30% solution to New England’s climate needs. NEFF is seeking funding for a pilot program to launch the concept with a large landowner on a significant acreage.
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Vermont develops new "Terrestrial Passage Screening Tool" to score transportation structures statewide |
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A statewide bridge and culvert assessment in Vermont has provided a ranking of all structures on state roads for their ability to pass wildlife.
The Terrestrial Passage Screening Tool has been years in the making and is a collaboration between the University of Vermont, The Nature Conservancy, The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department & the Vermont Agency of Transportation. The Staying Connected Initiative’s multi-scale perspective helped inform development of the tool, which includes scores for landscape, site characteristics and structure characteristics. The landscape score uses an omniscape model of “flow” across the state and near each structure. Site characteristics include the degree of development and land cover near structures, and structure characteristics include the ratio of the bank-full width of the stream to the structure opening, as well as overall structure dimensions.
With the help of tools like this, Vermont's transportation and wildlife agencies are increasingly well-positioned to deploy new federal infrastructure investments to accommodate wildlife movement in the Green Mountain State.
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The Terrestrial Passage Screening Tool models movement probability, or "flow" at both the landscape and transportation structure scale, in this case for American black bear. © Vermont Department of Transportation |
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For more information, please contact Jens Hilke at jens.hilke@vermont.gov |
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Large land donation helps Nature Conservancy of Canada secure Chignecto "Moose Sex Corridor" |
© Nature Conservancy of Canada |
Wildlife connectivity in the Maritimes is more secure thanks to a major donation of 397 hectares of intact forest, wetland and coastline habitat from a private landowner to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC).
The property - known as the “Giving and Receiving Sanctuary" and pictured above - is located north of Amherst, Nova Scotia on the Chignecto Isthmus; the narrow stretch of land linking Nova Scotia to the rest of North America via neighboring New Brunswick. To cross the Isthmus, wildlife must pass through a pinch point of vulnerable habitat fragmented by roads and other development.
NCC has been working to address this challenge, conserving a patchwork of privately-owned forests and wetlands that, collectively, comprise the “Chignecto Isthmus Moose Sex Corridor.” This curious title refers to the land bridge’s significance for linking Nova Scotia’s endangered moose population to the more robust New Brunswick population. NCC’s focus on moose reflects the animal’s ecological importance and endangered status, as well as its value as a traditional food source for the Mi’kmaq First Nations people of Canada’s Maritime Provinces.
The newly protected land was donated under the Government of Canada’s Ecological Gifts Program. The program provides enhanced tax incentives for individuals or corporations who donate ecologically significant land for conservation purposes.
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Follow the Forest enlists community scientists to ground truth potential wildlife linkages |
Staff at the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) are enlisting the help of community scientists to assess potential wildlife linkages and road crossings in the Housatonic River Valley as part of their Follow the Forest Initiative, which rallies nearly 50 partners and counting around a shared vision of a continuous forest corridor from the Hudson Highlands to Canada's boreal forest.
To achieve this bold vision, HVA and partners are working together to identify and protect core forests and their linkages (represented by green polygons and red ovals in the map at left), drawing on The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient and Connected Network (RCN) science and several years of roadkill data collected by SCI partners in western Massachusetts.
HVA volunteers are now ground-truthing these linkages in the field to provide a clearer picture of their functional connectivity for wildlife. HVA is especially interested in identifying pinch-points where movement may be funneled or restricted by fences, lack of cover, and other fine-scale features that don't get picked up in modeling but are apparent on the ground. HVA and Follow the Forest partners can then focus their conservation efforts on these high priority road segments and parcels. Linkage assessments also present opportunities to approach municipalities and landowners, raising public awareness of wildlife connectivity needs. The linkage assessment is intentionally designed to be broadly accessible, giving land trusts a chance to engage students and other community members in using science to better understand and meet the needs of local wildlife.
Click here to learn more about linkage assessments and how you can get involved!
Click here to see HVA's interactive map of Follow the Forest, including priority forest cores and linkages. Linkages will be updated as they are assessed.
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HVA staff and volunteers conducting a linkage assessment in Northwest Connecticut. © Housatonic Valley Association |
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New partner spotlight: Quebec-Labrador Foundation |
SCI is pleased to welcome the Quebec-Labrador Foundation (QLF) to the Staying Connected Initiative as a new, and sustaining, partner!
Established as a charitable/nonprofit entity in both Canada and the U.S., QLF has worked for 60 years to support rural, resource-dependent communities and the environment of the Atlantic region of eastern Canada and New England. QLF also works globally to encourage cross-cultural and cross-border cooperation and knowledge-sharing among conservation and stewardship leaders.
SCI is also happy to welcome back Phil Huffman, now QLF’s Senior Vice-President, Regional and Global Programs, to serve on the SCI Steering Committee. Phil was a founder of SCI and deeply involved in the partnership until last summer through his prior roles in conservation and policy leadership with The Nature Conservancy of Vermont.
Welcome QLF, and welcome back Phil!
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Have a story for the next SCI newsletter?
Events or updates our partners should know about?
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The Staying Connected Initiative brings together a unique assemblage of government, non-government and academic partners to conserve, restore, and sustain landscape connections across the Northern Appalachian/Acadian Forest region. We envision an ecologically interconnected and resilient landscape across the Northern Appalachian/Acadian Forest region of the eastern U.S. and Canada that sustains healthy lands, waters, wildlife and vibrant human communities. |
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