In October of 2007, Highstead established its Regional Conservation Program to promote regional conservation initiatives like Wildlands and Woodlands and to advance forest protection and management throughout southern New England and adjacent New York. Highstead’s Regional Conservation Program seeks to assist and complement the many efforts across the greater New England region in three main ways:
- Creating Constituencies for Forest Conservation:
- Advancing Conservation Innovation ; and
- Promoting Regional Conservation Partnerships .
Creating Constituencies for Forest Conservation
Highstead and its partners believe that forest landowners and municipalities will continue to play key roles in increasing the pace of forest conservation across the Northeast. Three groups of people that can help inform decision-making by landowners are professional foresters, land use planners and community opinion leaders.
Foresters and Forest Landowners
Private lands that are actively managed with the assistance of consulting foresters and protected from development can be powerful sources of information for landowners and local community leaders regarding the benefits of long term management and permanent conservation. In collaboration with the Norcross Wildlife Foundation and Connecticut Forest & Park Association , Highstead will be organizing a Forester to Forester Conservation Workshop (March 2009) for public and private foresters in CT, RI, and MA. The workshop will help public and private foresters become better skilled in land conservation options as a crucial first step in getting accurate information to forest landowners on management and conservation options.
Land Use Planners & Communities
Small rural towns in the Northeast often have volunteer-run boards or commissions. Regional Conservationist, Bill Labich is using his eight years' experience as a land use planner to assist regional conservation partnerships to enroll planners, volunteer and professional, in conserving forest lands. Bill will promote greater understanding by planners and conservationists of effective land use codes including zoning bylaws that can increase the amount of protected forests and smart development. Bill will also be exploring innovative ways planners can help to protect their town's green infrastructure in partnership with their region's conservation community (e.g. a presentation on the role of planners in forest conservation at the 2008 Southern New England America Planning Association Conference).
Advancing Conservation Innovation
One of Bill’s primary roles is to enhance the sharing of new ideas and lessons to advance the conservation and stewardship of forests. For example, many towns and conservation groups are making great strides in developing new ways to reach landowners with information on land protection and management and then to increase the funding for these activities.
Highstead and Bill support and promote the W&W vision and share new thinking on forest conservation regionally by:
- Coordinating the Wildlands and Woodlands Partnership, a multistate group of 100 people from 40 member organizations including state agencies, universities, forestry and wood products businesses, and landowner and conservation groups, and developing its new website www.wildllandsandwoodlands.org.
- Co-authoring papers that present the implementation of Wildlands and Woodlands as complementary to smart growth, sustainable development, and to sustaining the integrity of ecological services in urbanizing areas.
Promoting Regional Conservation Partnerships
Regional conservation partnerships are informal collaborations of public and private organizations and agencies that work together to advance land conservation and stewardship. Activities range from landowner education and outreach to managing coordinated land protection projects. Bill is working with 10 partnerships (at various phases of their development) throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire by:
- Providing information on best practices (e.g. current research and database on regional conservation partnerships)
- Facilitating collaboration among partnerships and others (e.g. convene meetings of regional partnership collaborators)
- Increasing GIS support to new or emerging partnerships
- Conservation planning assistance through our fall internship program
- Generate media that support understanding of forest conservation issues (e.g. 2008 Wildlands and Woodlands Update and W&W website )
- Deliver presentations at conventions, conferences, and trade shows
