Bill has led Highstead’s Regional Conservation Program since 2007, helping to develop the capacities of Regional Conservation Partnerships (RCPs) and regional partners to conserve more land collaboratively and in the service of more resilient communities and regions. Bill coordinates the RCP Network and the Northeast Forest Network and co-coordinates the Northern Appalachian Trail Landscape Partnership–all three of which he co-founded.
Trained as a professional forester (University of Maine at Orono) and a regional land use planner (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Bill came to Highstead with twenty years’ experience engaging forest landowners, municipal officials, RCPs, and the public in the elements of whole landscape conservation and stewardship, working for Connecticut Audubon Society, New England Forestry Foundation, and the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
With Highstead, Bill has co-authored papers on Regional Conservation Partnerships, on Wildlands and Woodlands, and on cross-boundary collaboration. Bill’s RCP Handbook serves as a reference for emerging RCPs throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, and he advises peers on collaborative landscape conservation, nationally.
Since 1993, Bill has worked as a volunteer to increase access to nature by urban youth of color from across Massachusetts. Bill likes to garden, hike, fish, and bicycle.
