To what extent is it necessary or desirable to cut mature forests to create young forest (aka “early successional”) habitat for wildlife species? This is a complex question that elicits strong and diverging opinions in New England’s conservation science and management community. In a new peer-reviewed paper, published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, Highstead’s senior ecologist Ed Faison joins six notable scientists and conservationists (including Highstead board member David Foster) to argue that current widespread management for young forest habitat in the Northeastern and Upper Midwestern U.S. needs to be re-examined.
Photo Credit: David Foster
The paper, led by Restore the North Woods’ Michael Kellett, asserts that current declines in species and habitats used to justify management need to be reconsidered. These five components should be factored in:
a longer-term historical baseline;
recent research suggesting many species require young forest habitat less than previously thought;
the size of species’ geographical range;
the forests’ habitat diversity that develops naturally over time, particularly with increased natural disturbances such as storms and insect outbreaks from climate change; and
the need to keep carbon stored in the forest rather than in the atmosphere to mitigate climate change.
Additionally, the paper argues for greater protection of old forests and their vital habitat and climate benefits, stating, “Public land forest and wildlife management programs must be reevaluated to balance the prioritization and funding of early-successional habitat with strong and lasting protection for old-growth and mature forests.”
One of the signature species of the young forest habitat initiative is the New England Cottontail, a threatened rabbit species believed to require young forest habitat for its survival. Although this species does use young, shrubby habitats, the most recent research shows that New England cottontails use a broader range of wooded habitats than previously known, including mature forest habitat with thick shrub layers. In contrast, the introduced eastern cottontail that it competes with avoids mature forests. This research recommends against clear-cutting forests for habitat because it was found to be more beneficial to the introduced eastern cottontail and “unlikely” to provide high-quality habitat for New England Cottontail.
The hope is that this new paper in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change will generate new and informed discussions about this important forest management topic in New England and beyond.
The early decisions of an RCP—Who are your members? What’s your region? Who’s the host partner? How and when do members meet as an RCP?—can influence how well your members function together as a partnership later on. Whether you want to build an RCP from scratch or have a team of people for a new partnership already in mind, your objectives and intent for the partnership are critical to long-term outcomes.
Anyone who has coordinated an RCP or other landscape conservation initiative may be rolling their eyes right about now, saying to themselves, “You can’t dictate how a partnership should begin. There are too many variables.”
Indeed, there are many variables that are difficult to impact in the short term, including:
Capacity of conservation organizations and land trusts in the prospective region;
Level of interest in the region among state and federal agencies, national organizations, and philanthropic foundations and major donors;
Average parcel size and development and conservation cost/acre;
History of landowners donating conservation easements vs. expecting payment;
Capacity of municipalities to bond for open space and collaborate;
Diversity of sectors that conservation groups have already engaged;
History of collaboration among these entities; and,
Knowledge, expertise, leadership, and political connections in the areas of environmental justice, community conservation, philanthropy, conservation finance, communication, and land protection projects.
In the Northeast, only a few RCPs were established in regions well-positioned in terms of these variables. In other less-promising regions, despite challenges, RCPs succeeded because their members shared information and worked together to build the capacity of local groups and communities. And, in most cases, the host partner had the capacity and internal support to administer and coordinate the RCP.
Members of these resourceful RCPs met regularly (in-person pre COVID-19), and their leaders created enough governance (e.g., regular meetings, a steering committee, working groups, partner agreements) to ease sharing of knowledge, experience, and opportunities. These included invitations to collaborate in planning, engaging communities, mapping, and fundraising. In time, some of these RCPs ended up cultivating a new culture of collaboration, resulting in more acres conserved and under stewardship. This involved new mergers, alliances, and innovations. Some RCPs developed new skills as a result. Here are a few examples of changes RCPs made to be more successful:
RCP’s boundary: Moved the boundary to include the entire region of the host partner organization to foster stronger internal support for the RCP by the convening organization’s board.
Host Partners: With an interstate RCP, members recognized the necessity of having two host partners and co-coordinators to help the new RCP engage members in each state equally.
Coordinator: With very few resources, members applied for a grant with another RCP and, with the award, hired a one-day/week coordinator to begin bringing value to all-volunteer land trusts by organizing members to apply for a large federal grant.
Even if the region and prospective members have many positive attributes, members might consider taking a raise-all-boats approach as soon as they can. For example, if opportunities warrant, organize quickly to acquire a timely source of funding. Then go back and build that capacity to collaborate afterward. Sayings that seem to apply here are, “Go slow to go fast;” “Progress at the speed of trust;” and “Everyone moves forward or no one moves forward.”
Formed with the collaborative vision to promote collective conservation goals, the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership (GBRPP) is a Regional Conservation Partnership (RCP) with a long history of securing funds for its conservation efforts. Through intentional collaboration, shared priorities, and science-informed decision-making, the Partnership’s transaction grant program has awarded over $620,000 to eligible Principal Partner organizations, land trusts, and conservation organizations, and leveraged over $1.24 million in other funds. As a result, the Partnership protected more than 6,400 acres of land in the last nine years.
Crommet Creek Wetland. Photo Credit: Dea Brickner-Wood
Established in 1994, the Partnership received assistance from land trusts and state and federal agencies to submit its first North American Wetland Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant. This grant helped GBRPP launch its land conservation program, identifying and outlining the Partnership’s goals and actions to protect priority lands in the Great Bay estuary region. The group later expanded its work to the coastal watershed.
Just three years later, GBRPP received its first Environmental Merit Award for its commitment, ingenuity, and success in protecting and preserving New England’s environment. These efforts and achievements gained the attention of then-U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, who had worked with many of the organizations in the Partnership on conservation initiatives throughout the region. Recognizing GBRPP’s success in protecting ecologically significant lands in the region, Gregg supported the Partnership’s efforts to secure funds through the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for conservation projects. The combined funding support from municipal funds, private sources, and state and federal grants resulted in the permanent protection of 109 properties totaling more than 6,400 acres.
Dea Brickner-Wood, coordinator of the RCP, attributes much of the Partnership’s initial funding success to being ready when opportunities arose. “As leaders in the conservation world, if you do your homework and are willing to engage people in that process, when opportunities present themselves, you can make the most of them.” This leadership philosophy became a critical pillar in the Partnership’s success during the national financial crisis that began in 2008. When the financial landscape changed, GBRPP re-evaluated its work, and asked, “Where can our partnership be most useful?” After extensive conversations among the nine Principal Partners, GBRPP approached the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation (NHCF), requesting a grant to create a transaction fund to defray the cost of land protection for cash-strapped organizations. In 2014, NHCF granted the Partnership seed money to start the Land Protection Transaction Grant Program. Through this program, the Partnership has provided 98 transaction grants to land trusts and municipalities working to conserve ecologically significant land in coastal watershed communities and has recently finished its 16th grant round.
Bellamy River Valley. Photo Credit: Dea Brickner-Wood
In spite of its results, the Partnership continued to challenge itself, and through this, identified a key component missing in its work. “We redid our internal assessment and had an awakening around stewardship,” Brickner-Wood says. “We realized we were doing all of this great work around land protection but nothing around the stewardship of these lands.” Partners began to ask questions, such as, “How do we get more money for stewardship?” and “How do we look at this from a collaborative point of view?”
In a changing landscape, the Partnership assessed its future role in the endeavors to study, protect, and manage the region’s conservation lands, updating two critical guiding documents. The Partnership’s Strategic Plan guided the group’s role in the region’s conservation work. It updated New Hampshire’s Coastal Watershed Conservation Plan (NHCWC), which helped identify priority conservation areas. These documents positioned the Partnership to be well suited for the Great Bay 2030 initiative, a cohesive strategy to increase collaboration and investment to promote a healthy Great Bay estuary system. Launched in 2022, $12 million in funding over five years will be available through the NHCF to support five conservation focus areas. The GBRPP, serving as the lead group for the Protect Priority Lands focus area, will receive grant funding in 2023 to support the development of a stewardship grants program, the land transaction grant program, and increased capacity for land conservation and public policy work. The Great Bay 2030 funds will allow the Partnership’s collaboration to accelerate the pace of protection in a rapidly developing region and support the stewardship practices on preserved lands.
Clarity and commitment to a shared mission and conservation goals are vital to GBRPP’s success in securing funds for its RCP, Brickner-Wood says. Another key factor involved being willing to share its resources and make use of other available resources. “Commitment to conservation planning has enabled our Partnership to act swiftly when there are funding opportunities,” she says. “We use the best available science to inform and agree upon our priorities, and we always try to remain willing and nimble to adapt to emerging conservation challenges and opportunities.”
Kristin DeBoer has served as Executive Director of Kestrel Land Trust since 2006, leading the organization’s growth from a small volunteer-led group to a professionally staffed regional land trust. During this time, Kestrel has more than tripled its rate of land conserved annually. Kristin has a BA in economics and environmental science from Bucknell University and an MS in Environmental Studies from Antioch University. She lives with her family in Pelham, Massachusetts.
Reggie works nationwide with land trusts, community partners, and government leaders to save special places outdoors. When not saving land, he is out experiencing it often on a bike, in running shoes, or otherwise suited up for an adventure.
Tee combines her expertise in the mechanics of public water finance with her passion for natural infrastructure. She’s a strong believer in the potential power of public financing to be the super catalytic investor in this fast-emerging field of nature-based solutions while simultaneously and aggressively advancing equity and resilience agendas across the country.
Kari Cohen is the Projects Branch Chief at USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). In this position, he provides strategic and operational leadership for four NRCS programs-Regional Conservation Partnership Program, Conservation Innovation Grants, Wetland Mitigation Banking Program, and the Voluntary Public Access-Habitat Incentive Program. Cohen has served over 19 years with NRCS, including stints coordinating NRCS’s Chesapeake Bay watershed activities and serving as NRCS’s Legislative Affairs Director.
Tim founded the Environmental Policy Innovation Center in 2017. Prior to launching this startup, he was an Associate Director at the White House CEQ, and in leadership roles at Defenders of Wildlife, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Environmental Defense Fund. He holds degrees from Yale University and the University of Hawaii. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Science magazine, and peer-reviewed journals. A former elected city official who led the passage of the first 16-year-old voting age in America. A practical optimist and ENFP always willing to help if you ask or just cheer you on.
Shelby Semmes serves as Vice President for New England, leading Trust for Public Land’s teams and mission delivery across Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. She’s a determined optimist passionate about the foundational role that community-based urban parks and land conservation play in building a livable future. She lives in Warren, Vermont, with her husband and two sons.
Jackie Rigley is a Conservation Finance Specialist at Highstead where she focuses on federal conservation funding opportunities and sharing funding and capacity resources with partners throughout New England. Jackie earned a degree in Environmental Studies and Sociology from the University of California Santa Barbara.
As Executive Director, Leigh leads the Conservation Finance Network’s (CFN) effort to enable collective impact for the field of conservation finance. Through technical assistance, coaching, and convening programs, CFN helps to increase the amount of capital deployed for social equity and ecological resilience. Prior to CFN, she managed professional training programs and applied conservation initiatives for the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. Leigh holds an M.E.Sc. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley.
From collaborative efforts to increase pollinator populations to new partnerships and increased funding opportunities, New England conservationists made significant advancements in 2022. If you find yourself indoors burrowing like a barred owl, why not catch up with our readers’ favorite conservation stories of the year?
Habitats and Biodiversity
Beyond Butterflies: Habitat Restoration and the Rare Northern Metalmark While invasive plants and increased development continue to threaten the existence of the rare and endangered Northern Metalmark butterfly (Calephis borealis), a collaborative effort is underway to restore the vulnerable and non-migratory butterfly’s specific habitat needs in Fairfield County.
Endangered Monarch Make the Most of Milkweed Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) make their summer home at Highstead, where their sole hostplant, native milkweed from the genus Asclepias grow in abundance.
Winter at Work on the Ecotype Seed Project Highstead is one of several Ecotype Project partners who contribute their capacity and expertise to support the production and distribution of diverse, wild, and native plants, even in the deep New England winter.
A Q & A with Highstead’s Conservation Interns Meet Highstead’s 2022 Fall Conservation Intern cohort and learn about their communications and events, policy, and GIS internship activities.
The Big Picture
Practical Solutions to Climate Change Highstead’s onsite stewardship approach demonstrates sustainable ecological design and management methods for the New England landscape. Learn about the nature-based solutions, conservation methods, and habitat diversity enhancement strategies at Highstead that you can employ at home or in your community.
Taking a Closer Look at Forest Management Highstead Senior Ecologist Ed Faison shares lessons about how different types of forest management can be used to protect forests for climate and biodiversity with the New Jersey Forest Task Force.
New Conservation Mapping Tool Helps Visualize Opportunities A new interactive mapping tool from the Northeast Bird Habitat Conservation Initiative is designed to aid northeastern conservation practitioners and organizations, including regional conservation partnerships and land trusts, in advancing bird and bird habitat conservation.
While the conservation community is quick to understand the value of trees and forests for people, the climate and for biodiversity, at least one Connecticut utility has identified roadside trees as a threat to the power grid and has begun efforts to remove large swaths of trees along rural and suburban roads.
In an effort to educate people on the value of roadside trees, Highstead Senior Ecologist Ed Faison compiled a series of key facts about roadside trees, making a strong case for preserving as many healthy specimens as possible.
Jillian serves as Director of Climate Finance for American Forest Foundation (AFF). She brings over 15 years of national and international experience in climate finance strategy, fund design and management, and planning. Jillian leads the AFF strategy to structure and secure finance at scale to expand the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) throughout the continental United States. The FFCP program was developed in partnership with TNC, enabling smaller-scale forest owners to benefit from voluntary carbon markets, contributing to nature-based climate solutions. In July 2022, she led the issuance of a first-of-its-kind corporate green bond to scale FFCP.
Steph has been working in carbon and renewable energy markets for the past 8 years, focusing on portfolio management and structured commodities transactions. In her current role as Director on the Carbon Markets team at 3Degrees, she oversees all of the company’s commercial carbon activity, which includes the purchasing and sales of carbon credits, originating new projects, and supporting the Business Partnerships Team to build custom portfolios for clients. Before joining 3Degrees, Steph completed a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Management with a focus in Energy and Climate at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
A resident of western Maine’s Lake Region, Matt has worked for Loon Echo Land Trust (LELT) as its Executive Director since 2019. Matt is motivated by conservation partnerships that blend rural economic and community development, habitat protection, and equal access to outdoor spaces and natural resources. Loon Echo Land Trust stewards over 8,000 acres of forestland in the foothills of the northern Appalachians.
Dr. Spencer Meyer is the Head of Science at NCX, responsible for activating the most credible, innovative science on natural climate solutions. He works externally with stakeholders and thought leaders to link the science and business of natural capital markets. Spencer is a forester and landscape ecologist with over 20 years of experience working collaboratively with public and private sector partners to solve natural resource challenges. He is a co-founder of Sebago Clean Waters, an advisor to conservation NGOs and private foundations, and a frequent speaker. Spencer earned his A.B. from Dartmouth and his M.S. and Ph.D. from UMaine.
Jackie Rigley is a Conservation Finance Specialist at Highstead where she focuses on federal conservation funding opportunities and sharing funding and capacity resources with partners throughout New England. Jackie earned a degree in Environmental Studies and Sociology from the University of California Santa Barbara.
As Executive Director, Leigh leads the Conservation Finance Network’s (CFN) effort to enable collective impact for the field of conservation finance. Through technical assistance, coaching, and convening programs, CFN helps to increase the amount of capital deployed for social equity and ecological resilience. Prior to CFN, she managed professional training programs and applied conservation initiatives for the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. Leigh holds an M.E.Sc. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley.
A new report released this week by Highstead lays out five separate but complementary pathways that could increase the climate benefit of New England’s Forests. According to the report, New England’s Climate Imperative: Our Forests as a Natural Climate Solution (Meyer et al 2022), New England Forests already absorb 14% of CO2 emissions, and that number could increase to 21% of current emissions by 2050 by adopting these five pathways: avoided deforestation, wildland reserves, improved forest management, mass timber construction and urban and suburban forests.
New England forests are a critical yet underutilized tool in fighting climate change. They store massive amounts of carbon—and each year they sequester more. Despite the work our forests are already doing to keep CO2 out of the atmosphere, they could do substantially more. As New England states work to meet their 2050 goals for reducing emissions, the relative importance of forest-based mitigation will grow. This report identifies five distinct but complementary pathways that illustrate how New England forests can do even more to tackle climate change. By implementing these five pathways, especially if done together, New England can advance conservation and increase the climate mitigation potential of forests.
Avoided Deforestation:
Each year, 28,000 acres of forests are permanently converted to development, emitting their stored carbon and forgoing all future sequestration. We must reduce this rate of forest loss. If we reduce deforestation to 7,000 acres per year in New England, 74 million tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CO2e) would be kept out of the atmosphere by 2050.
Wildland Reserves:
Less than 4% of our forests are currently protected as wildland reserves. We need to ensure that a minimum of 10% of New England’s forests are allowed to grow and mature without the influence of any extractive land uses. This would sequester an additional 50 million tons CO2e by 2050.
Improved Forest Management:
Society is heavily dependent on wood products, and New England is a great place to grow trees. By changing our management practices and stewarding timberlands to maximize carbon sequestration, we can maintain harvest volumes while increasing carbon storage in the forest. If just 50% of harvests employed climate smart techniques, an additional 203 million tons CO2e could be sequestered by 2050.
Mass Timber Construction:
Trees are a valuable climate solution inside and outside the forest. Using mass timber building materials is much less carbon intensive than steel or concrete and has the added benefit of storing carbon through the life of the building. If 50% of the eligible new buildings used mass timber construction, an additional 15 million tons CO2e could be stored.
Urban and Suburban Forests: Expanding tree and forest cover within our communities has enormous benefits even beyond carbon, including shading, clean air, clean water, and recreational and employment opportunities. A 5% increase in urban tree canopy in New England could sequester an additional 17 million tons CO2e by 2050
By the Numbers
Taken together at the middle tier, the cumulative potential carbon benefits of the five pathways would lead to 358 million additional tons CO2e stored in the forest by 2050.
358 million tons of CO2e is equivalent to displacing the total 30-year energy consumption of nearly 1.3 million households in New England (from p. 38 – no citation)
14% of CO2 emissions is absorbed by New England forests each year
21% of current CO2 emissions could be sequestered by adopting these 5 pathways at the middle tier.
Using birds as its guide, the conservation mapping tool will support activities such as habitat management plan and stewardship development, land prioritization and acquisition strategies, and landowner and community engagement.
This unique and novel tool showcases Cornell Lab of Ornithology eBird Status & Trends (S&T) data for 43 priority bird species across five different habitat types, including forest, shrub/young forest, coast/shoreline, grassland, and wetland/marsh, as GIS data layers. The S&T data can be downloaded to add into preexisting GIS and land prioritization projects or overlaid with layers such as protected open space, National Audubon’s Important Bird Areas, and The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient and Connected Landscapes data, helping paint a clear picture of the relationship between the land and birds.
The tool was created by partners in the Northeast Bird Habitat Conservation Initiative, a collaborative effort between The Regional Conservation Partnership (RCP) Network, Audubon groups, Highstead, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. GIS experts at Harvard Forest and Highstead and scientists from the Cornell Lab created simplified versions of the eBird modeled abundance bird data and made it freely available.
eBird is among the world’s largest biodiversity-related science projects, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed annually by eBirders around the world. A collaborative enterprise with hundreds of partner organizations, thousands of regional experts, and hundreds of thousands of users, eBird is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
