Summary

Regional Plan Association and America 2050, RPA's national planning program, are seeking statements of interest from landscape conservation practitioners in the 13-state Northeast megaregion to receive up to $25,000 of funding to participate in a nine-month peer exchange program. We are seeking to pair established organizations or initiatives with a proven track record of success in landscape conservation with emerging organizations or programs with extraordinary promise and commitment.

• Emerging Organizations/Initiatives - Non-profit organizations that are launching new landscape conservation initiatives.

• Established Organizations - Non-profit organizations with a proven track-record of success in influencing public policy and securing investments related to land use, infrastructure, climate change, and new funding sources to meet their landscape conservation goals.

The grants will be used to finance information exchange between three matched pairs of emerging organizations/initiatives and established organizations/initiatives.

At least one representative from each grant recipient will also be responsible for travelling to New York for RPA's Landscape Conservation conference in June 2012 to begin discussions about the peer exchange workshop.

Established organizations/programs are eligible to receive up to $7,500 for preparation of communications material and travel. Emerging organizations/programs are eligible to receive up to $25,000 for travel and to host a multi-day collaborative workshop. Proposals are due by 5 PM March 16, 2012.

Additional Information

Download the information packet about the peer exchange program

Peer Exchange Program Application

Peer Exchange Program Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Read Regional Plan Association and America 2050's Report: "Landscapes: Improving Conservation Practice in the Northeast Megaregion"

The Northeast Landscape Conservation Peer Exchange Program is supported by grants from The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area, and the National Park Service, Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program.

The Fall 2011 issue of Law and Contemporary Problems, a faculty-edited journal of the Duke University Law School, is devoted entirely to conservation easements and the role landscape-scale conservation planning has in making them effective. The articles also discuss how to assess their conservation benefits and how to incorporate easements into broader regional land use planning efforts.

"Conservation easements may result in only limited reductions of habitat loss, since projected development could shift to unprotected parcels in the region. Conservation easements do appear to cluster development, enabling managers to allow for prescribed fires and unsuppressed wildfires by preserving large unfragmented areas. One important implication of these findings is that it may be more effective to target moderately threatened areas for conservation, striking a balance between threat and the cost of acquisition."

Evaluating Conservation Effectiveness and Adaptation in Dynamic Landscapes, Adena R. Rissman

"As a measure of accountability, land preservation organizations should seek to employ maximum net public-benefit criteria that include ecosystem-service values, which are incorporated into the setting of landscape-scale-preservation goals and the selection of lands for the acquisition of conservation easements."

Exploring Net Benefit Maximization: Conservation Easements and the Public-Private Interface, Julie Ann Gustanski and John B. Wright

RPA and America 2050 are working across political jurisdictions to produce a comprehensive inventory of landscape conservation initiatives that protect watersheds, wildlife habitat, and other natural processes at the appropriate geographic scale. The project was launched in November, 2010 with the support from The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area.

Visit the website to learn more: Northeast Landscape Conservation

The 13-state Northeast Megaregion is blessed with an abundance of water resources. Rivers, lakes, bays, and ocean shorelines provide economic benefits, recreational opportunities, and drinking water. Continued urban development, however, has impaired uses in many local watersheds. Waterfront communities are bracing for the sea level rise and increases in riverine and coastal flooding associated with climate change.

Over the next 40 years, billions of dollars will be invested in clean water and flood control projects. With proper planning, these projects can help achieve multiple landscape-scale conservation goals. Many landscape conservation initiatives have developed comprehensive programs that rely on ecosystem services to deliver water quality, flood protection, and a range of additional benefits.

100-year floodplains in the Northeast

Protecting water quality and quantity is a goal for 109 of the 165 initiatives listed in our inventory. Here are two examples of initiatives that have advocated for smarter spending on water infrastructure to complement landscape-scale conservation goals:

Hudson River Estuary Program

Anticipated rising sea levels and strong storms will cause localized floods and threaten shoreline infrastructure and development throughout New York State's historic Hudson River Valley.  The  Hudson River Estuary Program, established in 1987 to protect the natural and cultural heritage of the Hudson River Watershed, has moved forward aggressively to examine how best to adapt to increased precipitation and flood events. In response to those threats, it has developed a four year action plan to begin phasing in adaptation strategies.

The four year Action Plan identifies both short and long-term targets for helping estuary communities adapt. The first target is a major mapping and modeling effort. Using  LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology, the estuary program is creating detailed maps of the estuary shoreline, and modeling sea-level rise projections to supply communities with the vulnerability maps so that they can identify the areas of "greatest risk". The vulnerability maps will also display natural systems and infrastructure (water and sewer intakes/outfalls, rail lines, roads, utilities, and brownfields) expected to flood regularly.  Summary reports assessing the vulnerability to each infrastructure system will also be produced.

The Hudson River Estuary Program will provide technical assistance and advice to communities in the watershed based on the vulnerability studies it produced. The program's staff will help communities determine shoreline areas that are suitable for shoreline protection and infrastructure improvements and where a planned retreat may be required. The goal is to create adaptive management strategies that consider the design life of infrastructure projects and changing conditions. The program hopes to educate all waterfront communities in the river valley by 2020 about the specific consequences sea-level rise and severe storme surges will have on their areas. In the same time-span, the estuary program hopes to assist 75% of the river valley communities in adapting to those challenges.

Click to see the Program's profile in the inventory

New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council

The New Jersey Highlands Water Policy and Planning Council (Highlands Council) was established to oversee the management of the New Jersey Highlands region in the northern part of the state. An area of tremendous recreational importance, the Highlands watersheds are also the source of drinking water for 5.4 million people, representing more than half of the State's families.  Located at the edge of heavily populated cities and suburbs, the quality and quantity of this source water is threatened by urban development.

The Highlands Council achieves its water quality goals through a mix of scientific assessment and planning, zoning and regulations, and restoration projects. The three pillars of its approach are mutually reinforcing. The Council conducts extensive research about existing conditions and incorporates those findings into detailed watershed-based plans that propose zoning regulations based on best management practices.  The watershed plans set water conservation needs in a broader regional context, allowing officials to determine priorities for spending on water infrastructure and restoration. The creation of watershed plans also makes projects eligible for state and Federal funding.

Watershed plans in the Highlands are based on three basic concepts: maintaining stream buffers, encouraging low-impact development and clustering, and implementing source controls instead of end-of-the pipe infrastructure solutions. Investing in hard infrastructure and new treatment facilities is increasingly expensive and difficult to site. Source controls take advantage of the ecological services provided by the Highland's forested watersheds to keep the water clean.

Click to see the Council's profile in the inventory

In the Northeast Megaregion, complex urban development patterns and high demand for land and resources pose particular challenges for conservation. RPA and America 2050 are working across political jurisdictions to produce a comprehensive inventory of landscape conservation initiatives that protect watersheds, wildlife habitat, and other natural processes at the appropriate geographic scale. The project was launched in November, 2010 with the support from The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area.

Visit the website to learn more: Northeast Landscape Conservation Atlas

RPA and America 2050's Northeast Landscape Initiatives Atlas has successfully used on-line mapping and database tools to identify how and where landscape conservation practice is occurring in the Northeast Megaregion. The survey will be used by our project partners to assess whether and how these and other web-based tools can help landscape practitioners share best practices and advance their conservation work and how best to create a nationwide website.

In the Northeast Megaregion, complex urban development patterns and high demand for land and resources pose particular challenges for conservation. RPA and America 2050 are working across political jurisdictions to produce a comprehensive inventory of landscape conservation initiatives that protect watersheds, wildlife habitat, and other natural processes at the appropriate geographic scale. The project was launched in November, 2010 with the support from The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area.

Visit the website to learn more: Northeast Landscape Conservation Atlas

Image Courtesy of www.boston.com

A major policy focus of the America's Great Outdoors (AGO) report is support for large landscape conservation. Federal Agency programs are increasingly focused on protecting ecosystem function at the broadest of scales. Regional landscape conservation initiatives are benefiting from new Federal funding sources and technical assistance. These initiatives are also leveraging the research and policy behind the AGO report to enhance their strategic efforts.

Over fifty environmental organizations, including The Nature Conservancy and The Appalachian Mountain Club, came together to release a Policy Agenda for Conserving New England's Forests. The report outlines actions to promote forest conservation as a way to help protect important ecosystem services, while also serving as an economic driver for the region. The report further concludes that landscape-scale preservation is the right approach, calling for protection efforts in several of the important landscapes highlighted in the AGO report, including the North Woods of Maine and the Connecticut River Watershed of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The report also highlights the important role that the US Forest Service's Forest Legacy Program will play in achieving landscape goals, echoing a similar recommendation made in the AGO report.

The use of the AGO report to create policies for the New England region shows its potential to improve landscape practice; hopefully, this is only the beginning.

Image Courtesy of www.maineguide.com

Earlier this fall, the Nature Conservancy, the Forest Society of Maine, and the Appalachian Mountain Club, added 10,000 acres to previously protected parcels near the town of Jackman, Maine. This acquisition is a small, but significant contribution to a conservation project which envisions the protection of two million acres of forested land in Northern Maine. The project will cost an estimated $30 million.

The acquisition comes after 25 years of work to protect the significant ecological features in the area. The Jackman landscape includes ecologically sensitive areas such as the Moose River, the No. 5 Mountain, and the No. 5 bog. The area, which will be called the Moose River--No. 5 Preserve, is valuable for its regional biodiversity, timber stands, and role in drawing eco-tourism and recreation to the region.

More information about planning your visit can be found here.

In the highly-developed (and growing) Northeast Megaregion, the transportation network is expansive. Existing roads are slated for widening and other upgrades in order to accommodate more drivers. New roadways are planned as residential development continues to reach out to the farthest edges of the region. Funding also goes towards rehabilitation and maintenance of aging streets and bridges. The upkeep, rehabilitation, and expansion of the region's road network can be disruptive to landscape processes, like migratory corridors for wildlife and historically or scenically significant views. Projects, if designed with best practices in mind, can help mitigate problems associated with how these transportation corridors were originally created, or provide funding to address important conservation priorities in the surrounding region.

In order to assess the potential of using transportation investment to address landscape conservation, and to help practitioners identify where are the challenges and opportunities in the region, America 2050 and Regional Plan Association have compiled spending data for all long-range transportation projects for the northeastern states. 

County-level transportation spending for capital and maintenance projects per year adjusted for percentage for urban development in each county.

Click to see methodology

Many landscape initiatives in the Northeast are already influencing how and where transportation infrastructure is being built. Their work is driven by concerns that road corridors fragment contiguous wildlife habitat, impair water quality, and diminish scenic views. Here are three initiatives, drawn from our inventory of 165, that are working across jurisdictions to create sustainable transportation networks:

Piedmont Environmental Council

The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) was founded in 1972 to preserve open spaces, viewsheds, historic landmarks, local agriculture, and clean air and water in the Shenandoah Valley and central Piedmont regions of greater Washington D.C. Its policies aim to preserve vital local economies, unique small towns, and treasured natural resources in the region.

PEC has developed a number of innovative strategies for accommodating growth while maintaining the region's special character. The initiative's recommendations for successful transportation planning, for example, consider how "high gas prices, traffic congestion, strain on the state budget, and concerns about pollution" impact the landscape. PEC's multifaceted approach to sustainable transportation planning includes community organizing, research, and strategic partnerships with local and national transportation-oriented groups.

Working with Reconnecting Virginia, a campaign led by the Coalition for Smarter Growth, PEC has effectively influenced the pace and scale of several Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) projects in northern Virginia. In 2009, PEC organized a campaign opposing unnecessary road widening projects along the Route 29 corridor. Five of these road expansion plans have been canceled as a result of PEC's advocacy.  But PEC is also thinking creatively about transportation planning.  PEC is working with VDOT and others to implement a new 30 year plan for the rapidly growing Northern Virginia metropolitan region. In Loudoun, a suburban area roughly 40 miles from Washington D.C., PEC has worked with traffic engineers and congestion specialists to successfully replace plans for an expensive four lane highway and interchange with a series of lower cost and lower impact roundabouts. Since their installation, congestion has diminished dramatically and the rural character of Loudoun has been preserved, all at a savings to tax payers.  

Click to see the Council's profile in the inventory

Journey Through Hallowed Ground

The Piedmont Environmental Council also supports Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG), a four state collaborative that raises local and national awareness about the Old Carolina Road from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia. The corridor is considered one of the most historically significant areas in the in the United States. Several Civil War battlefields, homes of nine U.S. presidents, eighteenth century farmsteads, and hundreds of African American and Native American heritage sites make this 180 mile long stretch an unparalleled historical resource in the nation.

JTHG is specifically focused on protecting the cultural resources of the landscape surrounding the Old Carolina Road. In its efforts to protect the region's historical character, it has confronted a number of transportation improvement projects that threaten the region. JTHG successfully advocated for National Scenic Byway designation as a way to limit widening and new road construction projects in the corridor. Communities along the byway corridor are encouraged to implement standards for "context sensitive design" as a way of preserving and improving the scenic beauty and safety of the roadway. JTHG believes that one step towards better transportation planning "is accomplished through earlier and better coordination of environmental concerns." 

While the region is home to nearly 50 individual National Heritage districts and 13 different National park sites, the scenic byway designation effectively weaves together these places into a more cohesive, region. The byway designation also gives the region a competitive advantage when applying for federal funds and it benefits from the U.S. Department of Transportation marketing campaign American Byways.

Click to see the National Heritage Area's profile in the inventory

Casco Bay Estuary Partnership

In 1990, the Casco Bay in southern Maine was designated an "estuary of national significance" by the EPA and it is included in the agency's National Estuary Program. Today, the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership (CBEP), a coalition of local, state and federal agencies, non-profits, local businesses, citizens, and universities, works to improve the environmental health of the bay while also encouraging compatible human uses.

Nearly 25% of Maine's population lives within the watershed, and it is considered one of the fastest growing areas of the state. This growth has led to a number of new road construction projects. These new capital projects as well as the scheduled rehabilitation of existing road infrastructure in the region have posed significant challenges to the Casco Bay Estuary. New transportation projects threaten to exacerbate the Casco Bay area's ongoing struggle to manage excess stormwater by adding to the impervious surface cover, which increases run-off. Road corridors also disrupt wildlife migration and encourage invasive plant species to proliferate in the road clearings.

CBEP has funded several pilot projects aimed at improving the health of the estuary through better transportation infrastructure design. On the Pleasant River in Gray, Maine, for example, CBEP funded a pilot project to test a new culvert design. As CBEP notes, "outdated and poorly designed culverts can limit fish passage, cause up‐stream sedimentation, and exacerbate flooding." The organization introduced an open‐bottom culvert design to replace the older infrastructure spanning the river. CBEP staff regularly monitors the new design in order to gather feedback about its potential for success in other parts of the watershed.

Click to see the Partnership's profile in the inventory

In the Northeast Megaregion, complex urban development patterns and high demand for land and resources pose particular challenges for conservation. RPA and America 2050 are working across political jurisdictions to produce a comprehensive inventory of landscape conservation initiatives that protect watersheds, wildlife habitat, and other natural processes at the appropriate geographic scale. The project was launched in November, 2010 with the support from The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area.

Visit the website to learn more: Northeast Landscape Conservation Atlas

Image Courtesy of The University of Maryland Center fof Environmental Sciences

The U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is working aggressively to restore federally-owned forests and grasslands at the landscape scale. May 2011 marked the completion of the first phase of the project, resulting in the release of the Watershed Condition Framework, Watershed Classification Guide, and the Watershed Condition Interactive Map. These materials evaluate the health and function of 15,000 watersheds across more than 139 million acres of National Forest System Land. Together, the materials represent the first national watershed assessment of the United States.

The goal of the project is to create a consistent and credible process for evaluating and improving the health of watersheds in national forests and grasslands. The interactive map accompanying the report displays the varying conditions of watersheds based on 12 indicators, including water quality, water quantity, and riparian/wetland vegetation, among others.

The methodology for evaluating the 15,000 watersheds in the project is based on a consistent classification system that allows for direct comparisons between watersheds. In addition to online maps and reports, shapefiles of the data are available for download.

The Watershed Condition Framework, Watershed Condition Classification Technical Guide, Watershed Condition Interactive Map, are available through the U.S. Forest Service Website.

Image Courtesy of USGS

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has recently completed a 27-year study of land cover change in the continental United States. The study, which employs land-use data gathered between 1973 and 2000, highlights landownership, among other factors, as a significant driver of land-use change. The USGS also plans to use the results to model scenarios of climate change and population growth.

The USGS conducted this study using the ecoregion as the unit of measure. According to the USGS, Ecoregions are territories with unique climate, flora and fauna, and resource potential. The results show that about 8.6% of land in the US has changed use at least once between 1973 and 2000. The amount of developed land increased by 33%, while the amount of forest and agricultural land decreased by 4%. This report confirms that urban growth, particularly in the Northeast Megaregion, where population densities are high, is a major obstacle to protecting the land and resources that are critical to landscape-scale processes. Data from the USGS study, along with numerous reports, is available for conservationists to use as tools for making informed planning decisions based on large-scale land use change factors.

Image Courtesy of Hancock Timber Resource Group

Steve E. Wright, the former commissioner of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, recently published an Op-Ed in the New York Times, weighing the value of wind energy against other natural resources. In his essay, The Not-So-Green Mountains, Wright, describes Green Mountain Energy's latest plan to construct wind turbines across 3 miles of ridgeline.

While these projects meet many of the environmental goals touted by alternative energy advocates, wind-energy development can compromise important ecosystem services and disrupt landscape-scale processes. The Green Mountain Energy's latest project cuts through the heart of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, a region long prized for its' traditional landscape and natural resources. In this region, the project will cause soil erosion, increase water pollution, compromise scenic views, and disrupt the migratory paths of wildlife, like moose and bobcats.

Landscape conservation initiatives in the Northeast Megaregion are working to understand the potential impact of wind turbines, and are collaborating with energy companies to develop best practices. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has created partnerships between government officials, conservation organizations, scientists, corporations, and tribes called Joint Ventures (JV). JVs, like the ones established for the Appalachian Mountains and Atlantic Coast regions, are conducting research to assess the impact that wind turbines have on the migratory paths of birds.

Read Steve E. Wright's Op-Ed here: Not-So-Green Mountains

Image Courtesy of the Open Space Institute

On August 24^th 2011, the Open Space Institute unveiled the Bayshore-Highlands Fund, a new resource for supporting conservation efforts in the Bayshore region of southern New Jersey, and the Highlands region of southeastern Pennsylvania. The grant was created with $5 million in seed money from the William Penn Institute and will be administered by the Open Space Institute.

The fund will provide money to organizations that are supporting "land conservation transactions that conserve wildlife habitat, provide new and expanded outdoor recreational access, protect clean water, or preserve farm and forestland," in these important landscapes. Projects by the Nature Conservancy in the Delaware Bayshore and the Lancaster County Conservancy in the Highlands have already been completed with money from the fund. Both of these projects have already acquired over 1000 acres of important habitat. The Bayshore-Highlands Fund will focus new resources to protect land in these landscapes.

See the official press release for more details on the Bayshore-Highlands Fund.

On October 5, 2011, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy released a new working paper entitled "America's Working Lands: Farm Bill Programs and Landscape-scale Conservation". The report, authored by Robert Bendick and Lynn Scarlett, Co-Chairs of the Coordinating Council for the Practitioners' Network of Large Landscape Conservation, explores the relationship between Farm Bill conservation programs and large landscape conservation. Specifically, the report addresses how well the current implementation of Farm Bill conservation programs support landscape-scale conservation and what administrative and legislative measures might enhance large-landscape conservation.

America's Working Lands emerged from discussions with practitioners and resource professionals focused on large landscape conservation. America 2050 and Regional Plan Association have joined in these discussions to form a Practitioners' Network for Large Landscape Conservation.

A link to the report is available by visiting the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy's website

In the Northeast Megaregion, complex urban development patterns and high demand for land and resources pose particular challenges for conservation. America 2050 and RPA are working across political jurisdictions to produce a comprehensive inventory of landscape conservation initiatives that protect watersheds, wildlife habitat, and other natural processes at the appropriate geographic scale. The project was launched in November, 2010 with the support from The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area.

Visit the website to learn more:Northeast Landscape Conservation