Category: Initiative

WWF&C partners conduct a range of research projects to better understand the value and impacts of conservation on land and communities.

Launched by students at Middlebury College, the Wild Hometown Movement is an alliance of place-based, youth-powered environmental clubs and educational programs whose goal is to empower the next generation of environmental leaders. Working on a local scale, student leaders connect youth to the natural world in their college towns and their own hometowns by inspiring young people to be advocates and champions for natural landscapes in the future.

The ALPINE webinar series has been offered for free each spring and fall since 2019. These webinars showcase expertise in and collaborations with land conservation at higher education institutions.

The Charles H.W. Foster award recognizes academic institutions that demonstrate exemplary leadership in land conservation and aims to highlight their continued work as a model for others. The award is named for the distinguished conservation leader and mentor who, throughout a career of leadership in both the academic and public sectors, was a remarkable catalyst of conservation initiatives, serving as a key player in the establishment of both the Cape Cod National Seashore and the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge.

Each year, ALPINE convenes academic leaders, faculty and students for a day-long meeting focused on topics related to land protection efforts in academic settings. From techniques for permanently protecting academic lands to building relationships with community land trusts to new research and curriculum resources, the event provides inspiration and practical solutions suited for a wide range of practitioners and institutions.

In the Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Program, K-12 teachers and students collect ecological field data on trees, climate change, and forests within walking distance of their schools. Always accepting new schools, the program centers on (free) scientist-led teacher workshops that build skills in hands-on STEM fieldwork, data analysis, and local, real-world conservation problem-solving.

A Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities initiative that studies the long-term changes in forest ecosystems in New England with a focus on quantifying how changes in land use — including timber harvest, land conversion, and conservation — affect the benefits that landscapes provide now and in the future.

W&W Stewardship Science is a forest monitoring program designed for the landowner of New England through a step-by-step approach used to track changes in their woods over time. This program connects people throughout the region through a “citizen-science” forest monitoring program effort to help understand New England’s changing forests.

The ALPINE Summer Institute program is designed for students and young professionals to learn more about the theory and practice of large land conservation in the early twenty-first century. The program also offers participants the opportunity to meet and network with peers and leaders in the field.