This year’s Gathering featured 18 workshops by more than 60 faculty across six thematic tracks: advancing land justice, collaborative landscape conservation, fundraising and conservation finance, landowner and municipal outreach/engagement, partner engagement, and climate resiliency.
Expand the track titles below to view workshop descriptions.
Session A Workshops – 10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. — Addressing land justice and equity at scale
This workshop will present a general breakdown and understanding of the history of land ownership in the United States and the issues specifically present for people of African descent as they relate to conservation, legislation, access to land, and ownership. The presenter will discuss his experiences with advocacy, partnering with other conservation groups, and concerns that may not be visible to the majority demographic. This presentation will include a timeline from the 1820s until now of land ownership legislation. View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn: An understanding of historical context, vocabulary, and nomenclature, as well as strategies and best practices models.
Speaker: Christopher Carr
Track: Advancing Land Justice
The Appalachians are a major natural, cultural, and climate landscape that stretches from Alabama to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Considered a priority landscape of the RCP Network since 2017, the region benefits from outsized investments from NGOs, state and federal agencies, and foundations. Many of these entities want to seize on the opportunity to conserve the unique biodiversity and carbon sequestration potential of this landscape while also advancing equity and climate justice. This workshop will serve as a forum to explore overlapping objectives and present a challenge to all to determine if tangible progress is being made.
Attendees will learn:
• About the major conservation initiatives in the Appalachians and how they are advancing biodiversity conservation, equity, and climate resilience.
• Ways conservation organizations and foundations are measuring success.
• How groups are considering collaborating in new ways.
• How audience members can get involved.
Speakers: Katie Allen, Heather Clish, Heather Furman, Andrew Milliken, Sacha Spector
Moderator: Tim Purinton
Track: Collaborative Landscape Conservation
A watershed is a critical scale for regional collaboration, especially when tackling climate change impacts around water, such as flooding and drought, which do not respect political boundaries. Watershed scale collaboration is being exemplified by RCPs and additional partnerships across the region. In this workshop, speakers will showcase stories from existing watershed-scale collaboratives in Massachusetts that are working to advance climate adaptation, landscape conservation, and ecological restoration. They will also introduce their recently released Watershed-Scale Climate Collaboration Outreach Toolkit, including a StoryMap and case studies on centering racial equity and authentic community engagement in collaborative projects. They hope these resources and stories can be inspirational to other regions hoping to build support for watershed-scale collaboration. View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• Why watershed scale is critical for climate adaptation.
• About regional collaboratives across Massachusetts and hear about advancing collaborative landscape conservation and restoration and center equity.
• About creating a toolkit to inspire watershed/regional collaboration.
Speakers: Melissa Ocana, Stefanie Covino, Danica Belknap
Track: Climate Resiliency
The current land use and conservation systems are inadequate to address the complexities caused by a changing climate and the resulting catastrophic weather events in New England and around the world. The climate crisis has exposed a need for a dramatically different approach to conservation, one that breaks down silos and values the inextricable connections between land, water, and air, and all living beings, human and wild.
During this panel discussion, scientists, conservationists, and policymakers will come together to discuss the need for an integrated approach to conservation that connects working and wild forests, farmlands, and seacoasts with the future of all communities — urban to rural, human, and wild. Panelists will look at the impacts of climate change, both seen and unseen, and share strategies to help RCPs and conservation leaders support a holistic, hopeful approach to conservation that protects forests and farmland and the communities that depend on them for survival.
View the presentation here.
Attendees will Learn:
• How RCP and NGO leaders can develop climate-resilient conservation strategies based on scientific studies, legislative initiatives, and on-the-ground examples that demonstrate the impact of thoughtful integration and collaboration.
• Strategies and actions that can be brought back to their communities to help advance conservation initiatives in the context of today’s urgent climate concerns.
Speakers: David Foster, Brian Donahue, Amy Sheldon, Stephanie Cooper, Mark Wamsley
Moderator: Liz Thompson
Track: Landowner and Municipal Engagement and Outreach/Climate Resiliency
Staff and partners of the New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project will share recently launched work to help woodland owners implement climate-smart forest practices that protect ecosystem health, biodiversity, and support livelihoods. Through a $30 million, five-year grant to the New England Forestry Foundation from the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Program, more than 20 companies and organizations spanning the region will explore how sustainable harvesting of forest products can contribute to climate solutions while promoting forest function and resilience. By providing incentives for practices, the project will seek to sequester and store more carbon in the forest as well as in long-lived products such as mass timber, with the potential to address our communities’ needs for affordable housing. Speakers will discuss the complexities of building this pilot partnership that seeks to reach “underserved producers” and bring together foresters, landowners, loggers, Indigenous partners, climate scientists, carbon verification experts, sawmill operators, architects, builders, and stakeholders from land trusts and urban and rural communities. View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• How do we integrate the need for conserving more wildlands while utilizing a “commodities”-focused grant for New England?
• The best forestry combines benefits to wildlife/biodiversity and climate mitigation and adaptation, but in this grant, the outcomes are carbon-based. How do we ensure the end results address the needs of diverse people and nature?
• New England is a mix of landowner audiences with different goals and priorities for their land. How can outreach engage both large commercial forest owners as well as smaller-acreage family woodland owners, including underserved populations who may not have been able to access funding programs in the past?
Speakers: Lisa Hayden, Jeff Spiritos, John Daigle
Moderator: Jennifer Shakun
Track: Partner Engagement/Climate Resiliency
Traditionally, conservation planning has neglected integrating the needs of people, especially underserved and marginalized populations, into land protection conversations, analyses, and initiatives. For landscape-scale conservation to be effective, equitable, and beneficial for ecosystems and communities, there is a need to engage diverse organizational networks and partners to create a landscape that works for more people on more levels. Diverse partners in the Kittatinny Ridge Conservation Landscape came together in 2022/2023 to design a more holistic and strategic approach to guiding conservation efforts across an area covering more than 2 million acres. In the process, they identified a holistic framework for inclusive conservation, aiming to identify opportunities for conservation with multiple benefits. Attendees will hear from members involved in the inclusive approach in the Kittatinny Ridge Conservation Landscape and learn that conservation can and should do better for all.
While concepts like diversity, equity, inclusion, and access are being discussed in the conservation world, they often fall flat when it comes to implementation. Attendees will learn three major takeaways to incorporate and actualize the intention more fully:
• To better understand that land protection can safeguard critical ecological resources while addressing needs related to access, equity, and capacity building.
• To think more holistically when considering long-term conservation efforts and planning.
• To understand concrete ways to define and incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion, and access into long-term, strategic conservation planning at the landscape scale.
Speakers: Zak Brohinsky, Liz Kelly
Track: Collaborative Landscape Conservation
Session B Workshops – 1:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. — RCPs leading and learning from one another
As conservationists, we know nature is a respite, a place to go when we’re stressed and need healing. Two RCPs in rural Maine are responding to community needs by making the tangible benefits of land conservation (scenic vistas, clean water, outdoor recreation, etc.) more accessible to communities and people who have historically not been connected to nature. The High Peaks Initiative is connecting asylum seekers with nature through outdoor experiences while providing educational and economic opportunities for people. The Maine West partnership is building opportunities for youth, older adults, and people in recovery to engage with nature and meet others in a supportive community to promote health and healing outdoors. Following the presentations, the presenters will discuss what RCPs can draw from their work so that more people in more places can experience the community benefits of conservation and access to nature.
View the Connecting to Community Needs intro presentation here.
View the Maine West Connecting to Community Needs presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• How to identify community needs that might benefit from engagement with nature.
• How to start building authentic relationships with non-traditional (or non-conservation) community organizations whose work and clients can benefit from their conservation work.
Speakers: Simon Rucker, Mike Wilson
Moderator: Karen Strong
Track: Advancing Land Justice
The region faces unprecedented challenges: the climate crisis, insect apocalypse, and biodiversity collapse/loss that call for innovative, creative methods to accelerate conservation in response to these crises. This presentation will focus on initiatives to advance conservation, biodiversity, and connectivity. Panelists will discuss how the initiatives engage with individuals at various scales – regional conservation partnerships, individual organizations, and individual landowners. Participants will learn how they can implement these strategies in their region.
Two examples that will be discussed are Aspetuck Land Trust’s Green Corridor Initiative (Fairfield County, Connecticut) which links green spaces within more developed residential and urban areas to the protected natural areas they steward, and Follow the Forest, developed at the Housatonic Valley Association, which works to protect and connect a nationally significant climate corridor extending from southern New York to Canada.
View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• The power of regional conservation visions for work at all scales.
• The necessity of connecting with groups at different scales to achieve their conservation visions.
• How these strategies can be implemented in other regions.
Speakers: Julia Rogers, Connie Manes, Adam Goodman, Mary Ellen Lemay
Track: Collaborative Landscape Conservation
The Northeast Mid-Atlantic Partnership for Forests and Water is a new cross-boundary collaboration. It advances regional priorities, provides measurable, on-the-ground outcomes for forest health and water quality, and aims to restore priority forest landscapes to improve water quality and protect source water. The partnership footprint includes 13 states, from Maine to West Virginia and Ohio.
The Northeast Partnership aims to conserve, restore, and enhance forest landscapes in priority watersheds across the partnership footprint, develop coordinated goals and messaging for use with forest landowners, partners, and other stakeholders, and create alignment between forest and water sectors with the goal of maximizing resources and outcomes.
View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• About the current and future partners engaged with this partnership.
• About geographies impacted, and planned implementation activities and future projects.
• Where to find available and planned resources.
• How to get involved in the partnership.
Speakers: Annica McGuirk, Kira Jacobs
Track: Collaborative Landscape Conservation
The Southern New England Heritage Forest Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) provides an informative case study of the Natural Resources Conservation Service RCPP, with broad applications for complex, public-private collaborations. Running from 2017 to 2023 and beyond, this multi-state effort protected critical family woodlands in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island and facilitated improved stewardship on thousands of forested acres.
Following an introduction to this first-generation RCPP, a panel discussion will allow participants to share lessons learned and perspectives that can be applied to similar projects. Despite many obstacles, this project will ultimately accomplish most of its goals. Which parts of the project were most successful, and which were most challenging? How can NRCS and private partners work together most effectively? Project leaders will share suggestions for others considering the RCPP program and those working across regional boundaries and organizational divides.
View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• About the NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program.
• From a case study of a multi-state, public-private partnership, including how a planned project actually plays out.
• About approaches for working through conservation project challenges.
Speakers: Lois Bruinooge, Carol Grasis, Marina Capraro, Kate Sayles
Moderator: Christopher Riely
Track: Collaborative Landscape Conservation/Fundraising and Conservation Finance
With the majority of our forestland in private ownership, maintaining forest health and resilience relies on the decisions and actions of private landowners. Cold Hollow to Canada (CHC) has addressed this challenge by creating a program that convenes neighboring landowners in high-priority forest blocks who together learn strategies for maintaining forest resilience, receive technical assistance, and when possible, are connected with funding opportunities to put plans into action.
Cold Hollow to Canada has been asked by numerous groups– including the RCP network– for detailed information on how to initiate similar programs, methods for running them, and guidance on how to make similar initiatives successful elsewhere. Thanks to funding from the High Meadows Fund and a Vermont Watershed Grant, CHC has developed an online “Woodlots Toolkit” to enable adoption by conservation groups in other geographies. In this workshop, presenters will share this resource and its intended use.
View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• An understanding of the role and function of the Cold Hollow to Canada Woodlots Program for private forest stewardship.
• About the tools and resources available through the Woodlots Toolkit.
• Ways to adapt the toolkit to other geographic settings and socio-ecological contexts.
Speakers: Monica Przyperhart, Nancy Patch
Track: Landowner and Municipal Engagement and Outreach
Session C Workshops – 2:45 p.m. – 4 p.m. — Research, resources, and new Ideas to support your work
With the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020 ensuring $900 million annually be disbursed nationally through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the Commonwealth and its partners, the Appalachian Mountain Club, The Nature Conservancy, and MassAudubon, created an education and outreach program to help communities benefit from this increased funding. These organizations hosted listening sessions, workshops, and meetings to hear from a diverse group of stakeholders on how funds could be maximized to equitably serve diverse audiences, including Environmental Justice communities.
This presentation will present lessons learned on how we can promote inclusion of and encourage participation by DEI populations in the grant process. We will also discuss ways land trusts can effectively partner with municipalities and Environmental Justice communities to encourage stateside LWCF-funded projects.
View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• How to increase participation in grant programs from DEI populations.
• How municipalities, land trusts, and other non-profit organizations can partner to get more land protection done on a local scale with increased federal funding.
• How state agencies and land trust partners can work together to improve federal grant programs for all.
Speakers: Melissa Cryan, Kristen Sykes
Track: Fundraising and Conservation Finance/Advancing Land Justice
Restoring old-growth characteristics to our ecologically young forests offers restoration opportunities across the landscape matrix. There are active and passive approaches to restoring old-growth characteristics that are equally important and complimentary of one another. In order to implement different types of forest management across the landscape, family forest owners must be engaged, as they own the plurality of forests in the Northeast. This workshop presents active and passive practices to restore old-growth characteristics and shares the preliminary results of survey research on family forest owners’ attitudes toward the passive, or “wildlands” approach to forest management. View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• The benefits of having old growth characteristics on the landscape.
• The complementary active and passive practices for restoring old growth characteristics.
• Which segments of family forest owners are most interested in passive forest management and the ways they’re most interested in implementing it.
Speakers: Paul Catanzaro, Lina Clifford
Track: Collaborative Landscape Conservation
RCP and conservation leaders often grapple with the question of how to integrate working forests with wildlands protection. In this session, authors of the recently released Wildlands in New England report will look at 1) why Wildlands protection is vital for climate change, biodiversity, and human health; 2) where RCPs can look to find the best opportunities for Wildlands protection; and 3) how RCPs can make Wildlands part of an integrated strategy to achieve landscape-scale conservation that also addresses the urgent needs and interests of their local communities. This session will feature individual examples that demonstrate the important role of Wildlands in broader conservation efforts.
View the presentation here.
Attendees will Learn:
• Where the current Wildlands are and how they overlap with existing RCPs.
• Where there are opportunities to expand Wildlands protection.
• How Wildlands conservation can be used as a strategy to help RCPs achieve goals, such as attracting more funding, increasing landowner participation, and expanding the RCP’s boundaries.
Speakers: David Foster, Jamie Sayen, Liz Thompson
Track: Collaborative Landscape Conservation
Building local support is critical for most RCPs – this requires strong relationships with community groups, municipal boards and officials, donors, residents, and landowners. These strong relationships start with empathetic communication grounded in the values of the people you serve and ultimately wish to engage in your RCP’s vision, mission, and goals.
During the session, we’ll explore the need to build systems of empathy for communications, how narratives, or shared interpretations of the world, can be wielded strategically and collectively, and what collective narratives are already being built as we work toward an integrated conservation approach that lifts up wildlands, woodlands, farmlands, seacoasts, and communities as integral to building a clean, just, and equitable future.
This hands-on workshop provides a model for effective, empathetic communications and an opportunity to apply this model to your organization using the tools and resources offered during the session.
View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• A model for communications strategy and narrative development that is easy for RCPs and non-governmental organizations to implement and scale up (or down) based on resource availability and capacity.
• The foundation needed for a communications strategy and plan that can be implemented with confidence and ease.
• A clear way forward for developing strategic and collective narratives that help build the relationships needed to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives.
Speakers: Marissa Latshaw, Shane Rogers
Track: Landowner and Municipal Engagement and Outreach
Learn how the Lakes Region Conservation Trust (a small regional land trust) and the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative (a small renewable energy non-profit organization/cooperatively owned utility) partnered together and used marginal lands to create renewable energy for local income-eligible families. The workshop will discuss other innovative ways to create renewable energy on lands owned by environmental organizations. There will also be an interactive element to the workshop to spearhead new ideas and to test participants’ preconceptions of renewable energy and where it belongs in our landscape. View the presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• How to creatively add small-scale solar energy on conservation land.
• How to build new partnerships to create programs that support underserved communities.
Speakers: Lisetta Silvestri, Angi Francesco
Track: Climate Resiliency
Over the past several decades, a limited number of Canadian land trusts (and related land conservation non-governmental organizations and potential funders) have shown a growing interest in regional collaboration to advance regional land protection, wildlife habitat conservation, and related goals. Recently, interest in the idea has accelerated, with an added emphasis put on efforts to address climate change mitigation and adaptation-related challenges. This session will consider several efforts to initiate and sustain “Regional Conservation and Climate Partnerships” that are being conceived or growing across Canada. A group of Canadian and American conservationists will discuss what the Canadians have already learned and hope to learn in the future from the emergence of RCPs in the United States. They will also discuss what the Canadians are learning in their own country that should be of interest to their American counterparts. View the Introduction to Canadian RCPs presentation here.
Attendees will learn:
• How the idea of regional collaboration has evolved in the last several decades across the northeast US border with Quebec through a series of collaborations now known as the “Staying Connected Initiative.” View the presentation here.
• How regional collaboration plays out on the ground in Southern Quebec through the Corridor Appalachien, a regional initiative that has recently received backing from the Canadian federal government. View the presentation here.
• How the idea of Regional Conservation and Climate Partnerships (RCCPs) is being considered for propagation across Canada with the assistance of the new Centre for Land Conservation (a new organization promoting private land conservation across the country). View the presentation here.
Speakers: John Lounds, Sarah Winterton, Thom Unrau, Melanie Lelievre, Phil Huffman
Moderator: Jim Levitt
Track: Climate Resiliency/Collaborative Landscape Conservation
