Following Highstead’s 2016 report showing public funding for conservation fell by nearly half since 2008, this panel will showcase the most recent trends in public and private funding for land protection. From broad regional information to specific federal and state programs, the panelists will share their insights on where the funding landscape is headed and what the key policy issues are. Presentation by Dan Wright.
Pisgah State Park. Situated in part of southwestern New Hampshire known to Henry Thoreau as a region of immense pines and scattered old forests, this rugged region attracted Wildland preservation in the 1920s. Since the 1970s, as the park grew to nearly 14,000 acres managed by the Department of Resources and Economic Development, pressure mounted for timber harvesting and ATV and snowmobile use. An ongoing dispute has ensued over the expansion of the core Wildland, which currently stands at approximately 4,594 acres. Photograph copyright David R. Foster.
Pemigewasset Wilderness—White Mountain National Forest. Totaling approximately 45,000 acres that make it the largest of six federal wilderness areas on the WMNF, the “Pemi” was designated by the U.S. Congress in the 1984 New Hampshire Wilderness Act. Although intensely logged and burned from the 1880s into the 1940s, the area’s forests are recovering and rewilding remarkably across the topographically and ecologically diverse terrain that is accessible by a series of Wilderness trails. Photo copyright by Ken Gallagher.
Muddy Pond Wilderness Preserve lies in the suburbs of Kingston in southeastern Massachusetts about half an hour from Boston, New Bedford, and Cape Cod. Northeast Wilderness Trust is rewilding the landscape of Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens dotted with over two dozen vernal pools while connecting local students, residents, and visitors with wild nature and Wildland conservation. Photo copyright Natalia Boltukhova.
Whetstone Wood Wildlife Sanctuary, the product of the vision and Wildland conservation effort of Mason and Ina Phelps, is a nearly 3,000-acre area in north-central Massachusetts protected by Mass Audubon.
The Sanctuary connects with Wildlands on adjoining Wendell and Orange State Forests to form a nearly 11,000-acre block of forever wild landscape. Photo copyright Mass Audubon.
