Topic: Regional Conservation Partnership Network

The Southern New England Heritage Forest Partnership was formed to bring additional funding to the 1.49 million-acre unfragmented forest corridor stretching along the Connecticut and Rhode Island border to the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts, as the SNEHF has 76% forest cover and offers one of the last viable wildlife corridors from southern to northern New England.

The Staying Connected Initiative (SCI) seeks to conserve, restore, and enhance landscape connectivity across the Northern Appalachian/Acadian region of the U.S. and Canada for the benefit of nature and people. Sustaining connectivity safeguards native wildlife and plants from the impacts of habitat fragmentation and climate change, and supports human activities and values that are tied to the forested landscape.

The Taylor Valley Conservation Project works to preserve the working forest and farmland in the region of Vershire, Chelsea, Tunbridge, and Strafford towns, which have significantly less development and more ecological richness than most of the surrounding land.

The Thames River Basin Partnership, located in Connecticut and Massachusetts, protects 1)the region's agricultural and natural areas being threatened by land use changes, 2)ground and surface water quantity and quality being threatened and degraded by contamination, 3)the region's biodiversity, and works to improve the coastal zone resource conditions.

The Maine Mountain Collaborative is a coalition of statewide, regional and national conservation and forestry organizations convened to address new forest conservation challenges and opportunities in the Maine Appalachian Mountain Corridor. They bring a shared focus to raise awareness of the region and innovate new financial strategies to accelerate the pace and scale of forest conservation and restoration in one of the world’s most intact temperate forests.

Maine West is a partnership of local and regional organizations dedicated to addressing systemic rural challenges and enhancing community well-being in western Maine through increased collaboration across the economic, education, health, and conservation sectors.

River~Link is a collaborative land conservation initiative among numerous state, municipal and non-profit partners to create a trail and wildlife corridor connecting the Damariscotta and Marsh Rivers and running down the spine of the Boothbay Peninsula, Maine. Their goal is a permanently protected and publically accessible block of contiguous land totaling several thousand acres and thus able to support clean water, recreation and wildlife at a necessary scale.