Preliminary Draft 06/15/11 Bill Labich, Highstead

Wildlands and Woodlands Partnership Meeting

“Pathways to Doubling the Pace of Conservation in New England”

June 1, 2011, 1-4pm

Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA

Draft Meeting Minutes

Attendees (in-person): Whitney Beals, New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF); Elisa Campbell, Sierra Club; Kevin Case, Land Trust Alliance; Marilyn Castriotta; Mike Gildesgame, Appalachian Mountain Club; Clarisse Hart, Harvard Forest; Stephen Johnson, Sage Advisors; Bill Labich, Highstead; Bob Perschel, Forest Guild; Heidi Ricci, Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS); Bob Wilber, MAS; Celia Riechel, Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA); Robert O’Connor, EEA; David B. Kittredge, University of Massachusetts; Keith Ross, Landvest; Sarah Wells, North Quabbin Regional Land Partnership; Leigh Youngblood, Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust; Carolyn Fine Friedman, Fine Family Foundation and NWT; Kathy Fallon Lambert, Harvard Forest; Margot Burns, The Lower CT River and Coastal Region & Land Trust Exchange; Christopher Riely, Providence Water Department/ The Forest Guild; Jeremy Goetz, US Fish and Wildlife Service; Steve Falivene, Harvard Extension; Carol Buckheit, Highstead; Erin Snook, Sudbury Valley Trustees; Jill Weiss, Antioch University New England; Terry Miller, US Forest Service; Gwen Kozlowski, Americorps/Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust; Rob Rich, Peterborough, NH; Mike Fleming, MA Department of Conservation and Recreation; Brian Hall, Harvard Forest; Tyler Van Fleet, MassConn Sustainable Forest Partnership; Al Futterman, Nashua River Watershed Association (NRWA); Cara Sanford, Americorps/NRWA; Jim Mitchell, Mahoosuc Land Trust; Donald MacIver, Littleton Conservation Trust; Gianna Gioioso, Harvard Extension School; Emily Boss, Franklin Land Trust; Jon Anderson, Aton Forest; Lynn Peterson, Woodstock Conservation Commission; Dee Robbins, Americorps/MassLIFT; Jody Cologgi, Highstead; John McKlaren, Highstead; and, Mark Goetz, Northeast Connecticut Council of Governments.

Attendees (online): Brent Mitchell, QLF Atlantic Center for the Environment; Sharon Rooney, Cape Cod Commission; Heather McElroy, Cape Cod Commission; Laury Saligman, Conservation Collaboratives; Andrew Rohrbaugh, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; Sophie Zyla; Julie Renaud Evans, Sustainable Forest Futures; Mark Berry, Downeast Lakes Land Trust; Eric Smith, Montachusett Regional Planning Commission; and, Jane Winn, Berkshire Environmental Action Team;

1. Welcome and introductions: Bill Labich welcomed the group and thanked Keith Ross and Heidi Ricci for providing refreshments. Meeting goals are to identify measurable ideas that people want to champion, with a focus on conversation acres, funding/policy, and building capacity for further conversation.

2. Minutes: The 12/8/10 meeting minutes were approved without changes.

3. Presentations:

a) Mark Anderson from The Nature Conservancy: Key findings from “Conservation Status of Fish, Wildlife, and Natural Habitat in the Northeast Landscape”:

Growth of private conservation land is substantial; our region’s forests are on average only 60 years old and are primarily small trees 6” in diameter; lots of evidence that secured land leads to older forests; we are not protecting river wetlands at the rate we are losing them to conversion, but tidal marshes have shown the least decline; we’re conserving steep, granite, rocky land well—but not limestone; we’ve significantly altered our stream networks—once hugely connected, not any more; overall, we are doing well with species protection but need more work on “high responsibility” species. The full report is available online.

b) Kathy Fallon Lambert reported on the New England Policy Group’s progress on identifying key issues for accelerating conservation using a New England-wide approach. The group has focused on a suite of federal programs for 2012-13: Increase support for the Forest Legacy program and full funding for Community Forest Program, conservation easement incentives for private landowners, take advantage of the America’s Great Outdoors (AGO) process to direct federal budgets. Next steps: create a rapid-response document to tell our story for FY 2012.

c) Kevin Case (Land Trust Alliance): Measuring and Building Capacity. Described tools for measuring impact—National Land Trust Census, targeted program evaluation, participant evaluations. Key finding: more staff= more conservation.

d) Tyler Van Fleet reported on the Conservation Awareness Index (CAI) as an instrument for measuring private landowner conservation awareness. Using CAI in a section of western MA, survey of landowners showed low acquaintance with info resources, low knowledge and little experience with conservation awareness. CAI is an effective research tool and can be used to drive outreach and strategy efforts.

e) Julie Renaud Evans reported on Community Forests (CF). The CF model: the community owns the forest and it participates in forest management; benefits are tied to community priorities; conservation easements. CF linked to economic developments: water supply, land use planning, and protecting gateways.

4. Break out groups met and reported back on their suggestions and priorities for future action/collaboration (for a more complete description see the attached June 1, Break-out Session Notes):

a) Capacity: Top priorities included: Increasing land trust media advocacy and increasing a media presence; Increasing private sector involvement—businesses for wildlands and woodlands.

b) Acres: Top priorities included increasing active management by municipalities; organizing small regional information workshops for small landowners; joining watershed protection interests with land conservation goals.

c) Policy/Funding: Top priorities included tracking public and private funding over time; promoting collaborative programs.

5. Next steps: Bill Labich will compile the information and draw some conclusions and identify commonalities for possible working groups for key issues. He will then circulate the document to the group for feedback and provide some capacity, if there is demand, for collaborative projects.

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