Project Name
Staying Connected Initiative Northern Linkages Transaction Grant Fund
Amount Requested
$100,000
Name of Regional Conservation Partnership Staying Connected Initiative (SCI)
RCP Website
Upload RCP Conservation Plan/map showing focus areas
Upload a file
[2 MiB allowed]
Region Size, Geography, and Focus Areas Provide a brief summary of the size, location, and
ecological significance of your RC.
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The Staying Connected Initiative (SCI) is focused on protecting and enhancing
landscape connectivity in 9 key “linkage areas” across the Northern AppalachianAcadian ecoregion. This region encompasses parts of 5 states, 3 provinces and
80+ million acres, and is the largest, most intact area of temperate broadleaf
mixed forest in this hemisphere. Within the SCI region, this proposal seeks to
focus on three connected linkages from VT, through northern NH and into
western Maine. This includes: the Northern Green Mountains, Worcester Range
to Northeast Kingdom, and the Northeast Kingdom to Northern New Hampshire
to Western Maine linkages.
Mission and Vision State the vision, mission and primary goals established by your RCP
Vision:
The ecosystems of the Northern Appalachian-Acadian region are well-connected
and sustain a rich diversity of native species, robust populations of wide-ranging
wildlife, and vibrant human communities.
SCI’s mission is to conserve, restore, and sustain critical landscape connections
across the Northern Appalachian-Acadian region for the benefit of nature and
people. Sustaining these linkages will help safeguard native wildlife and plants
from the impacts of habitat fragmentation and climate change, and support
human activities and values that are tied to the forested landscape. SCI works
across borders and at multiple scales to address these challenges. SCI brings
together diverse partners in the U.S. and Canada to advance conservation
science, land protection, community outreach, land use and transportation
planning, and policy initiatives to conserve and enhance landscape connectivity.
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Recent Achievements Describe your RCP’s key organizational and conservation achievements
in the past three years.
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Permanently protected more than 300,000 acres
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Provided technical assistance on land use planning to more than 40
municipalities
Conducted GIS modeling to identify priority locations in each linkage
Identified priority road segments and worked with state transportation
agencies
Conducted outreach to local groups, convening events, field trips and
workshops, to build community engagement around wildlife and
connectivity
Deployed citizen scientists and professional trackers to identify wildlife
hotspots
Engaged Canadian partners, who have adopted SCI tools and
approaches
Developed model conservation easement language addressing habitat
connectivity
Developed a framework for measuring progress on connectivity
conservation [750 characters left of 750]
Demand for and interest in a Donated Land and Easement Transaction Cost Fund based
landowner interest in donating low- and no-cost conservation easements and fee simple lands to
the land trusts and towns in your RCP. List how many properties your land trust and town
partners have in their pipeline flow/transaction lists, with estimated acreages, if available.
Tangible or anecdotal evidence from your partners (how many landowners have approached
them, difficulty finding transaction costs funding, other) would also be valuable during this
preliminary assessment period. [2000 characters left of 2000]
A transaction grant fund for donated land and easements will have a significant
impact on SCI’s success. Since 2009, SCI partners have permanently protected
more than 300,000 acres in the linkages, largely through purchase of easements
or fee. Currently, four large forest conservation projects are underway within the
RCP, funded primarily through the federal Forest Legacy program. These
projects will secure over 30,000 acres of core habitat. Despite these significant
achievements, there is much more work to do protecting lands that connect large
intact forest and habitat blocks in the region. Pursuing the donation of
conservation easements on many smaller parcels that connect these larger
blocks is critical to this effort. These connecting lands, while collectively powerful,
individually do not compete well for acquisition funding. Direct experience
indicates that supporting these transactions so that landowners can conserve at
no or little cost makes all the difference. In SCI’s early years, Vermont Land Trust
conserved 5,507 acres in Vermont linkages (31 properties), at a total cost of less
than $10/acre, leveraging an additional $156,000 in conservation transaction
funds. SCI land protection partners currently have a collective pipeline of at least
22 conservation easement donation (or >50% bargain sale) projects within the
proposed geography, totaling over 7,000 acres in parcel sizes ranging from 50
acres to 1,200 acres. What these properties have in common is the cumulative
impact their conservation will have on habitat connectivity across the Northern
Appalachian-Acadian region. Many projects are directly associated with either
the Cold Hollow to Canada (CHC) RCP or the four Forest Legacy-funded
acquisition projects, serving as both bridges across the linkage as well as critical
leverage for other conservation funding.
Preliminary Transaction Cost Fund Concept Describe your preliminary thoughts on how you
would structure your Donated Lands and Easement Fund within the framework set out in the
Program criteria and using, as helpful, ideas from other transaction cost funds. Be sure to
consider your particular circumstances, and craft criteria that will realistically work for you and
your partner. [3200 characters left of 3200]
SCI’s primary NGO land protection partners in Vermont, New Hampshire and
Maine (Vermont Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, The
Conservation Fund, and Northeast Wilderness Trust) and state agency partners
(e.g., VT Department of Fish & Wildlife) will serve as an advisory team to develop
the specific criteria, process, administrative structure, and timelines for
Transaction Grant Fund establishment and disbursement. A separate project
selection team of appropriate SCI partners will be established to avoid any undue
influence of land conservation partners in decision-making on potential grants for
their own projects. Potential projects will be solicited from smaller land trusts
within the proposed geography of the Fund, as well as from primary SCI
partners.
The Fund will be targeted to donated conservation projects in a subset of SCI
linkages – the Northern Green Mountains, Worcester Range to Northeast
Kingdom, and the Northeast Kingdom to Northern New Hampshire to Western
Maine linkages. The CHC RCP is embedded within the Northern Greens linkage
and is both a partner and an identified recipient of these funds (four projects in
the pipeline are CHC projects). These linkages were chosen by SCI partners for
the Fund because of the high degree of readiness of potential easement
donation projects, the ability to leverage multiple on-going large scale forestland
conservation projects in the Forest Legacy pipeline and the impact increased
conservation would have on these connected linkages.
In addition to detailed scientific analysis and mapping, SCI has developed model
conservation easement language for wildlife habitat connectivity, to ensure that
easement donations supported by a transaction grant fund will specifically
advance habitat connectivity in concrete ways.
If this pre-proposal is approved, SCI partners will develop more specific criteria
and process, using the established transaction funds developed in other RCPs in
New England as a starting place and adapt them to SCI’s specific needs in terms
of geography and goals.
Timeline Land deals do not happen overnight. Using your preliminary assessment of partner
readiness, please comment on when you would plan to launch the competitive grants program,
and how many applications you would anticipate receiving at that time from partners? If you had
another competitive grant round 12 months after the first, how many applications would you
anticipate? If you had a third grant round 12 months after that, how many applications would you
anticipate? [1000 characters left of 1000]
If SCI is awarded this grant, we will convene land protection partners and other
advisors quickly to collaboratively establish fund application guidelines, with a
goal of soliciting and reviewing a first round within three to six months of the
award. Given the pipeline of current prospects, it is anticipated that there are
enough mature projects to complete both an initial as well as follow-up funding
round in 2015-2016, with anticipated need in future years. The projected pipeline
in this proposal only includes prospects identified by primary SCI land
conservation partners . However, opening up the transaction fund to other local
land trusts and municipal and state partners within the linkages will increase the
pool seeking funding. Additionally, the very existence of a fund specifically
supporting transaction costs for donated easements should lead to additional
prospecting efforts by conservation organizations and new interest in donated
easements that will also deepen the pool.
Administration and Funding Identify the organization that would administer this fund and
describe how its operations would be funded. [2000 characters left of 2000]
Vermont Land Trust (VLT) will serve as the fiscal agent for the Transaction Cost
Fund, with other SCI partners participating in fund establishment and
implementation in the ways described above. An active SCI partner organization,
VLT is a statewide land trust that has conserved more than 525,000 acres, a
significant portion through donated conservation easements, during its 35 year
history. VLT, is a mature, staffed land trust, with established processes and
procedures to support the administration of these funds. However, this first
proposal will serve as a critical learning opportunity, and data on time and costs
associated with administration will be collected and will educate future
adjustments to the fund process, as well as additional fundraising efforts. The
longevity and success of a transaction fund for SCI conservation could rely on
additional support, as evidenced by the Great Bay Resource Protection
Partnership experience, for example.
Anticipated Outcomes Describe the anticipated role and impact of this program in your RCP
(e.g., conserved acreage, bringing partners together, landowner relations, other). Please address
both short- or long-term outcomes and how you anticipate this program dovetailing with other
efforts to achieve your conservation goals. [2000 characters left of 2000]
Short-term outcomes
 At lease XXX acres conserved in key connecting lands that are difficult to
conserve through other means
 Leveraging federal dollars for Forest Legacy on 30,000 acres of additional
connecting lands projects in the region
 Improved land-owner relations in a region where other conservation tools like
land-use planning are difficult given a general focus on private property rights
Renewed cooperation among SCI land protection partners. In recent years other
work areas of SCI have been comparatively well-funded (including land-use
planning and road barrier mitigation) and this grant would reinvigorate
centralized land protection work.
Long-term Outcomes
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SCI will be strengthened as a regional initiative focused on habitat connectivity
and SCI’s multi-faceted approach will be reinforced through more equal funding
Increased species persistence through improved movement of otherwise
isolated populations, and greater opportunities to re-establish populations after
local extirpations.
Improved genetic exchange throughout the ecoregion leading to greater genetic
variability and increased species resilience to environmental change.
Improved chances for successful dispersal of offspring across the landscape.
Wildlife populations that provide a wide range of opportunities for recreational
enjoyment will be enhanced through habitat protection actions.
Through education, direct outreach and local and regional press coverage of the
newly protected properties and connectivity efforts of the partners, increased
regional and international recognition of the importance of these linkages will be
achieved, which will garner further support for conservation and engender
additional future conservation opportunities.