About Connect the Connecticut
What can we do today to ensure a sustainable future for the Connecticut River watershed? Connect the Connecticut is a collaborative effort to identify the best places to start: a network of priority lands and waters that can support wildlife and natural systems, with multiple pathways for migration, restoration, development, and conservation.
Connect the Connecticut is supported by The North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative, an applied science and management partnership that builds upon a long history of conservation in the region to unite stakeholders around common goals for sustaining natural and cultural resources, and to develop tools and strategies to achieve those goals in the face of threats and uncertainty.
New guide on Recommended Practices for Landscape Conservation Design highlights Connect the Connecticut
/in News /by b.macdonaldWondering how to develop, facilitate, or participate in a landscape conservation design (LCD) project? The new Recommended Practices for Landscape Conservation Design guide provides a road map for practitioners who are just venturing into this collaborative process based on lessons learned from landscape-scale projects across the country, including Connect the Connecticut. The guide contains five sections covering […]
Federal grant of nearly $5M benefits Connecticut River watershed
/in News /by b.macdonaldA new $4.98 million federal grant from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program will support projects in four states to improve water quality, wildlife habitat, and climate resilience in partnership with private landowners. The projects were selected with guidance from Connect the Connecticut and other regional conservation tools to maximize their collective conservation […]
Kestrel Land Trust acquires 161 acres of “core area” in Pelham, Mass.
/in News /by b.macdonaldThe Kestrel Land Trust and the Town of Pelham Conservation Commission have acquired a 161-acre parcel of land in Pelham, Mass., that will serve as a valuable natural asset for both people and wildlife. The Buffam Brook Community Forest, which lies within a high priority terrestrial “core area” in the Connect the Connecticut landscape conservation […]
Connect the Connecticut provides guidances for sound investments to protect Long Island Sound
/in News /by b.macdonaldInformation from the landscape conservation design for the Connecticut River watershed is being used to identify candidate projects for a grant program focused on reducing runoff into Long Island Sound by protecting private forestlands threatened by development. Habitat maps for a six bird species, including wood thrush, that were developed as part of the Connect […]
Audubon Connecticut uses Connect the Connecticut to make the case for conservation in Eightmile River watershed
/in News /by b.macdonaldAudubon Connecticut has used data from the landscape conservation design to help justify funding a project as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ In Lieu Fee program, established to support mitigation projects in the state to enhance and preserve aquatic habitats. Read the full story on the North Atlantic LCC website.
FWS Director presents award to Connect the Connecticut leadership team
/in News /by b.macdonaldAt the annual Northeast region employee appreciation ceremony, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe presented the John S. Gottschalk Partnership Award to the group of Fish and Wildlife Service staff who were instrumental in leading the Connect the Connecticut landscape conservation design project. The award is presented to a group of employees who […]
Charting a course for the Connecticut River
/in News /by b.macdonaldWhether planning a canoe trip or a conservation project along the Connecticut River, it helps to look at the big picture. North Atlantic LCC Communications Coordinator Bridget Macdonald reflects on the importance of efforts that bring partners together to share responsibility for taking care of the things they value collectively, like Connect the Connecticut, in […]
Mass Live calls Connect the Connecticut a “major conservation vision”
/in News /by b.macdonaldConnect the Connecticut is gaining attention for bringing large datasets and diverse partners together to achieve a shared vision. In a June 2016 news story, the No. 1 news source for Western Massachusetts called Connect the Connecticut a “major conservation vision” that will help partners across the four-state Connecticut River watershed “prioritize and coordinate land acquisition efforts” in the face of […]
Editorial calls Connect the Connecticut a “breakthrough”
/in News /by b.macdonaldIn an April editorial, the Hampshire Gazette praised the Connect the Connecticut project for bringing different groups involved in protecting the Connecticut River watershed onto the same page by pinpointing the places most in need of conservation. Read the editorial, Data can aid conservation efforts, on the Daily Hampshire Gazette website.
Hampshire Gazette goes behind the scenes of Connect the Connecticut
/in News /by b.macdonaldThe Northampton, Mass., -based daily newspaper serving Hampshire and Franklin counties, featured the Connect the Connecticut project in a two-page spread for its April 2016 Environment section. Reporter Fran Ryan spoke with several members of the project’s Core Team for the story, including Bill Labich of Highstead Foundation, Patrick Comins of Connecticut Audubon, and Kim Lutz of The Nature […]
Connect the Connecticut recognized by FWS as model for strategic habitat conservation
/in News /by b.macdonaldConnect the Connecticut is gaining national attention as an exemplar of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s vision for addressing increasingly complex conservation challenges in the face of climate change. The Service’s approach, called Strategic Habitat Conservation, involves strategic, accountable, and adaptive actions grounded in science, and greater collaboration with diverse partners across larger spatial and temporal scales. In […]
Connecting the Connecticut: Partners team up to develop a roadmap for conserving the Connecticut River watershed
/in News /by b.macdonaldEncompassing New England’s largest river system, the Connecticut River watershed provides important habitat for a diversity of fish, wildlife and plants from such well-known species as bald eagle and black bear to threatened and endangered species such as piping plover and dwarf wedgemussel. The watershed is also a source of clean water, recreation, food, jobs […]