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Utility-scale solar energy can be a tool for conservation, economic development
To put it plainly, these proposed projects will not destroy the natural environment nor negatively impact the watershed if they are approved and built in line with Linn County’s existing ordinance for solar energy projects. In fact, with a diverse mix of native grasses and wildflowers cultivated on-site, these proposed projects can significantly improve water quality, reduce soil erosion, and provide habitat for wildlife and pollinators, going a long way to restore Iowa’s landscape.
Furthermore, by using wildlife-style fencing instead of traditional chain link fencing, these sites can be a home for upland nesting birds such as ring-necked pheasants, quail, and other grassland birds like the dickcissel…
What’s the big deal with a few degrees?
A few degrees is no big deal. Outside temperature can go up or down by that much in a single hour, right? So why are scientists so worked up about such a little change?
The forest carbon cooperative: A first of its kind
Ten landowners, managing 7,500 acres of forestland in the northern Green Mountains, are part of the first forest carbon cooperative in the US. In partnership with Cold Hollow to Canada, Vermont Land Trust (VLT) has helped these landowners enroll in the voluntary carbon market and find buyers for the carbon credits.
Some businesses, individuals, and institutions buy carbon credits as a way to reduce the impact of the pollution they create. In working together, the landowners were able to spread out the costs of participating in the carbon market, which has been a barrier for owners of small woodlots…
Public Service Announcement mentioning climate change
The animated Public Service Announcement (PSA) for the Black Swamp Conservancy was produced by David Bloom (Director), Carl Northrup, Alexa Mahajan, and Tynea Swinton at Bowling Green State University in Professor Bonnie Mitchell’s Collaborative Digital Arts Development class. The Conservancy’s executive director worked with the students on the script for the PSA.
The land trust recently held a drive-in movie screening of environmental documentaries and screened it as part of that. They are also working to get the local PBS station to run some pro-bono time for them.
Welcome to the Resilient Land Mapping Tool
Newly available forest carbon datasets allow conservation organizations to estimate the impact of land protection projects on carbon storage and sequestration. Step-by-step guidance walks through how to assess current and future carbon on a single property, or across an entire service area, using data that is freely available through The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient Land Mapping Tool.
Six simple steps: Evaluate the contribution of your land protection project to a low carbon future
Newly available forest carbon datasets allow conservation organizations to estimate the impact of land protection projects on carbon storage and sequestration. The Open Space Institute (OSI) developed this guide to help groups that protect and steward land determine how much carbon a forest stores today, and how much additional carbon could be sequestered by 2050.
The step-by-step guidance walks through how to assess current and future carbon on a single property, or across an entire service area, using data that is freely available through The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient Land Mapping Tool.
AFT welcomes solar and conservation specialist
American Farmland Trust welcomes Ethan Winter as the Northeast Solar Specialist. In this role, Winter will work across regional and national programs to help set and implement AFTs strategy for solar energy generation and farmland conservation. Winter joins AFT with an extensive background in solar development throughout the Northeast.
Spotlight: Suzanne Simard
Following up on the Western NY Land Conservancy’s webinar, you might want to read Dr. Simard’s book. Simard writes — in inspiring, illuminating, and accessible ways — how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved, how they perceive one another, and how they have learned to adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, and remember the past…
What is conservation’s impact on climate?
Through conservation and stewardship, the Trust works every day with the community to help stem the negative impacts from rising greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, the Trust’s work has taken on urgency related to Climate impacts, with our focus on conservation and stewardship focused on mitigation and restoration.
Finding the Mother Tree: An evening with Suzanne Simard
From the world’s leading forest ecologist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another and to other living things in the forest — a moving, deeply personal journey of discovery.
Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; she’s been compared to Rachel Carson, hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is dazzling and profound. Her work has influenced filmmakers (the Tree of Souls of James Cameron’s Avatar) and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide.