Every extreme weather event underscores our world’s new reality: climate change is happening now. In recent years, the President, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and scientists from across the country have called on the land conservation community to mobilize around an accepted fact — land protection is a national priority for ensuring that natural systems, and the species and humans that depend on them, will continue to thrive.
The guide, developed by the Open Space Institute and its partners, demonstrates how land protection can strategically increase the chances that natural systems will adapt to climate change by:
- Identifying Hallmarks of a Resilient Network. Harnessing clear, practical instructions, the guide reveals the four key characteristics underlying climate resilience.
- Providing a Step-by-Step Guide to Improve Mapping and Special Databases. Through screen shots and hands-on exercises, the guide walks users through the steps of assessing a property’s climate resilience in a regional context.
- Offering a Useful Case Study. Using a real-world example, the guide demonstrates how land trusts have successfully applied these principles to protect acres that count.
Click through the guide below for additional resources for outreach and communication; conservation planning; web-based tools; sources of funding; and other information gleaned from organizations including the Open Space Institute, the Land Trust Alliance, and the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative. View a two page summary here.
Browse the Climate Guide
Part 1: Concepts Part 2: How To Part 3: Case Study Glossary and Resources
“Adding the resilience data has helped us assure people their investments are sound. We can show scientific evidence that supports our work, and demonstrate compellingly why we’re deciding to protect specific lands.”
~ Dan Kern – Director of Bear-Paw Regional Greenways, Deerfield, NH
“This guide translates sophisticated scientific models to the grassroots level, for real, on-the-ground land conservation. Using this science, we’ve been able to communicate with the press, our funders and the public how protecting land can make a huge difference in addressing an abstract concept like climate change.”
~ Leigh Youngblood – Executive Director of Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, Athol, MA
Learn more about Open Space Institute’s Resilient Landscapes Initiative, which funds land trusts to conserve lands using the climate-resiliency data.
Tools you can use:
- North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative: Data Gallery
- The Nature Conservancy Resilience Land Mapping Tool
- UMass, Amherst Conservation Assessment and Prioritization System (CAPS)
- Browse more resources here
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