Researching successful land conservation projects
I was doing research today about successful land conservation projects around the country. That’s when I found The Nature Conservancy (TNC). An organization worth $6.5 Billion, that’s pretty big money. They operate in 72 countries worldwide and in all 50 states. They hold and protect 125 million acres of land in the US alone.
I bring this up to make some comparisons with the Stoddard Conservation Commission. The biggest similarity is the successes both have managed to accomplish. Granted one on a much larger scale than the other. But on the local front, TNC has two properties at least partially in Stoddard. The closest property to The Little Big Forest owned by TNC is the 500 acre Loverens Mill Cedar Swamp which is along Rt 9 in the three towns of Antrim, Windsor and Stoddard. The second one is Otter Brook Preserve a 1303 acre preserve in the three towns of Sullivan, Nelson and Stoddard. These successes augment Stoddard’s Conservation Commission successes of Robb Reservoir, Pickerel Cove and the Town Forest surrounding Pioneer Lake.
Big money and Action
One thing both these organizations do successfully is working for positive outcomes for all involved. Probably the most important thing though is neither simply sit back and lobby to congress. They both take ACTION. That is just what the Conservation Commission’s chairman Geoff Jones did as soon as he was notified that the three lots totaling 40 acres was put on the market. With 4000 feet of shoreline and land that has never been plowed or clear cut for timber (ironically in the midst of a 10,000+ acre woodlot in the 1800s), and other treasures yet to be told, it was Geoff and his decades of experience as a forester and consultant who has brought us to where we are today…on the cusp of raising $1.5Million for this Little Forest with a Big impact on Stoddard, the Highland Lake and Island Pond watersheds and generations to come
Your contribution is so much more than charity; it’s an investment in the future of Stoddard and ultimately, our planet.