Partnerships and collaborations are guiding principles for the Monadnock Conservancy. We work closely with other conservation land trusts, state and federal agencies, municipalities, and a wide range of other organizations. The reason is simple: We can do much more working together than alone.
Most Frequent Collaborators
Working with Towns
The Conservancy is especially proud of our collaborations with the towns that make up the Monadnock Region. One of our strategic goals is to help towns increase their capacity to assist with land conservation. We believe that can be accomplished by helping towns establish “building blocks” for effective conservation:
* Achieving broad local consensus that land conservation is an important part of community planning
* Setting conservation priorities at the local level
* Educating and empowering town officials and active residents in the benefits and mechanics of land conservation
* Establishing local funding sources
With those building blocks in place, the Conservancy can more readily assist with identification, landowner outreach, transactions, and stewardship of conserved lands.
Community Conservation Partnership
The Monadnock Conservancy has received grant funding from the Jesse B. Cox Charitable Lead Trust, Northeast Utilities Foundation, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation for a 2-year pilot program called the Monadnock Community Conservation Partnership, whose goal is to help protect more of the Monadnock Region’s natural resources and rural character before development pressure and land prices overwhelm the region. It will accomplish this by leveraging the tremendous social and financial capital in the 35 towns the Conservancy serves. In addition to the towns, partners include the Southwest Region Planning Commission, Harris Center for Conservation Education, Antioch New England Institute, the Center for Land Conservation Assistance, and University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.
Barbara Richter from the Center for Land Conservation Assistance leads a workshop on the "Dollars and Sense" of conservation at the Partnership's first conservation leadership training series.
The Partnership will assist and empower local volunteers and town officials to establish clear conservation priorities, build consensus about the importance and benefits of conservation to the towns, and complete high-quality conservation projects. Five towns have been invited to participate in the pilot phase of the project—Alstead, Gilsum, Surry, Walpole, and Westmoreland. Each town is defining its own unique approach under the Partnership program. For example, Alstead and Westmoreland are planning town-wide forums to gather public input and establish task forces to address conservation issues in town.
A major thrust of the partnership is to help towns develop and strengthen four critical components:
- consensus that land conservation is important
- conservation leadership within the town
- adequate conservation funding
- publicly supported, science-based priorities for conservation projects.
Once these are in place, the Monadnock Conservancy or other land trusts that serve the region can focus more on providing technical expertise for transactions and stewardship.
In addition to working with the pilot communities, the Partnership is beginning to plan for a region-wide land summit with conservation workshops in the winter of 2009. After that, the plan is to take what is learned fromthe pilot towns, refine the approach, and offer the program to other communities in the Monadnock Region.
On January 31, 2009 approximately 200 town leaders, board members, and other conservation practitioners gathered in Keene for the first ever Monadnock Region Land Summit. Attendees participated in workshops and shared their successes and lessons-learned with each other and proved that communuty-based conservation is the best way to succeed. Thirty-three of the region's thirty-five towns and several agencies were represented.
Go to the "What's New" section of this website for handouts and summaries of selected presentations.
For more information on our work with towns and other collaborations, please call the office at 603-357-0600.
