The Nature Conservancy is making a grant to the Adirondack Land Trust (ALT) to provide $498,000 in funding to increase ALT’s capacity and scope of operations.

For over 25 years, The Nature Conservancy and ALT have worked closely together on land conservation projects in the Adirondacks, with the Conservancy providing staffing services to ALT. This grant represents a new phase in their partnership while helping to expand and diversify conservation capacity in the Adirondacks. The funding will strengthen ALT’s work as it establishes a new office and builds staff capacity.

The Nature Conservancy is integrating its land protection work around broad strategies that will fortify previous accomplishments and bolster climate resiliency. Its recent purchase of 753 acres with two miles of wild Moose River in the southwestern Adirondacks, for example, demonstrates how the Conservancy uses large-scale climate-resiliency science to determine where to invest in land protection. Along those lines, the Conservancy is identifying key habitat stepping stones between core forests to ensure wildlife have places to move through and move to as they adapt to climate change.

Keeping waterways connected is also essential to the long-term conservation success of the Adirondacks. In the past several years, the Conservancy and partners have reconnected 90 miles of river habitat by replacing or retrofitting seven culverts in New York’s Lake Champlain Basin with climate-ready, fish-friendly designs. (Ninety miles exceeds the linear distance between Keene Valley and the U.S./Canada border.) By the end of this summer, the Conservancy is expected to have field inventory data for road-stream crossings for all of the major Adirondack watersheds feeding directly into Lake Champlain. Of the culverts inventoried last summer, 73% are not large enough to withstand flooding or provide passage for fish. This information helps to identify where upgraded culverts can provide win-win solutions for people and nature by reducing flooding risks, minimizing road damage and allowing brook trout to reach cool headwater streams.

Visit the Nature Conservancy website for more information.