Primary Funder: New York Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) – Conservation Innovation Grant
Funding Amount: $110,000
Project Title: Helderberg Forest Resiliency Initiative US Forest Service Landscape Restoration Grant
Location: Towns of Berne, Knox, Westerlo and Rensselaerville, Albany County NY and Broome, Wright, Schoharie & Middleburgh, Schoharie County, surrounding the 6,594-acre Helderberg Bird Conservation Area which includes Patridge Run State Forest, Partridge Run WMA, Knox (Burke) WMA, and Cole Hill State Forest.
Innovation: The Helderberg Forest Resiliency Initiative (HFRI) will help launch a dynamic forest restoration block across public and private land ownerships surrounding the Helderberg Bird Conservation Area in Albany & Schoharie Counties, New York. The goal of the grant is to coordinate and promote habitat management work across public, private and conservation easement ownerships as well as producing new monitoring and mapping capacity to analyze forest age and diversity at a landscape scale.
This initiative will leverage a strategic forest industry partnership with Finch Paper to cluster and prioritize forest habitat projects across public, private and conservation ownerships in a way that leverages the project’s habitat enhancement impacts across the surround landscape. Property-level planning, implementation and outreach will be informed by landscape conditions and habitat priority needs. Along with the on-the-ground habitat restoration work, it will deliver an analysis of Natural Resources Conservation Service’s COMET planning tool, recommendations for how to improve it, and a long-term planning toolkit for the region which will include recommendations for forest management, best practices for public outreach strategies, and updated GIS mapping.
Impacts:
- Enhanced forest habitat diversity that improves wildlife needs, addresses the New York State Wildlife Action Plan, and supports landowner objectives for those interested in wildlife conservation.
- An innovative partnership between a non-profit wildlife conservation organization like Ruffed Grouse Society (RGS), and industry partner like Finch Paper, and private landowners, local land trusts, practitioners, DEC, and local communities.
- Improved understanding of the usefulness of COMET-Farm and COMET-Planner as tools to guide climate smart forestry in New York, while supporting forest resiliency, health and diversity that contributes positively to climate resiliency impacts.
- Three hundred acres of forest habitat work – enhancing forest structure and enabling landscape and stand level forest climate adaptation across a range of ownerships.
- Three to four regional landowner outreach sessions/tours including best practices for wildlife habitat management that simultaneously offer tools and strategies that accelerate climate smart forestry practices.
- A forest mapping and planning deliverable that can be used for longer-term landscape initiatives in this area and as a tool for similar projects throughout the state.
Partners:
Finch Paper – A major forest industry partner with a paper mill located in nearby Glens Falls, NY and a staff of professional foresters who will collaborate with us on the implementation of this project.
New York Natural Resources Conservation Service – Primary funder and partner.
New York Department of Environmental Conservation – Coordinating work on the 4,500-acre Patridge Run Wildlife Management Area.
Mid-Hudson and Capital Region Mohawk RGS Chapters – providing $25,000 in matching dollars over 3 years through reserve/other funds for Patridge Run Wildlife Management Area, which leverages the awarded funds that will be spent on surrounding private lands.
Private landowners: Private landowners surrounding public land focal areas will be key partners and a focus of our targeted outreach efforts to deliver NRCS Working Lands for Wildlife funding and habitat outcomes.
