Land Trust Alliance, Open Space Institute award 2024 grants to accelerate climate planning nation-wide

Washington, D.C. – The Land Trust Alliance and the Open Space Institute have announced the awarding of $213,000 in grants through their joint Land and Climate Grant Program to support land trusts and other nonprofits across the country as they work with local communities to better plan for and mitigate the impacts of climate change. The program is generously funded by the Doris Duke Foundation, Jane’s Trust Foundation, Volgenau Foundation, William Penn Foundation and several individual donors.

Through the Land and Climate Grant Program, land trusts and other nonprofit organizations receive funding and technical assistance to harness land protection and stewardship strategies that support the ability of forests and other landscapes to capture and sequester carbon, provide land-based buffers against climate change impacts and help wildlife adapt to a changing climate.

In the four years since the Land and Climate Grant Program’s launch, the Land Trust Alliance and Open Space Institute have awarded more than $1.4 million in grants and technical assistance to address the climate crisis. This funding has supported 116 projects led by 106 organizations in 33 states and Puerto Rico.

“Land conservation has a key role to play in tackling climate change,” said Kelly Watkinson, the land and climate program director at the Land Trust Alliance. “When taken as a whole, local land trust actions can have a global impact on our climate. Every acre protected and well-managed can be part of the solution. The Land and Climate Grant Program, operated in tandem with the Open Space Institute, supports those land trusts that are taking the initiative to develop and implement climate-informed land conservation and stewardship strategies into their everyday work.”

“Land trusts and conservation organizations are making significant progress in addressing the multifaceted challenges of climate change,” said Erik Kulleseid, president and CEO of Open Space Institute. “OSI is honored to support these efforts and collaborate with the Land Trust Alliance to advance climate-smart land protection strategies. We are grateful for the dedication of our grantees and funding partners and their commitment to innovative, nature-based solutions for climate resilience.”

Land trusts and conservation organizations are at the forefront of helping communities adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. Land protection not only preserves the ability of forests and other natural features to absorb and store atmospheric carbon; it also prevents significant greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, secures habitat connectivity for wildlife, and helps to safeguard communities from extreme weather.

2024 Land and Climate Grant Program grantees include:

• Central Colorado Conservancy — Increasing Climate Resiliency of Conserved Lands in the Upper Arkansas Watershed

• Connecticut’s Highstead Foundation — The Northeast Seed Network: Standards and Protocols for the Collection of Wild Seed

• Florida’s Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast — Illuminating Climate-Informed Land Conservation in Southwest Florida

• Idaho’s Sagebrush Steppe Land Trust — Integrating Climate Science into SSLT's Conservation and Communication Planning

• Maine’s Land in Common — Planning for Equitable Land Stewardship in Wabanakik

• Massachusetts’s Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust — Developing Indigenous-led Co-stewardship Plans to Create a Holistic Response to Climate Change

• Montana’s Bitter Root Land Trust — Building Resilience through Conservation Planning

• New Hampshire’s Northern Forest Center — Community Forest Collaboration to Address Climate Resiliency

• New Jersey’s Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space — Hopewell Valley Community Conservation and Resiliency Plan

• New Jersey’s Hunterdon Land Trust — Incorporating Climate Science into Land Preservation, Stewardship and Communications

• New Jersey Conservation Foundation — Developing a Land Protection Plan to Allow Marsh Migration in the Tidal New Jersey-Delaware Bayshore Region

• New Mexico’s Santa Fe Conservation Trust — Apache Canyon Forest Management Plan

• North Carolina’s Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy — Red Spruce Restoration to Promote Climate Resiliency in High Elevations of the Southern Appalachians

• Pennsylvania’s Natural Lands — Identifying Strategic Priority Areas to Address Climate Change in Eastern Pennsylvania

• Rhode Island’s Aquidneck Land Trust — Site Prioritization for Land Protection and Resiliency Projects on Aquidneck Island

• Vermont’s Friends of the Mad River — Ridge to River 2.0: Building a Watershed Action Framework for Climate Resilience

• Vermont River Conservancy — Strategic Conservation Plan and Communications

• Wisconsin’s Tall Pines Conservancy — Tall Pines Conservancy Strategic Climate Action Plan

About the Land Trust Alliance

Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance is a national land conservation organization working to save the places people need and love by empowering and mobilizing land trusts in communities across America to conserve land for the benefit of all. The Alliance represents approximately 1,000 member land trusts and affiliates supported by more than 250,000 volunteers and 6.3 million members nationwide. The Alliance is based in Washington, D.C., with staff working in communities across the U.S.

About the Open Space Institute

The Open Space Institute is a national leader in land conservation and efforts to make parks and other protected land more welcoming for all. Since 1974, OSI has partnered in the protection of more than 2.5 million at-risk and environmentally sensitive acres in the eastern U.S. and Canada. OSI’s land protection promotes clean air and water, improves access to recreation, provides wildlife habitat, strengthens communities, and combats climate change, while curbing its devastating effects. Visit OSI online at www.openspaceinstitute.org.

About the Doris Duke Foundation

The mission of the Doris Duke Foundation is to build a more creative, equitable and sustainable future by investing in artists and the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research, child well-being and greater mutual understanding among diverse communities. DDF focuses its support to the performing arts on contemporary dance, jazz and theater artists, and the organizations that nurture, present and produce them. Visit www.dorisduke.org to learn more.