The Regional Conservation Partnerships (RCP) Network Gathering is an inclusive forum for people from the Northeast and beyond to meet and share stories about collaborative landscape conservation. Together we are building reciprocal relationships with new people and sectors and scaling our work to conserve land as we create healthier, more just, climate-resilient communities.  

This year’s theme is Collaborating for Healthier Communities. Come explore the diverse elements of a healthy community and learn how, through collaboration, we can create a future where all people thrive. Sessions will focus on the environment’s direct impact on the health of communities and how climate change is putting pressure on all levels of society. 

JOIN US on November 14 from 8 AM – 4 PM at UMass Amherst to share how you, your collaborations, and your networks are advancing health, justice, and climate resilience. 

Why has climate change been so difficult for us to address? This talk will explore the problem from the point of view of how the brain works to make decisions. While climate change presents an enormous challenge, it is possible for us to call on what we know about the brain’s reward system to help us change our behaviors and to provide hope for a better future. 

Ann-Christine Duhaime, MD, is a senior pediatric neurosurgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Nicholas T. Zervas Distinguished Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of Minding the Climate: How Neuroscience Can Help Solve Our Environmental Crisis. Learn more about Dr. Duhaime’s work here. 

The 2024 RCP Network Gathering features two dozen sessions led by nearly 60 speakers along five integrated health themes: Physical and Mental Well-being, Listening and Connecting, Resilient Ecosystems, Integrated Land Use, and Diverse Partnerships. Session topics range from how RCPs are supporting the development of healthy, thriving communities to how climate change is impacting the work of healthcare professionals and why it should be a concern for conservationists. Several sessions will center themes of justice and belonging and elevate identities and perspectives historically underrepresented in the conservation movement. Join the discussion, learn from your peers, and share how your work is helping to create healthier communities! 

Read about the sessions here.

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals are invited to attend a free, special session and dinner on Wednesday, November 13, from 5:30 – 8 PM at the Campus Center, 10th Floor, UMass Amherst.  

This event is intended to help strengthen relationships and facilitate conversations on how the conservation community can be more welcoming, safe, and inclusive. Kolu Zigbi Consultants, Inc. will facilitate the evening’s program. Registration is required for this exclusive event. 

Learn More about Pre- and Post-Conference Events and Register here. 

DID YOU KNOW that 40% of attendees at the RCP Network Gathering are not connected with a Regional Conservation Partnership? With over 50 RCPs across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, chances are there is an active group near you. Conference attendees will have the chance to meet RCP leaders and learn more about RCPs in their region. Find your local RCP here! 

Take a break during the conference to slow down, awaken your senses, and connect with the natural world on a walk around the UMass campus green spaces. Regan Stacey, a mindfulness meditation teacher and forest therapy guide, will lead a mindful experience outdoors. All are welcome! Meet at the Registration Desk at 12:30 PM. Inclement weather cancels.

Gathering attendees are eligible to earn Continuing Education Credits from the following organizations: the Society of American Foresters will offer 4.5 Category 1 Continuing Forestry Education credits; and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing, 244 CMR 5.00, will provide 4 contact hours for attending the Keynote, and A1, B1, and C1 sessions. Remember to complete the appropriate sign-in sheets at the Registration desk to receive your credits!

Sign up for the RCP Network E-News! Receive updates about the 2024 Gathering, read inspiring stories about RCPs, learn about funding opportunities, and more! 

QUESTIONS? Please contact Highstead Regional Conservationist Katie Blake at kblake@highstead.net 

Every year, we survey attendees about their experience and integrate their suggestions into our event design so that we continue to deliver an event that serves you. Information about presentation formats and topic areas of focus is described below. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Katie Blake at kblake@highstead.net.

Workshop—2.5 hours: These are engaging workshops that are highly interactive. Time is spent building and practicing skills or developing individual/organizational work plans, for example. These may also require communication with attendees before the event to provide instruction or pre-work to prepare for the workshop. Please specify in the RFP form if your workshop has a maximum number of attendees or if tables are needed in your room setup.

Workshop/Presentation—90 min: These are interactive presentations or panel discussions that involve a lot of audience engagement. The recommendation is to limit presenters to 4 speakers and reserve 30 minutes for facilitated discussion or Q&A from the audience.

Presentation—75 min: These are presentations or smaller-format panels with a suggested maximum of three presenters. They include 50 minutes of presenting and 25 minutes of facilitated discussion or Q&A from the audience.

Presentation—60 min: These are short, informational presentations that aim to relay foundational information such as details of new research or best practice and include about 45 minutes of content and 15 minutes for Q&A from the audience. These could also include other short format presentations, such as lightning talk type presentations where up to 4 speakers present short 3-5 minute talks with ample time for facilitated audience questions or discussion.

To continue embracing the interconnected nature of conservation, we ask that presenters integrate cross-cutting themes into their presentations and workshops. These are based on the event theme this year: Collaborating for Healthier Communities. Presenters must incorporate one or more conservation areas AND cross-cutting themes into their proposals.

Conservation Areas

Cross-cutting/Integrated themes

The 14th annual Regional Conservation Partnership (RCP) Network Gathering explored how landscape conservation efforts protect and enhance values beyond biodiversity – including land justice and community resilience.

In our last three virtual RCP Network Gatherings, we discussed equity and conservation organizations’ roles in advancing land justice, exploring the “why” and the “how.”

While the climate crisis grows, we hoped to inspire and energize participants. Conservation leaders’ presentations focused on building relationships with new people and groups working toward common goals of enhancing biodiversity and addressing justice through land use practices. Workshops explored how to design landscape conservation to help partners and communities solve multiple challenges at scale for nature and all people. 

Visionary leaders in philanthropy and community-centered conservation: Forrest King-Cortes, Director of Community-centered Conservation, Land Trust Alliance; Onika Abraham Lee, Executive Director of the Blue Sky Funders Forum; Sacha Spector, Program Director for the Environment, Doris Duke Foundation, discussed how we can advance equity, community resilience, and other objectives through conservation. Panelists shared their perspectives on what just and integrated land use looks like and what capacities regional conservation partnerships need to embody to pursue this work.

Maps Session

Did you know that on average, 50% of attendees to the RCP Network Gathering aren’t (yet) connected with a local Regional Conservation Partnership (RCP)? With over 50 RCPs across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, chances are there is an active group where you live or work. This year, attendees had the chance to chat with RCP leaders and learn more about regional conservation conversations happening in their region. Find your local RCPs here. Maps were on display all day in the conference hall atrium for perusal.

Continuing Forestry Education Credits

This year, the Society of American Foresters offered 4.5 Continuing Forestry Education Credits to all interested RCP Network Gathering attendees.

Check this page and sign up for the RCP Network E-News for updates on the program, registration, and more details as the November 9 Gathering approaches.

Please contact Highstead Conservationist Katie Blake with any questions about this year’s RCP Network Gathering.

Last year’s focus on Land Justice left many in attendance at the RCP Network Gathering with a heightened awareness of the need to put justice and equity at the center of their conservation work. 

It has also sparked conversations about how to actually do the work of advancing land justice and equity while meeting their core mission work of conservation. For example, RCP Network members have been asking how we can more effectively amplify the voices and support the communities most impacted by injustice and climate change through our land conservation efforts, while others of you have been working with these impacted communities for years.

For the 2022 RCP Network Gathering, we would like you and your partners to have a chance to share your insights, projects, relationship-building stories, and lessons. Tell us who you are learning from and how you are together advancing Climate Justice and Resilience — for making land more accessible, more useful for nature and people, and more resilient to the impacts of climate change for the benefit of others. 

We invite you to submit proposals and nominations for Gathering panels, webinars, and field trips in the weeks leading up to the Gathering. Please complete and submit a separate form for each webinar, panel, and field trip you wish us to consider.

We are offering three ways for you to participate – please review all options and apply to the program or programs where you think you or your partners can add the most value.

Two panels at the November 17th, 2022 Gathering will focus on Climate Justice and Resilience, through the eyes of those who have experienced climate injustice, addressed injustice, or focused resiliency efforts to the benefit of marginalized communities. Please note that panelists will need to commit to at least a couple of hours on November 17th and a few hours before the event for preparation and rehearsal. 

If you would like to participate as a panelist during the November 17th RCP Network Gathering, or know someone who would be a great addition, please fill out the form linked below. Please review the form requirements before you begin filling it out.

As part of this year’s Gathering, we would like to offer one to three pre-Gathering webinars held during the weeks leading up to the November 17 Gathering. These webinars will ideally highlight RCPs’ and RCP Network members’ activities in the areas of Land Justice, Climate Justice, and Climate Resilience. Themes may include:

Click the link below to propose a webinar. Please review the form requirements before you begin filling it out.

Occurring during the months leading up to the Gathering and through the end of 2022, these are opportunities for RCP Network members to organize and convene on-site walks and talks that explore one or more of the webinar themes (see above). Highstead and the RCP Network staff will help to promote the field trips but the entire event— logistics planning, promotion, costs, and execution–is the responsibility of the field trip lead. 

“We know that protected lands provide important benefits to communities, including recreation, preservation of cultural heritage and wildlife habitat as well as improving water quality, decreasing flood risk, and increasing climate resilience,” said Kalinin. “But communities can meet opposition to conservation by those who are concerned about the impacts on property taxes.”

The research paper, Does Land Conservation Raise Property Taxes? Evidence from New England Cities and Towns, concludes that while there was significant new land protection, the tax impacts were small in most communities — a 1% increase in the percentage of town land protected was estimated to cause a 0.024% increase in the tax rate. This corresponds to an increase in a homeowner’s annual tax bill of $0.72 per $100,000 of taxable property value for the average annual increase in area protected of 85 acres. For the owner of a typical New England home (valued at $266,493), that would be an additional $1.92 on their tax bill of $3475. Where they had the greatest effects, the impact for 85 acres of new protection ranged from a $5 to $30 annual tax bill increase per $100,000 of property value.

In addition, these small impacts did not persist—the study found no impacts beyond three years.

“There is often concern that since protected land is taxed at a lower rate than developed land or removed from the tax base, it can shift the tax burden to other taxpayers,” said Sims. “But on the flip side, protected land typically requires fewer services, like schools and road maintenance, and permanent protection can boost the value of nearby properties, potentially increasing other revenues.”

While the findings overall showed a small impact, there were some cases where the tax increases were greater. “Considering differences across municipal types, we found more substantial tax rate increases when towns were growing slowly, had lower median incomes, fewer second homes, and less land enrolled in Chapter 61 current use programs,” said Thompson. “The size of these impacts ranged from $5 to at most $30 in additional taxes paid for each $100,000 in property.”

“While the tax impacts remain small, they seem to impact the towns least able to afford tax increases, said Meyer. “These disparities warrant further attention and may require increased funding from state, federal and private sources.”

The researchers used data from more than 1400 towns and cities in New England from 1990 to 2015 to assess the impact of new land protection on local property tax rates. New protection included private conservation easements and purchases by non-profit organizations, local governments, and state and federal agencies for conservation. To isolate the impacts on tax rates that can be attributed directly to land protection, they used data from the same municipalities over time and controlled for changes in employment, prior growth in the tax base, and economic and population trends. Read a Q&A with the authors here.

Alexey Kalinin is a natural resource economist and a post-doctoral researcher at Harvard Forest. His current research is focused on economic impacts of land protection in New England. 

Katharine Sims is a Professor at Amherst College, where she teaches economics and environmental studies. Her research seeks to understand when and how land conservation policies can achieve both economic development and improved environmental quality.

Spencer Meyer is the Director of Science Strategy and Stakeholder Engagement for NCX. He was a Senior Conservationist with the Highstead Foundation from 2016 to 2021, where he led the conservation finance and conservation science programs.

Jonathan Thompson is a Senior Ecologist at the Harvard Forest, a department of Harvard University. His research focuses on long-term and broad-scale changes in forest ecosystems, with an emphasis on quantifying how land use affects forest ecosystem processes and services.