Last fall, five collaborating land trusts in Maine and New Hampshire (Greater Lovell Land Trust, Loon Echo Land Trust, Mahoosuc Land Trust, Upper Saco Valley Land Trust, and Western Foothills Land Trust) received funding to escalate the pace of climate-informed land protection projects in a 1.5 million-acre area stretching from Sebago Lake to the Mount Washington Valley. The funding was used, in part, to complete a mapping project that builds on earlier research the groups have done together. The project identified Climate Resilient Focus Areas within their shared landscape and created an interactive mapping tool. The organizations will now use the tool to help conserve the areas that will be the most critical for plant and animal habitat and humans in the face of climate change, and to provide habitat connectivity across the trusts’ combined service areas.

Mapping work was completed by Rhumbline, a Maine-based geospatial analysis company.

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