MLTN Infoline – April 14, 2021

April 14, 2021|Infoline

Applied Principles of Sustainable Trail Design Workshop

Wednesday & Thursday, May 19 & 20, 2021

Location: Mid-coast, exact location TBD

Cost: $75 per person for 2 days

Participant Limit: 15

We are excited to share this opportunity to build your stewardship knowledge and skills in a hands-on, in-person workshop – following all current Maine CDC guidelines, of course. The two-day workshop will focus on the fundamentals of sustainable trail layout and design for upgrading existing trails and addressing problem areas. Participants will immediately put what they learn to use and receive one-to-one feedback. The session is designed to be useful to recreation planners, land managers, trail advocates, designers, landscape architects, trail stewards, volunteers, and trail builders. More information and registration instructions here. First come first served so register soon to ensure your spot!

Please check out other great learning opportunities below as well,

Whit, Jeff, and Donna

Land for Maine’s Future Update

It has been nine years since Maine invested new funds into the LMF program, when a $5 million bond was approved by voters in November of 2012. While legislators from both parties have introduced bills this year to revive the program, policymakers are not likely to make final decisions on spending and bonds until June. They are currently awaiting revenue forecasting projections from nonpartisan staff later this month and guidance in May on how recently approved COVID-related federal dollars can be spent. In the meantime, we encourage land trusts to reach out to legislators in your service areas. Update them on your recent activities that benefit their communities and how your land trust has stepped up during the ongoing pandemic to provide safe places for people to enjoy the outdoors. And, share with them how renewed LMF funding will benefit your region.

For more information on LMF, please visit www.landformainesfuture.org or contact Jeff Romano.

Forestry for Maine Birds: Managing Woodlands with Birds in Mind

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

10:00-11:30am

Cost: FREE

Please join Sally Stockwell, Director of Conservation at Maine Audubon, and Andy Shultz, Landowner Outreach Forester from the Maine Forest Service, to learn about the internationally significant role Maine plays as a “baby bird factory” for our forest birds; the recently documented declines in birds across the continent; how climate change may affect the future of our birds; and how to manage your land trust, municipal community forest, or private woodland to benefit breeding birds and other wildlife through our Forestry for Maine Birds program.

This will be a Zoom meeting. There is no cost to sign up but registration is required. To register, click here, fill out the form, and submit. The Zoom link will arrive via email. Contact Donna if you don’t receive the email.

Outdoor Recreation Roadmap: A Community-Led Approach to Leveraging Your Natural Assets for Economic Success and Local Renewal

Six 1-hour Zoom sessions on Tuesday from April 20 through May 25

1:00-2:00pm

Cost: $525 per person, group rates available

Learn how to make the outdoor recreation economy work for your community to generate more awareness and buy-in, make quick progress that can be sustained over time, and create meaningful changes that make a difference for your community’s business and economic vitality, physical health and confidence. A step-by-step process will be presented that you can adapt to use “nature-based placemaking” to transform how your community sees, talks about and invests in itself to make it a more attractive place to live, visit and do business.

This workshop is offered by Harbinger Consultancy. Click here for more information.

MANP Connects Hosts Dr. Nirav Shah

Friday, April 23, 2021

9:00-9:45am

Cost: FREE but registration is required (register once for the whole series)

MANP Connects is held bi-weekly on Friday mornings. Each 45-minute program features a special guest in conversation with MANP executive director Jennifer Hutchins, and this month she is hosting Dr. Nirav Shah, well known Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. For many, Dr. Shah has been one beacon helping us get through the past year. This is sure to be a treat. Click here to register.

Race and Racism in the Nonprofit Sector

Friday, April 30th, 2021

3:00-5:00pm

Cost: $50 Members / $100 Nonmembers*

Brought to you thanks to a partnership between Maine Association of Nonprofits and Washington Nonprofits

Despite the best intentions of nonprofit professionals committed to antiracism, nonprofit organizations continue to perpetuate–and even accelerate–institutional and structural racism. This webinar will provide a reframing of American nonprofits in the context of our history that will illuminate the structural underpinnings of racism throughout the nonprofit sector. It will feature a 40-minute presentation and facilitated breakout sessions to explore these topics in depth.

Intended Audience: Any nonprofit professional, board member, volunteer, or donor committed to understanding and addressing racial inequities.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of racism in the American context.
Intended Takeaways: Our goal is for participants to leave this webinar able to better identify how structural racism shows up in their organization and how systems of power hold that structural racism in place.

More information and link to register on the MANP website.

*Most MLTN Members are MANP members. Contact Donna to check the membership status of your land trust.

Balancing Uses on Land Trust Properties

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

2:00-3:30pm

Cost: $70 for LTA members, $100 for non-members

Brought to you by the Land Trust Alliance

Deciding how to balance community goals and ecological priorities for land conservation can be complicated and fraught. And it isn’t a “one and done” — with a plan written in stone for all time. The land and the community’s needs can evolve, especially given climate change and societal pressures, as we have seen with COVID-19. So how can you create a flexible strategy that allows for change over time? What can you do as a land trust to anticipate and address different desired uses and possible conflicts with areas of ecological or cultural sensitivity?

Join Judy Anderson as she lays out strategies that will help your organization build trust with different sectors of its community and balance land protection goals for a specific property. Here’s a look at what Judy will cover:

Understanding your community’s needs and goals without extensive polling
Developing current and long-range goals for a given property, and communicating those goals effectively
Assessing what makes a property welcoming and inclusive in your region
Understanding when it’s time to rethink original goals and make changes
Creating a plan for the property that factors in ecological and cultural goals as well as your desired community relationship

2021 Requirements Manual

The Requirements Manual is a critical tool for land trusts as they prepare for accreditation. It provides greater specificity about how indicator elements are verified through the “requirements” and enables accreditation commissioners to make decisions that are fair and consistent. The requirements are reviewed annually and the Commission works closely with the Alliance and the land trust community on each edition. The 2021 edition is out now. 2021 applicants will not see any changes in the application or the accreditation management system (AMS), but minor changes will be made for the 2022 applicants based on modified requirements and user feedback.

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission is offering an information session on April 27th at 2:00pm to explain changes. Click here to register for the session. View a summary of changes here.

Jobs in the Conservation Sector

Some great opportunities have been added since last month – so many that we can’t list them all! Here are some highlights.

Development & Administrative Manager (part-time) – Kennebunk Land Trust

Multiple Positions – Friends of Cobbossee Watershed

Invasive Plant Biology Internship – Maine Natural Areas Program

Program Associate – National Estuarine Research Reserve Association

Office Coordinator – Forest Society of Maine

Click here for full list.

EPA Environmental Justice Small Grants

Proposals Due: Friday, May 7, 2021

The Environmental Justice Small Grants program awards grants that support community-driven projects designed to engage, educate, and empower communities to better understand local environmental and public health issues and develop strategies for addressing those issues, building consensus in the community, and setting community priorities.

approximately $2.8 million available nationwide
approximately 56 grants (about 5 per EPA region) of up to $50,000
grants are for one-year projects
special emphasis on projects focusing on COVID-19 impacts, as well as climate and disaster resiliency
to promote equitable accessibility to EPA grant funding and to assist small entities, approximately half of the total available funding under this announcement is intended to be reserved for small non-profit organizations as defined in the announcement.

Applicants should plan for projects to begin on October 1, 2021. All applications are required to be submitted through Grants.gov.