HVA, Follow the Forest Receive $30K to Protect Critical Wildlife Habitat
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation, a supporting organization of the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation, has awarded $30,000 to the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) and conservation partners to further the Follow the Forest initiative and its mission to protect one of the largest connected wildlife corridors in the eastern United States.
"We are deeply grateful to the John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation for its support of our Follow the Forest efforts," said Tim Abbott, Executive Director of HVA. "This collaborative work is essential to ensuring that wildlife can move, adapt and thrive on our landscape, now and into the future."
This corridor begins along the Hudson River and stretches north through Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont. Protecting and reconnecting these habitats is essential not only for wildlife survival, but also for ensuring clean water, clean air, and climate change-resilient communities.
"Follow the Forest brings together more than 50 partners, from local and regional land trusts to national organizations, united by a shared conservation vision," said Julia Rogers, HVA's Conservation Director. "By combining cutting-edge science with community knowledge, we're creating real momentum to respond to habitat fragmentation and the climate crisis. This is about protecting the landscapes that make our region special."
Over the next 12 months, funding from the John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation will allow HVA and partners to:
- Train community scientists to assess wildlife movement and viability at more than 60 key forest linkages across western Connecticut and Massachusetts;
- Coordinate conservation planning among local and regional partners to generate a robust pipeline of future land protection projects; and
- Develop a Connectivity Implementation Framework that guides partners in moving from data and mapping to on-the-ground action.
"Follow the Forest gives us the tools to connect the dots, literally, between the places we've already protected, and the ones identified that still need our attention," said Brian Hagenbuch, Executive Director of the Steep Rock Association, a community-based land trust in Washington, Connecticut. "Continued support for this work is a huge step that enables smaller organizations such as Steep Rock to collaborate on bigger landscape-scale preservation efforts that ensure wildlife can move safely and freely throughout our town and region."
