We are working with the Lake Placid Land Conservancy (LPLC) to implement their new strategic plan and expand their conservation efforts in the Ausable River and Saranac River Watersheds by engaging landowners. Our task is to execute a three-phase program that will help LPLC target their conservation efforts and implement a citizen science outreach program to increase awareness and participation among the region’s landowners.
In Phase I, we are using geographic information systems (GIS) to identify and map key areas within LPLC’s focus areas that contain ecological or cultural resources that would benefit from the protections provided by a conservation easement. In Phase II, interested landowners will participate in Community Conservation workshops that will convey information on land conservation and citizen science monitoring, and allow us to collect information on community needs and interests of the target landowner group. Phase III of the program will involve the creation of a written citizen science outreach program that will provide LPLC with the tools to effectively assess and enroll participants and engage landowners in citizen science using land-owner tailored protocols.
LPLC will implement the resulting program over the next few years to increase the participation of potential land conservationists in their land protection efforts, and to ultimately increase the number of conservation easements held by landowners in their focus region.
