Virtual 'Office Hours'
Program staff will also offer two virtual “office hours” sessions where applicants can ask questions and receive feedback on project proposals. Please use this link to schedule a 20-minute individual consultation during one of the two sessions:
- Office Hours Session 1: May 20, 2022 - 12-2 PM
- Eastern Office Hours Session 2: May 25, 2022 - 3-5 PM Eastern
See a full list of 2021 grantees here. Learn about three of the projects supported in the 2021 grant round here.
Contact OSI Conservation Planning Manager Hallie Schwab ([email protected]) with any questions.
Guidance Documents
OSI works with partners to distill research and best practices into practical guides to inform strategic land protection and land management. See several examples of this work below.
Freshwater Flooding
The Role of Land Protection in Mitigating Freshwater Flooding Hazard: This report summarizes five land protection and conservation planning strategies that harness land protection to curb flood impacts and outlines the critical role that land trusts can play in supporting community resilience as the climate changes.
Climate Resilience
Conserving Nature in a Changing Climate provides a user-friendly workbook for land trusts and other conservation organizations to gain the knowledge and tools to fulfill their critical missions, even in the face of uncertainty. With a basic knowledge of relevant climate science and the tools described in this guide, conservation leaders can revisit and revise their land protection goals, and confidently explain to funders, board members, and landowners why their efforts matter now more than ever. The workbook, developed in partnership with the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Collaborative and a team of land trust advisors, includes a free online mapping platform to help land trusts identify climate resilient sites. This tool, built for the Northeast, complements The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient Land Mapping Tool.
Carbon Mitigation
Meeting the Challenge of Climate: How Land Trusts, Policymakers, and Public Agencies Can Achieve Carbon Goals Through Strategic Forest Protection: Developed in consultation with scientists and experts at American Forests, The Nature Conservancy, and the Land Trust Alliance, this guide provides criteria for the selection, completion, and successful management of land protection projects for the capture and storage of forest carbon.
Six Simple Steps: Evaluate the Contribution of your Land Protection Project to a Low Carbon Future: This short ‘how to’ guide walks through a series of steps for using an online tool to evaluate how much carbon a forest protection project stores today, and how much additional carbon could be sequestered by 2050.
Climate Communications
How to Talk About Climate Change: This report from the Land Trust Alliance and the Open Space Institute offers guidance to help land trusts connect on climate issues and effectively communicate about the benefits of protecting land with climate in mind.