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Open Space Institute’s Appalachian Landscapes Protection Fund Issues Request for Proposals

Image Credit: Chuck Sutherland

NEW YORK, NY (Oct. 21, 2022)—The Open Space Institute (OSI) is now accepting applications for the latest round of its Appalachian Landscapes Protection Fund (ALPF), a first-of-its-kind effort to protect forests along the Appalachian region for carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, and other critical benefits.

Approximately $5 million is available for grants within the Southern Appalachians focus area, and $3 million in grants and $1 million in zero-interest loans within the Western/Central Pennsylvania focus area (see maps of focus areas here). The funding will support land protection projects by land trusts, Tribes, nonprofits, and public agencies; applications are due by December 19.

To apply, visit the OSI website; or to learn more about the ALPF and the application process, register for a free webinar on Tuesday, November 8 at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Launched in 2021, the ALPF seeks to protect land within the Appalachian Mountain region, home to the world’s largest temperate broadleaf forest. The region absorbs a million tons of air pollution each year and provides essential refugia for plants and animals in the face of climate change.

To date, OSI has awarded ALPF grants to 24 projects spanning 35,000 acres from Tennessee to Maine (project highlights can be seen here). Earlier this year, OSI announced a significant expansion to ALPF funding opportunities for western and central Pennsylvania — an area that includes some of the state’s most critical carbon-storing forests.

OSI is committed to advancing land justice and equity in its grantmaking by supporting projects that benefit racially diverse and economically underserved communities, in addition to supporting organizations led by people identifying as Black, Indigenous or People of Color.

The ALPF is made possible with a lead grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and with significant support from the Lyndhurst, Riverview and Tucker Foundations, an anonymous New England-based family foundation, William Penn Foundation, Footprint Foundation, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and other foundations and individuals who have joined OSI in protecting lands that can mitigate the devastating impacts of climate change.

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