From Canada to Georgia, behind every acre OSI protects, there are people. Each person has a connection to the land that has inspired them to protect it and their stories are as diverse as the landscapes they are dedicated to protecting.

Stories from the Field
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2018 SUCCESS STORIES
2018 The dramatic escarpment of the Shawangunk Ridge. The verdant forests of the Southern Cumberland Plateau. The paddling paradise of South Carolina’s Black River.
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2018 Success Stories: Protecting Land for Habitat
By protecting climate-resilient landscapes — defined as lands that will continue to be a haven for habitat, even as the climate changes — land trusts have a critical role to play in addressing climate change.
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2018 Success Stories: Improve and Expand Places to Play
Through our land conservation and support for parks, OSI is increasing access to nature, improving your visitor experience, and creating more places and opportunities for fun and healthy outdoors escapes.
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2018 Success Stories: Safeguarding our Drinking Water
Protecting unspoiled forests is among the most effective ways to conserve drinking water. OSI’s work safeguards drinking water for communities from South Carolina up the east coast to New England.
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2018 Success Stories: Creating Strong Communities
Saving farms and forests, OSI helps towns and communities achieve environmental and conservation goals. We make an impact with grants and awards to young leaders and students to increase diversity in the field.
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Planning for the New Normal
In Conway, South Carolina, community leaders prepare for the future
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Green Design Drives OSI’s New River-to-Ridge Trail
Finding a balance between ecological, agricultural, and recreational use
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Conservation With a Local Touch
Citizen Action allows OSI to reach diverse audiences who are passionate about conservation. The program addresses a range of issues that are central to OSI’s mission, and leaves a positive and lasting mark at the community level.
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Fresh From Forests to Faucets
Today the Open Space Institute, the Water District, and other partners are working against time to save Sebago Lake’s forests – and to protect drinking water for roughly 200,000 people.
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Traversing Tennessee Trails
The Denny Cove project was one of three that OSI and partners projects completed in 2017 that expand South Cumberland State Park.
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Supporting a Park in the Heart of Manhattan
Thanks to OSI’s support of a local friends group, a park in the Inwood community of Manhattan is being cared for in order to build community, bring people closer to nature, and ensure access to green spaces in a densely populated city.
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Adding Adirondack Access
OSI is offering solutions that will better disperse eager explorers by securing additional acreage for public access in the Adirondacks.
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Study Links Land Protection and Climate Change Solutions
There is wide agreement that land conservation plays an important role in reducing harmful gases that cause climate change. The question is, how big a role?
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Trashy Ideas Transforming New York City
OSI Citizen Action Group, Talk Trash City, tackles climate change with innovation
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OSI Brings Climate Science to Land Trusts in the South
Since 2014, nearly 100 land conservation organizations have integrated climate science into their land-protection decisions with support from OSI. The South Carolina nonprofit Upstate Forever is the latest OSI “climate change ambassador.”
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Kayak Conservation Promotes Clean Water in NYC
HarborLAB is an OSI Citizen Action group with an emphasis on “learning adventure boating.” It promotes environmental stewardship by providing free, water-based programming for children, underprivileged youth, and underrepresented community members.
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Going Green in Orange
OSI is protecting open space in a fast-growing community.
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2017 Year in Review: A Year of Success
OSI had another banner year in 2017, protecting 15,000 acres; but the real achievements of land conservation go well beyond the numbers.
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2017 Year in Review: Increasing Access for Recreation
In 2017, through land conservation and support for parks, OSI made enormous strides increasing access to nature.
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2017 Year in Review: Building Healthy Communities
In 2017, OSI showed how smart land conservation can strengthen our communities in countless ways.
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2017 Year in Review: Protecting Sources of Clean Water
In 2017, up and down the East coast, OSI demonstrated how conservation and clean water go hand-in-hand.
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2017 Year in Review: Land for Changes in Climate & Habitat
In 2017, OSI safeguarded large landscapes to sequester carbon dioxide, while training local land trusts how to use the science themselves.
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Diversity in Conservation
Recognizing that the environmental movement is strengthened by different perspectives and voices, the Open Space Institute launched its Conservation Diversity Fellowship in 2016.
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OSI on the Trail in and around the Shawangunks
OSI is playing a big role in bringing the transformative power of trails to communities where we work.
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The Science of Watershed Planning
OSI's Delaware River Watershed Initiative Catalyst grants bring watershed science to bear on county and municipal planning to ensure scarce conservation dollars, effectively protecting water quality in the Delaware River Watershed.
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A Forest For All
Saving a tradition in New England
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Progress on the Paulinskill
Dyaami D'Orazio, OSI's 2017 Conservation Fellow, traveled to Sussex County, NJ, to learn more about on-the-ground initiatives around forest and drinking water protection.
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Essential Ingredients
OSI’s preservation of natural lands is the key to water quality, and OSI-protected farmland is producing some of the best hops and barley in the country. The next time you raise a glass of your favorite local brew, offer a toast to conservation.
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One Mission, Two Partners, Three Landscapes
OSI's mission is to make lands more accessible to all ages. Working with our partner the Butler Conservation Fund, we highlight three landscapes that are now more available to young and old.
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OSI Carries the Day
Using our experience in the Adirondacks, know-how, and taking quick action, OSI helps to resolve a long-standing land dispute.
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Places for People to Roam
Harvey Forest is one of eight climate-resilient properties totaling almost 12,000 acres that OSI helped safeguard through grants and loans in 2016, including five projects in Tennessee, one in Pennsylvania, and another in New Hampshire.
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Farms and Forests Forever
OSI’s Klipper Family Fund for the Champlain Valley is using land protection to grow the local economy while saving time-honored rural traditions.
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The Art of the Deal
How OSI created a serene park in the middle of a busy office complex in suburban Morris County, NJ.
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Five Years and a Transformation
For OSI, whose conservation work over the decades had added over 40,000 acres to the state’s 335,000-acre state park system, the prospect of parks closings prompted disbelief, then resolve
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Trailblazing: River-to-Ridge Trail
When the Smiley Road reconstruction and the new trail completed, OSI envisions a unified trail network surrounding and crossing the Shawangunk Ridge that will total 116 miles in length.
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Food and Drink
OSI’s Bayshore Highlands Fund conserves farmland to protect drinking water in the Delaware Watershed. Research shows that wide buffers of natural vegetation along springs, streams and wetlands can filter out pollutants from farming.
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Healthy Habitat for the Longleaf Pine
A recent Open Space Institute loan of $2.18 million to The Nature Conservancy and OSI's purchase of the Fairlawn tract, will secure more than 1,400 acres for longleaf restoration at the Talladega National Forest in Alabama.
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OSI Plays Matchmaker
OSI's Transborder Fund is doing what comes naturally.
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Letter from Kim Elliman
To our friends and partners in the Carolinas
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What You Can Do
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