Stories from the Field

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Finding a balance between ecological, agricultural, and recreational use

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.

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.

The Denny Cove project was one of three that OSI and partners projects completed in 2017 that expand South Cumberland State Park.

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.

OSI is offering solutions that will better disperse eager explorers by securing additional acreage for public access in the Adirondacks.

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?

OSI Citizen Action Group, Talk Trash City, tackles climate change with innovation

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.”

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.

OSI is protecting open space in a fast-growing community.

OSI had another banner year in 2017, protecting 15,000 acres; but the real achievements of land conservation go well beyond the numbers.

In 2017, through land conservation and support for parks, OSI made enormous strides increasing access to nature.

In 2017, OSI showed how smart land conservation can strengthen our communities in countless ways.

In 2017, up and down the East coast, OSI demonstrated how conservation and clean water go hand-in-hand.

In 2017, OSI safeguarded large landscapes to sequester carbon dioxide, while training local land trusts how to use the science themselves.

Recognizing that the environmental movement is strengthened by different perspectives and voices, the Open Space Institute launched its Conservation Diversity Fellowship in 2016.

OSI is playing a big role in bringing the transformative power of trails to communities where we work.

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.

Saving a tradition in New England

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.

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.

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.

Using our experience in the Adirondacks, know-how, and taking quick action, OSI helps to resolve a long-standing land dispute.

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.

​OSI’s Klipper Family Fund for the Champlain Valley is using land protection to grow the local economy while saving time-honored rural traditions.

How OSI created a serene park in the middle of a busy office complex in suburban Morris County, NJ.

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

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.

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.

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.

OSI's Transborder Fund is doing what comes naturally.

To our friends and partners in the Carolinas