Sonoma Land Trust’s Post

🌲🌳 Last week, Maryland reached a major conservation milestone — after setting its “30 by 30” goal in 2023, the state announced that, as of February 2024, it had reached this goal six years ahead of schedule. This means that the state has already conserved more than 1.85 million acres out of Maryland’s 6.1 million acres of total land area.   State leaders credit partnership as key to this conservation success, including working closely with local governments, nonprofit land trusts, conservation organizations, federal agencies, and landowners. Maryland is now looking towards its next milestone — conserving 40% of land by 2040.    🔗 Learn more about Maryland’s conservation progress via the Maryland Protected Land Dashboard: https://lnkd.in/e2vxTDtc   

Today is World Wetlands Day! Here are five Give Lively nonprofit members who work year-round to protect these endangered and vital habitats. https://lnkd.in/eb3PT4Xj #worldwetlandsday #climatechange #climateaction #wetlands

#NewMexico, ☎️ now! The Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund is just one big step away from being fully funded, and the state senate needs to hear from you today! The Fund established the state’s first ever funding source for land and water conservation and provides an opportunity for millions of dollars to flow to New Mexico communities through federal matching grants. The Fund can provide state funding for federal programs that require a federal match in lieu of funding from New Mexico communities that often don’t have the resources to provide the match on their own. The Fund supports projects that are shovel-ready, have a proven track record of success, are popular in communities, or have rarely been funded to their full potential. Examples of federal programs include those under the Farm Bill and the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson Acts, which provide grants to New Mexico Department of Game & Fish for fish and wildlife habitat protection; the Clean Water Act, for river and watershed health restoration; and potentially the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). https://lnkd.in/e8JPjthJ

During Shea Month this July, we're bringing attention to the environmental threats facing shea parklands, the impact on the shea supply chain and the communities that depend on it. This year, we're also focusing on how you can contribute to parkland restoration efforts to combat and reverse these challenges. The Global Shea Alliance partnered with its members to create a comprehensive guide for cultivating shea seedlings in community based nurseries. One of the goals of the Action for Shea Parklands (ASP) initiative is to grow 10 million trees and important to this mission is the availability of tree seedlings. By fostering the creation of community nurseries and motivating individuals to take part in shea and native tree cultivation, we can all play a role in revitalising shea parklands. ASP empowers individuals and communities to actively engage in environmental preservation, secure the shea supply chain and support the livelihoods of those reliant on these trees. Discover how you can get involved and find our guide to sowing shea seeds here: https://shorturl.at/g6hiF #WomenInShea #SheaMonth2024 #Sheaparklands #SahelParklands #Action4shea #Partnership4Shea #GenerationRestoration

TSF is playing an important role in conserving, improving, and protecting our nation's cold water resources while providing angling opportunities for future generations. Take five minutes to learn more about TSF's work!

If you've ever been out to Caddo Lake, you know what a special place it is! Over the past year, I've had the pleasure of collaborating with Caddo Lake Institute (CLI) through our Conservation Wrangler program, and I'm excited to share this blog outlining a few of the things we have worked on together. Read more about how CLI is working to protect this ecological jewel for generations to come:

Another step towards a more equitable outdoors! Really proud of the work my team and ally organizations have done to advance this legislation forward. Learn more & get involved below.

"In 2021, the Queensland Government released its Protected Area Strategy 2020–2030, providing an overarching policy to effectively double the state’s protected areas. This was followed by one of the single largest budget allocations for the acquisition of land for new national parks—a commitment of AUD$301 million to expand protected areas on Cape York (AUD$38.5m) and the rest of Queensland (AUD$262.5m). Since 2021, nearly 2.5 million acres have either been formally protected or acquired and set aside as future national parks," writes Andrew Piccone from Pew Charitable Trusts at https://buff.ly/3KSSPXr "The formal transfer of land from government back to local First Nations people, combined with programs designed to support and bolster cultural practices, is critically important today. The landmark Cape York Peninsula Tenure Resolution Program in far northern Queensland exemplifies a pioneering approach to creating Indigenous owned and jointly managed national parks, promoting a model of consent-based negotiation and co-management that has led to significant conservation achievements and socio-economic benefits."

Los Padres ForestWatch is seeking the public's support to permanently protect Tecuya Ridge's 68 acres of forest habitat in Los Padres National Forest, which is near the convergence of California's Los Angeles, Ventura, and Kern county lines. Tecuya Ridge is a place where endangered California condors soar overhead, where black bears and mountain lions and deer roam, and where breathtaking views stretch from the snow-capped Sierra Nevada to Mt. Pinos and the Sespe backcountry. It’s also a place called Tacuy^ that is culturally and spiritually important to Chumash and Yokuts people. By purchasing this land, we can immediately remove the risk posed by logging, mining, and other development. Our long-term plan is to hold the property in a conservation easement to ensure that it will never again come under threat of development. This living, thriving forest will be used for ecological study, education, traditional indigenous gathering and ceremony, and left to do what forests do best—provide wildlife habitat, regulate our climate, replenish the soil, and serve as an inspiration for us all. Our Tecuya Forever campaign seeks to raise $300,000 to cover the property’s appraised purchase price, closing costs, and completion of a long-term management plan and conservation easement for the land. Your donation will help protect this forest in perpetuity, for generations to come. Learn more about Tecuya Forever: https://lnkd.in/g2SjQT-B #conservation #california #environment 

NEWS UPDATE: Project Deveron achieves first ever returning adult salmon count for the River Deveron 🐟 Project Deveron, a partnership between the Deveron, Bogie & Isla Rivers Charitable Trust and the Atlantic Salmon Trust, will deliver catchment-scale habitat restoration with state-of-the-art salmon population and wider environmental monitoring – the aim being to demonstrate and measure the success of our efforts over time. A key aspect of this monitoring is accurately counting the numbers of returning adult salmon via the use of an ARIS (Adaptive Resolution Imaging Sonar) system located in the lower River Deveron. Following a great deal of hard work and collaboration by the teams involved, both out in the field and through desk-based data analysis, we can announce that the first ever accurately recorded returning adult salmon count for the River Deveron was achieved in 2023. This count recorded 4,674 upstream salmon with further data modelling work suggesting that the total estimated run was 5,600 adult salmon entering the Deveron recorded during the period of 24th February to 19th October 2023. To read the full story and find out more, please visit https://lnkd.in/eqUxVang #atlanticsalmontrust #wildsalmonfirst #naturerestoration #salmonconservation