draft a2a partner meeting 2015 proceedings · algonquin!toadirondacks!collaborative!...

Algonquin to Adirondacks Collaborative 2015 Partner Meeting Proceedings

Brockville Museum, 5 Henry Street, Brockville Ontario 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., March 28, 2015

The A2A Region (Buchan, 2014)

A2A Collaborative 2015 Partner Meeting & AGM Proceedings

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Executive Summary

Solutions to complex problems must be systemic, collaborative, and experimental. – Adam Kahane

Collaborating for conservation was the topic that brought 32 members, partner organizations representatives, board members, volunteers, and students together at the Algonquin to Adirondacks (A2A) Collaborative Partner Meeting & Annual General Meeting. Large-‐scale conservation across the A2A region is challenged by many complex problems that require collaboration among partners to address together. This gathering included an update from A2A, reports from partner organizations, a guest speaker addressing how collaboration among partners can take place, and a workshop to help shape how the A2A Collaborative facilitates collaborative conservation. The year 2014 gave us much to celebrate. Memberships, partnerships, and website traffic have all doubled. Our board and committees, and volunteers contributed 3,500+ hours toward A2A’s mission. We are one year into our three-‐year capacity building grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and have met the goals established with it. Ahead we have high hopes, ambitious projects, and fundraising targets for self-‐sufficiency. A2A wishes to thank all who attended for their collaboration. We look forward to continuing to work together.

Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................... 2 Agenda 2015 Partner Meeting ............................................................................................................. 3 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................... 3 President’s Report ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Michelle Kanter, Guest Speaker: Collaborating for Conservation .......................................... 6 Partner Workshop ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Project Updates ........................................................................................................................................... 9 We are grateful for support from:


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Agenda 2015 Partner Meeting Brockville Museum, 5 Henry Street, Brockville Ontario

9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., March 28, 2015 9:30 Registration and coffee

10:00 Welcome and A2A President’s Report: Emily Conger

10:10 Collaborating for Conservation, Guest Speaker: Michelle Kanter, Carolinian

Canada Coalition

10:45 Question and answer with Michelle

Coffee break

11:15 Partner workshop: What could collaborative conservation planning look like

in A2A? Facilitator: Lilith Wyatt, A2A Coordinator

Lunch

1:00 Partner updates to the Collaborative: Projects that contribute to the Vision and

Mission of A2A

2:00 Annual General Meeting

3:00 Adjournment

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the Algonquin to Adirondacks Collaborative Board of Directors: Gary Bell, Ken Buchan, Emily Conger, Richard Grover, Mike Kehoe, Tom Langen, Larry McDermott, Mark Scarlett, Sarah Walsh, Lee Willbanks. A special thanks to retiring board members: Cameron Smith, who served this organization for at least a dozen years in many capacities, most recently in governance, getting A2A the legal and charitable status that are required for us to succeed; Steve Hounsell, who led our strategic planning process and provided leadership in big picture visioning; and Bryarly McEachern, who has taken a sabbatical, but hopes to return soon. Thank you, Cameron, Steve, and Bryarly. Thank you to our many other committee members and volunteers; without you our work would not be possible.


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President’s Report “I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that we are on indigenous land, right across the Algonquin to Adirondack region, and that the A2A Board has committed to engaging with First Nations through the principles of respect, equity and empowerment. For those who don’t know me yet, my name is Emily Conger, and I am president of the Board of the Algonquin to Adirondacks Collaborative. I want to welcome every one of you here, and thank you for coming. Some of you have traveled hundreds of kilometers to be here. Each of you has given up something to participate today, and I thank you for that. You are all here because you already have a connection to the idea that the Algonquin to Adirondack region is unique and has a special role in saving biodiversity in eastern North America. You are here because you know that this is one of the last most extensive, least degraded north-‐south corridors from Thunder Bay to where the St. Lawrence enters the sea. And you hope that the A2A Region can serve to mitigate the effects of climate change if we can reduce existing fragmentation and prevent any more of it from happening. And you may well be here because you know that without the support of the people who live in this region, all the science in the world can’t save A2A. The A2A Collaborative was born out of the A2A Conservation Association, which was set up to promote connectivity on the landscape in a way that respected sustainable human land uses. A2A is a multinational organization, with First Nations, U.S. and Canadian members and partner organizations, and a multinational board of directors. A2A is a registered charity in Canada and has the means to give charitable receipts for larger donations in the U.S. You will see in your packages an agenda for today’s activities and lots of other information to take back to your organizations. A big thank you to Lilith Wyatt, our first Coordinator, for putting these together. She joined A2A a year ago today, if memory serves, so happy first anniversary Lilith! Lilith has made a huge difference for A2A, increasing our visibility and efficiency exponentially. We are so glad she is with us. We were able to hire our first coordinator with funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, so I would like to acknowledge their generous contribution. We have also received project funding from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry’s Species at Risk Stewardship Fund for our 401 eco-‐passageways project, the McLean Foundation for our mapping project, the National Trails Coalition and Paul McKay for our A2A Camino/Trails project, which was the number one choice of a regional scale project from last year’s inaugural Partner Meeting. And we were fortunate to have 2 Brazilian students work with us last summer on a couple of our projects funded through the University of Toronto’s Science without Borders internship program. We also want to


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thank Sustainable Eastern Ontario, which has helped defray some of today’s meeting expenses. A2A has had an amazing year in so many ways. We have our first office at 19 Reynolds Road, and it’s a really nice space. Come and visit! We’ve grown in individual memberships, and from 18 to a whopping 39 organizational partners in just 12 months. Can you feel the buzz?! We have completed some of the mapping work needed to understand how strategically conservation should take place across the A2A region, marrying data sets from the U.S. and Canada. We are very grateful to the Ministry of Natural Resources for the mapping work they did, giving us, as a Collaborative, a lot of added value. Gary Bell will be telling you more about that this afternoon. And we’ve completed the first year of a two-‐year Species at Risk project on Hwy. 401. Cameron Smith will fill you in on that. Our other big project is a research database, one of the goals set out for us by partners in 2012. Lilith will tell you more about that. But aside from project work and work with Partners, A2A also works on policy. Government decisions have a huge impact on our success or failure in accomplishing our mission. In the past year we made submissions to reduce fragmentation and habitat loss through development in Leeds and Grenville Counties’ Official Plan, the pinch-‐point of the Thousand Islands. We’re also involved in working to prevent environmental degradation from pipeline construction and advocating for improved safety measures in pipeline operation. And finally, we’ve been involved in moving the province of Ontario to ban the use of neonicotinoid herbicides, which are directly linked to extreme drops in pollinator populations. In all parts of our advocacy work, we argue that government should provide compensation to landowners who suffer financial loss. Now I would like to introduce Michelle Kanter, Executive Director of the Carolinian Canada Coalition since 2003. She has 30 years of experience in wildlife research and land stewardship, she has worked with a broad range of stakeholders around the world on innovative conservation partnerships.

She currently sits on the Ontario Species at Risk Public Advisory Committee. Michelle was trained as a wildlife biologist and has extensive experience with conserving Carolinian species and habitats. She works with private landowners, assisting them in understanding the significance of habitat on their properties.

We at A2A became particularly interested in inviting Michelle to speak to us when we learned that the Carolinian Canada Coalition has worked for many years with a large number and variety of partners. We wanted to learn about how the Coalition functions and about the successes they’ve had working with their partners, but also about their failures, so that in our new Collaborative, we can find the best way to move forward together.”


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Michelle Kanter, Guest Speaker: Collaborating for Conservation Executive Director, Carolinian Canada Coalition (CCC)

Michelle delivered a presentation full of ideas and stories from her experience facilitating collaborative conservation planning. Here are a few summary notes:

• Conservation = Save (Protect) + Steward + Seed (Restore); all three are required

• To do this, we can help people to experience, know, connect with, and love the land

• In 1984, CCC identified 38 signature sites, or unprotected priority hot spots, with key partners

o Created Conservation Action Plans (CAPs) o Included site inventories and clear steps for who can do what to conserve the

areas

• Tips to engage community members: o Have them write regulations signs themselves to build ownership o Give awards to recognize people o Hold events to allow people to share their nature stories o Landowner Leaders, citizen science, media visibility, peer outreach o Connections, Connections, Connections (especially face-‐to-‐face) o Follow-‐up, Follow-‐up, Follow-‐up (don’t lose them)

• Use trails to encourage access, make

them experiential and engaging o Invite partners (public or private)

to register their trails o Provide signage, funding, training,

etc. for partners

• Use careful criteria to choose each project you take on:

o They build on your unique mission and strengths instead of competing

o They support, link, enhance partner organizations and build capacity

Michelle Kanter at the A2A Partner Meeting


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Partner Workshop

Participants gathered in six groups to think together about applying Michelle ideas in A2A. The notes from each table were gathered and typed up. They will help shape the A2A Collaborative’s activities. Here is a summary of those notes: What could collaborative conservation planning look like in A2A?

o Our mission requires that we: Assess, understand, protect, steward, educate, restore o Decide on the steps required for each action, then identify partners to take on

actions, engage new partners to fill gaps o Learn from other successful examples, e.g., the European Commission’s Green

Infrastructure Plan o Learn from good and bad case studies o Have a shared signature project to engage people, strengthen funding opportunities,

and help partners contribute to something larger o Engage hearts first, then minds o Find a leader for landowner contacts, engage contacts via peer-‐to-‐peer outreach o Engage landowners to comment at the municipal level: they have the power; help

them make a plan o Engage people through their local organizations, not directly o Develop one-‐day volunteer programs o Use citizen science, consider creating a subcommittee o Create a Collaborative calendar of events o Make change by going bottom up, not top-‐down o Respect landowners’ concerns about connectivity hotspots o Collect information from partners, develop information for partners, then

communicate information outwards o Engage directly with municipalities, in partnership with conservation authorities


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o Have difficult conversations with those not yet on board; engaging with new audiences may lead to new funding, more political will, and scaling our impact

o Engage young people at every level in every organization as a priority o Foster an awareness of what A2A is as an organization, and why partners/donors

should care o Modernize the newsletter format (by email) and content (innovative)

Word frequency from all workshop notes shown visually (created using wordle.net)


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Project Updates (in alphabetical order)

A2A’s 401 project on ecopassages, Cameron Smith • Field team looking at 55 km of highway 401 • Snapping turtles, eastern milk snakes, black rat snakes, eastern ribbon snakes,

Blanding’s turtles all found dead and a few found alive • Prof. Ryan Danby is creating a computer model to understand wildlife hotspots so that,

in light of challenges to wildlife passage, we can recommend remedial work to MTO for passage and habitat connectivity.

• Next step is aiding mammal passing: 25 coyotes and 6 fisher were found killed A2A’s 2014 Regional Connectivity Mapping, Gary Bell • With support from the McLean Foundation, connectivity was mapped in the threatened

portion of the A2A region using core areas, corridors, least cost pathways, and riparian linkages

• Partners should be in touch to request the GIS data package, or visit our online viewer launched today (March 28, 2015) in beta format. All feedback is appreciated.

• Next we are seeking funding for an outreach specialist to conduct workshops with conservation groups and municipal planners across the A2A region

A2A’s Resource and Research Database, Lilith Wyatt • Last summer an intern from the University of Toronto’s Science Without Borders

program helped build the back end of a database platform. • A request for research and resources went out in the fall yielding 250+ academic

papers, practitioner resources, and other information on conservation and connectivity in the A2A region.

• We are now seeking a summer intern to help catalogue and populate the database. Algonquin Provincial Park, Alison Lake • Will be reporting back to my colleagues. We are curious about A2A and I am personally

very excited. Years ago the superintendent would have said my interest stops at the park boundary. Now we know we can't afford to think that way. Much is shifting at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, including attitudes.

• Wildlife doesn't follow boundaries. Collared wolves are more often hit and killed outside the park. Not used to high traffic.

• Algonquin Park also dealing with algal blooms. They weren’t related to a warm summer, nor to septic tanks, so what is it? We are researching why, e.g., with sediment cores.

• Communication will be key between us and Adirondack Park


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Concordia University, Laura Roch • Just completed MSc thesis on Connectivity mapping using circuit theory. With it I have

identified three north south corridors: one on the Frontenac Arch, one west of Cornwall, and one coming south from Quebec.

Indian River Lakes Conservancy, Ed Robertson • We are a charitable land trust that began by doing land acquisition for conservation. • Education has become our new priority. We are building an education centre on a land

donation. • Indian River Lakes Water Project is working to reduce the flow of excess phosphorus. Land Conservancy for Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington, Mary Alice Schlesinger • We are a smaller scale land trust. We seek acquisitions and easements. • Working on a natural heritage study using existing data from A2A and others. Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists, Tineke Kuiper • Worked with the municipality to develop and Natural Heritage System, with an interest

in connectivity. It has passed council twice. The new battle is that it's seen as a restriction, so we’re now working on a zoning bylaw.

• Worked with Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority on mapping to help with planner education. This has been a rich experience.

Nature Conservancy of Canada, Gary Bell • A2A mapping products have informed the 2015 update of our Natural Area

Conservation Plan for the Eastern Lake Ontario Coast, a region stretching from Gananoque to Trenton and including Prince Edward County and the islands of the eastern half of Lake Ontario. This conservation plan will direct NCC’s conservation work over the coming 8 years including land acquisition.

Point-‐to-‐Point Prince Edward County Foundation, Richard Copple • Students at York University and Seneca College exploring securing a National Marine

Conservation Area in eastern Ontario. • Interested in how to best engage youth, please contact them to share your lessons. Queen's University, Prof. Ryan Danby • Student is researching forest biodiversity plot data to investigate species mixing. Her

theory is that northern species at the southern end of their range are more hesitant to mix than southern species at the northern end of their ranges.

• She is seeking any and all tree species data. Please contact Ryan with any leads. Save the River, Lee Willbanks • Cautionary tale about a multi-‐year, multi-‐jurisdictional (town and village) effort to have

certain areas within the coastal zone of the St. Lawrence River between Cape Vincent and Ogdensburg designated as a "State Area of Scenic Significance”


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• It was a major initiative with positive engagement from ten communities. A few commercial interests turned it around by making land trusts and conservationist out to be the enemy with full-‐page ads in local rural newspapers. Five communities have withdrawn including the initiator.

• Thousand Islands Land Trust (TILT) and others who voiced support have been caught in the crosshairs.

• Perhaps worth reviewing how deeply we make connections, and how to avoid this type of tide-‐turning in the future.

St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences, Brian Hickey • Our mandate is research, education, & outreach. • We bring classes of students, general public and involve them in research. Provide

technical service to industry, government. St Lawrence River biodiversity project. Citizen science for engagement and second for data. Maps are only as good as our data. Getting good data is important instead of just making good-‐looking maps.

St. Lawrence University, Sara Ashpole • Lee Willbanks came to speak and inspire students in my class. • Watershed planning for Indian River Lakes Conservancy (IRLC). • Supervising an intern to work with Point-‐to-‐Point Prince Edward County. • SLU offers students 45 volunteer hours for ¼ credit. Toronto to Algonquin Greenway, Pamela Marsales • Employs European greenway methodology, e.g. Prague to Vienna Greenway. • The idea is to encourage sustainable people-‐powered travel. It began as an effort to

preserve natural heritage of the countryside after the fall of Communism, and was replicated across Europe, and in the Hudson River Valley.

• Integrates local arts, communities, recreation, and connecting people to nature. Will attract international attention. We are one of 15 initiatives that are part of a community cooperative (a good way for budding initiatives to secure charitable status).

• Will also report back to Haliburton Highlands Land Trust. Thousand Islands National Park, Sheldon Lambert • We have had to become more insular recently. We do have a multispecies action plan,

which extends past our boundaries. This will hopefully lead to partnerships and funding in 1-‐2 years.

• Injection of funds coming soon to help with infrastructure and visitor services. • We want to: i. increase relevance to urban and new Canadians, ii. pursue self-‐sufficiency

through new revenue, iii. achieve conservation goals to conserve species at risk (3rd highest in Canada).

• Working with Mohawks of Akwesasne, also with landowners & public. • Restoring lands at the request of the MNR.

draft a2a partner meeting 2015 proceedings · algonquin!toadirondacks!collaborative!...

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