Posted on behalf of Rhode Island Sea Grant

Land trusts are key to preserving Rhode Island’s open space, critical habitats, agriculture, and water quality. Millions of dollars and countless hours are spent annually to acquire and maintain properties, and it is important to make sure that these investments are sustained for the long term even as climate change affects these areas with impacts including loss of habitat, increased numbers of invasive species, threatened water supplies, and diminished agricultural productivity.

While many organizations and governments are developing adaptation strategies, the effort has not been widespread in land trusts, many of which are community-based and volunteer driven. A pilot study with South Kingstown Land Trust was undertaken to help land trusts assess vulnerability and identify adaptation strategies in the areas of conservation, management, and investment.

The five-step process used in the report “Building Capacity of Conservation Groups to Adapt to Climate Change” provides land trusts with an approach for determining the vulnerability of their assets and protected parcels, evaluating their current management actions under a climate change lens, and developing new management and acquisition strategies.

“A key element of this project was identifying the habitat types that were the most vulnerable to climate change and thus a high priority for future protective actions,” said Pamela Rubinoff, one of the report’s authors.

The team built upon studies from Massachusetts and Connecticut to develop maps showing low, medium and high sensitivity habitats for the SKLT. High-priority habitats were identified through their geology, soil types, elevation, and the landform of the landscapes.  A greater diversity of features (called Ecological Land Units) within a specified area is indicative of higher overall species diversity. Thus, these maps may be used to identify and select areas of high biodiversity in order to protect species diversity under climate changing conditions.

“SKLT was happy to participate in this pilot project on climate change. Our land trust preserves over 2,600 acres in our town, and we promise to do that in perpetuity. Evidence of climate change is already here, so we know we need to think about these changes. As a small group, we didn’t have the means to tackle this on our own, and now we hope others will benefit from the results as well,” said Joanne Riccitelli, SKLT’s Director of Land Protection.

The tools, methods, and processes outlined in this report may be used at a local or regional scale by land trusts and other entities interested in incorporating climate change adaptation and vulnerability into their acquisition and management planning. The results of this project have been shared with statewide initiatives through RhodeMap RI and the Wildlife Action Plan.

This pilot project was a collaboration among the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Center (CRC) and Rhode Island Sea Grant at the Graduate School of Oceanography and the Environmental Data Center in the College of Environment and Life Sciences, the South Kingstown Land Trust (SKLT), the Nature Conservancy and the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC). Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The report can be accessed through Rhode Island Sea Grant.
Above photo courtesy South Kingstown Land Trust.