Place-based Conservation Program
This program recognizes the powerful connection that people have to the critical landscapes that support the Northwest's ecosystems and communities. The work of our long-standing Endangered Ecosystems program now falls under the framework of Place-based Conservation. Priorities for funding are grounded in the science of conservation biology, as well as the social and political sciences, with an emphasis on pivotal communities where our investments will have an impact beyond the immediate landscape. All of our investments in this program are made with an eye toward serving the larger goal of engaging citizens and communicating their interests to decisionmakers.
Grants in this funding area range from $20,000 to $50,000 and can be awarded for multiple years. Proposals for this funding area are accepted by invitation only and are awarded at one of three board meetings held each year.
In March of 2007, after a comprehensive analysis that included an ecological, economic and demographic trend assessment by Headwaters Economics (the Conservation Atlas of the Northwest), our board of directors chose three primary landscapes where we will focus our Place-based Conservation funding in the near-term. These places are described below. Visit our Funding Areas FAQ for more information about how we chose these places.
The stars identify the general location of the High Divide (green), Missoula and Ravalli Counties (red), and the North Cascades (blue). Click on the map to see a larger image.The High Divide
The High Divide is a rare east-west linkage zone between Yellowstone National Park and the Salmon-Selway ecoregions. This varied region, with low elevation wetlands and high alpine terrain, is tremendously important to the continued viability of large carnivores and other species in the region. Local citizens, including watershed and rancher groups, are concerned about growth and are eager to protect the local culture, wildlife and landscape. Our goal in the High Divide is to support local citizens as they plan for the future in the face of increasing pressures from urban development and its fragmentation of the landscape.
The North Cascades
Widely identified as globally significant, the North Cascades is a wild and complex region bounded in the north by the U.S.-Canadian border, in the south by the Interstate-90 corridor, in the west by the Puget Lowlands and in the east by the Columbia River. The North Cascades region is a critical landscape for both people and wildlife. The area provides important fisheries and wildlife habitat and provides water, hydropower and a place to recreate for people all over the Northwest. Our goal for the region is to strengthen the intersection of ecosystems and communities in the North Cascades, as local people build support for conservation in the region based upon the importance of the natural landscape to their economies, quality of life and cultures.
Missoula and Ravalli Counties
The Missoula-Ravalli county area in Western Montana links the Frank Church Wilderness and the Salmon-Selway ecosystem to the south with the Mission Mountains and the Glacier/Bob Marshall Wilderness complex to the north. It represents a diverse human landscape with the more progressive urban center of Missoula and the traditional and rural communities in Ravalli County. Residents of the region are proud of their rugged landscape and its role as a key south to north wildlife corridor. There is increasing local interest in the preservation of open space and limiting urban sprawl into the rural and wild surroundings. Our goal in the region is to provide support for local efforts to bring a diverse local community together as they plan for preserving the natural heritage of thier region.