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By Nika Colley, NACD Northeast Region Representative
Every year at the NACD Northeast Region Meeting, the Northeast Region Capacity Building Event is held as a four-hour collection of presentations and facilitated discussion focused on a topic outlined in the region’s capacity building plan.
The capacity building plan, established in 2018, was created by a group of conservation leaders from the region’s districts and district partners. It provides a strategy for the growth of district capacity regionally, including building and maintaining strong boards and leadership, strengthening internal and external communications, growing conservation training opportunities, and building strong conservation partnerships regionally. This plan continues to guide the focus of annual capacity building events at the Northeast Region Meeting, like this year’s focus on expanding non-traditional partnerships in the Northeast Region, featuring speakers from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
With a standing Memorandum of Understanding between USFWS and NACD, this year's event on August 27 provided a valuable opportunity for district leadership and partners to learn and strategize about how USFWS and districts can best collaborate locally and regionally. Mark Cookson, USFWS Northeast Regional Coordinator of the Coastal Program and Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program talked with participants about the many programs that complement district priorities in the Northeast, including the Coastal Program, Fish Passage Program, Wetland Grants, State Wildlife Grants, and the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, which offers free technical and financial assistance to private landowners.
In addition to these national programs, Cookson also highlighted specific funds, like the Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund, a competitive grant open to districts for work on habitat restoration, water quality, flood mitigation, and public access that has been awarded $85.5 million since 2018. Moving forward, regional leadership from USFWS and NACD hope to foster state- and local-level partnerships to strengthen collaboration on client referral, technical assistance, outreach, and other complementary programming. To build these partnerships, Cookson recommended inviting USFWS biologists and coordinators to local and state meetings or site visits.
The second presentation was from Josh Kasper and Alex Soroka, physical scientists from USGS' MD-DE-DC Water Science Center. While some districts have worked extensively with USGS, for others, this was the first time learning about the breadth of science available from this agency and the potential for collaboration. USGS maintains scientific databases on many topics useful to districts and landowners, including drought, flood, water quality, streams, climate, geology, and environmental health. Using both periodic and continuous measurements, USGS offers an expansive collection of historic and real-time datasets.
One especially useful feature is its alerts and notification Services that can alert you of volcanic activity, earthquake activity, or changes in water conditions based on thresholds you choose. USGS continues to seek data collection opportunities that lead to real-world applications. Recently, the MD-DE-DC Water Science Center has been working with Delaware conservation districts to use aerial assessments of fields to determine cover-crop planting and termination times that maximize soil health parameters.
A key part of the annual Northeast Region Capacity Building Event is a facilitated discussion reflecting on the presentations of the day. This discussion creates a space for conservation leadership across the region to share ideas, provide feedback, and strategize capacity growth in the coming year. During this conversation, participants were able to hear from fellow district staff and board members about non-traditional partners across the region, including private foundations, watershed coalitions, local NGOs, national NGOs, farmland preservation boards, and emergency service organizations.
Participants were also able to strategize on how the Northeast Region can foster non-traditional partnerships that benefit local conservation. Creating more opportunities for non-traditional partners to share their work and advocating for funding from non-traditional partners were key suggestions for how the Northeast Region could strengthen engagement with these partners. This event creates a stepping stone for strengthening conservation in the region and guides the way for work in the coming years.
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