I started October not in Maine but in Albany, New York—which can be lovely, especially when you’re with partners from all over the northeast talking about habitat connectivity! That’s where I was October 1-3, attending the biennial Staying Connected Initiative (SCI) senior leadership retreat at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Discovery Center.
The SCI is a unique assemblage of government, non-government, and academic partners working together to conserve, restore, and sustain landscape connections across the Northern Appalachian/Acadian Forest region. SCI partners work at multiple scales in the U.S. and Canada to help safeguard native species from the impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation in a changing climate, while also supporting healthy human communities and compatible interests and activities tied to the landscape. Tools deployed include land conservation, restoration, transportation solutions, outreach, and policies to further the goal of maintaining a connected landscape.
Maine Audubon is one of the founding partners of SCI, and our current Stream Smart program and past roadkill and road infrastructure surveys are integral pieces of the connectivity work being done by the partnership. In fact, Maine is often a leader in this realm thanks to the success of our culvert surveys, Stream Smart program, and MaineDOT Public Map Viewer.
At the retreat we spent time reviewing previous goals, and sharing accomplishments since the last retreat two years ago. We heard about roadkill surveys, game camera setups, plans for overpasses and underpasses, and had breakout groups to strategize on how to maximize our collective impact. Then we got outside! A field trip to Thacher State Park gave us the opportunity to really see what the mosaic of a connected landscape could look like—from the limestone cliff-face of the park, to the Hudson-Mohawk Valleys below, reaching to the Adirondacks in the distance. From rock-strewn slopes, woodlands, river bottoms, and open fields, these natural habitats intermingle with human development—including the State Capital right in the middle.
We wrapped up the retreat on Friday with a fantastic slideshow of images from game cameras showing moose, lynx, bears, bobcats, and more. What an inspiring way to start the month!
