CORNWALL — The John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation, a supporting fund of the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation, recently awarded a $60,000 Habitat, Land, and Environmental Protection Grant for its Follow the Forest conservation initiative. The grant will allow HVA and its conservation partners in Northwest Connecticut to redouble their efforts to protect one of the most significant wildlife habitat corridors in the eastern United States, according to a statement.
“We are deeply grateful to the Wiederhold Foundation for its support for our Follow the Forest effort,” said HVA’s Executive Director Lynn Werner. “The ongoing public health and economic crisis means we and our partners need to use every resource at our disposal to save wildlife habitat, and right now there is so much important land in play. We cannot afford to falter or lose momentum while the science tells us we need to do more.”
“Our region is experiencing residential real estate demand at levels and prices we haven’t seen since before the Great Recession,” said HVA’s Land Protection Manager Brendan Boepple. “We and our land trust partners need to be nimble and strategic to identify and protect the places that we can’t afford to lose, and Follow the Forest gives us the tools to do this.”
“Follow the Forest is our very own Yellowstone to Yukon” said “And it has the same Continental-scale importance for wildlife.”
According to HVA’s Director of Regional Land Conservation Tim Abbott, Follow the Forest identifies a forested wildlife corridor that connects the lower Hudson Valley to the Litchfield Hills and the Berkshires, and then continues on to the Green Mountains, the Adirondacks, and Canada. This biologically diverse landscape supports scores of rare and threatened wildlife species, anchored by a network of forested uplands and the places in between, such as riverbanks, fields and even culverts and bridges where wildlife need to pass in safety. Such animals include small and mid-sized mammals, interior nesting migratory songbirds, wide-ranging species like moose and fisher, and those like northern flying squirrels that are at the limits of their contiguous ranges in this region, Abbott said.
The Wiederhold Foundation grant will enable HVA to develop and implement an intensive landowner and land trust engagement program to protect the top priority forest habitats and wildlife linkages in Northwest Connecticut, according to the statement. As part of this effort, said Abbott, HVA plans to launch an outreach and education campaign that will amplify and elevate the importance of Follow the Forest and its significance for wildlife conservation. HVA’s Land Protection team, together with its land trust and state agency partners, will work together with willing landowners top protect the places that are vital to maintaining this wildlife corridor, and take full advantage of available sources of land protection funding.
The Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) is a regional watershed organization, an accredited land trust, and catalyst for strategic conservation in western New England and eastern New York. HVA provide scientific and technical knowledge, transactional expertise and fundraising support to numerous conservation nonprofits and state agency partners, including several other land trust recipients of Wiederhold Foundation grants. HVA staffs and sponsors the Litchfield Hills Greenprint Collaborative – one of the premier regional conservation partnerships or RCPs in the United States – and Follow the Forest, a unifying conservation vision and action agenda for numerous RCPs. www.followtheforest.org
The John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation was created for the purpose of protecting and improving the welfare of animals of all kinds with a focus on cats and dogs, the promotion of veterinary programs, and the protection of wildlife, including endangered species, flora and fauna. In 2012, The John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation Trustees elected to become a supporting organization of the Community Foundation. To learn more, call 860-626-1245 https://www.northwestcf.org/wiederhold-foundation
Fly Fishing Film Festival offers angling adventures
The International Fly Fishing Film Festival, coming virtually to Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Vermont at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5, features 10 films, 6- to 16-minutes in length, from all corners of the globe showcasing the passion, lifestyle and culture of fly fishing.
Admission to the Fishing Film Festival, viewable throughout the state, is $15 and may be accessed at https://watch.eventive.org/if4us/play/5f4d3bfc2f75db00851f30f3. Viewers may log on to the site anytime within 48 hours of the showing.
Tickets are active for seven days. One attendee will be selected to win the 2020 Grand Prize drawing consisting of thousands of dollars of fly-fishing gear provided by International Fly Fishing Film Festival sponsors.
The event is hosted by The Fly Fishing Show. For information, contact https://www.flyfilmfest.com/.
In addition to the films, there will be fly fishing product give-aways and other promotions at the event.
Films include: “Particles and Droplets” by Gilbert Rowley, a look at the world from a different perspective with fly fishing the catalyst; “Aurora Fontinalis” by Intents Media, an adventurous trip after giant brook trout in the far north; “Iqaluk” by Hooké, a far northern fly-fishing adventure to Nunavik in search of Arctic Char; “The Mend” by Broc Isabelle, about a father-son relationship complicated by career and responsibilities all set to a fly-fishing background; and “Nine Foot Rod” by Dana Lattery, about four fly-fishing guides embarked on a trip to Oman in search of giant trevally and Indo-Pacific Permit.
Others include “AK 30” seeking a 30-inch trout in Alaska’s Naknek River; “The Bull Run” looking for a bull trout north of the 49th parallel in the Rockies; and “Poetry in Motion” the story of Maxine McCormack’s journey to become world fly-fishing champion.
Trailers for all films can be seen online at flyfilmfest.com. The International Fly Fishing Film Festival, founded in 2011, screens at more than 120 locations worldwide each year.
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