The Jessie B. Cox Trust closed out its year of environmental grantmaking in 2011 with a new appreciation of the challenges of increasing the scale and speed of land conservation in New England.

Most of the projects supported by the Trust feature seasoned environmental organizations working in broad and deep coalitions of nonprofit, business, and government partners.

And while all of the projects supported by the foundation have demonstrated impressive momentum in “increasing the green on the map”, the most important outcomes emerging from the work seem to be in increasing and strengthening the linkages and connectivity between organizations.

It turns out that understanding the ecology of organizations is as important as understanding the ecology of the habitat.

 

Jessie B. Cox Trust

Environment Grants 2011

1% For the Planet
Waitsfield, VT
$50,000 as the first installment of a capacity-building grant to enable the organization to grow its corporate membership and increase environmental grantmaking in New England. (Projected additional support of $450,000, 2012-2017.)

Appalachian Mountain Club
Boston, MA
$50,000 in final support of a three-agency collaborative to preserve land in the Upper Androscoggin Watershed in Northern Maine and New Hampshire. (Total project support of $100,000, 2010-2011.)

Conservation Law Foundation
Boston, MA
$50,000 in final support for the organization’s Campaign for the Gulf of Maine project, for the establishment of a network of conservation areas to protect seafloor habitats and ocean wildlife throughout the Gulf of Maine. (Total project support of $100,000, 2010-2011.)

Ipswich River Watershed Association, Inc.
Ipswich, MA
$50,000 in support of the Parker-Ipswich Rivers Restoration Partnership, a coalition of environmental organizations, government agencies and businesses working to restore fisheries, enforce protection laws and educate the public to become active stewards of the Parker and Ipswich Rivers. (Projected additional support of $50,000 in 2012.)

Land Trust Alliance
Washington, DC
$40,000 in final support to build the capacity of land trust organizations throughout the state of Connecticut. (Total project support of $110,000, 2009-2011.)

Maine Audubon
Falmouth, ME
$50,000 in support of a model stewardship project of the larger Keeping Maine’s Forests initiative, to engage private landowners in voluntary, large-scale stream restoration projects while allowing them to keep their lands in productive forestry.

The Nature Conservancy, Inc., Vermont Chapter
Montpelier, VT
$50,000 to support Vermont activities of the Staying Connected Initiative in the Northern Appalachians, to remove functional barriers for wildlife movement among the 80-million-acre region’s many “ecological islands.”

New England Forestry Foundation
Littleton, MA
$50,000 in final support for a collaborative project of local and regional land trusts and landowners to aggregate small parcels of land into larger “bundles,” in an attempt to accelerate and coordinate the preservation of conservation land in New England. (Total project support of $100,000, 2010-2011.)

Penobscot River Restoration Trust
Augusta, ME
$50,000 in final support for a public/private effort to remove dams and restore habitat along the Penobscot River in Maine. (Total project support of $100,000, 2010-2011.)

Subtotal Environment: $440,000
Percentage of Total: 25

For more information about the Trust’s environmental grantmaking contact Prentice Zinn at pzinn@gmafoundations.com.