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Scenic Hudson plans to use the money from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to support its strategy of “moving beyond a random patchwork of parcels.”
Using a computer model, it will target “networks of conservation areas that add up to more than the sum of their parts,” it said.
Scenic Hudson said it will use $2 million of the grant to buy land and the remaining $300,000 for the initiative’s coordination and implementation.
Because the grant is a “matching” one, the organization itself must raise $10 million.
This new approach includes conserving biodiversity, habitat connectivity and farmland, Scenic Hudson said.
It will also define just "how much conservation is sufficient regionally,” according to the organization.
In order to maximize its benefits, Scenic Hudson will share the strategy with state and local governments and other conservation groups.
Scenic Hudson’s new Hudson Valley Conservation Strategy is generated from a computer model that helps target properties for preservation that will enable the region’s natural areas to withstand climate stresses.
This approach includes conserving biodiversity, habitat connectivity and farmland, and it defines how much conservation is sufficient regionally.
Scenic Hudson is sharing the strategy with state and local governments and other conservation groups to ensure maximum impact.
The Hudson Valley, it said, has one of the nation’s most diverse ecosystems and its habitats, wildlife and farms are important for both the health of the region’s inhabitants and for economic opportunity.
Climate change -- and the extreme weather that comes with it -- has already begun to “stress these ecological resources,” Scenic Hudson said.
Its proximity to New York City, which is also feeling its own “growth pressures,” means it’s more important than ever to save the valley’s natural assets, the organization said.
The strategy encompasses an 11-county area and pinpoints 760,000 “irreplaceable” acres, or 16 percent of the area’s total land mass.
Hudson Valley habitats are home to 85 percent of the state’s vertebrate species despite being just 15 percent of the state’s land area, Sullivan said.
According to Scenic Hudson, the valley features “globally significant” concentrations of species and more than a dozen "Important Bird Areas” and the Hudson itself supports close to 200 species of fish.
Scenic Hudson President Ned Sullivan said the foundation’s generosity will enable his group to use the initiative to “help make the valley vibrant and resilient in the face of climate impacts.”
Foundation President Ed Henry said he hoped the initiative “will become a blueprint for land conservation elsewhere.”
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