The mailing will go out to all Mass. landowners with 20 acres or more who reside in one of the FSR-funded partnership regions, and will allow landowners to easily request a series of free publications on an array of conservation and land management tools and resources (these are the excellent ttor publications, “your land, your choices” etc.).

But wait!  What about our Connecticut landowners!  Also, some of you may recall that the FSR grant requires us to have an event that follows up the topic of the mailing.  To solve these shortcomings, I propose we create a separate mailing for CT landowners with 20 acres or more — perhaps one that directs people to the rich array of online conservation resources for CT — and that also invites them to a follow-up educational event.  While the event could focus any of a number of conservation-related topics, I think it could be especially relevant (particularly as we consider aggregation) to have an event about Conservation Easements for landowners who are interested in the possibility of having an easement on their land (as opposed to our currently scheduled forum designed for landowners who already have easements).  I imagine it as a panel of engaged easement landowners who can share their experiences and answer questions along with a regional expert or two.  In subsequent years, we can offer Mass.  events as well….

This event will need to take place before September 2010 to fulfill the terms of the grant.  In my mind, that means we should shoot for June or July at the latest, to avoid the busy end-of-summer period.  We’ll need to decide if the CT mailing and event is the way we want to go, what info the mailing should contain, and what the topic of the event should be asap.  I have a draft postcard that I designed trying to follow the landowner information and outreach guidelines in the new TELE project (Tools for Engaging Landowners Effectively).  Just intended as food-for-thought (click on them for a larger image)

At our planning meeting in March, we decided to add some elements to the event that are specific to Joshua’s Trust landowners: this was decided knowing that the bulk of landowners present will be Joshua’s Trust landowners (given the location of the event and the distribution of easements in the partnership region), and that it will allow us to present more detailed and specific information about easements that will be relevant for the audience.  Our invites will be going out just to Joshua’s Trust landowners, but please let me know if you have other landowners in mind that you’d like to invite as well.  We will need an accurate head-count before the event as we’ll be serving dinner.

CE Forum for Easement Landowners
Tuesday, May 25th, 6 – 8:30 pm
Joshua’s Trust Office in the Old Schoolhouse
S. Eaglesville Rd., Mansfield, CT

CE forum draft agenda(2)

In point of fact, the grant does not require MassConn to offer these forums independently, but rather to offer one a year (for the next three years) jointly with the North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership, in which at least two landowners from the MassConn region attend.  That’s setting the bar pretty low, and we’re already well on our way to exceeding those requirements!  It struck our steering committee members that forums held along the border between the MassConn and North Quabbin regions would be functionally out-of-reach for our Connecticut landowners, so this year, we will be offering our own independent forum in Connecticut, with strong leadership from the good folks at Joshua’s Trust.

It turns out this choice was especially appropriate to the geographic distribution of our easements: out of a list of 64 easements I’ve compiled for the MassConn area, over 70% are held by Joshua’s Trust, and are located in Connecticut towns at the Southern end of the partnership region.  Additionally, many of those easements are old and have changed hands since they were installed — making the need to connect with landowners and answer their questions all-the-more pressing.  In subsequent years, we can choose to continue to hold independent forums, or shift over to joint forums with NQRLP, which would likely do a reasonable job of serving our Mass. easement landowners.

For this first forum, Joshua’s Trust will likely provide a location (their office in Mansfield), as well as taking the lead on planning & facilitating the forum.  We will be having a planning meeting at 10:30 am on Wed., March 24th at the Joshua’s Trust office in Mansfield — we could use YOUR input as we design the content and delivery, so please consider joining us!  Email me or respond in this page if you’d like to attend.

Below you can download the agenda that the NQRLP folks designed for their forum, which they held in the first week of March.  They had a very successful meeting with 40 landowners and 10 land trust staff/board members!

CE Forum outline

I am hoping this will provide a low-key forum for discussions, feedback, and keeping folks updated on the general happenings of the partnership and my doings as coordinator.

As I only have 8 hours a week to complete my work for the partnership, I will only post when it seems particularly useful or necessary (and will send brief email notices when key postings appear).  The frequency and focus of this blog page will doubtless evolve as we are able to gauge its utility: one of my main hopes is that it will provide a place where people can give their feedback on focused topics, as well as see the comments and feedback of others and possibly even engage in discussion.  I also intend that it should provide a place where you can voluntarily get more information about topics of interest, rather than having me send out lengthy emails burgeoning with info that you might not want to read!

In the spirit of feedback, please let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas about how we should or shouldn’t use this space!

In service,

Claire