Northern Forest Watershed Services

The American Forest Foundation, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, Western Foothills Land Trust, White River Partnership, and HUbbard Brook Institute are developing an innovative and replicable market-based model to incentivize private forest landowners to restore, enhance, and protect aquatic resources in two critical watersheds in the Northern Forest region: the Upper Connecticut River watershed in Vermont and New Hampshire, and the Crooked River watershed in Maine.

Both areas provide vital watershed services, many of which face an array of pressures from exurban sprawl, climate change, nonpoint water pollution, proposed dam construction, noxious species, and other threats. The use of parallel pilot projects in different parts of the region will allow for comparative analyses and increase the likelihood of successful expansion and replication. The five partner organizations will cooperate to develop an incentive-based framework to allow for an integrated marketplace at the local level for the purposes of identifying, trading, and potentially banking watershed services.

The project will focus initially on water purification, flood control and abatement, recreational and scenic resources, and habitat protection. A key objective will be to identify ecosystem service buyers in order to determine their willingness to pay for watershed services on a continuing basis. Funds will be used to compile and synthesize existing information on watersheds services; conduct extensive education and outreach activities to landowners, policymakers, and the public; develop a market-based framework for watershed services; create resource guides and other publications; implement best management practices on private forestlands; and demonstrate payment for ecosystem services transactions.

A final report will document the project’s impacts and offer recommendations for replication in other regions and for the protection of other services dominated by private forest ownership.

Events:
Oxford County, June 2009