2025 Small Grant Awardees

We are pleased to announce the Cornell Land Trust Grant awardees for 2025. With support from our generous sponsors, the program was able to award $260,000 to 14 land trusts throughout the country. Funds will be used for management and restoration of private protected lands, integration of bird conservation and tools into prioritization and planning, and development of partnerships within the birding community to amplify conservation efforts. The next request for proposals will open in January 2026.

Aiken Land Conservancy (South Carolina), $25,000

Burning for Biodiversity: Evaluating Wildlife Responses to Prescribed Fire on Conserved Private Lands

Building on two years of bird surveys before and after prescribed burns through previous grant funding, Aiken Land Conservancy (ALC) will expand its efforts in 2025 through Burning for Biodiversity, a new conservation initiative supported by a small grant. This project aims to restore over 300 acres of longleaf pine savanna across seven privately conserved properties in Aiken County. Historically maintained by frequent low-intensity fires, these fire-dependent ecosystems have declined dramatically due to fire suppression and habitat loss, leading to steep declines in species such as Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Southern hognose snake, and gopher tortoise. This project will use a combination of dormant- and growing-season prescribed burns to improve habitat quality and support the recovery of these and other State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) species.

Pre- and post-burn wildlife surveys will be conducted with help from local volunteers, students from USC-Aiken, and partner organizations including the Augusta-Aiken Audubon Society, the Longleaf Alliance, and the Women Owning Woodlands Initiative. These surveys will track the response of at least three fire-adapted bird species and ten upland snake species to prescribed fire, helping inform future restoration efforts across the region. In total, the project will include three stages of fire reintroduction tailored to each property’s conditions, ranging from fire-suppressed forests to actively managed longleaf savannas.

To build broader support for prescribed fire as a conservation tool, ALC will also host a field workshop for private landowners and develop a participatory science training program focused on eBird and HerpMapper. These outreach efforts aim to reduce community resistance to prescribed fire and encourage long-term habitat management on private lands. “Prescribed fire is essential to restoring these diverse ecosystems,” says Ryne Huggins, Stewardship Coordinator of ALC. “With support from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, we hope to not only restore habitat for imperiled species but also build a stronger culture of fire stewardship in Aiken County.”

Black Swamp Conservancy (Ohio), $25,000

Enhancing Bird Habitat and Conservation Through Habitat Enhancement and Community Engagement in Northwest Ohio

Black Swamp Conservancy (BSC) is advancing habitat restoration and bird conservation efforts at four nature preserves in northwest Ohio: Webber Woods, Water’s Edge, Rotary Riverside, and Bell Woods / Mauk’s Prairie. Small grant funding is supporting BCS’s seasonal stewardship crew in carrying out targeted management activities, including invasive species removal, native seed replanting, forest understory restoration, and prairie maintenance. These efforts are designed to improve habitat quality for nesting, migratory, and overwintering birds, while also contributing to long-term ecological resilience at these protected sites and expanding field capacity through seasonal staffing.

Public engagement efforts supported by this grant include guided bird walks, participatory science monitoring, and volunteer habitat workdays. BSC will conduct monthly eBird surveys across the four project sites and install three interpretive signs with QR codes to promote public participation in bird monitoring. An autonomous recording unit will be deployed at each project site to enhance monitoring by recording bird sounds during breeding and migration seasons, and one volunteer stewardship workday each month will engage community members in habitat restoration efforts.

“This funding strengthens both our conservation outcomes and our connection with the local community,” says Scarlet Rice, Land Steward at Black Swamp Conservancy. “By involving volunteers, visitors, and aspiring conservationists in our fieldwork, we’re building a deeper appreciation for the land and the birds that depend on it.” 

Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (Colorado), $25,000

Improving Grouse Habitat Through Wet Meadow Restorations in the Yampa Valley, Colorado

The Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT) is partnering with agricultural landowners to restore 20 wet meadow sites on conserved private lands in the Yampa Valley in northwestern Colorado. The Yampa Valley provides critical habitat to Greater Sage-Grouse and Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse and supports a robust agricultural landscape. In collaboration with the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council (YVSC), CCALT will improve Greater Sage-Grouse and Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse habitat through restorations that align habitat enhancements with this agricultural landscape. The restorations will utilize low-tech process-based restoration tools, such as Zeedyk structures. In addition to improving Greater Sage-Grouse and Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse habitat, the restorations will support broader ecosystem functions, increase biodiversity, and provide long-term benefits to agricultural landowners. 

Though this grant, CCALT is piloting an innovative payment for ecosystem services (PES) model focused on wet meadow restorations. The model provides payments to landowners for hosting and maintaining the structures until the wet meadows are fully restored. CCALT will also facilitate a rancher-to-rancher educational event to catalyze interest in the benefits of wet meadow restorations and the emerging PES opportunities.

“By partnering with landowners of conserved working lands and YVSC, we will achieve diverse benefits in the Yampa Valley—enhancing grouse habitat and conservation values, supporting agricultural operations, and building interest and receptivity within the ranching community for future restoration efforts,” says Kathleen Voight, Additive Conservation Manager at CCALT. 

Driftless Area Land Conservancy (Wisconsin), $25,000

Prescribed Fire for Grassland Birds in Southern Wisconsin’s Driftless Area

Grassland birds in Southwest Wisconsin have declined 43% since 1970 as agriculture and overgrown woodlands replaced the prairie and oak savanna landscape. While prescribed fire effectively restores these habitats by controlling invasive species, reducing woody encroachment, and promoting biodiversity, implementation is challenging since 95% of this land is privately owned in small parcels and landowners lack fire management resources and expertise while contractors can be costly.   

In many parts of the country, private landowners have formed Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs), using their collective skills, resources, and social connections to safely conduct burns on their own and neighboring properties. This model, however, is not yet common in Southwest Wisconsin, where landowners often lack the training, equipment, and community support needed to use fire as a management tool. Building on a previous values survey funded by a 2019 small grant that showed local landowners care about grassland habitat but feel unprepared to manage it, this project seeks to bridge those gaps. 
 
The Driftless Area Land Conservancy and Pheasants Forever, both members of the Southern Driftless Grasslands partnership—a multi-organizational group working to conserve the grasslands of Southwest Wisconsin through landscape-scale change—are collaborating to strengthen the three pillars of successful PBAs: skills, resources, and social capital in Southwest Wisconsin. The grant will fund landowner workshops, community learning burns, maintenance of a shared equipment trailer, and cost-share opportunities to help landowners prepare their properties for burning. In addition, social events like prescribed burn potlucks will help foster relationships among neighbors and encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing. “This grant is a huge help to reach our goals of developing capacity for landowners to use this much-needed land management tool in our region,” says Jake Pulfer, Pheasants Forever’s Prescribed Burn Coordinator. “In the end, this will be one step in our long management strategy to protect grassland bird species that need our help. 

Mass Audubon’s Bobolink Project (Massachusetts & Vermont), $25,000

Improving Grassland Habitat on Two Conserved Properties and Increasing Capacity for Monitoring and Grassland Habitat Management in the Champlain Valley of Vermont and the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts

Mass Audubon’s Bobolink Project will improve grassland habitat quality on two conserved properties in Massachusetts and Vermont while strengthening a collaborative network of conservation organizations, regional conservation partnerships, land trusts, and volunteers to advance regional grassland bird conservation. The Bobolink Project’s goal is to stabilize and reverse the declines of grassland bird populations by working with farmers and landowners to support the adoption of bird-friendly haying timelines, as haying often coincides with a critical period during the breeding season and results in high rates of nest failure. While the program requires enrolled fields to delay haying while nests are active, some participants wait until late summer or early fall to cut their fields, which allows unwanted forbs to go to seed and changes vegetation structure over time. To mitigate this decline in habitat quality, The Bobolink Project is promoting methods such as applying soil amendments and mowing earlier in the post-breeding season before unwanted species go to seed.

To encourage adoption of these methods, both project properties—Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary (AWS) and the Charlotte Park and Wildlife Refuge (CPWR)—will be demonstration sites for grassland management. AWS, in Easthampton, MA, is a designated Important Bird Area and serves as Mass Audubon’s flagship conservation area in the Connecticut River Valley. Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows are abundant in the 160 acres of grassland habitat at AWS, but these fields have not received soil amendments in over 10 years, and recent soil tests show a decline in soil conditions. The CPWR is owned by the town of Charlotte, VT, and is protected by a Vermont Land Trust conservation easement. The CPWR’s 130 acres of grassland are home to breeding populations of Bobolinks, Savannah Sparrows, and Eastern Meadowlarks, but no soil amendments have been applied to the grasslands in eight years.

In addition to habitat improvements at the demonstration sites, The Bobolink Project will host an eBird workshop at AWS and install signage to mark locations where visitors can contribute to eBird hotspot checklists. They will also partner with Vermont Land Trust to host a Conservation Speed Dating (CSD) Workshop for easement holders in Vermont’s Champlain Valley, which is a regionally recognized grassland bird priority area. The CSD workshop will connect easement holders with technical service providers who are familiar with opportunities to improve habitats for birds in grasslands and adjoining habitats on local farms. Hyla Howe, Mass Audubon’s Grassland Bird Biologist, says, “Grassland bird conservation in the Northeast is complex and requires the engagement of diverse stakeholders. We are grateful for the support of the Cornell Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative to help us establish two demonstration sites, increase bird monitoring, and connect easement holders in Vermont with resources that will encourage them to protect breeding grassland birds.”  

Native Prairies Association of Texas (Texas), $25,000

Nests & Naturalists: A Rolling Plains Prairie Partnership

Native Prairies Association of Texas (NPAT) will use small grant funds to restore 70 acres of Rolling Plains mixed grass prairie by removing mesquite encroachments at the Maddin Prairie Preserve, a 1,114-acre preserve in Mitchell County. Located in rural West Texas, Maddin is a critical refuge for local and migratory grassland birds. Over 170 species of birds spend all or part of the year at Maddin, including many of Texas’ species of greatest conservation need such as Northern Bobwhite, Scaled Quail, Burrowing Owl, Loggerhead Shrike, Sprague’s Pipit, and Grasshopper Sparrow. This endangered prairie habitat is also home to the iconic Texas Horned Lizard, and its keystone prey species the red harvester ant. The restoration effort will increase habitat availability for grassland birds and other threatened wildlife by 25% at Maddin Prairie Preserve.

In partnership with the Llano Estacado Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists and the Midland Naturalists, NPAT will use eBird surveys and trail camera data to monitor bird responses to restoration efforts. Mesquite removed from the site will be repurposed to build brush piles, which will provide seasonal cover and perching habitat, and will also be used for erosion control along the banks of Champion Creek, which runs along the northern border of the conservation area.  

In addition to restoring essential habitat, the project will serve as a springboard for expanding NPAT’s volunteer engagement and landowner outreach in West Texas. NPAT will collaborate with its community naturalist partners to host a regional landowner workshop, support additional bird surveys, and develop digital education materials to showcase prairie restoration practices. “With this funding, we’ll be able to significantly restore and enhance habitat for grassland birds at Maddin Prairie Preserve. This support not only advances our restoration goals but also helps us strengthen our relationships in the region and demonstrate what’s possible when dedicated stewardship and strategic investment come together,” says Clare Fields, NPAT Lands Manager.  

Nisqually Land Trust (Washington), $25,000

Enhancing Grassland Bird Habitat and Restoration Capacity in the South Puget Sound

The South Puget Sound region of Washington state historically had significant areas of prairie that supported a diverse assemblage of plants and animals, including a number of grassland birds. This habitat has been severely reduced over the last two centuries, causing some of the associated grassland bird populations to decline. Ninety percent of the remaining South Sound prairies are found at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), a military training center, with JBLM supporting the largest population of Oregon Vesper Sparrows, a state endangered species, in Washington.

More habitat off JBLM is needed to support prairie-associated species, so the Nisqually Land Trust (NLT) and Ecostudies Institute are partnering to restore a 230-acre working ranch protected by a NLT held conservation easement that is located just across the Nisqually River from the training center. The partners will work to improve grassland habitat, primarily prairie-oak, for imperiled birds and to increase their organizations’ collective monitoring capacity. This will be achieved by restoring habitat through invasive species control and conservation grazing; increasing capacity and expertise through staff training; hosting outreach and education events; creating a bird monitoring protocol; and installing and monitoring nest boxes.

This project will benefit multiple grassland birds—such as Oregon Vesper Sparrow, White-breasted Slender-billed Nuthatch, Western Bluebird, Chipping Sparrow, and Song Sparrow—by improving native plant cover and diversity in the grassland pastures and understory of an oak woodland. This project highlights the need for private land conservation through public outreach. Increased collaboration between local conservation organizations will provide critical training and support to continue the momentum and capacity to conduct similar restoration work on additional NLT properties with this type of habitat.

Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (North Carolina), $25,000

Mitigating the Impact of Tropical Storm Helene: Reducing Wildfire Risk and Enhancing Resilience in High Elevation Southern Appalachian Hardwood and Red Spruce-Fraser Fir Forests on the Roan High Preserve

The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) and partners will use grant funds to address the devastating impacts of Tropical Storm Helene on fragile high elevation habitats on SAHC’s Roan High Preserve, reducing wildfire risk and working to restore globally rare habitats within a protected landscape of more than 23,000 acres that includes some of the richest repositories of biodiversity in the Appalachians. SAHC’s 1,240+ acre Roan High Preserve protects pristine high elevation habitat directly adjacent to the heart of red spruce-Fraser fir forests on Pisgah National Forest. The Preserve supports a host of high elevation endemic or rare species, including the Carolina Northern flying squirrel, Saw-whet Owl, and Red Crossbill.  

“In September 2024, our region was devastated by impacts from Tropical Storm Helene, and the Roan Highlands was one of the hardest hit areas with one third of Roan High Preserve forests suffering directly,” says SAHC Roan Stewardship Director Marquette Crockett. “High elevation hardwoods, oak, and conifer forests on south and east facing slopes were subject to large blow downs with smaller wind impacts scattered throughout the landscape. High order streams were scoured, and landslides and debris flows occurred across roads and trails.”

The U.S. Forest Service estimates a 10–20% loss of the spruce-fir stand on the adjoining Pisgah National Forest with other sections damaged. In addition to the physical damage from the storm, downed woody debris and restricted access has increased the chance of catastrophic wildfire in this non-fire adapted system. Wildfire within the red spruce-Fraser fir ecosystem, if unchecked, would cause the irreparable and permanent loss of this habitat, as evidenced by historic areas of spruce “graveyards” across the Southern Appalachians. SAHC’s grant project will clear soil roads on the Preserve for access and wildfire response; reduce fine fuels in blow down areas by topping, limbing, and bucking downed trees; and study storm impacts on high elevation forest bird species. They will also host educational fire prevention workshops within surrounding counties and host field trips for land managers and practitioners to share lessons learned and insight about their restoration work.

“We are grateful to be able to contribute to recovery efforts in our landscape and community by reducing wildfire risk on the Preserve, as we actively work with partners to begin restoration of rare high elevation habitats. We also look forward to learning more about avian response to this natural disaster by using automated recording units to inventory the bird community currently using the site and to monitor changes over time,” says Crockett.

Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust (Alaska), $10,000

Lake Iliamna Alaska Migratory Bird Initiative

Within the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska, along the shores of Lake Iliamna (Nanvarpak / Nila Vena) and the Kvichak River (Kuicaaraq), this partnership led by Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust will weave Indigenous place-based knowledge with modern bioacoustics to pinpoint critical stopover, nesting, and brood-rearing habitat for migratory birds across 58,000 acres of existing conservation easements and adjacent State and Alaska Native village corporation lands. Elders’ placenames, stories, and seasonal observations—many recorded over years of Yup’ik and Dena’ina language projects—will be paired with eBird and other spatial datasets to map avian “hotspots” in the watershed. Igiugig village Tribal community members and land trust staff will deploy and service 10–12 autonomous recording units (ARUs) in the Kaskanak Flats, around Igiugig on the west side of the lake, and near Pedro Bay, Iliamna, and Newhalen on the east side, while Audubon Alaska will provide technical support and interpret the soundscape these devices capture. 

This collaborative initiative will catalogue and map local Indigenous knowledge for migratory and resident species; capture a full breeding cycle of acoustic data with 10–12 ARUs, uploading results to eBird and Merlin; flag new protection priorities—ranking any key bird areas falling outside existing BBHLT easements for future acquisition; and assess Motus feasibility, potentially adding Bristol Bay’s first station to the global tracking network. 

“Listening to the land through both our place-based knowledge holders and these recorders allows us to collaborate on documenting the presence and phenology of our winged relatives depending upon this ecosystem,” says Mary Hostetler, Igiugig Village Tribal Steward. “It’s two-eyed seeing in practice—honoring what our ancestors already know while building the datasets our diverse partners rely upon.” 

With small grant funds, plus in-kind ARUs from Audubon and boats, time, and volunteers from Tribal communities around Nanvarpak / Nila Vena (Lake Iliamna), the project will help fill data gaps regarding important nesting and migratory bird habitats within the Kvichak drainage basin, while also establishing a replicable model for Indigenous / land trust collaboration in Alaska’s changing climate. 

California Central Coast Joint Venture & American Bird Conservancy (California), $10,000

Supporting the Recovery of Yellow-billed Magpie on California’s Central Coast through Land Trust Partnerships

California’s oak savannas are enduring, biodiverse landscapes that offer resilience to climate extremes, yet remain vulnerable to land use change. Along the Central Coast, the California Central Coast Joint Venture and American Bird Conservancy are partnering with regional land trusts including Big Sur Land Trust, Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County, and Santa Lucia Conservancy to support the recovery of the Yellow-billed Magpie, a charismatic and vulnerable species endemic to California. With over 40% of the remaining global population found in this region, the project is focused on identifying key habitat associations, conducting baseline surveys, and establishing long-term monitoring in oak savanna ranchlands at the riparian-grassland interface.

A central focus of the project is training and capacity building. Land trust staff will receive hands-on instruction in bird survey techniques, nest monitoring, and mapping of magpie habitat use. These efforts are supported by standardized protocols to ensure consistent data collection across sites. As Nicole Chrislock, Natural Resource Program Manager for the Big Sur Land Trust, notes, “We’re excited to highlight this work with Yellow-billed Magpies on our properties—they’re a beautiful and important species that illustrates the value of land trusts in securing long-term conservation of vital oak savanna habitat across the Central Coast.”

Seed funding from a small grant award is helping launch this initiative, fostering a collaborative conservation network that ties land stewardship directly to species recovery. By equipping land trusts with tools, data, and training, this effort will create a replicable framework for conserving Yellow-billed Magpies and the broader oak savanna ecosystems they represent—laying the groundwork for long-term resilience in the face of accelerating environmental change.

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (Maryland), $10,000

“Biologically Beneficial Blazes”: Promoting and Accelerating the Use of Prescribed Fire to Enhance Bird Habitat on the Eastern Shore of Maryland

This award will support a new partnership between Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC), who works to protect the rural landscape of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and Tall Timbers (TT), an organization dedicated to fostering exemplary land stewardship through research, conservation, and education focused on the ecology and management of fire-dependent ecosystems and its wildlife; ESLC and TT will partner to advance “biologically beneficial blazes,” an initiative to promote and accelerate the use of prescribed fire to enhance bird habitat.  

Changes in the land use of this coastal plain rural landscape over time—including the acceleration of sprawl development, adoption of “edge-to-edge” commercial farming practices, and the compounding pressures of climate change—have drastically reduced the amount of habitat necessary to support the Eastern Shore’s population of declining grassland birds. While successful initiatives have restored grassland habitat regionally for species such as the Bobwhite Quail, who has suffered the largest population loss of any grassland bird in Maryland, management of remaining coastal plain grassland habitat for birds has proved to be a challenge.  

Efforts to educate and build capacity around the use of prescribed fire as a management tool are beginning to gain momentum in the region, but resources to sustain and accelerate this momentum are necessary to increase the adoption of these practices on private lands. Small grant funds will enable ESLC to work with TT to advance adoption of prescribed fire on the Eastern Shore landscape through education, engagement, and outreach. Activities include hosting a “learn and burn” demonstration, creating grassland habitat management plans that utilize prescribed burning for conservation easement landowners, and compiling and distributing resources available for landowners to manage their habitat with prescribed fire. Larisa Prezioso, Enhanced Stewardship Manager at ESLC, says of this initiative: “The use of prescribed fire has such tremendous potential in our region, and we are so excited to be a part of the movement to accelerate the adoption of its use. We are incredibly grateful to the Cornell Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative for supporting our investment in this powerfully beneficial management practice, knowing it will greatly uplift the conservation value of our region.”  

Kentucky Natural Lands Trust (Kentucky), $10,000

Community Outreach, Citizen Science & Research in Central Appalachia

The power of partnership is key to Kentucky Natural Lands Trust’s (KNLT) conservation efforts. In partnership with Cornell Lab of Ornithology, KNLT will raise awareness and appreciation for birds and wild places in Central Appalachia by fostering participatory science and research within an important migratory route and region of notable bird diversity. 

The project is focused on southeast Kentucky along Pine Mountain in Central Appalachia in a region that is home to globally significant biodiversity considered vital to sustaining all life on the planet. Within the Appalachian Mountains Bird Conservation Area, this geography is a conservation priority for protecting forest birds (e.g. Cerulean Warblers, Canada Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers) and includes disjunct nesting populations of species typically associated with higher elevations in the Southern Blue Ridge (e.g. Black-throated Blue Warblers, Chestnut-sided Warblers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks) as well as birds associated with early successional habitats (e.g. Golden-winged Warblers). 

Objectives for the grant partnership are threefold: engage local communities and schools in educational bird programming through warbler walks, bird workshops, and visual and digital communications; activate participatory science initiatives by establishing eBird hotspots along a birding trail; and expand bird monitoring and research collaborations with conservation partners. The initial step in achieving this goal is to install the first Motus tower in southeast Kentucky on KNLT’s Salt Trace Gap Preserve. 

KNLT Outreach Coordinator Megan Falce says, “I am thrilled with KNLT’s opportunity to improve bird research in southeast Kentucky, an area of rich biodiversity and conservation priority, and engage our local community through bird-related participatory science, educational workshops, and programs. With the support of the Cornell Lab, we are fostering connections with the wildlands we protect and communities they are in.” 

Natural Lands (Pennsylvania), $10,000

Identifying Priority Conservation Areas Using Bird Habitat Data

Natural Lands (NL) is working to identify the most important land for conservation and restoration in eastern Pennsylvania through a parcel prioritization process. With small grant support, Natural Lands will incorporate data from the Northeast U.S. Priority Breeding Bird Mapping Tool into this analysis to focus specifically on supporting bird species. In addition to using this information to inform strategic planning and subsequent conservation work, NL will share this analysis with municipalities to call out the importance and benefits of conservation in their communities. To put this analysis into practice, NL will create a bird habitat restoration plan at a preserve that will then be implemented after this grant period. Overall, this work will allow NL to better target land critical for conservation and bird habitat, thereby effectively using resources and staff expertise to have the greatest impact on environmental protection, wildlife habitat connectivity, and restoration.  

This project is the next phase in an ongoing conservation planning project that is part of NL’s new strategic plan. After identifying priority parcels and corridors connecting priority landscapes based on ecological information, NL will write assessment reports that will help guide NL’s conservation efforts over the next three to five years. Engaging municipalities and identifying a priority project will prepare NL to carry out land protection and restoration projects that benefit birds, the environment as a whole, and community members in the future.

“Natural Lands has a vested interest in improving habitat for wildlife, particularly critical bird species, across our preserves and the region more generally,” says Todd Sampsell, Vice President of Conservation. “This grant will allow us to take a more focused and strategic approach to this work, concentrating our efforts on areas that can best support habitat and additional priorities like climate change mitigation, and improving access to nature.” 

New River Land Trust (Virginia), $10,000

Growing a Landowner-Conservation Partner Network in Burke’s Garden, Virginia

Burke’s Garden (a.k.a. God’s thumbprint) is a truly unique high elevation valley in southwest Virginia that encompasses about 40 square miles of highly productive farmland. Because the valley is enveloped by a ridgeline, mostly owned by the U.S. Forest Service, with the Appalachian Trail running along its southern edge, it has avoided development and has remained a rural community. The interior of Burke’s Garden is in private ownership with nine parcels totaling 6,693 acres in conservation easement. A thriving community of farmers resides in the Garden, including a sizable Amish population. On the steep slopes surrounding the valley floor, there are patches of shrubland habitat and mature forests; this mix of habitats in Burke’s Garden supports tremendous biodiversity and numerous species of conservation concern, including Golden-winged Warbler, Bobolink, and Cerulean Warbler.

With small grant support, the New River Land Trust is partnering with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, and the Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University to grow a landowner-conservation partnership in Burke’s Garden, Virginia. Through a series of community meetings and surveys, project partners will identify the conservation strategies landowners are most interested in and connect them to the technical service providers who can implement these strategies on the ground.

An initial community meeting will be held to engage owners and stewards of property in Burke’s Garden, with a follow-up survey to gauge interest and inform the structure of subsequent meetings. Next, a meeting will be held to bring together technical service providers who are interested in supporting the project. Then, two Conservation Speed Dating (CSD) Workshops will be hosted to connect landowners and land stewards with technical service providers in the region. Each landowner will be catered to individually, with site maps created for each landowner that showcase the property, its conservation values, and the potential for new or modified conservation techniques. Special focus will be given to techniques that improve bird habitat, but techniques designed to safeguard other types of wildlife and their habitats will also be discussed. After the project is concluded, participating landowners will be surveyed to gauge their level of continued interest in conservation strategies.