URI partners with Nature Conservancy to protect land, wildlife

URI partners with Nature Conservancy to protect land, wildlife

The Nature Conservancy of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Natural History Survey based at URI have launched a collaboration to advance scientific knowledge and stimulate land conservation in the state. By working together the two organizations will share expertise and resources so they can act more swiftly to protect land and wildlife, monitor and manage conservation land more efficiently, and share their findings among the state’s environmental leaders.

“The Nature Conservancy initiated this partnership as a way to bring together in a more cohesive and effective way the collective conservation science knowledge in the state,” said Terry Sullivan, state director of The Nature Conservancy.

“If their ecological viability is to be maintained, conservation lands and the natural systems they are home to need to be carefully monitored and cared for, into the foreseeable future,” said Lisa Gould, executive director of the Rhode Island Natural History Survey, which is based at URI’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences. “This partnership combines the strength of The Nature Conservancy’s land protection capabilities with the Rhode Island Natural History Survey’s scientific expertise. It will serve as a national model for stewardship of conservation lands.”

The Natural History Survey brings to the collaboration a wealth of ecological inventory data and field knowledge. It will use its expertise to conduct ecological and land management needs surveys of all Rhode Island mainland properties considered by the Conservancy for conservation action, and will offer similar services to Rhode Island land trusts and other groups involved in protecting the state’s natural heritage. It will also continue its efforts to identify gaps in identification and classification data of the state’s plants, animals, and natural communities, and to expand its databases of the state’s biological heritage.

“I am thrilled by this partnership,” said Jeff Seemann, dean of the College of the Environment and Life Sciences. “The cutting-edge science that URI brings to the Rhode Island Natural History Survey will now be complemented by the extraordinary capabilities of The Nature Conservancy in land conservation. Rhode Island and Rhode Islanders are the big winners.”

Funding for the partnership is provided by The Nature Conservancy and will be combined with current Natural History Survey funding. The partnership’s staff will be housed at the Coastal Institute on the Kingston Campus.