Catalyzing Conservation Through Sophisticated Long-Term Future Scenarios Modeling in New England

This presentation will focus on the recent groundbreaking Harvard Forest study associated with W&W, Changes to the Land, that examined four possible scenarios for the future of the Massachusetts landscape depending on land-use decisions we make today (regarding different levels of development, conservation, agriculture, and wood harvesting). The researchers’ most significant finding indicates that recent forest loss trends, if they continue unabated, will undermine land conservation gains, damage water quality throughout the state, and limit the ability of the landscape to protect against climate change. As a one of the eight natural resource professionals who helped the authors develop the scenarios, Bob Perschel will discuss these important findings, the strategic use of stakeholder-informed scenarios analysis to catalyze large landscape conservation, and the ongoing expansion of this work to all of New England.