This plan, as you might imagine, will cost more than $5 million. Private dollars raised will leverage an additional $2 million in public funding – expanding the impact of our conservation efforts to $7 million.

landscape. The plan will make connections among protected tracts of forest, field and shore while restoring healthy coastal waters, building an army of volunteers to make our work even more sustainable, and inspiring a new generation of conservation-ists to continue our legacy.

To make sure none of our progress slows down, and with partnership at the heart of all we do, we have identified three conservation priorities on which to focus our expertise and resources over the next five years to tackle some of our area’s most significant challenges.

A Bold Plan 5 Years — $5 Million

Sakonnet Landscape

Here in the Sakonnet landscape,

clean waters, unspoiled beaches,

stone walls, working farms,

forest trails, local seafood, and

the sounds of abundant wildlife

are the natural treasures we love.

This is a special place where land and water meet the sea. We work and play here. It is where we choose to live or spend the summer. In so many ways, our own health and well-being are tied to the health and well-being of these lands and waters.

Yet today, this coastal landscape stands at a crossroads. Forested hillsides lost to development mean fewer tracts available to nesting songbirds. Farmland acreage is twenty percent of what it was in 1940. Marsh and river habitats compromised by pavement and contaminated with nitrogen runoff can’t support fish and shellfish. A changing climate has put our coastline at greater risk. With the strong possibility of a commuter rail from Boston soon to arrive in Fall River and New Bedford, the suburbanization of the Sakonnet landscape will continue. It hap-pened to Aquidneck Island. It is happening to southeastern coastal Massachusetts.

Fortunately, there is good news. The Nature Conservancy, working in part-nership, has already achieved significant conservation progress along the Sakonnet since we acquired our first parcel for pro-tection in 1968 at Fogland Marsh. And, we are ever cognizant of the challenges we face, adapting our strategies to balance the needs for both people and nature.

Together, with your help, we can imple-ment a bold plan for a sustainable Sakonnet

The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island

159 Waterman Street,

Providence, R I 02906

401-331-7110

www.nature.org/rhodeisland

LAND WATER HOPE |  A Campaign for Rhode Island’s Future

Sakonnet Campaign “Forest, Field & Shore” 2007 – 2012

$ 4.6 M — private supporters

$ 16 M — public and foundation funding

$20.6 M — total raised

Conservation Highlights

• Protected 1,100 acres of land with partners —

key efforts at Tiverton forest, Quicksand

Pond, and Ferolbink and Treaty Rock Farms

• Created Dundery Brook Boardwalk Trail

connected to Wilbur McMahon School

• Opened Benjamin Family Environmental

Center at Goosewing Beach Preserve —

providing nature programs to more than

400 participants each summer

• Restored coastal habitats at Quicksand Pond,

provided oversight to ensure breeding

success of river herring and Piping Plovers

from Acoaxet to Briggs Beach

• Completed surveys, inventories and assess-

ments of critical forests, fields and shore

to set the stage for advancing conservation

Snapshot of Recent Success Private gifts leveraged four times over by the Conservancy

Forest, field, shore and sea — looking over Quicksand Pond and Goosewing.

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LAND — Save Special Places

WATER — Keep it Clean

HOPE — Inspire a New Generation

CREATE a Network of Volunteer “Conservation Ambassadors”

For 60 years, volunteers have helped the Conservancy get the job done. Investing in recruiting, training and equipping volunteers makes our work more sustainable. With the protection of additional lands and resto-ration work in our coastal waters, our goal for the next five years is to double the num-ber of volunteers in the Sakonnet landscape. Volunteer opportunities call for a wide range of skills and abilities. Duties include preserve monitoring, interpretive work, trail construction and maintenance, invasive plant removal, construction of oyster reefs, river herring work, shoreline restoration, piping plover fencing and much more.

With fewer than ten percent of young people in the United States spending time outside each day, who will steward our lands and waters into the next century?

To address this challenge, the Conservancy has a multi-faceted plan to deepen community appreciation for the healthy lands and waters that support nature and people in their everyday life.

hope Inspire a New Generation

ACTIVATE the Next Generation of Conservation Leaders Along the Dundery Brook Trail, at the Wilbur McMahon School, at the Benjamin Family Environmental Center at Goosewing Beach and other nearby desti-nations, the Conservancy will work with partners to provide for nature education. Over the next five years, we will conduct 100 school programs to reach at least 2,000 young people.

EDUCATE the Public about Why Nature Matters

The Conservancy will engage more people about why nature matters via traditional and social media outlets, provide explorers of all ages with walks led by naturalists, and offer new and improved recreational opportunities to experience nature first hand. Our five-year goal is to conduct 300 family programs for 2,400 participants.

At keystone preserves like Goosewing Beach, Dundery Brook trail, and in the new 500-acre conservation area at Pocasset Ridge, the Conservancy will manage and create trails while providing stewardship oversight to ensure quality visitor experiences.

Through media releases, web updates to www.nature.org, and special publications like “Places to Discover,” the Conservancy will promote exploration of the many protected forests, fields and shores where residents and visitors can get outside.

TN

C

TN

C

For more information contactJohn Berg Sakonnet Landscape Manager 401-331-7110 ext 22 jberg@tnc.org

www.nature.org/rhodeisland

Hands on learning at the Benjamin Family Environmental Center.

TN

C

Fully accessible Dundery Brook Trail

Future Conservationists at Quicksand Pond.

Our theory is that a larger and more deeply engaged base of participants will translate into increased action taken on behalf of the environment, more revenue to further the work of the Conservancy and its partners, and greater influence to shape policy and practices in both the public and private sectors. In so doing, we will create and inspire conservationists of tomorrow as we work on behalf of all people today. Priorities include:

As our remaining wild places

and natural resources slip away,

so does our human connection

with them. What will it take

to save and manage the natural

character of the Sakonnet

landscape before it’s too late?

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M G

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To be successful, our work must connect and integrate land and freshwater actions with the tidal rivers and coastal waters of our state and region. Through a science-based approach, we identify the most vital habitats in need of conserva-tion and restoration, and we take direct action to achieve tangible outcomes that are both significant and enduring.

IMPROVE the Health of Coastal Habitats

The Conservancy is working to restore coastal water quality and underwater habitat for a wide range of shellfish and fish species. We are constructing reefs out of discarded shells to bring back wild oysters, finding ways to increase fish popu-lations with simulated boulder fields underwater, and working across the region to reduce land-based sources of water pollution, especially of nitrogen.

In tidal waters of the Sakonnet landscape, we are working to find safe, effective ways of restoring native salt marshes and shorelines that have become impacted with the invasive common reed phragmites australis.

PREPARE for Coastal Climate Change

In recent years, hurricanes, winter storms, and rising sea level have begun to dramatically alter and threaten waterfront property and natural habitats alike. The coast has always been a dynamic place, but when ocean waters run up against vulnerable shoreline, property is flooded and habitat is lost. The Conservancy is developing ways to employ living infra-structure based upon models found in nature to help manage threatened proper-ties. We are doing this now in Jamaica Bay, New York City. We are also developing models to predict areas that will be submerged in the future, as these are better saved, now, for productive salt marsh habi-tat than built upon.

REIMAGINE Ocean Conservation and Management

By steering development to avoid impacts to sensitive natural areas and wild-life, needs of nature and commerce can be balanced, and the needs of development can be achieved with positive impacts. The Conservancy’s work in this area is essential to helping to plan for the locating of offshore wind turbines to avoid produc-tive fishing grounds, sustaining river herring which are significant for local to global fisheries, and guiding shipping traffic in coastal waters to avoid impacts to marine mammals.

Protecting lands and waters that connect with those already conserved will help ensure clean, fresh drinking water, stunning roadside views, lasting recreational oppor-tunities, healthy flora and fauna, natural storm buffers, and a reminder of cultures that lived centuries and millennia before our own time. Priorities include:

PROTECT Forest Lands that Ensure Freshwater Quality

At Tiverton’s coastal forest, we’re almost there. Working in partnership since 1997, two-thirds of this vast 2,000 acre oak-holly forest is now protected and being managed for nature to thrive and people to enjoy. With your help, the Conservancy will continue to acquire critical remaining tracts in the areas of Pocasset Ridge, Weetamoo Woods, and Pardon Gray for deep forest songbirds that are losing habitat in our region, for drinking water, and for adventure.

Protecting Tiverton Great Swamp, a 400-acre source of freshwater to Adamsville Brook, is another top priority for the Conservancy. This forested aquifer ensures the quality and flow of clean drinking water while keeping the West Branch of the Westport River estuary pro-ductive for wildlife and marine creatures.

PRESERVE Working Farmland

The Conservancy is working to keep our rural legacy alive by preserving farms. These rolling fields of green portray local agriculture at its best, providing us with food and a sense of place along the Sakonnet.

Building upon our success at Treaty Rock, Middle Acres and Ferolbink Farms, the Conservancy is working in partnership with land owners, public agencies and private organizations to protect irreplaceable farms and signature properties for their ecological values and their iconic importance to this coastal landscape. Our goal is to encourage “farming with nature’ to make the most of habitat values associated with pasture, meadow, hedgerow and maritime shrub.

CONSERVE Unique Coastal Land

Saltwater or fresh, this is the zone where biodiversity resides, and where people come to recharge their spirit. The Conservancy is working to maintain abundant feeding grounds for fish and wildlife in shallow estuaries where freshwa-ter streams meet the tide, and to protect barrier beaches, coastal ponds and salt marshes that are essential to the productiv-ity of shorebirds and marine life.

Expanding coastal nature preserves like Goosewing Beach is a priority for the Conservancy, as is stewardship and res-toration of vital watershed, tidal and shorefront lands to benefit water quality and wildlife. And, we remain vigilant to assisting with the long term survival of threatened species like Piping Plover.

land Save Special Places

water Keep it Clean

These precious creatures are indicators of a healthy ecosystem.

The Conservancy has identified freshwater streams to Quicksand Pond as a protection priority. Development adjacent to streambanks and shorelines contributes to nutrient run-off that poses imminent threats to the health of this aquatic treasure.

For the benefit of Briggs Marsh, the Conservancy similarly aims to increase protection of upstream floodplains and riparian lands along Dundery Brook. Beyond the ecological merits of this effort lie some great opportunities for trail expansion.

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

IN AFRICA: Conserving Nature,

Improving Lives

Africa is home to thundering herds of zebra,

majestic elephants — and some of the

fastest growing economies in the world.

There are still vast expanses of wilderness,

but freshwater supplies, forests and other

resources are being drastically degraded in

many areas. Some iconic species are

already in perilous decline due to habitat

loss and poaching.

The Nature Conservancy focuses our work

in Africa on places where the fate of

nature and people are inextricably linked.

Seventy percent of Africa’ wildlife is found

not in parks but in lands where people

have lived for millennia. Most of these

citizens are utterly dependent upon nature

for basic survival. But they need more.

Income, education, health care, security

and rights — all necessities for leading

healthy and fulfilling lives. Conservation

must be done in ways that increase benefits

to the people whose lives are most bound

to nature.

Our priority is community-led conserva-

tion, helping equip people to conserve and

sustainably use their communal lands

and waters for greater benefit today and

in the future. We focus on partnerships,

from local NGOs to national governments

to the next generation of indigenous

leaders. That is the goal of The Nature

Conservancy in Africa.

The Nature Conservancy’s goal

over the next five years is to protect

an additional 750 acres of forest,

field and shore.

The Nature Conservancy

recognizes that protecting

healthy lands and a diversity

of plants and animals is just

not enough in the Ocean State.

Gathering after sunset to observe life on the barrier beach.

Samburu cattle herders, Kenya

Nature, agriculture and history live on at Treaty Rock Farm.

NA

T R

EA

/ T

NC

TN

C

NA

T R

EA

/ T

NC

G LO B A L L I N K

To be successful, our work must connect and integrate land and freshwater actions with the tidal rivers and coastal waters of our state and region. Through a science-based approach, we identify the most vital habitats in need of conserva-tion and restoration, and we take direct action to achieve tangible outcomes that are both significant and enduring.

IMPROVE the Health of Coastal Habitats

The Conservancy is working to restore coastal water quality and underwater habitat for a wide range of shellfish and fish species. We are constructing reefs out of discarded shells to bring back wild oysters, finding ways to increase fish popu-lations with simulated boulder fields underwater, and working across the region to reduce land-based sources of water pollution, especially of nitrogen.

In tidal waters of the Sakonnet landscape, we are working to find safe, effective ways of restoring native salt marshes and shorelines that have become impacted with the invasive common reed phragmites australis.

PREPARE for Coastal Climate Change

In recent years, hurricanes, winter storms, and rising sea level have begun to dramatically alter and threaten waterfront property and natural habitats alike. The coast has always been a dynamic place, but when ocean waters run up against vulnerable shoreline, property is flooded and habitat is lost. The Conservancy is developing ways to employ living infra-structure based upon models found in nature to help manage threatened proper-ties. We are doing this now in Jamaica Bay, New York City. We are also developing models to predict areas that will be submerged in the future, as these are better saved, now, for productive salt marsh habi-tat than built upon.

REIMAGINE Ocean Conservation and Management

By steering development to avoid impacts to sensitive natural areas and wild-life, needs of nature and commerce can be balanced, and the needs of development can be achieved with positive impacts. The Conservancy’s work in this area is essential to helping to plan for the locating of offshore wind turbines to avoid produc-tive fishing grounds, sustaining river herring which are significant for local to global fisheries, and guiding shipping traffic in coastal waters to avoid impacts to marine mammals.

Protecting lands and waters that connect with those already conserved will help ensure clean, fresh drinking water, stunning roadside views, lasting recreational oppor-tunities, healthy flora and fauna, natural storm buffers, and a reminder of cultures that lived centuries and millennia before our own time. Priorities include:

PROTECT Forest Lands that Ensure Freshwater Quality

At Tiverton’s coastal forest, we’re almost there. Working in partnership since 1997, two-thirds of this vast 2,000 acre oak-holly forest is now protected and being managed for nature to thrive and people to enjoy. With your help, the Conservancy will continue to acquire critical remaining tracts in the areas of Pocasset Ridge, Weetamoo Woods, and Pardon Gray for deep forest songbirds that are losing habitat in our region, for drinking water, and for adventure.

Protecting Tiverton Great Swamp, a 400-acre source of freshwater to Adamsville Brook, is another top priority for the Conservancy. This forested aquifer ensures the quality and flow of clean drinking water while keeping the West Branch of the Westport River estuary pro-ductive for wildlife and marine creatures.

PRESERVE Working Farmland

The Conservancy is working to keep our rural legacy alive by preserving farms. These rolling fields of green portray local agriculture at its best, providing us with food and a sense of place along the Sakonnet.

Building upon our success at Treaty Rock, Middle Acres and Ferolbink Farms, the Conservancy is working in partnership with land owners, public agencies and private organizations to protect irreplaceable farms and signature properties for their ecological values and their iconic importance to this coastal landscape. Our goal is to encourage “farming with nature’ to make the most of habitat values associated with pasture, meadow, hedgerow and maritime shrub.

CONSERVE Unique Coastal Land

Saltwater or fresh, this is the zone where biodiversity resides, and where people come to recharge their spirit. The Conservancy is working to maintain abundant feeding grounds for fish and wildlife in shallow estuaries where freshwa-ter streams meet the tide, and to protect barrier beaches, coastal ponds and salt marshes that are essential to the productiv-ity of shorebirds and marine life.

Expanding coastal nature preserves like Goosewing Beach is a priority for the Conservancy, as is stewardship and res-toration of vital watershed, tidal and shorefront lands to benefit water quality and wildlife. And, we remain vigilant to assisting with the long term survival of threatened species like Piping Plover.

land Save Special Places

water Keep it Clean

These precious creatures are indicators of a healthy ecosystem.

The Conservancy has identified freshwater streams to Quicksand Pond as a protection priority. Development adjacent to streambanks and shorelines contributes to nutrient run-off that poses imminent threats to the health of this aquatic treasure.

For the benefit of Briggs Marsh, the Conservancy similarly aims to increase protection of upstream floodplains and riparian lands along Dundery Brook. Beyond the ecological merits of this effort lie some great opportunities for trail expansion.

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

IN AFRICA: Conserving Nature,

Improving Lives

Africa is home to thundering herds of zebra,

majestic elephants — and some of the

fastest growing economies in the world.

There are still vast expanses of wilderness,

but freshwater supplies, forests and other

resources are being drastically degraded in

many areas. Some iconic species are

already in perilous decline due to habitat

loss and poaching.

The Nature Conservancy focuses our work

in Africa on places where the fate of

nature and people are inextricably linked.

Seventy percent of Africa’ wildlife is found

not in parks but in lands where people

have lived for millennia. Most of these

citizens are utterly dependent upon nature

for basic survival. But they need more.

Income, education, health care, security

and rights — all necessities for leading

healthy and fulfilling lives. Conservation

must be done in ways that increase benefits

to the people whose lives are most bound

to nature.

Our priority is community-led conserva-

tion, helping equip people to conserve and

sustainably use their communal lands

and waters for greater benefit today and

in the future. We focus on partnerships,

from local NGOs to national governments

to the next generation of indigenous

leaders. That is the goal of The Nature

Conservancy in Africa.

The Nature Conservancy’s goal

over the next five years is to protect

an additional 750 acres of forest,

field and shore.

The Nature Conservancy

recognizes that protecting

healthy lands and a diversity

of plants and animals is just

not enough in the Ocean State.

Gathering after sunset to observe life on the barrier beach.

Samburu cattle herders, Kenya

Nature, agriculture and history live on at Treaty Rock Farm.

NA

T R

EA

/ T

NC

TN

C

NA

T R

EA

/ T

NC

G LO B A L L I N K

This plan, as you might imagine, will cost more than $5 million. Private dollars raised will leverage an additional $2 million in public funding – expanding the impact of our conservation efforts to $7 million.

landscape. The plan will make connections among protected tracts of forest, field and shore while restoring healthy coastal waters, building an army of volunteers to make our work even more sustainable, and inspiring a new generation of conservation-ists to continue our legacy.

To make sure none of our progress slows down, and with partnership at the heart of all we do, we have identified three conservation priorities on which to focus our expertise and resources over the next five years to tackle some of our area’s most significant challenges.

A Bold Plan 5 Years — $5 Million

Sakonnet Landscape

Here in the Sakonnet landscape,

clean waters, unspoiled beaches,

stone walls, working farms,

forest trails, local seafood, and

the sounds of abundant wildlife

are the natural treasures we love.

This is a special place where land and water meet the sea. We work and play here. It is where we choose to live or spend the summer. In so many ways, our own health and well-being are tied to the health and well-being of these lands and waters.

Yet today, this coastal landscape stands at a crossroads. Forested hillsides lost to development mean fewer tracts available to nesting songbirds. Farmland acreage is twenty percent of what it was in 1940. Marsh and river habitats compromised by pavement and contaminated with nitrogen runoff can’t support fish and shellfish. A changing climate has put our coastline at greater risk. With the strong possibility of a commuter rail from Boston soon to arrive in Fall River and New Bedford, the suburbanization of the Sakonnet landscape will continue. It hap-pened to Aquidneck Island. It is happening to southeastern coastal Massachusetts.

Fortunately, there is good news. The Nature Conservancy, working in part-nership, has already achieved significant conservation progress along the Sakonnet since we acquired our first parcel for pro-tection in 1968 at Fogland Marsh. And, we are ever cognizant of the challenges we face, adapting our strategies to balance the needs for both people and nature.

Together, with your help, we can imple-ment a bold plan for a sustainable Sakonnet

The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island

159 Waterman Street,

Providence, R I 02906

401-331-7110

www.nature.org/rhodeisland

LAND WATER HOPE |  A Campaign for Rhode Island’s Future

Sakonnet Campaign “Forest, Field & Shore” 2007 – 2012

$ 4.6 M — private supporters

$ 16 M — public and foundation funding

$20.6 M — total raised

Conservation Highlights

• Protected 1,100 acres of land with partners —

key efforts at Tiverton forest, Quicksand

Pond, and Ferolbink and Treaty Rock Farms

• Created Dundery Brook Boardwalk Trail

connected to Wilbur McMahon School

• Opened Benjamin Family Environmental

Center at Goosewing Beach Preserve —

providing nature programs to more than

400 participants each summer

• Restored coastal habitats at Quicksand Pond,

provided oversight to ensure breeding

success of river herring and Piping Plovers

from Acoaxet to Briggs Beach

• Completed surveys, inventories and assess-

ments of critical forests, fields and shore

to set the stage for advancing conservation

Snapshot of Recent Success Private gifts leveraged four times over by the Conservancy

Forest, field, shore and sea — looking over Quicksand Pond and Goosewing.

NA

T R

EA

/ T

NC

LAND — Save Special Places

WATER — Keep it Clean

HOPE — Inspire a New Generation

CREATE a Network of Volunteer “Conservation Ambassadors”

For 60 years, volunteers have helped the Conservancy get the job done. Investing in recruiting, training and equipping volunteers makes our work more sustainable. With the protection of additional lands and resto-ration work in our coastal waters, our goal for the next five years is to double the num-ber of volunteers in the Sakonnet landscape. Volunteer opportunities call for a wide range of skills and abilities. Duties include preserve monitoring, interpretive work, trail construction and maintenance, invasive plant removal, construction of oyster reefs, river herring work, shoreline restoration, piping plover fencing and much more.

With fewer than ten percent of young people in the United States spending time outside each day, who will steward our lands and waters into the next century?

To address this challenge, the Conservancy has a multi-faceted plan to deepen community appreciation for the healthy lands and waters that support nature and people in their everyday life.

hope Inspire a New Generation

ACTIVATE the Next Generation of Conservation Leaders Along the Dundery Brook Trail, at the Wilbur McMahon School, at the Benjamin Family Environmental Center at Goosewing Beach and other nearby desti-nations, the Conservancy will work with partners to provide for nature education. Over the next five years, we will conduct 100 school programs to reach at least 2,000 young people.

EDUCATE the Public about Why Nature Matters

The Conservancy will engage more people about why nature matters via traditional and social media outlets, provide explorers of all ages with walks led by naturalists, and offer new and improved recreational opportunities to experience nature first hand. Our five-year goal is to conduct 300 family programs for 2,400 participants.

At keystone preserves like Goosewing Beach, Dundery Brook trail, and in the new 500-acre conservation area at Pocasset Ridge, the Conservancy will manage and create trails while providing stewardship oversight to ensure quality visitor experiences.

Through media releases, web updates to www.nature.org, and special publications like “Places to Discover,” the Conservancy will promote exploration of the many protected forests, fields and shores where residents and visitors can get outside.

TN

C

TN

C

For more information contactJohn Berg Sakonnet Landscape Manager 401-331-7110 ext 22 jberg@tnc.org

www.nature.org/rhodeisland

Hands on learning at the Benjamin Family Environmental Center.

TN

C

Fully accessible Dundery Brook Trail

Future Conservationists at Quicksand Pond.

Our theory is that a larger and more deeply engaged base of participants will translate into increased action taken on behalf of the environment, more revenue to further the work of the Conservancy and its partners, and greater influence to shape policy and practices in both the public and private sectors. In so doing, we will create and inspire conservationists of tomorrow as we work on behalf of all people today. Priorities include:

As our remaining wild places

and natural resources slip away,

so does our human connection

with them. What will it take

to save and manage the natural

character of the Sakonnet

landscape before it’s too late?

DE

SIG

N /

MA

LC

OL

M G

RE

AR

DE

SIG

NE

RS