RCP Stats

Coordinator: Mark Ashton; Rosa Goldman 

Contact Info: mark.ashton@yale.edu; rosa.goldman@yale.edu

Year started: 2010

Mission Statement:
“The QCI creates partnerships that expand the educational and research opportunities for students and faculty at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, while supporting the work of private landowners, natural resource managers, and forest industry professionals in and around the Yale-Myers Forest. The QCI promotes strengthened local livelihoods, increased forest health, and rural economic development for the long-term benefit of the land and those that live on it by providing knowledge, energy, and expertise to our partnering landowners and organizations”

General Location: Ashford, Eastford, Union and Woodstock, Northeastern CT

Acreage of Area Covered by Partnership: 102,626

Number of Partners: 7

RCP Status: Maturing

Steps Taken in Forming Partnership:

  • Draft a vision, mission statement, goals, and/or objectives
  • Develop a governance structure
  • Develop an RCP website
  • Develop a strategic conservation map
  • Engage landowners and/or municipal officials in your region
  • Engage state agencies, federal agencies, and/or philanthropic organizations

Funding sources:

  • Federal Grant or Program (USFS Landscape Scale Restoration Grant – 2011 - 2015)
  • Philanthropic Foundation
  • Individual Donors

Website: qci.yale.edu

Social Media: Facebook

 

Maps and Images

Forum

RCP Activities

Specialties:

  • Education (many student-run projects)
  • Securing funding, community engagement
  • Landowner Engagement (surveys, management plans, workshops)
  • Research
  • Tracking outreach impact

Current Activities:

  • Providing knowledge, energy, and expertise to our partnering landowners and organizations
  • In conjunction with courses at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, provide forest stewardship services in the form of forest stewardship plans, forest harvest plans, forest health monitoring and stream assessments
  • Host research seminars to disseminate research taking place at the Yale-Myers Forest and Yale F&ES to a broad community of local residents and forest practitioners
  • Host workshops on various subjects under the broad topics of forest management, water protection, agroforestry, and wildlife management.

Current Project Highlights:

  • In the summer of 2018, hosted 5 research seminars, 4 workshops, and 4 environmental documentary screenings at the Yale Myers Forest Camp
  • Over the 2017-2018 academic year, students wrote forest stewardship plans for 5 landowners in the QCI region, 3 sustainable forest harvest plans, and completed forest health assessments on 16 properties that had received forest stewardship plans with QCI in the past

Previous Projects/Accomplishments: (Since 2010)

  • 43 forest stewardship plans covering 4,000 acres
  • 14 miles of stream assessment
  • 24 landowner workshops
  • 2 regional/watershed landscape conservation plans
  • 2 maple syrup production projects (123 acres)
  • 2 trails built
  • 7 timber sales (harvest plans written by students, carried out in conjunction with local consulting foresters)
  • 3 dam removal assessments

Links to featured projects: