Establishing “greenways” is a core part of the vision and mission of Moose Mountains Regional Greenways. It’s in our name, after all!

Greenways are undeveloped, “open-space” corridors that support wildlife habitat, natural resource protection and low-impact recreation. They are often created incrementally over time by “linking” contiguous conservation properties. By conserving your land, you can be a part of the Greenways Vision!

A Strategy and a Place

A greenway is made up of multiple (and often many) smaller parcels of conserved land to form wildlife corridors or other natural resource havens. These greenways exist across/regardless of political boundaries such as town or state lines.

Establishing greenways is also a conservation strategy. It means conserving lands with the specific intent to unite other conserved parcels across a region. This means that “connectivity” with other conserved lands is a factor in seeking or undertaking conservation projects. Relatively small conservation projects, then, can have increased impact when they add to a larger regional greenway project. Click on the compass to see all of our conservation properties, and those owned by partner land trusts in the region.

As part of our conservation strategy, we created a comprehensive plan for our service area called “Our Home, Our Land, Our Tomorrow”. Click below to read the plan.

In this video, our founder Cynthia Wyatt speaks to the heart of the “greenways vision” that has been part of MMRG’s philosophy from the start.

We’re All in it Together

The greenways vision and strategy prioritizes collaboration and acknowledges interdependence. To be successful and truly comprehensive, greenways formation requires collaboration between many stakeholders such as landowners, conservation groups, municipalities and other partners both locally and regionally.

While it is tempting (and often appropriate) to focus on conservation efforts only within a certain town or other land area, this does not take into account the truth that natural resources do not know political boundaries.

Watersheds are an excellent example of this. In our own region, activities that either improve or denigrate water quality at the headwaters of the Salmon Falls Watershed, for example, affect not only our local towns but also the communities and water sources all the way down the watershed to the ocean, even though they are “outside” the region of MMRG’s conservation activities. This makes communication and collaboration with other conservation and watershed protection groups critical to protecting and improving water quality across the region.