Published since 1946

Progress Reports on RCN Grants Now Available

The Regional Conservation Needs (RCN) grant program was created as a mechanism to share expertise and funding by northeastern states to address landscape-scale issues, advance collaboration and likelihood of success, and result in more effective conservation of species. The first phase of the RCN program was developed in 2007, resulting in 47 funded regional conservation projects. The current phase, RCN 2.0, was developed in 2017 and work is underway on the three overall identified projects with progress reports available online.

RCN 2.0 has a new structure. There are three projects: turtles, pollinators and technical services. The objectives of the 2018 – 2022 Regional Conservation Needs grant are:

Stabilize or increase populations of five priority Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need turtles. These turtle species will be the focus of conservation actions: Blanding’s, Eastern Box, Wood, and Spotted Turtles and Northern Diamondback Terrapins.
Restore and enhance habitats, with emphasis on early successional habitats, to benefit native pollinators.
Add new information to the Northeast Regional State Wildlife Action Plan Database, to support ongoing collaborative work by states, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and partners.

Each project has multiple jobs, and under each job are multiple General Service Agreements (GSAs) that are actively working. Information on each project and progress reports from active GSAs below can be found at RCNgrants.org

Project 1: Turtle Project

Job I. Spotted Turtle Conservation

GSA 00040 Genetic Connectivity of Spotted Turtle, VA Commonwealth Univ
GSA 00041 Spotted Turtle in MD/DE, Salisbury University
GSA 00042 Spotted Turtle in NJ, Tesauro Consulting
GSA 00043 Spotted Turtle in WV, West Virginia University
GSA 00045 Spotted Turtle in NY, SUNY
GSA 00046 Amend #1 Spotted Turtle in DE, Mid Atlantic Center for Herpetology and Conservation

Job II. Eastern Box Turtle Conservation Plan

GSA 00046 Eastern Box Turtle Status Assessment, Conservation Plan, and BMPs., Mid Atlantic Center for Herpetology and Conservation
GSA 00047 Eastern Box Turtle Status Assessment, Conservation Plan, and BMPs., Patrick Roberts

Job III. Road Mitigation

GSA 00033 Road Mortality Hotspot Identification, Clarkson University

Job IV. Wood & Blanding's Turtle Conservation

GSA 00057 NE Turtle Conservation Database, Daniel Martinelli
GSA 00074 Conservation Plan for the Blanding’s Turtle and associated SGCN in the NE, Orianne Society