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| 2/2/2006 7:01:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | New Conservation Initiative is Formed in the Northwest Corner
CORNWALL – Tim Abbott has been named director of the Litchfield Hills Greenprint Program, a new effort which will develop a conservation plan in the Housatonic Valley, it was announced Wednesday.
The Greenprint Program is a collaboration of local communities and land trusts in Litchfield County.to find a way to balance development pressures in the region. The program is being spearheaded by the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA)and the Trust for Public Land (TPL)
“Studies have shown that we have a window of just 20 years if we want to preserve important elements of our local landscape,” said Lynn Werner, HVA’s executive director.
She said that with the hiring of Abbott, the TPL/HVA partnership will proceed with the development of a plan for open space protection in the Litchfield Hills and involve a wide range of government, nonprofit, community and landowner partners.
The announcement of Abbot’s appointment said Eliot Wadsworth, president of the Litchfield-based White Flower Farms, a mail-order and plant retailer, encouraged HVA and TPL to assess new approaches to conservation. Wadsworth is providing initial funding for the Greenprint Program, and is lending his skills in marketing, planning, and fundraising to ensure that, in his words, “the impact of this work will be felt in the county 100 years from now.”
“Tim Abbott brings a wealth of experience to this ambitious undertaking,” said Wadsworth. “He knows the landscape intimately, he is committed to community-based conservation and partnerships, and he is adept at using the latest mapping and financing tools to save land.”
During the past year, Abbott has run Greensleeves Environmental Services, an environmental consulting company in Canaan. Prior to that, he was the Berkshire Taconic Landscape Program Director for The Nature Conservancy, which covered a 155,000-acre area in CT, NY and MA. He was responsible for strategic visioning, land protection, ecological restoration and community engagement.
Abbott is a graduate of Haverford College and has a master’s degree from Clark University. He also spent several years in Namibia, Africa as a Fulbright Scholar and employee of The Forum for Integrated Resource Management working on grassroots institutional organizing and community building.
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