Building Climate Resilience in the Androscoggin Valley

Last fall, the Northern Forest Center launched the Androscoggin Valley Community Forest Collaborative, bringing together the committees and foresters of eight Community Forests located in the Androscoggin River watershed to explore collaborative opportunities and ways their conserved land can support local climate resilience.

Participating Community Forests include Errol, Milan, Gorham, Randolph, and Shelburne in New Hampshire as well as Bethel, Woodstock (Buck’s Ledge), and Rumford in Maine. Collectively, these communities own 32,000 acres of conserved land.

Map of eight Community Forests in climate network.

The Center conceived of this initiative following the devasting floods of December 2023, when communities located along the Androscoggin experienced significant infrastructural damage following the swelling and flooding of rivers from rain-on-snow events. Such events are predicted to become more common in years to come because of climate change.

Through this peer network, these communities have convened twice, first to learn about each other’s Community Forest – its history, values, management, vision, and a second time to learn about how to identify and mitigate climate vulnerabilities within a forest.

Over the next several months, Julie Renaud Evans, program director at the Center, and Steven Roberge, Extension state specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension, are working with the chairs and foresters of each Community Forest to update their respective forest management plans to incorporate practices for improving climate resilience.

“This group is eager to learn both from each other and experts in addressing multiple goals in managing local lands, from climate resilience to volunteer succession planning,” said Renaud Evans. “We hope bringing them together can serve as a model for other collaborations.”

Beyond the initiative’s work in climate resilience, the collaborative has already identified other areas to explore and learn about together, including mitigating fire risk, securing funding, and succession planning for committees. “We hope this initiative is only the beginning of future collaborations between Community Forests within the region,” said Renaud Evans.

This work is made possible with the support of strategic partners such as UNH Cooperative Extension and funders such as the Open Space Institute.