CASRI: Partnerships for Connectivity Conference
The Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative (CASRI) held a conference in November 2018 to celebrate decades of success restoring the red spruce-northern hardwood ecosystem in Central Appalachia. The conference offered an opportunity for partner organizations to discuss the latest research findings, problem-solve common management challenges, and network to advance new and emerging partnerships. Climate change is an urgent concern for conservation and restoration of this high elevation forest ecosystem. Several conference speakers addressed the need to prioritize landscape-scale connectivity for climate resilience, and keynote speaker, Dr. Matt Fitzpatrick (Appalachian Laboratory, University of Maryland), presented his research on population-level adaptation of red spruce to climate change. This conference was made possible by generous support from the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy’s Central Appalachians program. For more information on the CASRI partnership and restoration efforts please contact kathryn.barlow@tnc.org.