Open Space Institute's Appalachian Landscapes Protection Fund Now Accepting Proposals To Protect Forests For Carbon Sequestration, Wildlife Habitat, Other Benefits

The Open Space Institute is now accepting applications for the latest round of its Appalachian Landscapes Protection Fund (ALPF), a first-of-its-kind effort to protect forests along the Appalachian region for carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, and other critical benefits.

Applications are due by December 19.

Approximately $5 million is available for grants within the Southern Appalachians focus area, and $3 million in grants and $1 million in zero-interest loans within the Western/Central Pennsylvania focus area. 

The funding will support land protection projects by land trusts, Tribes, nonprofits, and public agencies.

Launched in 2021, the ALPF seeks to protect land within the Appalachian Mountain region, home to the world’s largest temperate broadleaf forest. The region absorbs a million tons of air pollution each year and provides essential refugia for plants and animals in the face of climate change.

To date, OSI has awarded ALPF grants to 24 projects spanning 35,000 acres from Tennessee to Maine (project highlights can be seen here). Earlier this year, OSI announced a significant expansion to ALPF funding opportunities for western and central Pennsylvania — an area that includes some of the state’s most critical carbon-storing forests.

OSI is committed to advancing land justice and equity in its grantmaking by supporting projects that benefit racially diverse and economically underserved communities, in addition to supporting organizations led by people identifying as Black, Indigenous or People of Color.

The ALPF is made possible with a lead grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and with significant support from the Lyndhurst, Riverview and Tucker Foundations, an anonymous New England-based family foundation, William Penn Foundation, Footprint Foundation, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and other foundations and individuals who have joined OSI in protecting lands that can mitigate the devastating impacts of climate change.

Webinar

The Open Space Institute will hold a webinar for prospective applicants on November 8 at 10:30 a.m.   Click Here to register.

Click Here for the complete RFP announcement.

To apply and for all the details, visit the Appalachian Landscapes Protection Fund webpage.

[Posted: November 1, 2022]  PA Environment Digest