Connecting People and Landscapes for a Resilient Future
The Appalachian Mountain Range, stretching some 2,000 miles from Newfoundland to Alabama, is among the World’s most ecologically important landscapes. The Appalachians provide habitat to multitudes of plant and animal species and are also home to approximately 26 million people.
The Appalachians are:
- Home to more than 1,800 rare, threatened, and endangered plants and animals
- A critical travel corridor for more than 64 priority migratory bird species
- Home to an array of habitats, such as longleaf pine forests, high elevation bogs that are remnants of the last ice age, and the largest temperate forest remaining on Earth.
- Key to carbon storage thanks to its extensive mature, connected, and old-growth forests
- Considered a “biodiversity superhighway,” allowing many wildlife species to range widely and migrate along the connected forests for climate adaptation
However, the region’s wildlife and communities face serious challenges from the long-term impacts of resource extraction, climate change, and urban development.
Our Dedication to the Appalachians
For nearly a decade, CLLC has advanced solutions for habitat connectivity and conservation in the Appalachian region, championing a large-landscape approach that addresses the entire ecoregion, from Alabama to the eastern Canadian provinces. These efforts focus on maintaining and preserving existing high-quality habitats, enhancing the ecological services the landscape provides communities, and restoring degraded habitats to return these areas to a healthy and functioning natural state.
Key Initiatives
Staying Connected Initiative (SCI)
This regional partnership works to maintain and enhance ecological connectivity in the northern Appalachian Mountains. CLLC plays an important role in providing connectivity science and policy expertise. SCI’s “Pathways to an Ecologically Connected Transborder Landscape” publication, released in Spring 2025, distills an array of important learnings, ideas, and actions into strategies for to inform collaborative connectivity conservation and restoration efforts among diverse partners across borders, scales, cultures, and sectors. This publication stemmed the first-ever Northeast North America/Turtle Island Landscape Connectivity Summit, which CLLC co-convened in 2024. Learn more
Appalachian Trail Landscape Partnership (ATLP)
CLLC serves on the Steering Committee of the ATLP and our involvement helped inform the partnership’s structure and overall strategy. The partnership aims to accelerate and expand protection of the Appalachian Mountains to help safeguard and promote climate, environmental, and community resilience across this landscape. CLLC was also the facilitator and lead author for the Climate Advisory Group and Climate Vision for the Region. Learn more
Appalachian People and Places: A Conservation Collaborative (APPCC)
This region-wide collaborative is an outgrowth of the former Appalachians Keystone Initiative under the US Department of the Interior. The APPCC aims to create an Appalachia Conservation Strategy and Investment Plan. Deb Davidson, CLLC’s Chief Strategy Officer, serves on the steering committee.
Volgenau Climate Initiative’s (VCI) Nature and Climate as Economic Pillars for a New Appalachian Economy
CLLC was a catalyst for this effort and served on the host committee. CLLC now employs the VCI Appalachian Initiatives Coordinator and co-leads the Campaign for Appalachia, one of three ongoing projects that are part of this initiative. Learn more
Banner Photo: White Mountains National Forest, New Hampshire – Adobe Stock
Map: David Fox/The Nature Conservancy
