All current NE/EFC projects are designed as services to one or more of EPA Region 1’s various constituencies. In developing our programs, we identify research, education, and technical assistance needs of an array of possible clients, from land trusts, developers, and municipalities, to state governments and branches of the Federal government. Projects are then created that provide a range of services, all of which provide benefits to residents throughout New England and the nation.

Some of our projects are more like services as they are conventionally considered – that is, they are tailored to needs of individual organizations or local governments, rather than to the needs of a New England state or the nation as a whole. We bundle these efforts (see list below) under the title “Collaborative Environmental Services,” which involve assistance in facilitating local dialogues and exploration of creative ways to make needed conservation and development actions feasible, financially and otherwise.

Opportunities for NE/EFC assistance are greatest when there is already some common recognition of both the problem to be solved and the general approach needed, but where community decisions about “smart growth” and other departures from business-as-usual are presenting additional challenges. In these situations, we have observed that excellent opportunities exist for creative partnering to respond effectively to urgent needs of both conservation and development.

An example is the emerging type of development project where partners -- including land trusts, local governments, and a housing developer -- jointly devise a package where permanent open space can meet conservation, water quality, and habitat protection needs while being integrated with successful, “smart” development, placing less of a burden on public services, taxpayers, and environmental services in the long run. Financing of this kind of collaborative project may involve mixtures of dedications of land by the investor, purchases of easements by a conservation group, joint management arrangements for long-term land stewardship, and provision of key public facility investments or incentives by the local government and/or state agencies.

But there are obstacles to these approaches. Uncertainty and unfamiliarity concerning new types of growth patterns and “smart growth” can generate hesitancy towards new alternatives. Before they become involved, potential partners also want to see how the economic outcomes of these “innovative” strategies will stack up.

Examples of our services include:

• Giving presentations on the dynamics, potential benefits, and pitfalls of collaborative partnerships in land conservation and development projects.
• Organizing peer exchanges in which innovative project partners describe their approaches and discuss a locality’s own situation.
• Helping structure a dialogue among possible project partners about key problems, possible approaches, and working relationships among the parties. These events can take the form of facilitated meetings, larger forums, or hands-on charettes and training workshops among multiple sectors of the community.
• In situations where there is a more sharply defined conflict about a specific environmental improvement or smart growth proposal, assisting a local government with exploring the use of a mediated dispute resolution process among parties, and in finding the specialized services of a mediator.

Following initial contact by phone or email, an assessment of needs can be made and suggestions offered for potentially beneficial approaches, and the available resources of the EFC to assist can be discussed. To explore these possibilities, contact EFC Faculty Associate Dr. Jack Kartez at (207) 780-5389 (email at jackk@usm.maine.edu), or EFC Director Dr. Sam Merrill at (207) 228-8596 (email at smerrill@usm.maine.edu).

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