As they stare at the reality of smaller government, organizations dependent on state and federal support are scrambling to extend critical work as funding dries up. One such program is the Quabbin to Cardigan Initiative, which for the past three years has used federal funds to jump-start land conservation on a 100-mile stretch from the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts to the Mount Cardigan area in the southern tip of the White Mountains National Forest. This two million-acre stretch of ecologically significant forestland cuts right through the heart of the Monadnock region.

Photo courtesy the Forest Society.