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NELF Explorer
About NELF Explorer
The New England Landscape Futures (NELF) Explorer was a web mapping application that allowed for interactive exploration of the NELF scenarios with maps each decade from 2010 through 2060, along with charts and summary statistics in areas of interest including towns and watersheds. NELF Explorer was used by practitioners in conservation and policy-related fields to demonstrate the importance of planning for the future. Although NELF Explorer is no longer operational, the scenario maps are still available to view on ArcGIS Online and to download on DataBasin. For more information on the NELF scenarios, see the Future Scenarios page and see the archive of materials below for workshop materials, lesson plans, and more content that shows how NELF Explorer and the scenario maps can be used.
People
NELF Explorer was made possible with the collaboration of many people. We are grateful to all who have given their time and shared their expertise for this project, including participants in the S3 Research Coordination Network that launched the New England Landscape Futures Project. Thank you.
Scenario Narratives
100+ New Englanders – thank you!
Kathy Fallon Lambert, Marissa F. McBride, Emily S. Huff, Kathleen A. Theoharides, Patrick Field, Jonathan R. Thompson
Scenario Maps
Jonathan R. Thompson, Joshua S. Plisinski, Matthew J. Duveneck, Luca Morreale
Artwork
RavenMark, Inc. – scenario graphics and icons, Rick Powell – scenario illustrations
Story Map and NELF Explorer
NEMAC+FernLeaf, Marissa Weiss, Lucy G. Lee, Kathy Fallon Lambert
Photography
Ryan Burton, Lynn Butkovsky, David Foster, Clarisse Hart, Spencer Meyer, Jerry Monkman/EcoPhotography, The Trustees
Funding
NELF Explorer was part of the New England Landscape Futures Project. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation under grants NSF-DEB-13-38809, NSF-DRL-17-13307, and NSF-DEB-12-37491, and from Highstead.
Archive of Materials
Tutorials and Videos
Maps
Available to view with map slider on ArcGIS Online (bit.ly/nelf-data-viewer)
Available for free download and use on DataBasin
Story Maps
NELF Project Story Map describes the purpose and process of the New England Landscape Futures Project, introduces the NELF scenarios, and explains how to use NELF Explorer. We have heard it described as the “NELF textbook” and is a great resources summarizing the major components of the project.
Invisible Gifts, Shifting Baselines uses the NELF scenarios to demonstrate the “shifting baseline” phenomenon that affects our perception of change and to show why planning for the future is necessary to interrupt these shifting baselines and preserve the benefits of nature for future generations.
NELF Working Groups
In late 2019, the NELF project team released a request for proposals for working groups to apply NELF Explorer to their conservation, planning, communications, or other creative work. Five proposals were funded and work took place throughout 2020, with working groups adapting creatively to the unexpected challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The space below contains links to PDF summaries of each working group’s activities.
Conservation and Planning
Community Visioning and Values Mapping for Forest Connectivity: led by Margo Ghia and Michael Leff of the Windham Connectivity Collaborative
Science-Based Outreach to Municipalities in the Saco Watershed: led by Robyn Saunders and Emily Greene of the Saco Watershed Collaborative
State Policy Solutions for a Cooler, Greener Future: led by Susan AnderBois and Laura Marx of The Nature Conservancy
Outreach for Planning in Urban-Suburban Riparian Corridors: led by Mary Rickel Pelletier of Park Watershed, Inc. and Susan Masino of Trinity College
Education
Drivers of Landscape Change: a teaching module for college-level students by Meghan Graham MacLean, PhD
NELF Lunch Chat Series
NELF Lunch Chat was a series of lunchtime discussions and/or presentations related to applying the NELF scenarios. The series began shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, as a way to build connection in a time of isolation, and as a way to reflect on the value of scenarios as we endured the kind of sudden and seismic shock that scenarios are designed to navigate. Below are the dates, titles, and links to materials of each NELF Lunch Chat:
12/15/2020 – Drivers and Consequences of Landscape Change for New England Wildlife by Skye Pearman Gillman, PhD (summary, recording)
Skye Pearman-Gillman recently graduated from the University of Vermont where she earned a PhD in Natural Resources. At the University of Vermont Skye conducted research on the spatial consequences of future climate and land-use change for New England wildlife species. With a continued interest in wildlife conservation, data analytics, and computer modeling, Skye is currently working as a freelance research analyst with the American Wind Wildlife Institute and the University of Vermont.
9/29/2020 – Applying NELF Scenarios to Your Work (summary, slides)
7/21/2020 – Redlining in New England by Lucy Lee (summary, slides, recording)
Lucy Lee is a map expert and member of the NELF team based out of Harvard Forest. In this presentation, inspired by a webinar about relationships between redlining and tree canopy on a national scale, Lucy overlays and interprets redlining maps, aerial imagery, and NELF maps of New England cities to explore the relationships between past policies, current conditions, and future needs. The presentation questions how the Connected Communities scenario must be expanded to explicitly account for harmful legacies of the past.
6/16/2020 – Watershed Planning to Protect and Revitalize Riparian Corridors Along the Lower Connecticut River by Mary Rickel Pelletier (summary, recording)
Mary Rickel Pelletier is the founding director of Park Watershed, a 501(c)3 urban-suburban environmental stewardship organization. Mary has a Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Design from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Mary is co-leading a NELF Working Group in partnership with Trinity College, CT River Conservancy, and Sustainable CT. Their project explores how urban-suburban riparian corridors offer uniquely vital ecosystem service benefits within high-density urban-suburban communities that deserve increased protections. In her talk, Mary will describe how woodland landscape fragments along inland riparian corridors are arteries of ecosystem connectivity and community resilience and her use of the NELF scenarios to protect and revitalize these essential landscapes.
5/19/2020 – Using Scenarios and Signals to Update Plans (summary)
4/21/2020 – Scenario Signals (summary, slides)
Workshops and Presentations
NELF Explorer workshops, lectures, and trainings were hosted with a number of conservation and planning organizations, including the following:
3/2/2019 – MA Association of Conservation Commissions Annual Conference
3/11/2019 – UPenn School of Design
3/18/2019 – New London County Initiative
3/23/2019 – MassLand Conservation Conference
4/27/2019 – MA Open Space Committee Conference
8/23/2019 – HF Our Change Forests Schoolyard Ecology teachers
9/26/2019 – Franklin Regional Planning Board
9/27/2019 – MassConn Regional Conservation Partnership
11/2/2019 – NH Association of Conservation Commissions Conference
11/13/2019 – Regional Conservation Partnership Network Gathering
11/18/2019 – Eastern Maine Development Corporation
1/22/2020 – North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership
2/1/2020 – Public lecture at Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary
2/29/2020 – MA Association of Conservation Commissions Annual Conference
Invited to host a session but were cancelled due to COVID: CT Land Conservation Conference (3/21/2020), MA Land Conservation Conference (3/28/2020), NH Saving Special Places (4/4/2020)
Lesson Plans
College
Drivers of Landscape Change by Meghan Graham MacLean, PhD
Invasive Species: Meghan Graham MacLean introduces NELF Explorer in the context of invasive species management. This introductory video could be used to help create or add to a lesson on invasive species or natural resource management.
High School
Role Play Town Meeting: lesson plan by Tara Alcorn
Policy Solutions to Habitat Fragmentation: lesson plan by Joe Scanio
Middle School
Creating Hypotheses and Analyzing Data: lesson plan by Jeff Sautter
