The Schenob Brook Preserve (2072 acres) is The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) largest preserve in Massachusetts and protects a large calcareous wetland complex surrounding Schenob Brook, a lowland stream system in the southwest corner of the state. During recent management planning effort, we recognized the need to consider not just the current conditions within the Preserve, but also strategies to make the site more resilient to inevitable changes driven by climate change. We investigated what changes we might expect from climate change, how we could maintain the quality of the underlying geophysical and chemical environment, and how we could increase options for species to move and find suitable habitat. We used both a spatial analysis of resilience as well as recommendations from the literature to identify a suite of possible management actions focused on limited interventions that would increase connectivity or improve the condition of the physical stage.

Karen Lombard has been working in stewardship and restoration for The Nature Conservancy since 1999. She currently leads a TNC team that manages over 6000 acres of TNC fee land and monitors over 2,500 acres in conservation easement land in Massachusetts. She is the current chair of the MA Invasive Plant Advisory Group and is also involved in the startup of the Sandplain Grassland Network, a new partnership focused on improving collaboration on sandplain grassland and heathland restoration efforts. Past projects have included management of long-term Phragmites invasive plant removal project on Cape Cod; starting and co-leading a cooperative invasive species management area in Western MA, and co-authorship of "A Guide to Invasive Plants in MA." She has an M.S. in Natural Resource Management from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Williams College.