Colin Apse, The Nature Conservancy
Topic: Conserving Freshwater Biodiversity in the Northeast: Innovative Strategies to Address Widespread Threats

Colin Apse is the Deputy Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Eastern U.S. Freshwater Program and is based in New Paltz, New York. Much of his current work at TNC is focused on developing new strategies and policy approaches that balance human water use and environmental flow needs at the local, state, and interstate basin scale. Colin is currently assisting environmental flow protection efforts throughout the East while also working with TNC chapters and their partners to restore connectivity and target land protection on priority Eastern rivers. As chair of the Delaware River Basin Commission’s Subcommittee on Ecological Flows, Colin and The Nature Conservancy are working with a broad stakeholder group to use current science to inform a major revision of flow management policy in the Delaware Basin. In 2004, Colin received a special recognition award from the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin for leadership in this collaboration. Colin’s past work with TNC was focused on the Neversink River, a diverse tributary of the Delaware, where in fall 2004 he led a TNC-Army Corps of Engineers project to remove the abandoned, 90 year-old Cuddebackville Dam on the lower Neversink and monitor the impacts. This dam was the first in New York State to be removed to meet environmental restoration goals and the first dam removal collaboration between the Corps and TNC nationally. Colin holds a B.A. from Duke University and a Masters in Environmental Management from Yale University, where he was supported by a Doris Duke Conservation Fellowship.

Conserving Freshwater Biodiversity in the Northeast: Innovative Strategies to Address Widespread Threats
The freshwater systems of Maine and the Northeast region harbor a remarkable diversity of plant and animal species. There is a growing appreciation of our native freshwater biodiversity and of the most prominent threats to the integrity of freshwater systems. Colin Apse’s talk will focus on river systems in the region and what many of the ecologically intact rivers have in common. Conservation scientists at The Nature Conservancy are pursuing a number of innovative approaches to protecting aquatic biodiversity in conjunction with partners. The talk will explore lessons learned by The Nature Conservancy through freshwater biodiversity conservation efforts in the region, including their approach to assessing large scale threats to healthy ecosystems and defining strategies to combat these threats. Since these approaches require balancing human needs such as adequate quantities of drinking water, with ecological requirements such as seasonal base flows, the talk will include some of the opportunities available across the region to collaboratively design mutually beneficial solutions.