Heather Furman
Director of The Nature Conservancy's Appalachians Program.
Vermont
Heather Furman Heather Furman © Heather Furman
Areas of Expertise
Land and water conservation, fundraising, public relations and conservation strategy
Biography
Heather Furman is the Appalachians Director at The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a position she has held since June 2023. In this role, Heather guides continental scale conservation for one of TNC’s four global priority landscapes, leading teams and initiatives across 18 states and 3 Canadian provinces. Prior, Heather spent a decade as TNC’s Vermont state director, where she grew the visibility, influence and scope of the chapter’s conservation programs. Heather has held leadership positions in both federal and state government and with local and international NGOs including the World Wildlife Fund in Nepal. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia, building on her formal academic training in anthropology, her BA from the Ohio State University and her MS in natural resource planning from the Rubenstein School at the University of Vermont. She is passionate about critical habitat conservation, strengthening partnerships and mobilizing the funding and research needed to protect biodiversity while mitigating the impacts of climate change. Heather resides with her husband in the Winooski River Valley in rural Vermont, on the unceded land of the Western Abenaki that is known today as the Northern Appalachians.
Nature Now
December 7, 2022
I often pause during the holiday season to reflect on the gifts that this planet has given me. The local food on my table, the clean water in my glass and the immense solace I find in nature. I also increasingly feel how vulnerable these gifts are as we experience the unmistakable impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss. Fortunately, I am not alone in my concern, and as the Vermont state director of The Nature Conservancy, I get to work every day with Vermonters and people across the globe who want to see nature and people thrive into the future.
While the climate and biodiversity loss statistics are stark, our focus is not on counting losses but mounting gains, and we have reason to be hopeful. Now more than ever, the global community is recognizing the needs to address both climate change and the biodiversity crisis. Next week, 200 nations will gather in Montreal as part of the United Nation’s Biodiversity Conference (COP 15). The purpose is to agree to a new set of goals for the protection of nature and to transform our relationship with biodiversity. Why? Because if we don’t protect biodiversity, our communities, food systems and collective health are at risk.
The Nature Conservancy will be there, joining world leaders, ecologists, economists and health experts, to secure a future where wildlife can thrive in abundance and people share equitably in the benefits that nature provides. To accomplish these ambitious goals, we must build more sustainable food and energy systems, while also protecting the natural communities that are the building blocks of our collective health—our rivers, forests, grasslands and oceans.
Here in Vermont and throughout the northeast, where we host one of the last remaining and largest temperate forests in the world, we are committed to conserving healthy forest and waters, through a combination of on the ground projects, policy actions and local engagement.
The Nature Conservancy is working with forest landowners on climate friendly management practices to increase carbon storage, and with State lawmakers to improve our communities’ flood resilience through river corridor protections. In southern Vermont, we recently helped the US Fish and Wildlife Service expand the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge through the permanent protection of 3,500 acres at Glebe Mountain.
Underpinned by biodiversity, healthy ecosystems provide clean water, clean air, protect against natural disasters, furnish life-saving medications and ensure long-term food security. Protecting natural ecosystems and wildlife will reduce risk from new zoonotic diseases spreading to humans and mitigates the risk of another pandemic like COVID-19.
When we lose nature, we risk our health and safety, as the impacts of climate change are exacerbated. For the sake of our economies, livelihoods and physical and mental well-being—and those of future generations—it’s imperative that we tackle the nature crisis in conjunction with the climate emergency and bend the curve on both climate change and nature loss now. This is the time.
Heather Furman, State Director of The Nature Conservancy in Vermont.
When Nature Unites Us
Read Heather Furman's series of commentaries.
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Investing in Natural Infrastructure
A once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure was just made possible by Congress passing the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Read More
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Nature is at the Heart of Our Recovery
Next month marks the one-year anniversary of our worlds contracting, many of us into our homes, families or ourselves. During this great contraction, many were drawn to the outdoors as a place to escape. Read More
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Nature, Uninterrupted
We have long recognized the restorative power of nature, but in times of social distancing during the COVID-19 crisis, nature becomes even more essential. Read More
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Green Transportation Investment Has Rural Support
The time has come for us to think differently about how we get around in Vermont while investing in our rural communities, and rural voters seem to agree. Read More
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Decade Ahead Calls for New Conservation Vision
The decade ahead demands a new vision for our Green Mountain State, one that will turn the tide on our environmental impacts and fully address our way of living on this planet. Read More
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Hunting & Conservation: Making Room for All
Hunting & conservation have helped recover much of our wildlife, their habitats and our forests. Vermonters directly benefit from making room for all types of outdoor enthusiasts. Read More
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Focus On What Unites Us
If we are serious about tackling the biggest challenge facing people and the planet today, there is one thing we can do that will make the biggest difference: Talk to one another. Read More
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Tapping the Potential of Our Forests
Healthy forests are key to a climate-resilient future. Forests can offer 37% of the emissions reductions needed to keep the earth's warming below 2 degrees Celsius by 2030. Read More
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A Changing Landscape
Change in Vermont’s landscapes can be unsettling, but it can also hold opportunities to implement creative solutions to some of our state’s most pressing issues. Read More