Tim Abbott

Tim Abbott has been a conservation leader in our region for over twenty five years, working with The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land before joining the Housatonic Valley Association in 2008 and assuming the role of Executive Director in 2025. With HVA, he has helped nearly three dozen conservation organizations and agencies secure more than $26,000,000 in public and private funding and protect more than 18,000 acres of family farmland, woodlands and other special places in Western New England and Eastern New York. He is a strong advocate for regional conservation partnerships, effective conservation policies at the local, state and national levels, and the many benefits that land protection provides to our communities. He is currently spearheading our multi-partner initiative - Follow the Forest - which seeks to protect a North/South climate corridor of connected and protected habitat between the lower Hudson Valley and Canada. Tim serves on Connecticut’s Natural Heritage, Open Space & Watershed Land Acquisition Review Board, The Staying Connected Initiative steering committee and Senator Chris Murphy’s Conservation Advisory Council. He administers the Connecticut State Committee of the Highlands Coalition and is on the four-state Highlands Coalition. He received a B.A. in English from Haverford College in 1990, holds an M.A. in International Development from Clark University (1996), and was the recipient in 1996 of a J. William Fulbright Fellowship in Namibia, southern Africa. When not saving land, he is actively involved in researching and interpreting America's Revolutionary period and is president of a Revolutionary War reenacting nonprofit.