Susan Westa, Ed Eramian and Virge Lorents gave a joint presentation on the Borderlands Project at the fall meeting of the Thames River Basin Partnership at the Wyndham County Extension Center. This exciting project involves an exploration of how to balance development and conservation in the rural CT-RI Connecticut-Rhode Island border region. One strategy is to use the Village Innovation Pilot (VIP), which has engaged the people of the two towns in creating and implementing a vision for their future. Guided by technical experts and local pilot teams, residents participated in visioning and planning exercises to explore how to preserve a meaningful sense of place (the “heart and soul” of the communities) by integrating new development in to town villages and centers.