The Landscape Conservation Bulletin
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A bi-monthly service of the Network for
Landscape Conservation
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Dear Network Friends and Partners,
With the world in current turmoil, we can only appreciate our natural and cultural landscapes all the more. Whether we are fortunate enough to get outside to enjoy them (with social distancing) or simply to think of our favorite places as an important touchstone, they are there, calming us and anchoring us to better days to come.
The isolation of the Covid-19 crisis has also given me time to think more about community and what that means. Last week the Network leadership held its Annual Retreat through two-day Zoom conference, and it was dynamic, inspiring, and surprisingly fun—given the number of hours we were tethered to our chairs. But we are a community and I think we were all starved for normalcy and connection.
And all of you reading this Bulletin are part of that landscape conservation community. Please be in touch—let us know how you are doing and how we can best be helpful to your work in your own home landscapes and special communities in these changing times.
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Emily M. Bateson
Network Director
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Pennsylvania's Conservation Landscapes
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Holistic landscape conservation white paper
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Perspectives:
Sentinel Landscapes
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Additional Landscape Conservation News
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Landscape Conservation Job Board
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Webinars & Additional Resources
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Cover photo of the painted hills
of Carrizo Plain National Monument,California.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.
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Featured News
Pennsylvania’s Conservation Landscape program emerges as an innovative model of state leadership on collaborative landscape conservation
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For more than fifteen years, place-based landscape partnerships in Pennsylvania have been driving strategic investments and actions around sustainability, conservation, community revitalization, and recreation projects. Spearheaded by the Commonwealth’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), this
Conservation Landscapes program
is an innovative example of state leadership in the realm of collaborative landscape conservation. Today, eight Conservation Landscapes have been identified across Pennsylvania, with each landscape marked by a community-grounded collaboration that is building a positive and holistic vision to support the region’s sense of place, natural resources, and local communities.
In 2019, DCNR undertook an independent evaluation of the program to better understand the impact of the program and best practices and successes that have emerged—and to identify recommendations for continuing to improve and sustain the program. The resulting report,
Conservation Landscapes: Models of Successful Collaboration
, has just been released. While focused on the context of Pennsylvania, the results, best practices, recommendations, and insights of the report are broadly applicable across geographies. Indeed, the Pennsylvania Conservation Landscape program clearly emerges as a model for landscape conservation initiatives across the country.
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Featured News
A new white paper from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy calls for a holistic landscape conservation approach
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This winter, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy issued a white paper,
Toward Holistic Landscape Conservation in the 21st Century
. Written by Michael Whitfield, the paper presents a compelling case that in the face of the environmental and social crises that we are facing across the world, a deeply collaborative, holistic approach to landscape conservation is essential for appropriately confronting the daunting challenges of the 21st Century.
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The white paper expands upon themes that Whitfield eloquently explored in a
Perspectives
piece
in the March 2018 Landscape Conservation Bulletin. This expanded white paper underscores the importance of grounding efforts in the needs of wild nature and natural systems and in the individual dignity of people within our human communities. It further suggests that such an approach demands the intentional development of the skills needed to engage all sectors of local communities while also ensuring a seat at the table for nature and for the common future of nature and humanity. Earlier this month, Whitfield joined an
International Land Conservation Network webinar
to further explore his white paper and this topic more broadly. As Whitfield notes, through an embrace of such a holistic perspective, we as landscape conservation practitioners have a vital role to play in preserving the natural world around us—and in revitalizing our humanity.
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Perspectives: Landscape Conservation in Action
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Sentinel Landscapes: Uniting People, Securing the Future
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In 2013, the United States Department of Defense, Department of Agriculture, and Department of the Interior came together in collaboration to launch
the Sentinel Landscape program
. This program is an innovative approach to landscape conservation—recognizing the seemingly disparate but actually interwoven values of national security, conservation, and working lands, and leveraging this cross-sector collaboration to unite people and secure the future of landscapes across the country.
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This month, the Sentinel Landscapes program has
released a new video
that showcases the innovative and impactful work unfolding in this realm across the country. This
Perspectives
piece shares the story of the Sentinel Landscapes and explores the multiple “mission objectives” that can be achieved when partners come together to forge uncommon collaboration.
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A direct and compelling headline
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Additional Landscape Conservation News
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Article in
A.T. Journeys
highlights the Appalachian Trail Landscape Partnership, and the growing effort to broaden the vision around the A.T. to ensure a resilient “Wild East” landscape.
“Saving the Shawangunks” storymap, showcasing the Open Space Institute’s efforts to protect the Shawangunk Ridge landscape of southeastern New York, was recently recognized as one of five winners in the 2019 ESRI Storymapper of the Year contest.
Yale E360
article highlights how Indigenous native communities across North America are stepping up to adopt climate action plans to protect their landscapes and way of life.
Mountain Journal
article highlights the work of the Gallatin Forest Partnership to build shared agreement on land management solutions aimed at sustaining the Gallatin and Madison ranges of southwest Montana.
The High Meadow Fund in Vermont has released a new report that shares lessons learned from its Watershed Resilience initiative.
A new report on the Columbia Headwaters region of southeastern British Columbia describes the opportunities and challenges in providing for both a strong local economy and healthy ecosystem.
Restore the Mississippi River Delta coalition has issued a report offering recommendations for continued recovery a decade after the Gulf Oil Spill, focusing on strategies for funding, restoration project implementation, and building community resilience.
The Nature of Cities blogpost focuses on the power of diverse transformative partnerships, sharing the story of building greater community and watershed health through the creation of a “Paseos Verdes” program.
Ensia
articles highlights the impact that increasing tensions along U.S.-Mexico border is having on cross-border ecosystems.
Meeting of the Minds blogpost focuses on the intersection of urban parks and equity, highlighting new reports from the City Parks Alliance that capture tools, strategies, recommendations, and case studies for leveraging the power of parks to achieve equity goals.
Land Trust Alliance blogpost offers up points of inspiration to guide collaborative efforts.
New statistics from the Outdoor Foundation capture a declining trend in outdoor recreation in America, with nearly half of the U.S. population not participating in outdoor recreation at all.
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A direct and compelling headline
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Upcoming Conferences & Events
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Please check for updates on any events and conferences listed here as Covid-19 restrictions may cause postponements.
Barcelona, Spain
Note: one of five agenda tracks is dedicated to landscape conservation
Postponed until April 14-16, 2021
Miami, FL
Toronto, ON
Converted to virtual conference
Marseille, France
New Haven, CT
Gulfport, MS
Fort Collins, CO
Atlantic City, NJ
Minneapolis-St Paul, MN
Seattle, WA
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A direct and compelling headline
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Landscape Conservation Job Board
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This new section of the Landscape Conservation Bulletin is intended to be a space to share job postings that will be specifically relevant to landscape conservation practitioners. We welcome submissions: if your organization would like to widely distribute a posting please
be in touch
. Just note that we will limit job postings to those focused specifically on collaborative landscape conservation.
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A direct and compelling headline
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Webinars & Additional Resources
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Funding opportunity:
the Wildlife Conservation Society is currently accepting pre-proposal submissions for its Climate Adaptation Fund through April 22, 2020.
Learn more here.
The Western Governors Association's
Out West
podcast convened a conversation on "A Sense of Place," exploring how 'placemaking' aids the reinvention of rural communities.
Listen here.
A Connected Conservation Webinar
April 23, 2020
A Connected Conservation Webinar
May 6, 2020
A Connected Conservation Webinar
May 20, 2020
A Connected Conservation Webinar
June 17, 2020
A Connected Conservation Webinar
July 1, 2020
A new podcast from Wildlands and Woodlands that features stories from New Englanders about why and how they conserve land.
A weekly podcast that explores the challenges presented by adapting to climate change and the approaches the field's best minds believe are already working.
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The Network for Landscape Conservation is the community of practice for practitioners advancing collaborative, cross-boundary conservation as an essential approach to protect nature, culture, and community in the 21st Century.
Contributions of news, upcoming events, and resources for future Bulletins are welcomed. We also welcome inquires for future "Perspectives: Landscapes Conservation in Action" stories;
please be in touch
if you are interested in sharing stories and insights from your work.
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The Network for Landscape Conservation is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, P.O. Box 1587, Bozeman, MT 59771
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A direct and compelling headline
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