January / February 2018

Living Landscape Observer - Nature, Culture, Community
In This Issue
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  March 12-14, 2018
Washington DC
 
  March 14-17, 2018
Tuscon AZ

April 18 - 21, 2018
Las Vegas, Nevada

Living Landscape Observer

People and Places in Trouble
Can America's small cities be saved? Practitioners in the fields of historic preservation, parks and recreation, and community development have tried to tackle this challenge. The problems run wide and deep. For example, in Pennsylvania, over 30 municipalities, almost all of which could be characterized as small cities, have been designated financially distressed.  All of these places have a similar litany of problems - declining population and tax revenue, high pension and health care costs, a large inventory of blighted or tax-exempt properties, and a heavy burden of municipal debt. Recent opinion pieces in the New York Times and the Washington Post have highlighted the issue, now what?  Read more.

Montgomery Street Barracks, Presidio of San Francisco. Image credit: recreation.gov
Behind the Scenes of the Legislative Process
For this month's  Featured Voice interview, we talk with  Don Hellmann, the former Assistant Director for Legislative and Congressional Affairs for the National Park Service. Hellmann ended his 40-year career working with Congress at the beginning of 2017. He spent the last 22 years with the NPS. In the interview, Hellmann provides insight into how the NPS legislative agenda changed over time as well as background on especially memorable bills, including Public Law 104-333, which addressed the future of the Presidio of San Francisco. Read more of this fascinating interview.

Image credit: National Park Service.
Reimagining the History of the (Inter)National Park Service
The National Park Service has a long history of international engagement dating to the agency's very earliest years. In 1961, during the height of the Cold War, an official Division of International Affairs was created to advance U.S. environmental, diplomatic, and political pursuits. Learn more about NPS' international activities and the significance of the agency's global ties in this piece by guest observer Joana Arruda. Read more.

Latest News  and Information

A state regulatory body is considering the fate of a proposed major transmission line that opponents say will impact the historic and cultural landscapes of New Hampshire. A landscape that made the National Trust's endangered list in 2015.

Ranching is a historic way of life in the West, but it's under siege, threatened by  development drought wildfires , a  shrinking number of cattle buyers  and razor-thin profit margins. But land trusts, conservation easements, and payments for ecosystem services (such as wetlands) offer hope that rangelands and their wildlife can survive  and even flourish .

The Appalachian LCC Conservation Planning process and modeling is a dynamic 'Conservation Blueprint' or 'Landscape Conservation Design' called NatureScape. It helps visualize the kind of w ell-connected landscapes that are necessary to sustain many of the natural and cultural resources important to the Appalachian region today and into the future. Watch the video in the article for more information.

About Us

The Living Landscape Observer is a website, blog and monthly e-newsletter that offers commentary and information on the emerging field of large landscape conservation. This approach emphasizes the preservation of a "sense of place" and blends ingredients of land conservation, heritage preservation, and sustainable community development. Learn more about how you can get involved or sign up for the newsletter here.  


Our Mission: To provide observations and information on the emerging fields of landscape scale conservation, heritage preservation and sustainable community development.