The Landscape Conservation Bulletin |
|
A bi-monthly service of the Network for
Landscape Conservation
|
|
|
Dear Network Friends,
2021 has been a remarkable year. While there are too many historic events to mention, including the Covid-19 vaccine deployment and the hottest June in 127 years, a milestone you may have missed is the 10th anniversary of the Network for Landscape Conservation.
Since 2011 when a core group of partners gathered at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to launch our Network, we’ve grown to 250-plus organizational partners and more than 5,000 practitioners. With the Center for Large Landscape Conservation as our fiscal sponsor, and the generous support of our funders and supporters, our Network has become a respected voice for landscape conservation throughout North America over the last decade.
I am proud to have served as the Network’s co-chair for the last five years. Working with you to build this Network from the ground up has been unbelievably rewarding and a high honor. As I move on from my co-chair post, I have great confidence in the leadership of Ernest Cook, Jessie Levine, Shawn Johnson, and our 35-member Coordinating Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to work together to advance landscape conservation!
|
|
Indigenous Leadership in Landscape Conservation |
The Role of Cities for Regional Biodiversity |
Additional Landscape Conservation News |
Landscape Conservation Job Board |
Webinars & Additional Resources |
|
Julie Regan
External Affairs Chief & Deputy Director
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
Outgoing Co-Chair of the Network’s Coordinating Committee
|
|
Cover photo: Sunset in Eastham, MA. Credit: Jonathan Peterson. |
|
Featured News
The leadership role of Indigenous peoples in conserving and stewarding landscapes is increasingly receiving recognition across the continent
|
|
For centuries in North America, Indigenous peoples have been regularly removed from their ancestral lands, and have witnessed their knowledge and rights excluded by policy and decision-making processes on the management of lands that hold ecological, cultural, and spiritual significance to them. Increasingly though, the leadership role of Indigenous communities and peoples in conserving and stewarding landscapes is being recognized as we all confront the challenge of sustaining ecological integrity and resilience in a world of changing climatic patterns. A recent Yale e360 article highlights the building movement to repatriate land back to Indigenous communities and to incorporate their perspectives and participation in land management decisions.
Powerful examples of this trend can be found across the continent: For instance, in June the Office of Hawaiian Affairs released “Mai Ka Po Mai,” a guidance document for management of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument that uses traditional concepts and cultural traditions to inform how management should be conducted. Elsewhere, a Yes! Magazine article highlights the decades-long efforts of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe to restore the Elwha River ecosystem, while a new article from The Narwhal shares the story of how the Pacheedaht First Nation is asserting its right to make land management decisions on its territory in British Columbia. In the Great Plains, an Undark Magazine article explores how Indigenous communities are working to restore Bison to their historic ranges. And in the northeast, the Native Lands Conservancy and the Northeast Wilderness Trust have announced a partnership to grant land rights to the Wampanoag Nation, and to explore commonality between wilderness conservation and Indigenous tradition and lifeways.
These efforts are healing historical wrongs, and healing landscapes: A Vox article highlights the critical role Indigenous memories can play in conserving species. And elsewhere in Vox, an article spotlights a new report by the ICCA Consortium that reveals the outsized role that Indigenous peoples and communities play in conservation, with intact ecological areas managed by Indigenous communities covering more than 21% of the earth’s land—far more than the 14% of all land currently protected by formal national parks or forests. As we collectively work towards ambitious goals around conserving and sustaining the lands and waters of our continent, the role of Indigenous leadership is only becoming clearer.
|
|
Featured News
Beyond the biological deserts fallacy: Cities and urban areas are increasingly recognized as playing a significant role in regional biodiversity
|
|
As landscape conservation practitioners, our challenge (and opportunity) is to adopt a “landscape mentality”—one that pushes us to see and think about landscapes as an integrated whole, and to avoid the tendency to see conserved or “intact” lands while ignoring unconserved or “degraded” lands. Indeed, a comprehensive approach to landscape conservation and stewardship must include urban spaces and communities, as much as it includes large wild places. Earlier this year in an article in BioScience, a team of researchers called attention to the “biological deserts fallacy”—the long-held notion that cities and urban areas are devoid of biodiversity—and identified five pathways by which cities can benefit regional ecosystems. A new Yale e360 piece picks up on this theme to explore the increasing attention being given to cities and urban areas for the role that they can play in contributing to and supporting regional biodiversity. Elsewhere, a new white paper from the Greenbelt Alliance highlights the critical ways that greenbelts—open space, parks, preserves, and agricultural lands which surround or are adjacent to a city or urbanized area—can contribute to wildfire resilience in communities and across landscapes. And finally, in celebration of the innovative and community-led work happening in cities and urban areas across the continent, in June the Salazar Center for North American Conservation announced its 15 finalists for its Thriving Cities Challenge.
|
|
Additional Landscape Conservation News |
|
Article from the Pew Charitable Trusts highlights new research that demonstrates how the National Estuarine Research Reserve System is not only a critical vehicle for building environmental resilience but is also building economic resilience in local communities across the country.
New York Times article highlights the effectiveness of wildlife crossings and the broad consensus that has emerged around their value from both conservation and transportation perspectives.
New white paper from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and the Heart of the Rockies Initiative explores case studies and highlights recommendations for organizations looking to integrate support for rural community development into conservation and outdoor recreation initiatives and priority setting.
New Yorker article highlights legislation that Governor Ron DeStanis signed into law in late June, calling for the establishment of the Florida Wildlife Corridor, a blueprint for the state to connect all of its large national and state parks with tracts of open land.
Post from Conservation Corridor offers state-by-state snapshot of wildlife connectivity policies.
The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies has released a new “Connectivity and Climate Change Toolkit” to provide fish and wildlife managers with information, tools, and resources to protect species movement and corridor habitat in the face of a changing climate.
Article from the Conservation Finance Network spotlights three case studies from the northeastern United States that explore how clean water partnerships materialize and evolve.
In celebration of Great Outdoors Month and National Oceans Month, Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory has penned a blog post highlighting a call to action to accelerate conserving and restoring the lands and waters upon which we all depend.
Article in VTDigger highlights the work of Cold Hollow to Canada initiative around avoiding forest fragmentation and building climate resilience in northern Vermont—including its efforts to create the country’s first aggregated carbon market.
The Wildlands Network releases map of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Arizona and New Mexico, identifying priority restoration areas.
Post from the Public Policy Institute of California explores insights around scaling up and sustaining collaborative approaches to headwater forest management.
A National Forest Foundation blog post highlights key lessons learned for facilitating collaborative work virtually.
New report from The Trust for Public Land shares case studies exploring the economic benefits of community forests across the country.
Article in Living Landscape Observer highlights three models for collaborative approaches to conservation that could help inform 30x30 efforts.
Blog post from the University of Utah’s Environmental Dispute Resolution program highlights insights into facilitating collaborative processes in virtual settings.
|
|
Upcoming Conferences & Events
* * *
Marseille, France
Hybrid: Virtual and In-person options
Denver, CO
Theme: challenges and opportunities related to the United States’ first ever national conservation goal, America the Beautiful.
Virtual conference
Virtual conference
Món Sant Benet, Spain
|
|
Landscape Conservation Job Board
* * *
Staying Connected Initiative Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy
Chief Operating Officer, Center for Large Landscape Conservation
Executive Director, Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed
Director of Conservation Partnerships, Mid-Atlantic Region, National Wildlife Federation
Director of Conservation Partnerships, Northeast Region, National Wildlife Federation
President and CEO, Maine Coast Heritage Trust
This 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.
|
|
Webinars & Additional Resources
* * *
A webinar in Future West's Managing Growth in the New West webinar series
August 4, 2021
A Western Landowners Alliance webinar
August 4, 2021
An NPS Connected Conservation webinar
August 4, 2021
An NLC Landscape Conservation in Action webinar
August 11, 2021
An NPS Connected Conservation webinar
August 25, 2021
Following cancellation of the 2020 Conservation Finance Boot Camp, the Conservation Finance Network compiled a 4-part video short course, which is available via the above link.
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.
|
|
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.
Contact Ernest Cook, Interim Network Director, for more information.
Contributions of news, upcoming events, resources, and job postings for future Bulletins are welcomed. We also welcome inquires for potential future "Perspectives: Landscapes Conservation in Action" stories; please be in touch if you are interested in sharing stories and insights from your work.
|
|
The Network for Landscape Conservation is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, P.O. Box 1587, Bozeman, MT 59771
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
