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,
“A bright spot in dark days." "The biggest conservation achievement in a century." "A critical investment in outdoor recreation for ALL.”
Congress’s recent passage of the Great American Outdoors Act has generated significant buzz. The President has signaled his intent to sign the landmark bill. If all goes well, we will see investment in our nation’s public lands unlike anything we’ve experienced since the era following World War II.
This news couldn’t come at a better time as Americans are struggling to combat the COVID crisis and corresponding economic downturn. This topic and other key issues will be discussed by an esteemed panel of speakers at our
Virtual Policy Forum
on July 31. We hope you can watch live or listen to the recorded event afterwards. Our Network is proud to offer you the latest perspectives from thought leaders in the conservation space.
Enjoy the Bulletin and stay well!
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Julie Regan
Network Co-Chair
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
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Great American Outdoors Act
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Perspectives: Landscape Conservation in Action
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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: Moraine Lake, Banff N
ational Park. Photo by Rich Martello on Unsplash.
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Featured News
Conservation as antidote: the role that landscape conservation can play as society strives to emerge more resilient from the global pandemic
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As the systemic implications of the global pandemic are becoming increasingly clear and revealing societal fault lines around inequality, thought-leaders across the world are considering strategies for emerging stronger and more resilient. Increasing attention is being given to the potential of conservation—and in particular, integrated and systematic conservation at a landscape scale—to be an integral component of efforts to scale the societal response to that of the challenges presented by the pandemic. For instance, the Center for American Progress recently put out a call to action for policy makers to launch a
“Race for Nature,”
a major ten-year initiative structured around two phases—Rescue and Recovery—to simultaneously increase the pace of private land conservation tenfold and to assist rural communities in navigating the current economic crisis brought on by the pandemic. Such approaches are buttressed by
a new report
considering the economic implications of protecting at least 30% of the world’s land and ocean that finds the benefits outweigh the costs by a ratio of at least 5-to-1. Finally, a
TNC article
focuses on the structural value of conservation as we consider how to make our communities more resilient, noting: “one relatively simple policy commitment, ecosystem protection, has the power to simultaneously reduce the risk from future pandemics, recover many economies from the pandemic’s financial crisis, arrest accelerating species loss, mitigate against climate change, secure water supplies, safeguard Indigenous communities, and sustain rural economies.” In the face of the societal upheaval that the pandemic has brought, the intersectional potential of landscape conservation is ever more relevant and needed.
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Featured News
Congress passes the Great American Outdoors Act
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The
Great American Outdoors Act
—poignantly sponsored by the late Representative John Lewis—has been sent to the President’s desk to be signed into law, having passed both houses of Congress. As
former Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar writes
the Act is a commitment to public lands, “the likes of which has never been made before in the US.” The bill, which the President has indicated he will sign, sets aside $9.5 billion to address maintenance backlogs at national parks while also permanently fully supports the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) at $900 million per year. The LWCF—by providing funding and matching grants to federal, state, and local governments for land and water acquisitions or easements—is a critical tool to conserve public lands, ensuring that natural treasures in landscapes across the country remain accessible to all.
Learn more about the bill here.
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Featured News
Network to host virtual policy forum: The Future of Landscape Conservation
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The Network for Landscape Conservation is hosting a
virtual policy forum on Friday, July 31, from 1pm to 2:30 pm ET.
The Forum will bring together leading policy experts to discuss the state of collaborative landscape conservation in the United States. Terry Tatsey, member of the Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet) Nation, will provide a welcome. Sacha Spector of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation will moderate an in-depth discussion with our panelists:
- Sally Jewell, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior
- Collin O’Mara, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation
- Mamie Parker, former Assistant Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and current Board chair of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
- Lynn Scarlett, Chief External Affairs Officer at The Nature Conservancy and former Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of the Interior
- Tony Wasley, Director of the Nevada Department of Wildlife and chair of the Executive Committee of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies.
We are fortunate to have this extraordinary group of leading thinkers in the field joining us to discuss strategies for advancing landscape conservation funding and policy at this critical time. We look forward to you joining us in discussion!
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Perspectives: Landscape Conservation in Action
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Beyond the Bank: Collaborative conservation in the Big Hole Valley of Montana
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In this month’s
Perspective
piece, staff from the Intermountain West Joint Venture share reflections on the centrality of building trust and relationships at the community scale to achieve conservation at the landscape scale. In the Big Hole Valley of Montana, conservation partners have prioritized working collaboratively with local landowners through vehicles such as the Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) program to provide landowners with the tools and support they need to make conservation-minded decisions on their own property. As the number of landowners making such decisions climbs into the hundreds—the CCAA program has nearly 500 projects on the ground in the Big Hole Valley—the impact scales to the landscape level as well: populations of Arctic grayling, a freshwater fish species that was under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act, have more than doubled in the last fifteen years. By striving to integrate landowner and community needs with conservation needs, partners in the Big Hole have successfully built a collaborative approach that benefits wildlife and sustains ranching. As one partner notes, “What it really boils down to is how we as conservation practitioners earn the trust of the community and the private landowners enough so we can build landscape-wide conservation momentum.”
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Additional Landscape Conservation News
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The National Wildlife Federation releases a new report, “The Protective Value of Nature,” summarizing the latest science on the effectiveness of natural infrastructure in lowering the risks to communities from weather- and climate-related hazards.
IUCN Guidelines for Conserving Connectivity through Ecological Networks and Corridors were released this month—the Guidelines introduce common definitions, highlight applications around the world with 25 case studies, and recommend designation of ecological corridors that knit together protected and conserved areas to form ecological networks.
Summary report from the Western Collaborative Conservation Network’s inaugural
Confluence
conference is now available.
A new report by Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions outlines a series of natural climate solution policy ideas aimed at investing in rural communities in a way that earns their political support.
Why every environmentalist should be Anti-Racist:
Vogue
article focuses attention on intersectional environmentalism and the protection of people and nature.
The Revelator
article highlights the importance of “climate refugia” for improving conservation and minimizing biodiversity loss in the face of climate change.
High Country News
article highlights the cross-cultural collaboration that is building to conserve cougar populations on the Olympic Peninsula.
Building Movement Project releases "Race to Lead Revisited: Obstacles and Opportunities in Addressing the Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap," which highlights findings from a 2019 survey of more than 5,000 paid nonprofit staff on their experiences of race and leadership in nonprofit settings.
Bipartisan legislation to protect wildlife corridors passes the U.S. House of Representatives
Article from the Pew Charitable Trusts highlights the importance of wildlife crossings for protecting migrating wildlife.
Roadkill in the Anthropause: article in
The Atlantic
explores how the pandemic-induced reduction in human travel is causing an unprecedented roadkill reprieve for wildlife.
Growing Climate Solutions Act, introduced into the Senate with bipartisan support, aims to break down barriers for farmers and foresters interested in participating in carbon markets.
Conservation Corridor
article spotlights research on the importance of connectivity across both space and time to facilitate range shifts
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Upcoming Conferences & Events
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Virtual Event
Virtual Event
Virtual Event
Virtual Conference Series
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Virtual Event
In-person meeting to be rescheduled for Spring 2021 in Seattle, WA
Virtual Event
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Landscape Conservation Job Board
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Vice President for Landscape Conservation, Defenders of Wildlife
Program Director, Sustainable Southeast Partnership
Vice President, Natural Climate Solutions and Working Lands; National Audubon Society
Vice President, Mississippi Flyway; National Audubon Society
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
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Webinars & Additional Resources
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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.
An Institute for Conservation Leadership webinar
July 30, 2020
A Network for Landscape Conservation virtual forum
July 31, 2020
An NPS Connected Conservation webinar
August 5, 2020
A California Landscape Stewardship Network webinar
August 10, 2020
An NPS Connected Conservation webinar
August 12, 2020
A Conservation Conversations webinar
August 13, 2020
A Staying Connected Initiative webinar
August 19, 2020
A Conservation Conversations webinar
August 25, 2020
An NPS Connected Conservation webinar
September 2, 2020
A Conservation Conversations webinar
September 9, 2020
An NPS Connected Conservation webinar
October 14, 2020
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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