The Landscape Conservation Bulletin
A bi-monthly service of the Network for 
Landscape Conservation
May 2020
Dear Network Friends and Partners,

I learned this week that zebras don’t get ulcers. As one of the COVID-19 resources below explains, “After a zebra survives a chase from a predator it finds a safe spot and starts shaking on the ground to release all the hormones and pressure that built up.” Humans are one of the few mammal species that lack a mechanism to digest stress, and that need to intentionally find ways to do so. I hope you are all finding time to take care of yourselves and your families—including getting outside on your landscape. Healthy nature and human health have never been more clearly connected. 

This week, we finished an interactive round of Peer Learning sessions with our first 14 Catalyst Fund grantees. Like you, they are facing substantial new hurdles, and yet each one is making significant progress and exploring innovative adaptation. Despite the challenges ahead, it gives me great hope for our future. 
All the very best,
Emily M. Bateson
Network Director
In This Issue
COVID-19 Resources
Great American Outdoors Act
Additional Landscape Conservation News
Upcoming Events
Landscape Conservation Job Board
Webinars & Additional Resources
Cover photo: Mobile Bay, Alabama.
Featured News
The collaborative process of landscape conservation in a post-COVID world: Resources and Links
The bread and butter of collaborative landscape conservation is personal connection: reaching out to all in the landscape to build trust and relationships and to forge and implement a shared conservation vision. In-person outings, meetings, and other events have been the building blocks and secret sauce of landscape conservation partnerships. How do we all sustain and advance these pivotal collaborative processes in the era of social distancing? Are there creative approaches and lessons learned that we can glean and share more broadly? Please reach out to us to share how you and your partners are adapting your collaborative processes in these unsettled times. 
In April, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation and the National Civic League co-hosted a webinar titled, “Social Distancing Meets Public Engagement.” Click above to view the recording.
And there is already much learning and sharing happening. The following list captures a handful of resources that have struck us as particularly helpful in navigating this new reality: 
  • Training Resources of the Environmental Community has compiled a set of resources to help organizations confront COVID-19 challenges. Explore the resources
  • The River Network has compiled a broad range of resources in many categories to help nonprofits navigate the new situations presented by the pandemic. Covid-19 has disproportionately affected Tribal, African American, and other under-represented communities. Note in particular the strong set of equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice resources. Explore the resources
  • The Institute for Conservation Leadership has offered an article of tips for effective remote collaboration, and has highlighted the importance of adaptive leadership in response to the COVID-19 crisis (ICL has compiled a set of additional resources on adaptive leadership as well).
  • Up With Community has released a new tool, “Strategic Thinking in a Long-term Crisis: One Approach.”
  • The US chapter of the International Association of Public Participation has compiled a set of resources around virtual work and remote meetings. Explore the resources
  • The Nonprofit Quarterly has captured tips for staying human during virtual work. Read the article
  • The Communications Network has compiled a COVID-19 Communications Triage Kit. View the kit and crowdsourced resources
  • Finally, Triangle Associates is hosting a webinar in June on how to facilitate successful and equitable virtual meetings. The webinar will be offered on three different days:
  • Monday, June 8 from 12-12:30 PM Pacific Time
  • Tuesday, June 9 from 12-12:30 Pacific Time
  • Tuesday, June 16 from 12-12:30 Pacific Time
Featured News
Great American Outdoors Act: Momentum builds for full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund as well as significant investments to address the National Park Service’s maintenance backlog.
At this moment in time we are reminded of how critically important open spaces and parks are to our mental and physical well-being: The Trust for Public Land’s special report, “Parks and the Pandemic,” captures both the critical importance of parks within communities and the extraordinary pressures being put on such parks by the global health crisis and the economic fallout. So it is especially timely that bi-partisan leadership has emerged around the Great American Outdoors Act . Full and permanent funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) would guarantee $900 million in funding available to support conservation and recreation acquisitions annually—at the federal, state, and local levels. From a landscape conservation perspective, having predictable and consistent federal funding of the LWCF would provide a dependable foundation for partners to accelerate and sustain conservation efforts in landscapes across the country. The bill would also make an additional $6.5 billion available over the next five years to enable the National Park Service to address maintenance backlogs at its units, ensuring the National Park System is capable of handling the recreation impact of visitation while continuing to appropriately steward natural resources. See the more than 850 organizations that have joined the LWCF Coalition in voicing support for the bill.
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Additional Landscape Conservation News
New report from the Environmental Policy Innovation Center looks at “The Conservation of Defense,” exploring the programs and initiatives used by the U.S. military to advance its mission and to benefit conservation—and looking forward to consider what the military and conservation partners could accomplish over the next 10-15 years. 

In February, a historic agreement was finalized between the West Moberly First Nations, Saulteau First Nations, the province of British Columbia and the Canadian federal government to protect mountain caribou.
Learn more here and here

One Tam partnership releases new Ecological Health Assessment Guide, a tool for practitioners interested in developing and monitoring regional ecological health indicators in their landscapes.

Large Landscape Peer Learning Initiative releases new report summarizing two years of peer learning exchange amongst a small cohort of landscape conservation leaders from across the globe.

Multi-media article in The Washington Post captures important work and successes on wildlife corridors in Wyoming.  

New report explores rural attitudes toward the environment and conservation in America.
Read a summary blog post , explore the full report , or access a 1-page infographic

Institute at the Golden Gate launches new “Parks for Health” curriculum, a series of free online courses designed to empower park leaders to use nature and parks as a viable health resource.

A decade after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council releases a commemoration report of 10 years of projects and progress, capturing stories about people who have been inspired to take action for a region they call home.  

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation releases a five-year report on the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Partnership.

Global Charter for Rewilding the Earth: Advancing nature-based solutions to the extinction and climate crises released by the 11th World Wilderness Congress, following the postponement of the actual convening last month.  

Historic agreement announced to conserve monarch butterflies and other pollinators through collaboration with transportation and energy sectors to create “right of way” habitat corridors at a landscape scale.
Learn more here and here and here

The Rural Voices for Conservation Collaborative releases a new series of recommendations on Partnering with Community-Based and Collaborative Groups in Forest Service Shared Stewardship Agreements. 
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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.


June 11-19, 2020 — IUCN World Conservation Congress  
Marseille, France
 Postponed until January 7-15, 2021

Minneapolis-St Paul, MN

September 14-16, 2020 Gulf Coast Land Conservation Conference
Gulfport, MS

Fort Collins, CO

Atlantic City, NJ
Postponed until a later date

Virtual Event

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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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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A Wildlands Network webinar recorded on April 28, 2020

An International Land Conservation Network webinar recorded on May 6, 2020
Read a companion report here

Connecting for Conservation: A Salazar Center webinar
June 3, 2020

A Connected Conservation Webinar
June 3, 2020

A Diversity and the Environment webinar
June 4, 2020

Connecting for Conservation: A Salazar Center webinar
June 11, 2020

Training on how to facilitate successful and equitable virtual meetings
A webinar from Triangle Associates, offered on three different days:

A Connected Conservation Webinar
June 17, 2020

A Connected Conservation Webinar
July 1, 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.

Recordings of past webinars of the Connected Conservation webinar series are available on the NLC website.

STAY CONNECTED
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  Emily Bateson , Network Director, for more information. 

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.

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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