Future Directions for Landscape Scale Conservation
Our lead article in this month’s Living Landscape Observer, The Opportunity of a Lifetime for Landscape Scale Conservation,outlines the currently exceptional intersection of funding and policy in the United States. It is a moment in time that can shape the future direction of conservation for generations.The article identifies the challenges, however, in implementing on-the-ground efforts to meet conservation goals. Can existing networks prove their effectiveness in delivering landscape scale results?
Even more important, will this work further environmental justice, as is emphasized in the recent Biden Administration’s "Executive Order on the Climate Crisis." To set out on the path to equity and inclusion in landscape conservation requires an understanding of our past. What caused traditional owners to lose their lands? Why were certain groups excluded from other lands? And why were undesirable land uses concentrated in certain communities?
As we seek ways to protect and interpret large landscapes in the 21st century, one theme worth highlighting is labor history. The type of work people did - and continue to do - is often intimately tied to the world around them. Understanding how people shaped a place through their labor and how that place, in turn, shaped culture and community, is key to telling the story of a landscape over time. Explore connections between labor and landscape in this article.
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.
With the increasing adoption of a large landscape approach for natural resource conservation, there have been efforts to identify the critical components for the success of such a strategy. Storytelling has emerged as a significant factor. The National Academy of Science’s report, “An Evaluation of the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives”, concluded that a landscape approach is needed to meet the nation’s conservation challenges. It went on to identify ‘a unifying theme or story’ as a key element. The report noted this can provide stability in an inherently fragile system. Read our past article on this topic.
The Opportunity of a Lifetime for Landscape Scale Conservation
This is an exceptional moment. Ambitions for landscape scale conservation are now aligned with increased federal funding opportunities and supportive national policy. However, it is not time to take a victory lap. Instead, the challenge now is securing funds, projects, and partners to take advantage of the available opportunities. The chance has come to put into action - at scale - the strategies developed by the collaborative conservation approach. Fortunately, this work can build on the experience of existing projects across the United States and Canada.
The road map is there to tackle landscape-scale conservation. But one piece still needs to be better defined - how to measure success?
Organized by the Climate Heritage Network, this event highlighted how culture - from arts to heritage - can play a roll in addressing the climate crisis. Featured speakers, from around the world, shared case studies of resilience rooted in place, history, and community.
Lone worker in a field. Jon Lewis Photographs of the United Farm Workers Movement. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Telling the Story of Landscapes Through Labor History
History and heritage are central to the work of large landscape conservation. Yet, a large part of this "work" often goes unexplored - the story of work itself. Understanding how people shaped a place through their labor and how that place, in turn, shaped culture and community, is key to telling the story of a landscape over time.
In late November, the Senate confirmed Charles 'Chuck' Sams, III, to be the Director of the National Park Service. Sams is an enrolled member, Cayuse and Walla Walla, of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and will be the first Indigenous person to lead the NPS. He is also the first confirmed head of the bureau since January 2017.
President Biden has called for the World Heritage listedChaco Culture National Historical Parkin New Mexico to be protected from new oil and gas exploration through the withdrawal of that activity from federal lands within a 10-mile radius of the park.
Upcoming Events
Monumental Labor: Landscapes of Work and Struggle, is a virtual event series that explores the memory of work and working peoples in National Parks and affiliated sites through their representation in monuments and memorials. Register now for the December 9, 2021 webinar.
