As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Network for Landscape Conservation this year, I cannot imagine a more exciting time to step into the role of co-chair, alongside Shawn Johnson at the University of Montana. There are many ways that my participation in this vibrant Network enhances my own work in the northern Appalachian region of the US and Canada and beyond - across the entire Appalachian landscape. 

Reflecting on the Network’s achievements since I joined its Coordinating Committee in 2017, I am especially inspired by the top-notch peer learning program our Network staff and volunteer Coordinating Committee members have built from the ground up over the past two years. The peer learning program is a key component of the Landscape Conservation Catalyst Fund. In this pivotal moment for landscape conservation, the Network is helping to equip the leaders of landscape conservation partnerships with the skills, knowledge, and expertise to accelerate their work, along with valuable connections to their peers in other geographies. These strong, supported, and connected landscape conservation partnerships will be critical to achieve the ambitious conservation goals our leaders have set across North America. And we are excited to share the news (see below) of continued investment in the Catalyst Fund by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

We are thrilled to announce that the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has renewed its support of the Landscape Conservation Catalyst Fund. DDCF will join the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in supporting the program into its fourth year—we encourage you to keep an eye out for the next Request for Proposals in early 2022. We have been deeply inspired by the incredibly work that we've witnessed through the first three years of the Catalyst Fund, and are so excited to continue to explore with you all our collective work to sustain the ecological integrity of our landscapes and foster a more just and equitable future for our communities. 

“We see strong, collaborative, locally-led conservation efforts as the key to achieving the national conservation goals outlined in the Administration’s America the Beautiful report. The Catalyst Fund represents a proven mechanism to get resources to the ground in ways that build the capacity of landscape-scale partnerships to achieve strategic and enduring conservation success.” Sacha Spector, Program Director, Environment, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation 

The latest issue of the Parks Stewardship Forum, the interdisciplinary journal of place-based conservation, brings forward two critical themes for moving forward to achieve ambitious conservation goals at a landscape scale. First, the issue pulls together a set of thematic articles exploring how connectivity conservation’s moment has arrived, and highlighting some of the most important recent advances in connectivity conservation theory and practice. Explore the articles in the series:

Critically, the issue also brings forward a conversation at the intersection of socioenvironmental justice and place-based conservation. In an editorial column, Nina Roberts examines the relationships between systemic racism/power inequities and access to parks and other public lands and open space. Elsewhere, the issue gathers a set of articles that emerged from the 2021 George Wright Society Student Summit that explored the how human and environmental communities interlock within our landscapes. In one article, authors explore how the Landback movement is supporting restorative and transformative justice and cultivating sovereignty in parks and protected areas. In a second article, authors examine ways to integrate socioenvironmental justice goals within protected areas management in the United States, with an emphasis on access and co-management. 

In many ways water is the most tangible and visible of the many threads that stitch landscapes together. Water makes evident layers of interconnectedness. This interconnectedness is ecological: the “upstream” ripples “downstream,” what happens in one place impacts the whole landscape. And this interconnectedness is more than ecological: water can acutely reveal the extent to which our communities are interwoven into (and dependent upon) the biophysical landscape, and the extent to which our communities are connected to one another. Perhaps in some small way the rural/urban divide isn't just a divergence but also a convergence, a nexus, a coming together, a sharing—the “divide” at times perhaps more a barrier in the sense of Robert Frost’s fence. 

As we come through another summer that saw wildfires burning out of control across the United States and globally (an absence of water), its clear that climate change is pushing us to increasingly reflect on the way we manage water within landscapes. In August, the U.S. federal government declared the first ever water shortage for the Colorado River. An Inside Climate News article highlights the challenge of river management for the Colorado in an era of intensifying climate change—and underscores the shifting awareness around the need to include Indigenous communities in the decision-making. Just this week, a brief on BBC Newshour (the reporting starts at the 14-minute mark) shared the powerful story of what this summer’s release of water from the US into Mexico meant for the Cucapá peoples of the Colorado River delta in northern Mexico (see this Audubon article for more on this historic release of water). Elsewhere, this month the Christian Science Monitor published a series of articles exploring deep inequalities in North America’s water resources in an era of climate change—but also the growing citizen engagement and pathways for progress. One article highlights Canada’s efforts to modernize its water policy in the face of climate change, and again underscores the opportunity to bring Indigenous communities into the conversation. A second article spotlights the acequias of rural New Mexico—and the culture of collaboration that they represent—as an effective way to build connection and resilience within communities and landscapes. Finally, an Orion Magazine article returns to the site of the Lower Elwha Dam ten years after its removal to track the rewilding and recovery of the watershed. The decade of recovery brings forward hope, healing, and (re)connection—of the river and its watershed, but also of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe that continues to play a leading role in the restoration efforts.

Article in USA Today explores the legal and cultural barriers that keep Indigenous people from protecting sacred spaces off Tribal land.

Read a news report or read an announcement from the Indigenous Leadership Network

 

Article in The Conversation reflects on the historical origins of the Appalachian Trail as an early attempt at comprehensive, continent-spanning approaches to conservation—and explores how efforts today are framing the A.T. as a platform for conservation at a regional scale. 

New journal article in FACETS draws upon Indigenous knowledge and values to call for a more inclusive, holistic North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

Read a news article or read the journal article

Viewpoint piece in Undark Magazine explores the systemic diversity gap that exists in nature-based outdoor recreational activities. 

Read a news article or read the agenda document

This month the Center for Collaborative Conservation at Colorado State University highlights the Texas Hill Country Conservation Network in its profile series, Collaboratives Behind-the-Scenes.

The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals’ new report, The Status of Tribes and Climate Change, incorporates direct narratives to explore the serious challenges that Tribes and Indigenous people face, their search for solutions, and how they are using both Traditional Knowledges and Western science in addressing climate change.  

Learn more here and here and here

Article in Anthropocene Magazine highlights how research that bridges western science and Indigenous values is helping to inform salmon management in British Columbia.

Read the motion or read a summary post

Read a news article or read the executive order

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October 4-7, 2021 — 38th Annual Native American Fish and Wildlife Society Conference

October 5-6, 2021 — Private Lands Partner Day 2021

October 5-7, 2021 — Restoring and Protecting our native languages and landscapes

October 5-7, 2021 — Land Trust Alliance Rally 2021

November 18, 2021 — 2021 RCP Network Gathering

December 8-10, 2021 — 2021 Global Congress of the International Land Conservation Network and the European Land Conservation Network

March 17-18, 2022 — 27th Annual Wallace Stegner Center Symposium. The Colorado River Compact: Navigating the Future

March 29-31, 2022 — SECASC Regional Science Symposium

March 29-31, 2022 — The Nature of Cities 2022 Festival

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Vice President of Conservation Programs, National Parks Conservation Association

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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FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: The Wild East Action Fund supports land protection and organizational capacity building projects that accelerate the pace and scale of conservation within the Appalachian Trail landscape. Applications are currently being accepted, with a deadline to apply of October 29th. Learn more

Recordings of past webinars of the Connected Conservation webinar series are available on the National Park Service Connected Conservation website.

Recordings of past NLC Landscape Conservation in Action webinars are available on the Network's Landscape Conservation in Action Webinar Series page.

I’ll admit an abiding interest in international affairs. It stems from both a curiosity about others and from the satisfaction I derive from better understanding myself and my country by seeing it in contrast with others’ lives, experiences, and cultures. Recently, I’ve been serving as the North American representative for the International Land Conservation Network (ILCN) and have been immersed in opportunities to listen, observe, learn, and grow both personally and as a landscape conservation practitioner.

If you’re interested in connecting with the international conservation community through the International Land Conservation Network, there are two immediate opportunities to engage and learn more:

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 21^st 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.