The Future of Landscape Conservation: Cultivating Landowner Engagement

Dec 17, 2020 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (Add to calendar)
Online

The Network for Landscape Conservation is hosting a 90-minute virtual policy forum on private landowner perspectives and innovations for landscape conservation.

A keynote address from Lesli Allison, Executive Director of the Western Landowners Alliance will be followed by a moderated panel discussion featuring:
Sara Parker Pauley - Director of the Missouri Department of Conservation, and President of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies;
Jimmy Bullock – Senior Vice President of Forest Sustainability, Resource Management Service LLC
Adam Kiel – Iowa Soybean Association and Senior Vice President, AgOutcomes, Inc.
Jim Lyons – Vice President of Landscape Conservation for Defenders of Wildlife, past Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment

The panel will be moderated by Lynn Scarlett, the Chief External Affairs Officer at The Nature Conservancy.

Context: Successful landscape conservation depends upon the ability to work across multiple organizations and land ownerships to manage for shared conservation values. Private landowners are a key class of ownerships. Working farms, ranches, and forests are often the last best places for intact, fertile, habitable open land. They can provide interconnected permeable landscapes where nature and local communities thrive. They are the cornerstones of both human communities and the ecosystems we all depend on – and in some regions, they are disappearing. Too often, landowner contributions to conservation at landscape scales are overlooked, while some collaborative's struggle with how to better engage private landowners. Lastly, with the ever-changing economic, sociopolitical, and environmental pressures, innovations in public policy are needed to bridge gaps and embrace private landowner participation.

Questions regarding the forum can be directed to John Mankowski at john@mankowskienvironmental.com.