Our Work

The national workshop was designed to focus on knowledge-building and knowledge-sharing of specific practices, tools, policies, and capacities that facilitate the start-up, management, and assessment of successful large landscape conservation efforts. Through a series of plenary sessions, smaller symposia and workshops, and carefully constructed and facilitated dialogues on key topics, participants were able to explore the full breadth of large landscape programs, science, governance structures, performance measures, education and outreach, and reflect on the challenges and opportunities ahead. The workshop format was designed to identify and develop content that will be directly applicable to landscape conservation partnerships and initiatives across the continent. The workshop also convened senior administrators and policy-makers to point the way for the future, addressing a number of critical questions facing the large landscape conservation community, including:

• How can mitigation at the landscape scale foster land conservation and economic development?
• How can we effectively invest for measurable results and environmental resiliency in the context of climate change?
• How can we, across the continuum from urban areas to wilderness areas, engage diverse communities in the green spaces outside their doors?
• How can we leverage advanced technologies and innovative financing tools to dramatically advance the practice of large landscape conservation?

Program at a Glance

Full Program

Welcome and Introduction to the National Workshop. Joel Dunn, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Conservancy; and James Levitt, Fellow, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Director, Program on Conservation Innovation, Harvard Forest, Harvard University.

Plenary Remarks – The Council on Environmental Quality and Large Landscape Conservation. Mike Boots, White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Plenary Remarks – Working Together. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsak and Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden.

Panel Discussion – From National Leadership to Regional Coordination and Local Implementation. Moderator: Jim Levitt. Elizabeth Rooks-Barber, Partnership Coordinator, Land Trust Alliance; James W Hourdequin, Managing Director, Lyme Timber Company; Lynetta Usher Griner, Usher Land & Timber Company; Greg Wathen, Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative.

Keynote Address – Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel, United States Department of the Interior.

Plenary Remarks – Large Landscape Conservation – Who Really Gets it? Jim Geringer, Director of Esri & former Wyoming Governor.

Day Two – Call to Order. Douglas Austen, Executive Director, American Fisheries Society.

Opening Comments, Day Two. Sid Jamieson, Iroquois Confederacy.

Plenary Remarks – The National Wildlife Federation and Large Landscape Conservation. Collin O’Mara, President & CEO, National Wildlife Federation.

Roundtable on Large Landscape Conservation in Metro Areas. Gerald Adelmann, President & CEO, Openlands; John Rogner, Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Landscape Conservation Cooperative Coordinator; Dr. Mamie A. Parker, President, MA Parker & Associates; Former Assistant Director, Fisheries and Habitat Conservation, USFWS; Arnold Randall, General Superintendent, Forest Preserve District of Cook County (Illinois); Chair, Chicago Wilderness; and Bruce Roll, Director of Watershed Management for Clean Water Services, Hillsboro, Oregon; Board of of Directors, The Intertwine Alliance of Watershed Management for Clean Water Services, Hillsboro, Oregon; Board of Directors, The Intertwine Alliance.

Plenary Remarks – John Conger, Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, U.S. Department of Defense.

Plenary Remarks – Conference Synthesis. Lynn Scarlet, Managing Director, Public Policy, The Nature Conservancy and former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior; and James Levitt, Fellow, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Director, Program on Conservation Innovation, Harvard Forest, Harvard University.