Re: Climate (2021.10)
Like many sectors, the land trust community has come a long way in understanding the implications of climate change and rallying to prepare for and help mitigate associated threats.
So it’s no surprise that climate change was front and center this month during Rally 2021: The National Land Conservation Conference. Seeing many land trusts of all shapes and sizes sharing their knowledge, experiences and lessons learned from tackling this challenge left me proud and humbled as a member of this community.
One of my personal highlights was the keynote from Dr. Mark Anderson, director of the Center for Resilient Conservation Science at The Nature Conservancy. His ability to make complex ecological or climate science accessible, inspirational and hopeful amazed me.
Also, when it comes to communicating about climate change and discussing impacts such as increased water pollution or flooding, I recommend checking out a session entitled Storms and Floods: Talking to Conservatives about Water and Climate, which is event C02 on the Rally schedule.
If you want to know more about the dynamic world of carbon offset markets, there are multiple sessions to choose from that look at the different opportunities available to land trusts and private landowners. See events A02, D01 and E01. And you can learn how land trusts are reimagining the way that conservation projects are selected — and how land management is changing — as we learn more about how to consider climate change in our day-to-day activities. More on this at events A01, B02, C01, E02 and F01.
Of course, the ever-present question of how to pay for all this work remains. But don’t fear! A number of innovative ideas and strategies were shared as well during events B01, D02 and F02, which touched on Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars, Department of Defense funding and ballot measures, respectively.