Landscape Stewardship in Action Resources

The Yuba Forest Network aims to connect stewards of the Yuba watershed by uniting and building skills and efforts to create a resilient landscape. Modeled after Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative's Resilience Framework, the purpose of this document is to describe a shared vision of forest health and resilience and desired outcomes for the region across stakeholders of the Yuba Forest Network. 

This brief article links to two October 2022 reports CAP issued that assess the ways in which missed opportunities in implementing federal resilience programs exemplify the challenges facing rural communities.

Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition (RVCC) developed the following guidebook that charts the course of a Forest Service project, from planning through implementation. This document aims to help collaborative groups and other external partners better understand the full “lifecycle” of a Forest Service project and, in turn, develop a better sense for how and when to productively engage with various aspects of the agency’s work, including implementation.

On December 6, 2022, we were joined by Chanell Fletcher, Deputy Executive Officer for Environmental Justice at California Air Resources board. Over the course of an hour, Chanell and moderator Barb Kipreos talked expansively about working toward air quality standards and the need to orient toward justice.

California’s state park system encompasses 279 units of diverse resources from beaches to historic sites, to urban corridors, to vast wild areas. The system is the largest and most diverse state park system in the world, rivaling the entire national park system in many other nations. Because of this complexity, there will always be a need for the California Department of Parks and Recreation (State Parks) to embrace and maintain partnerships with many stakeholders. Propelled by State Parks’ vision and leadership, these partnerships can achieve stunning results and provide extraordinary experiences for Californians and the state’s visitors. 

The California State Parks Nonprofit Partnership Study seeks to build a broad understanding of the contributions of cooperating associations, nonprofit operators and co-managers, and other nonprofit donors and program partners supporting state parks across California. The study also highlights best practices in partnership that can help parks and their nonprofit partners reach their fullest potential—together. 

This report provides a roadmap with five strategic recommendations for federal agencies to unlock the potential of nature-based solutions and highlights bold Executive Office of the President actions designed to pave the way. Importantly, these recommendations position the United States to prioritize nature-based solutions as go-to options in fighting climate change, nature loss and inequities.

The recommendations in this report are some of the best opportunities we have to meet climate goals and grow climate-ready communities, economies, and sectors. All have a role to play in turning these recommendations into action. President Biden and his National Climate Task Force are in a position to act boldly and lead adoption of these recommendations, advancing naturebased solutions as powerful tools that the nation and the world need now.

This project defines and calculates eight metrics for tracking trends related to changes in the natural resources of the Texas Hill Country. Dozens of organizations — nonprofits, government agencies, academic institutions and aligned private businesses — endeavor to protect the land, water and sky of this unique region. The metrics defined here will support these entities as they work individually and collectively through the Texas Hill Country Conservation Network (the Network) to both tell the story of the need for conservation and preserve the natural resources and heritage of the Texas Hill Country.

Consistent with the priority goals outlined by the Network, these metrics focus on: Population growth in unincorporated areas • Amount of conserved lands • Amount of developed lands • Pristine streams • Per capita water consumption • Spring flow • Night sky visibility • Conservation investment

Protected areas (PAs) are essential tools for biodiversity conservation. Area-based conservation is recognized as a crucial component for achieving a nature positive future, for the resilience of the planet and biodiversity, as well as for humanity. Now, the process for developing the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is underway, with the framework set to be adopted at the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention, with a 2050 vision of “living in harmony with nature”.

In recent years the number of people experiencing homelessness has grown rapidly in many American cities, raising new questions about who public space is designed for. As more and more Bay Area residents find themselves without homes, many have defaulted to living in public spaces such as parks, plazas and squares. These spaces were not designed to be homes, however, and housed users voice concerns that the presence of unhoused residents degrades public spaces, rendering them unwelcoming or even unsafe.

At the same time, people who do not have access to stable housing are members of the community and should not be denied the use of public space simply because of their living situation. As long as our cities do not provide housing for all who need it, our neighborhoods will continue to face the challenge of how housed and unhoused users can coexist in public space.

This report introduces the toolkit, which can be downloaded at spur.org/coexistence, and offers considerations for community discussion.

The Udall Foundation's Center for Environmental Conflict Resolution reviewed three key collaborative partnership models (the North American Wetlands Management Plan and associated Joint Ventures, the Northwest Boreal Partnership, and the Chesapeake Bay Program) and four secondary models (Blackfoot Challenge, Crown of the Continent, the National Invasive Species Council, and the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy) to identify lessons learned and best practices that could be applied to the development of a collaborative partnership in the sagebrush biome.