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The U.S. Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest region has placed increasing focus on the stewardship of natural resources in urban settings. Stewardship has been described and defined in diverse ways within a variety of contexts, including the philosophical literature of environmentalism, agency program descriptions, and outreach by sponsoring organizations. Constructing a framework to convey the layered meanings of stewardship will help to focus and guide future research.

A cognitive mapping technique was used to elicit responses to the question “What is environmental stewardship?” Semi structured interviews were conducted with representatives of nine Seattle environmental organizations, a group of practitioners who collectively represent over 100 years of experience in the field.

A group of conservationists, former bankers, and management consultants have imported ideas from Wall Street to create a new way to protect large ecosystems—an approach that may work for other large-scale social projects as well.

Secretary Nichols asked the Task Force to examine four of the most common barriers— the regulatory review process, public funding bottlenecks, personal liability issues, and endangered species/private property issues. The Task Force discussed these barriers from both the landowners’ and the regulators’ points of view, reviewed existing efforts to resolve them, and brainstormed other possible solutions to create incentives and motivate people to do this important conservation work, or perhaps more importantly, to remove the disincentives and barriers for those who already have the desire. The Task Force recommends ten different actions that could reduce these barriers and encourage restoration activities.

On August 30, we were joined by Moisés Moreno-Rivera, Assistant Secretary for Equity and Environmental Justice at California Natural Resources Agency. Over the course of an hour, Moisés and moderator José González talked about his vision for California and the experiences that shape his approach to the work.