F16: Is Your Land Trust Climate-Smart? Building Climate Resilience into Land Conservation through the Power of Partnership
Land trusts across the United States are experiencing and dealing with the effects of climate change to conserved lands, including catastrophic flooding, increased wildfire risk, sea level rise, extreme heat waves, and prolonged periods of drought. Land trusts are on the front lines of responding to climate impacts on their conserved lands and are well-positioned to increase their climate-smart conservation work. This session explores methods land trusts can utilize to identify, prioritize and incorporate tangible climate resilience benefits into our collective conservation efforts. As a case study, this session will highlight the challenges and opportunities with the Mountain Meadows Conservation Project in California: a two phase innovative climate-smart effort that is resulting in the permanent protection and restoration of a significant portion of the largest wet meadow in the northern Sierra Nevada at the headwaters of one of the most important rivers in California. Through a partnership of the Feather River Land Trust, the Trust for Public Land, Point Blue Conservation Science, Plumas Corporation and Sierra Pacific Industries, the innovative and collaborative efforts here will serve as a model and catalyst demonstrating how cattle ranching, habitat conservation and enhancement, water resource management and community engagement can align to create a more climate resilient landscape. You are encouraged to come to this session with your own experiences, challenges and ideas to share and collaborate on!
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
