As conservation partners in the West, we have much to celebrate in iconic lands and landscapes, diverse
fish and wildlife and a wealth of resources. [insert language here about how we are “standing on the
shoulders” of past conservation investments and successes – Michael Whitfield’s point] Despite local
conservation successes, the challenge is daunting as we face a changing landscape that is outpacing our
efforts. We are called to understand and manage for this change. How do we adjust institutionally and
operationally; how do we develop and use our science and capacity to act?
First, we suffer from an antiquated ‘business model’ with fragmented jurisdictions, poorly aligned
investments, and a culture of conflict and litigation…all of which distracts and depletes us from
accomplishing the effective conservation outcomes most of us share.
Second, the key stressors we recognize today—land use change, increasing threat from invasive species,
and a shifting climate – act at regional and global scales and are larger than any one of us can handle on
our own. To maintain our legacy of rich lands, diverse resources and traditional communities, we must
shift our operational and conceptual paradigm of how we work together and what that looks like in
terms of outcomes on the landscape.
The Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative is a collaboration of partners who share a
vision for the landscape and want to pursue collaborative solutions to our common management
challenges. Partners to GNLCC share a goal of landscape integrity defined as large blocks of intact lands,
connectivity among them, aquatic system integrity and resilience of ecological processes like migration in
the face of broad scale change.
We work towards these goals through the collective impact of our actions on the conservation targets
we have in common; species such as grizzly bear, wolverine, cutthroat trout, and mule deer; ecosystems
such as riparian systems and wetlands, dryland forests, sagebrush and grasslands; and processes like
fire, drought and forest health.
We measure our progress through the land’s potential for conservation as it relates to the human
footprint - of roads and development and anthropogenic disturbance - like agricultural conversion, and
energy development - that spans eco-geographies and crosses jurisdictions and boundaries from the
Columbia Basin, across mountain ecosystems to the sage-steppe and grasslands from Wyoming to
British Columbia, from Alberta to Oregon and from Montana to Washington. But we also recognize that
we are striving for conservation outcomes on landscapes where people live, work and play and so we
also seek strong community support and viable, sustainable economies.
Together, we can:
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achieve what we can’t achieve individually – a high quality, resilient natural environment on a
vast, interdependent western landscape that is connected across all our human-made
boundaries;
minimize conflicts over natural resources, endangered species and development in the West;
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pro-actively plan, design and implement our conservation action so that it results in meaningful
landscape outcomes that meet our needs like secure water delivery, plentiful and diverse
wildlife, traditional land-uses, and cultural heritage;
integrate the needs of multiple stakeholders and give communities and our constituency the
information and resources they need to sustain their way of life into the future while sustaining
the natural environment we value.
What does this require from you?
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A commitment of time and staff to the conversation, to problem solving, and to collaborative
planning.
Contributing ideas on ways we can leverage our collective resources and coordinate
conservation activities and outcomes at a landscape scale.
Working together to find solutions to sharing data, science and capacity.
Ultimately GNLCC partners seek to collaborate on science and capacity, to integrate our management
efforts and to empower community collaborations towards strategic and coordinated conservation
delivery that achieves the GNLCC Collective Vision: a landscape that sustains its diverse natural systems
to support healthy and connected populations of fish, wildlife, and plants; sustains traditional land uses
and cultural history; and supports robust communities.
Collaborative conservation is not a new idea, but what is new is the scale and extent to which GNLCC
(and the LCC network) is providing a context and forum for landscape vision, collaborative conservation
and resource alignment across scales, linking on-the-ground action led by local communities to regional
and continental design and resources supported through multi-organizational coordination. We are
asking you to be part of the change.