CONSERVATION CATALYSTS LEVITT The Academy as Nature’s Agent Edited by James N. Levitt Twenty-first-century conservationists face global challenges that call for our best talent, highly sophisticated technology, and advanced financial and organizational tools that can be used across jurisdictional boundaries and professional disciplines. Academic institutions—from colleges and universities to research institutes and field stations—are surprisingly powerful and effective catalysts for integrating all these elements into strategically significant and enduring large landscape conservation initiatives. From the University of Nairobi to Harvard, researchers are making enduring impacts on the ground. With measurable results, their efforts are protecting wildlife habitat, water quality, sustainable economies, and public amenities now and for centuries to come. CATALYSTS CONSERVATION “Jim Levitt and his colleagues show how universities and research stations are sparking critical innovations in the field of land conservation. These institutions are creating the tools to accelerate the pace of land protection across large and complex landscapes.” rand wentworth President, Land Trust Alliance “Land conservation requires continual infusions of new resources and young talent. Conservation Catalysts describes the exciting efforts to link research, teaching, convening, and the work of university students with on-the-ground conservation efforts. Such initiatives offer a promising path forward for enhancing society’s capacity to manage lands sustainably, at scale and across generations.” bradford gentry Professor in the Practice, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Co-Director, Yale Center for Business and the Environment “We can gain encouragement from the coalition of groups that have rallied together to promote conservation and embrace connectivity: universities, environmental groups, land trusts, churches, and private corporations are leading the way. To succeed in conserving our natural heritage for many generations to CONSERVATION come, we need them all. This book is about the need for new solutions and the groups that are making solutions happen. It is a message of hope.” stephen woodley Co-chair, International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s CATALYSTS WCPA-SSC Task Force on Biodiversity and Protected Areas ISBN 978-1-55844-301-3 Cover design by David Drummond The Academy as Nature’s Agent Edited by JAMES N. LEVITT levitt.indd 1 2014-10-01 11:33 AM Conservation Catalysts Conservation Catalysts The Academy as Nature’s Agent Edited by James N. Levitt With a foreword by Stephen Woodley © 2014 by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data Conservation catalysts : the academy as nature’s agent / edited by James N. Levitt. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 1- 55844- 301- 3 (alk. paper) 1. Nature conservation—Societies, etc. 2. Nature conservation—International cooperation. 3. Landscape protection—Societies, etc. 4. Landscape protection— International cooperation. I. Levitt, James N., editor of compilation. QH75.C6627 2014 333.72—dc23 2014022573 Designed by Dreamit, Inc. Composed in Janson by Westchester Publishing Ser vices in Danbury, Connecticut. Printed and bound by Puritan Press Inc., in Hollis, New Hampshire. The paper is Rolland Enviro 100, an acid-free, 100 percent PCW recycled sheet. MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Contents FOREWORD ix Stephen Woodley AC KNOW LEDG MENTS xiii INTRODUCTION xv James N. Levitt Part I: Regional Conservation Initiatives 1 1 The Wildlands and Woodlands Initiative of the Harvard Forest, Harvard University 3 David Foster, David Kittredge, Brian Donahue, Kathy Fallon Lambert, Clarisse Hart, and James N. Levitt 2 The University of Montana, Missoula: A Campus with an Ecosystem 31 Gary M. Tabor, Matthew McKinney, and Perry Brown 3 Research Networks and Large- Landscape Conservation and Restoration: The Case of the Colorado River Delta 47 Karl Flessa Part II: Biodiversity Conservation at the Landscape Scale 61 4 Saving the Florida Scrub Ecosystem: Translating Science into Conservation Action 63 Hilary M. Swain and Patricia A. Martin 5 Catalyzing Large Landscape Conservation in Canada’s Boreal Systems: The BEACONs Project Experience 97 Fiona K. A. Schmiegelow, Steven G. Cumming, Kimberly A. Lisgo, Shawn J. Leroux, and Meg A. Krawchuk 6 Working Landscapes and the Western Hemi sphere Jaguar Network 123 Joe J. Figel v vi • CONTENTS Part III: Sustainable Development and Land Conservation 137 7 The Kenyon College Land Conservation Initiative 141 Douglas L. Givens 8 The Quiet Corner Initiative at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies 151 Mary Tyrrell, Matthew Fried, Mark Ashton, and Richard Campbell 9 Alternative Futures Modeling in Maine’s Penobscot River Watershed: Forging a Regional Identity for River Restoration 171 Robert J. Lilieholm, Christopher S. Cronan, Michelle L. Johnson, Spencer R. Meyer, and Dave Owen 10 The Mara- Serengeti Ecosystem and Greater Maasailand: Building the Role of Local Leaders, Institutions, and Communities 205 Robin S. Reid, Dickson Kaelo, David K. Nkedianye, Patti Kristjanson, Mohammed Y. Said, Kathleen A. Galvin, and Isabella Gambill Part IV: Law, Policy, and Or ga ni za tion 229 11 Law as a Cornerstone of Conservation Policy: United States Law Schools as Conservation Catalysts 233 Federico Cheever and Nancy A. McLaughlin 12 A Walk on the Beach: Catalyzing the Conservation of Victoria’s Coast 255 Geoff Wescott 13 Karukinka: A New Model for Conservation 269 Guillermo Donoso 14 Conservation Easements as a Land Conservation Strategy in Trinidad & Tobago 293 Karena Mahung Part V: The Contribution of the Humanities 303 15 Colorado College’s Large Landscape Conservation Strategy to Save the Colorado River Basin 307 Alex Suber 16 Body of Bark 315 Caroline Harvey CONTENTS • vii 17 The Drowning Fish: Large Landscapes and the Burden of Signifi cance 319 Blair Braverman 18 A Letter from Alice Van Evera 325 ABOUT THE AUTHORS 327 INDEX 331 Foreword Stephen Woodley AMONG the pressing environmental issues of our age, two large prob- lems dominate: biodiversity loss and climate change, two interrelated challenges to planetary and human well- being. We are now losing species at a rate that is estimated at a hundred to a thousand times the “back- ground,” or average, extinction rate of the evolutionary timescale of planet Earth. While a busy urban society seems not to notice, we are losing insects, amphibians, birds, and even mammals. The fact that these species are the building blocks of the very eco- systems that keep us alive, however, goes relatively unacknowledged. Ecosystems function because of the intricate relationships of their parts, and these parts are species. It is now well established that losing species degrades fundamental ecological pro cesses like productivity and de- composition that very much keep us all alive. Also, species loss is not just a developing world problem. The richer, so-called “developed” coun- tries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia, have rates of species endangerment that equal or exceed the global average. Biodiversity loss is a problem that has been with us for a while now; its primary driver is habitat loss, from humans converting ecosystems to cities, roads, farms, and industrial uses. It is important to realize that biodiversity loss has been occurring from other causes, completely in de- pen dent of climate change. However, as climate change becomes globally signifi cant, it will greatly exacerbate the current species loss problem and create new losses as ecosystems collapse and reform. There is one common solution to these combined issues: to develop conservation landscapes and seascapes composed of both well- managed conservation lands and production areas that are ecologically connected at local, regional, and continental scales. Such a conservation landscape (or seascape), based on large core representative protected areas, would be the most resilient to changing climates and have the greatest chance of conserving large populations. These core large protected areas need ix x • FOREWORD to be complemented by a set of smaller conservation areas that are focused on conserving the rare, unique, and endangered. The fi nal piece of a conservation landscape is to plan for meaningful ecological connectivity between protected units so that individuals of species can move between populations and migrate in response to climate change. Planning for ecological connectivity will require new consider- ations of the way we plan and manage our production lands, including farms, forests, and towns. We will need to offer incentives to farmers to conserve riparian corridors and establish forestry practices that ensure connectivity. We will need to restore connectivity to many areas through active restoration, and plan our towns and cities to realize connectivity as a goal. It will be challenging, it will cost money, and it will require active participation from all elements of society. However, physical, on- the- ground conservation networks offer the only real solution to responding to the combined problems of species loss and climate change. We are left with little other choice. Over the last century, we have largely relied on governments to cre- ate and manage our parks and protected areas. While much progress has been made, it has been far too little to ward off a crisis in species loss. It is certainly far too