Over the past 5 years, I've been involved with building and expanding the land conservation community in the Bay Area. During that time I've been a part of 5 Open Space Conferences (now working on my 6th) and I have curated 20 Gatherings. Each of these events bring together people from the 10 counties of the Bay Area on timely and relevant topics. In order to set the topic, identify the speakers, and market the event, we need to know what the hot topics are, what is going unsaid, and what people/groups aren't currently talking that should be talking. We need to have an ear to the ground and to read between the lines.
I joined a panel at the George Wright Society last week to talk about urban protected areas. And in so doing, I realized that I've learned a thing or two over the past 5 years. There is a story to tell about Bay Area land conservation. Here's what I told the crowd last week:
Land conservation of yesterday is gone. And the ways land conservation is practiced in other cities/regions/states is not the way it's done here. The Bay Area is unique in so many ways, and also so full of potential. If anyone is going to adapt to a changing climate, Bay Area land managers are. If anyone is going to band together to do more than we could individually, it's the Bay Area. If anyone is going to include and engage people of color and others who have not historically been included, Bay Area land conservation organizations are. There is so much potential.
That potential is incredibly exciting, almost as exciting as baseball's opening day.
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