We live in an era of unprecedented change – in the composition of the American population, in Americans’ relationship to the landscape, in the complexities of the environmental challenges we face. For those reasons, the Conserving the Future conference comes at a critical time. When I was growing up on the prairie in Moorhead, MN, [...]

I am not sure whether I was more thrilled when I heard Doug Brinkley say that if he weren’t a professor, he would want to be one of us because the Fish and Wildlife Service has so much integrity, or whether I was most awed by the map that Jim Stone of the Blackfoot Challenge [...]

Nearly 240 bold ideas were put forth on this website. Over the 60-day comment period on the Conserving the Future draft vision , more than 10,000 comments were posted online or sent by e-mail. Little wonder, then, that the vision document has changed dramatically. The vision document you will see at the conference in Madison, WI, and [...]

Earth Day, April 22, is just a week away.  While you may have volunteered to work at a local wildlife refuge to show your support for conservation, you have one thing to do that is even more important:  Tell us what you think about the draft vision for the National Wildlife Refuge System before the comment period [...]

Each year, as we celebrate the Refuge System’s anniversary on March 14, we have a chance to think once more about the twin driving forces behind wildlife refuges: a responsibility to save for future generations the wild treasures bequeathed to us; and the extraordinary people who work day-in and day-out to deliver our conservation mission. [...]

February 24 is a milestone for the Refuge System. Today is the day when the single, cohesive Conserving the Future draft vision is available on this website for everyone – Refuge Friends, partners, employees and the general public – to tell us what you think. The draft is the culmination of the work and ideas of more than [...]

Among the Refuge System’s Guiding Principles – the core values that are ever relevant – is a key concept: “We are land stewards, guided by the teachings of Aldo Leopold that land is a community of life and that love of land is an extension of ethics. We seek to instill the land ethic in our [...]

How does the guy do it?  First, it was the Apple and the Mac.  Brought a major corporation back from the brink of bankruptcy.  Then, there’s the iPod, considered essential by its 280 million devotees, and iTunes, which together many believe saved the recording industry.  Seventy-five million iPhones have been purchased since its January 2007 [...]

I love reading the comments posted in the forums on this Website. Many of them are very eloquent. They’re all insightful. You can’t help but notice that some issues – like how to develop future leaders – generate a lot of comments. The debate is healthy. While we won’t all agree in this forum – [...]

I don’t think I have ever seen a forum within government — whether local, state or federal — that is as unfettered as this Conserving the Future web site.  So use this forum – well before a comprehensive vision document is assembled in mid- to late January – to put forward your bold ideas.  We’re [...]