Akshadha Gunasekar

Meet our new staff member: Akshadha Gunasekar

March 20, 2025

I am Akshadha Gunasekar, and I joined the Salazar Center in January. Currently, I am pursuing my Master of Business Administration with an Impact Specialization (Impact MBA) at the College of Business, Colorado State University. My journey has been anything but linear.

I was raised in Muscat, Oman, to Indian parents who brought with them a rich cultural value system from Tamil Nadu. Growing up in a traditional Tamil household while being immersed in Omani culture shaped my identity deeply. I was fortunate to represent Oman as part of the National Women’s Cricket team for several years, an experience that taught me discipline, teamwork, leadership and resilience.

Seeking to connect more with my roots, I moved to Chennai, India, for my undergraduate studies. I earned a Bachelor of Commerce with a specialization in Marketing Management from the University of Madras. My first full-time role was in marketing at a real estate company in Chennai, which provided valuable exposure but also made me realize that I would achieve satisfaction and fulfillment at work by doing something meaningful that had an impact on the world. My desire to pivot towards sustainability started to grow.

Upon returning to Muscat due to family needs, I worked with a local partner of Dell Technologies. My role focused on product management, logistics, and vendor relations. While I appreciated the diverse professional and cultural learning experiences there, my passion for sustainability grew stronger, particularly towards social impact. This passion led me to pursue the Impact MBA at Colorado State University, which entails courses like Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, Sustainability Reporting and Accounting, and Corporate Social and Sustainable Responsibility and more. This program has been fruitful and feels like the best decision I’ve taken to pivot into sustainability because it aligns closely with my values and career aspirations.

I was looking for sustainability focused organizations to gain hands-on work experience before graduating. That’s when I was fortunate to have learned about this position that was open at the Salazar center. In my role as the Operations Assistant, I support the operational needs of the Salazar Center’s programs, including the Symposium and the Peregrine Accelerator. I will leverage my accounting and finance knowledge to support budgeting, finance, and logistical planning. I am excited to bring my business perspective to a team rich in conservation expertise. This role not only allows me to contribute meaningfully but also offers invaluable learning opportunities in the conservation and non-profit sector. Right now, I am looking forward to our upcoming Symposium in Vancouver this May.

Outside of work and studies, I have a deep love for cricket and have cherished my years playing at a national level. I also enjoy exploring cultural traditions, traveling, and engaging in conversations about sustainability and social equity. My favorite music would definitely be Indian Ghazal & Classical (carnatic) music, and indie music across languages. If I am in the mood, I wouldn’t stop myself from getting on the floor to dance.

My personal mantra is “Mindset is Everything” and “Thoughts become things” – beliefs that have guided my journey so far and brought me to the Salazar Center. Joining the Salazar Center has been an incredible opportunity to bring my business acumen to a mission-driven conservation organization. I’m excited to learn from this talented and amazing team, contribute to meaningful projects, and deepen my understanding of conservation and sustainability.

Emily Barbo

Celebrating National Public Lands Day: Together for Tomorrow

September 27, 2024

Public lands hold a unique place in the North American experience, offering spaces for recreation, conservation, and community. On National Public Lands Day, we reflect on the theme “Together for Tomorrow,” exploring the profound relationship between people and these shared landscapes. In the following reflections, our friends and partners discuss the power of public lands to inspire hope, foster unity, and strengthen communities. From the aspirational legacy of national parks to the inclusive potential of local green spaces, these perspectives highlight how public lands connect us to one another and our environment—reminding us that their future is our shared responsibility.

Catie Boehmer

Common ground: A Hunter’s Reflection on Public Lands and Shared Stewardship

September 26, 2024

As part of the Salazar Center’s celebration of National Public Lands Day, we asked a few of our friends and partners to reflect on the power of public lands to inspire hope, foster unity, and strengthen communities. This reflection is part of that series.

In my role at the Salazar Center, public lands come up in conversations around things like conservation targets (like America the Beautiful), landscape connectivity, and Indigenous co-management, and I would eagerly engage on any of these topics on National Public Lands Day, especially given this year’s theme of “Together for Tomorrow.” But there’s another angle from which I can consider this theme, and a much more personal one.

Catie and her husband Marty on a pheasant hunting trip, Red Lion State Wildlife Area, Colorado.

Outside of work, I’m a hunter, and I’ve also volunteered in a variety of roles for my state’s parks and wildlife agency. Participating in these activities means I spend a good bit of time on public lands, often in ways that 90+ percent of the public isn’t experiencing. It’s sitting in the dark at 4:oo am on an October morning, cold and silent, hiding behind a shrub or a rise on the landscape. It’s bushwacking through (and as a short person, getting very tangled in) tall grass and tumbleweeds on the plains. It’s wandering off-trail, meandering slowly and head down, marking on a mapping app where I see droppings or wallows or signs of grazing. It’s harvesting my food from the land, with deep respect and reverence and usually a few tears of gratitude. Rather than seeking out mountain-top vistas or pristine alpine lakes or even just trying to log a few miles in the name of exercise—all of which I also do regularly—these experiences on public lands are about reading and understanding the terrain, the habitat, the animals and the signs they leave behind.

I have only been hunting for a few years (“adult-onset,” some folks like to call it)—less time than I’ve been recreating in other ways, and less time than I’ve spent in my career in conservation. I took up hunting because it was introduced to me in grad school as “one tool in the conservation toolbox,” because I wanted to feel closer to my food, and because for the first time in my life, I was living in a place where vast public lands were minutes from my home, rather than hours. Hunting also felt like a real opportunity to financially support public lands, by buying annual licenses and paying excise taxes on firearms and ammunition—money that goes back into public land coffers regardless of whether my hunt is successful.

Reflecting today on public lands, I feel immensely privileged to be able to consider their importance from so many perspectives. Public lands safeguard ecosystems and habitats and provide clean air and water. They provide access to nature and opportunities to run, climb, ride, paddle, and escape in wild and beautiful places. They provide food. Everyone who enjoys these things has a connection to nature and an interest in protecting public lands, even if not everyone shares an interest in how they enjoy public lands. In this way, and as many have opined before me, public lands and conservation can be a great unifier across political identities and cultures. With so many threats facing our public lands, the best way to ensure they are thriving and accessible now and for future generations is to continue to find ways to come together, not reasons to divide ourselves.

Catie Boehmer is the Assistant Director of Engagement and Operations for the Salazar Center for North American Conservation.

Leisl Carr Childers and Michael W. Childers

The Geography of Hope and America’s Best Idea and Why These Ideas Still Matter

September 26, 2024

In our work, every day is Public Lands Day, but recently, we have had the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of public lands, particularly national parks, through the mid-twentieth-century writings of Western historian and conservationist Wallace Stegner. We decided to reexamine two famous phrases Stegner offered American readers: the “geography of hope” as the concluding phrase of the Wilderness Letter, which advocated for the establishment of the wilderness preservation system and America’s “best idea” as a reflection of the nation’s democratic process and its best self.

Stegner contended with the phrase he penned in 1961 throughout his entire career. To him, the geography of hope represented the wilderness idea, the region we call the American West, and public lands in all their forms across the country. Rather than merely pinning the meaning of the phrase to a single geography, he infused the idea of these lands, largely contained within the American West and embodied by wilderness, with a hope for a future in which Americans created a society to match our scenery. Adam M. Sowards has highlighted the aspirational quality of these landscapes, in how they draw us forward into them and into the future. He also has emphasized how this hope is inherently relational. These lands are the metaphorical table around which all Americans gather. The geography of hope is a social ethos even more than it is a landscape.

Stegner returned to his theme of hope in penning his now-famous essay “The Best Idea We Ever Had: An Overview.” In it, he argued that our national parks were America’s best idea, reflecting us at our best rather than our worst. But at the moment he penned the article extolling the virtues of our national parks, they were under siege. The attack did not come from the much-decried former Secretary of the Interior James Watt, as many environmentalists of the time believed, but from visitors and from a Congress that refused to fund them appropriately. National Park visitation has only ever increased since the mid-twentieth century and the budgets that maintain them have only decreased. Titling national parks our “best idea” was more than a celebration of these landscapes, it was a call to arms to protect and manage them for future generations. Our public lands are our legacy, our source of hope for our future, our best idea.

The lessons of the past in these powerful phrases written by Stegner still hold true for us now. Public lands are not a policy priority for politicians. But they should be a priority for each of us. They are the landscapes that give us hope for the future, they bring us together and give us joy, and we must intentionally invest in them for that future. We are the ones who must help land managers do the work. The next time you visit a national park or any public land, try to remember to see not just the landscape itself, but also the people with whom you share the view.

Leisl Carr Childers is Associate Professor at Colorado State University

Michael W. Childers is Associate Professor at Colorado State University and a National Humanities Center Fellow for 2024-2025

Their essays, alongside that of other contributors, are published in the anthology Wallace Stegner’s Unsettled Country: Ruin, Realism, and Possibility in the American West (University of Nebraska Press, 2024).

Luis Benitez

The Power of Parks: Strengthening Communities and Healing Divides

September 26, 2024

As summer turns to fall, Americans naturally turn from beaches and lakeshores to parks and woods. There, they may trace a familiar footpath to take in the foliage or join a pickup game of soccer. But parks offer something more profound than a sensory escape or venue for physical activity, as important as those things are. They are an opportunity to deepen friendships and make new ones, to strengthen community, and even, perhaps, to heal our democracy.

As Americans’ sense of community is being tested by political polarization, racial and economic division, and loneliness, parks and green spaces are neutral gathering places. On National Public Lands Day, we at Trust for Public Land (TPL) know how effective parks are in bringing people together and bridging divides. In fact, building community is a key pillar of our work, from brainstorming with residents at the start of a park project to ensuring they have the power to shape programs and form partnerships to realize a park’s potential.

A recent survey by TPL found that great parks yield strong communities. Each year, our ParkScore® index ranks the park systems of the 100 most populous cities in the United States, based on metrics like investment, equity, amenities, access, and acreage. This year, we also surveyed those cities about their efforts to bolster community through parks.

In a special TPL report, “The Power of Parks to Strengthen Community,” we revealed that residents of cities with the highest park rankings were more socially connected and engaged with their neighbors than residents of cities with lower-ranked park systems. In the top 25 cities, there were, on average, 26 percent more social connections between low- and high-income individuals than in lower-ranked cities. People were also 60 percent more likely to volunteer than those living in lower-ranked cities. (These patterns held after controlling for race/ethnicity, education, poverty, urbanicity, family structure, and transiency.)

Students at The Pacific School in Brooklyn, New York, explore the new plants in the renovated Community Schoolyard® garden during the ribbon-cutting ceremony in June 2023. The schoolyards are open to the public after school hours and on weekends to ensure that neighbors have close-to-home access to high-quality park space.
Photo: Alexa Hoyer

Social connections lead to social capital, the somewhat fuzzy but proven concept that neighborly ties empower communities. Social capital is associated with significant community benefits, including improved health, social resilience, civic participation, and economic well-being. Communities with more social connections see other positive outcomes, from lower mortality and reduced depression to resiliency to disasters.

Whether through baseball leagues, senior walks, community picnics or volunteer days, people come together in parks and public lands. They share news and gossip, complain and organize, and ultimately, advocate for better and more parks, as well as other services. But in order for Americans to convene in parks, local green spaces must be attractive and widely accessible, and not just in affluent suburbs and cities, but everywhere.

At the federal level, we are championing legislation that would greatly strengthen local parks. The bill, called the Outdoors for All Act (O4A), would improve the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership, a grant program that provides funding for communities that need parks the most. The new legislation would make that program permanent, avoiding the need for annual renewal. It would also let federally recognized tribes apply to the funding program for the first time. It would also lower the population requirement to 25,000, meaning that towns and smaller cities would be eligible.

National Public Lands Day is a time to reflect on the wonder of parks—whether the magic of sunlight filtering through a tree canopy or the social alchemy of a chance encounter. But it’s also an opportunity to demand that everyone have access to their health-inducing, community-building superpowers.

Luis Benitez is the chief impact officer at Trust for Public Land. He is also the author of “Higher Ground: How the Outdoor Recreation Industry Can Save the World.”

Jennifer Kovecses

The role of big data and AI in building community trust and empowerment

July 19, 2024

Lately, the news has been filled with stories about the good, the bad, and the ugly of artificial intelligence (AI). From ChatGPT to AI bots popping up on all our digital devices, it feels like AI and big data tools have very quickly become omnipresent in many of our spaces. And even though we have been leveraging data in our conservation spaces for a long time, there is newfound interest in seeking meaningful and impactful ways to incorporate novel data tools into our work as we seek to reduce the impacts of climate change and reverse biodiversity loss.

I recently had the immense pleasure to attend the Greater & Greener conference in Seattle this June. This convening is one of the largest gatherings of urban parks thinkers, innovators and decision-makers in North America. Among its interlinked themes, the event focused on equity, inclusivity and climate change, all themes that echo values we hold at the Salazar Center. One of the keynotes, Jaqueline Lu, of Helpful Places, gave an inspiring and passionate talk about the potential for AI to empower local residents and to build trust between communities and local government decision-makers, all while helping to green our cities. In a space where conversations were focused on trees, parks, and people, it was a head turner. What she talked about really resonated with me in a surprising way.

Jaqueline founded Helpful Places to foster building diverse coalitions to advance the adoption of what is known in the AI world as Digital Trust for Places & Routines (DTPR), which is an open-source “system-to-people” communication standard for technology. The goal of their DTPR project is to advance greater transparency and civic dialogue about the use of digital technologies in the built environment (you can see some examples of it here and here). Jaqueline told a story of how in 2015 she worked on a city-wide participatory street tree mapping project in New York City. The effort involved 2,200 volunteers from 60 community groups, who mapped over 600,000 trees. This project was the genesis of the idea that we could better leverage data to empower communities and engage more collaboratively with city decision makers. It helped drive her to think more deeply about the ways that cities struggle with engaging communities about data. Realizing that most of the public will never attend a community feedback meeting, but everyone in a city will be using public spaces, she saw an opportunity. 

There were multiple ideas in this talk that resonated with me. First, I loved that the motivation for the tool was centered around community co-creation and trust building. To create the DTPR framework, people from a diversity of backgrounds and lived experiences co-designed and tested it along with technology, privacy, smart city and public realm experts.

This notion of community co-creation and trust aligns with our values at the Salazar Center. At our Symposium for Conservation Impact last year, several speakers elevated the idea that progress only moves at the speed of trust and this AI tool is an intriguing way to think about building trust. The talk also made me wonder about how AI tools such as what the speaker described can be better incorporated into climate and biodiversity protection, in cities or outside cities. In our current urban climate resilience work, we too have been thinking about ways that city decision makers can make better use of data to inform and accelerate decision-making and action. Are AI tools the best way to accelerate action so we can reach change faster on the climate and biodiversity fronts? We already use a lot of big data sets in biodiversity protection and climate resilience work and there are many examples of urban climate community science projects (see this example from one of other former Symposium speakers, Dr Jeremy Hoffman). Yet, what was intriguing about this presentation was how the Helpful Places DTPR project was not simply a data gathering exercise that could potentially be used to influence government decision-making, but that government decision-making was built into the process through collaborative engagement with communities.

AI is not going away – those horses have left the barn. It is therefore critically important that we think deeply and carefully about how it gets used, who gets to use it, and the best ways to make it work for nature and people.

Shoshanna Dean

Connecting the Northeast through land, water, and collaboration

July 16, 2024

I was lucky enough to attend the first ever Northeastern North America / Turtle Island Connectivity Summit (NENAM) in Montréal / Tiohtià:ke, Canada, hosted by our friends at the Quebec Labrador Foundation, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, and the Staying Connected Initiative. The Salazar Center’s efforts focus on the continental scale, so it was especially exciting to attend a conference where the attendees were collectively focused on their impact on a shared and beloved landscape. The spirit of the gathering was centered on transcending borders and sectors to recognize that humans, plants, and wildlife need connected landscapes to thrive.

NENAM brought together practitioners, government representatives, agencies, tribal representatives, and funders to create a regional roadmap to better understand their challenges and achieve a resilient and connected Northeastern North America.

The Salazar Center also wants to protect this ecologically diverse and important geography. We plan to hold our second Peregrine Accelerator for Conservation Impact – a tailored training, mentorship, and peer-learning program designed to identify and strengthen innovative conservation projects – in the North Atlantic Transboundary region.

This region encompasses seven U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. The landscape has even been identified by The Nature Conservancy as one of their four globally significant core areas, due to the region’s critical potential to conserve biodiversity, act as a carbon sink, and provide resilience in the face of climate change. From the Atlantic coast to the Adirondacks and Appalachians, a host of plant and animal species rely on an intact and conserved landscape to survive. The collaborative work being done by the organizations at NENAM is a vital step to ensuring species can move between habitats, particularly in the face of a changing climate that is pushing many to higher elevations and latitudes.

Takeaways

I learned so much from this impressive group. These are a few of the takeaways that will stick with me from NENAM:

1. Indigenous nations are leading the way

Indigenous groups are responsible for stewarding 80% of the world’s biodiversity, despite making up only 5% of the world’s population. Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge is continuously proving to be critical for protecting intact landscapes. The tribes and First Nations of the northeast are leading a multitude of impressive efforts to establish Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), restore free flowing rivers, and reignite the traditional stewardship of their ancestral lands. For too long the conservation community kept Indigenous groups out of critical conversations, and the time is now to elevate and collaborate with those who have stewarded the land for time immemorial. A particularly poignant moment was when Elder Dr. Albert D. Marshall Sr., Moose Clan of the Mi’kmaw Nation, Mi’ma’ki encouraged us all to “walk together with the uniqueness we have been given” when doing this critical work.

2. Conservation wins when different sectors come together

One aspect of NENAM that particularly impressed me was the diversity of sectors represented. The audience comprised transportation agencies, public works departments, environmental nonprofits, tribal organizations, state and municipal leaders, landscape scale collaboratives, and more. This diverse group of representatives meant that the discussions, particularly in the breakout groups, yielded thoughts and insights that were innovative and integrative of the many sectors represented. I am excited to see the final roadmap because it will reflect a multitude of ideas and perspectives historically kept out of the landscape connectivity conversation.

Panel on the work different organizations and entities are doing to enhance landscape connectivity efforts in the region and beyond.

3. We need innovative financing and funding

It is no secret that conservation remains one of the least funded sectors, despite the critical benefits and risk-reduction that nature provides to humans. The global $700 billion financing gap is one of the starkest examples of this, demonstrating that we can no longer afford to do business as usual when it comes to funding conservation. I was excited to hear examples of how leaders in this region are working to explore new ways of funding this critical work. From bonds for nature to cultural ecosystem service valuation, there is a need for a diverse and innovative mix of public and private financing to successfully pay for the work that needs to be done.
My colleague, Catie Boehmer, recently attended the Conservation Finance Network annual bootcamp. She shares her thoughts about the state of conservation funding here.

4. Working at all scales is critical to achieve connectivity

From the smallest wildlife crossing to a dam removal, to a thousand-acre forest reserve, we need to be thinking of landscape connectivity across all scales. This was made evident by the diversity of work that was shared throughout the summit. And importantly, a connected landscape can work to scale up solutions that are successful on the ground by sharing best practices across stakeholders. When we add it all up, landscape connectivity is the result of a multitude of projects that collectively connect and enhance natural space for humans and wildlife. Because of this, projects of every size are necessary to achieve our goals!

5. Borders are man-made

Wildlife and humans have existed without politically designated borders for millennia and will continue to do so into the future. As the climate changes dramatically and pushes species out of their natural ranges, we must ensure that habitats exist to support their movement. A deer, bear, bird, or bug is not going to care whether they are in the United States or Canada, they will only care if they have the resources needed to support their shift in range. Collaboration across these borders is critical for the ensured survival of us all. Similarly, Indigenous nations such as the Wabanaki have been separated by federal borders. They are still connected by their shared knowledge, traditions, and stewardship of the region, and demonstrate that borders are truly what we make of them.

Final thoughts

It is exciting to see the impressive collaboration towards a shared vision of what connectivity means for the Northeast Atlantic region. I am personally thrilled to be bringing the Peregrine Accelerator to the region in 2025, knowing that there is a strong base of committed and visionary practitioners working to build resilience for the region. We all have our work set out for us to meet global challenges for climate and biodiversity, and the NENAM summit proved that together, we just might get there.

Catie Boehmer

Conservation Finance: Hope for the future but a high bar for access

July 3, 2024

This June, I had the privilege to participate in the Conservation Finance Network’s (CFN) annual bootcamp, which has been running since 2007 and is designed to increase the ability of conservation professionals to apply innovative and effective funding and financing strategies to their work. Over the course of the week, I was introduced to a wide variety of funding opportunities and tools, many of which can be blended (or “mushed,” as our friend Peter Stein often says) to ultimately activate lots of different dollars for land and natural resource conservation.

I was blown away by the wealth of options, from federal grant programs to forest carbon markets to payments for ecosystem services. I was also a little overwhelmed by the complexity of many of the opportunities—especially those with the highest returns. As I listened to different experts and heard about case studies from across the U.S., the possibilities both excited and discouraged me. Many of these financing mechanisms, and the processes for accessing and mobilizing them, felt like they’d be out of reach for the community- and Tribal-led groups with whom my own work so often intersects.

Sometimes that inaccessibility is driven by how funds are allocated (or not). For example, the Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program awarded a total of $5.5 million in its latest round of grants, but less than $500,000 of those funds when to Tribes. Sometimes, inaccessibility is a function of how much capacity a group needs to apply for funds. With something like the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s Regional Conservation Partnership program, the application often takes up to a year to complete and may require ongoing consultation with overextended federal employees or expensive consultants—with no guarantee of funding at the finish line. Other times, grants require a match to be eligible, or impact investors want to see a group demonstrate existing assets to offset liability. With all these funding options, a would-be recipient needs significant time, expertise, and relationships to be competitive, and even when those stars align, you’re up against dozens of other fund-seekers for a limited pool of resources.

Despite these barriers, I did come away from the bootcamp feeling hopeful for the future of funding conservation in new, different, and better ways. Leigh Whelpton, with Connecticut Green Bank, reflected on how innovative policy approaches can animate dollars for conservation. One example that stood out to me was the state of Connecticut’s ongoing efforts to create “resiliency improvement districts” via a ballot measure, which would deploy tax revenues toward assessments, data collection, and project implementation to address community-level climate change vulnerabilities. The measure did not pass in the most recent election, but its advocates have not given up. In the meantime, decision-makers must continue to consider how the inherently tax-base-dependent benefits of these districts can also be realized in less affluent communities (e.g., wealthy communities pay more in taxes, so a new tax will generate more dollars for those communities and less dollars for lower-income communities), who are typically more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

A trend toward “community navigator” programs was also highlighted: groups with a combination of capacity, expertise, and strong frontline relationships are stepping in to ensure Tribes, Indigenous groups, and other community-led entities have an equitable opportunity to access funding resources.

The First National Development Institute, for example, is partnering with the Forest Service to increase Tribes’ access to Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and related Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) programs and opportunities. Outside of the bootcamp, I’ve also recently encountered others stepping into this navigator role. Native Americans in Philanthropy is supporting Tribal-led applicants to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is creating a position to support groups seeking funding for conservation work in the Rio Grande.

It also gave me hope to see that I wasn’t the only person in attendance with the goal of creating a multiplier effect for the resources and expertise showcased at the bootcamp, and that CFN is recruiting and supporting participants with that intention. The Walton Family Foundation and Global Conservation Solutions were just a few of the other organizations represented at the bootcamp with the same purpose of learning more to better support their grantees and clients.

My own goal in participating was to deepen my knowledge about conservation finance so that I can ultimately re-deploy that expertise for the benefit of the Salazar Center’s Peregrine Accelerator participants. By introducing them to new funding opportunities via our curriculum and connecting them with some of the other experts I met through the bootcamp, they will be better prepared to pursue, diversify, and maximize dollars for their on-the-ground conservation solutions. It’s a privilege to serve as this kind of conveyance for the incredible groups whose work we support through the Peregrine Accelerator. As I look to the field more broadly, I’m excited that we’re now part a growing network of like-minded organizations that are navigating—and empowering others to navigate—a complex and changing funding landscape, no matter what it looks like.

Leslie Harroun

Collaborate like a pollinator!

June 14, 2024

It’s fat and sassy bee season in Colorado! The wildflowers in the Rockies are unfurling and flaunting their sweetness, and the region’s pollinators are gorging themselves on nectar and pollen. Just take a look at this beautiful Hunt bumblebee (bombus huntii), spotted on her spring sip-fest in Golden.

It’s Pollinator Week across North America and we have a ‘thing’ for pollinators at the Salazar Center. Did you know that pollinators—including bees, bats, and butterflies—provide one out of three bites of the food we eat? Or that 90 percent of wild plants and 75 percent of leading global crops depend on animal pollination? Pollinators are a keystone species, which means many other species would be hard-pressed to survive without them, including us! For example, pollinators ensure full crop harvests and produce nearly $20 billion worth of products annually. They are instrumental in seed production for the thousands of species of flowering plants growing within forests, prairies, wetlands, farmland, and cities. Pollinators also are climate heros. By nesting underground, particularly in arid regions, they provide soil aeration and water retention. By fertilizing native plants, they support root systems that hold the soil in place and habitats for multiple species that maintain soil variability and nutrient richness. In effect, they sustain entire ecosystems that can help protect us from climate impacts. As small as they are, pollinators play a gigantic role in making sure we have a sustainable food supply and healthy, climate-resilient landscapes, even in cities.

You could say that the superpower of pollinators is cross-sector collaboration.

I was recently reminded that collaboration is a human superpower too. As a roundtable moderator at the National Civic League’s All-America City Awards in Denver, I was inspired and energized by the stories of multiple cities across the U.S. that are employing collaboration and civic engagement to improve the lives of their citizens. United in place and with a will to solve problems, city employees, council members, police officers, fire fighters, business leaders, teachers, students, and nonprofits are working together to achieve economic vitality, public safety, food security, and climate resilience. These problem-solvers have no time for silos, hierarchies, or polarization. Instead, what I heard, and what gave me hope for our future, is that through the shared process of defining and achieving their goals, each city became a real community. The simple act of participation—much like pollination—unleashes creativity, an awareness of belonging, powerful solutions, and the magic of life in association.

At the Salazar Center, we work to build spaces to ignite such collaboration. For example, our Plants for Parks, Pollinators and People project is co-creating research with the City of Denver, the Mola Lab at Colorado State University, and low-income communities to determine how and where to increase and connect pollinator habitats in a way that works for Denver citizens, increases their access to nature, and improves the City’s climate resiliency. Our Peregrine Accelerator for Conservation Impact champions and invests in ideas and partnerships in important bioregions across North America that can lead to outsized conservation outcomes benefitting benefit people and nature—including bats, agave, and rural ejidatarios in Mexico —and that brings innovators together to build power and accelerate change.

Nature is a grand, majestic endeavor that depends on successful, lasting collaboration among its many species, including the human species. Let’s take a clue from the humble bumblebee and collaborate like a pollinator.

Emily Barbo

Juneteenth: Celebrating Black Environmental Leaders and Their Legacy

June 14, 2024

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19th, marks a pivotal moment in American history when the last enslaved African Americans were emancipated in 1865. As we honor this day of freedom and reflection, we reflect on the contributions of Black leaders who have shaped and continue to shape the environmental movement. From pioneering conservationists who have dedicated their lives to protecting natural landscapes to tireless advocates for environmental justice who strive to ensure equitable access to clean air, water, and land, these influential figures remind us that the fight for justice extends beyond social and economic realms into the very fabric of our environment. Join us as we celebrate the achievements and legacies of just a few remarkable individuals who have driven change for a more sustainable future for us all.

Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali
Environmental justice leader and Vice President of Environmental Justice, Climate, and Community Revitalization at the National Wildlife Federation

Dr. Ali has been a prominent figure in the environmental justice movement for decades. He was the Assistant Associate Administrator for Environmental Justice at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). His work addresses environmental and health disparities in marginalized communities, advocating for policies prioritizing equity and community empowerment. He works with several Fortune 500 companies as they journey towards becoming 21st-century organizations, focused on integrating justice and equity into their respective programs, policies, and activities. Dr. Ali participated in the Center’s 2020 International Symposium, giving a keynote address on climate resilience, environmental justice, community revitalization, and how we can shift our cities from “surviving to thriving.”

MaVynee Betsch
Environmentalist and activist

Known affectionately as the “Beach Lady,” MaVynee Betsch was a passionate environmentalist and advocate for African American heritage preservation. She descended from a long line of community leaders: her great-grandfather, A.L. Lewis, founded the Afro-American Life Insurance Company, becoming Florida’s first Black millionaire. She dedicated her life to preserving American Beach, a historic African American community in Florida, and raising awareness about environmental issues affecting minority communities. Former Florida Senator Bill Nelson described Betsch as “a recognized leader in preserving land and history in the South.” She campaigned against the development of “NaNa Dune,” part of the tallest dune system of Florida’s Atlantic Coast, which the National Park Service now owns. Her activism inspired generations to protect natural and cultural heritage.

Dr. Robert Bullard
Founding director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice and distinguished professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University

As a distinguished urban planning and environmental policy professor at Texas Southern University, Dr. Bullard has pioneered research on environmental justice and race. He is the author of eighteen books that address environmental racism, urban land use, housing, transportation, sustainability, smart growth, climate justice, and community resilience. and is often called the “Father of Environmental Justice.” Dr. Bullard’s work has influenced policymaking and raised awareness about the intersection of race, poverty, and the environment.

Majora Carter
Urban revitalization strategy consultant, real estate developer, MacArthur Fellow, and Peabody Award-winning broadcaster

Majora Carter is an urban revitalization strategist known for her pioneering work in sustainable development and environmental justice. She founded Sustainable South Bronx, an organization focused on green job creation and community development. She wrote a successful $1.25M Federal Transportation planning grant to design the South Bronx Greenway – an 11-mile network of bike and pedestrian paths that connects neighborhoods to the riverfront, local entrepreneurship opportunities, and active living features that improve public health and reduce traffic congestion. Her initiatives have transformed marginalized urban areas into thriving, environmentally sustainable communities, demonstrating the potential for inclusive green development.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab

With a Ph.D. in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Dr. Johnson’s work spans marine conservation, policy, and climate change. She co-founded Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank focused on coastal cities, and is a co-creator of the All We Can Save Project, amplifying the voices of women climate leaders. Recently, she co-authored the Blue New Deal, a roadmap for including the ocean in climate policy. Her next book, “What if We Get It Right?” which will be published this summer, is a collection of interviews with leaders from various fields about promising climate possibilities. Dr. Johnson advocates for marine conservation with a social justice lens, emphasizing the importance of diverse perspectives in environmental conversations.

Vanessa Nakate
Climate justice activist and Founder of Rise Up Climate Movement

Vanessa Nakate’s conservation leadership began with a small protest on the streets of Kampala to draw attention to the climate emergency and destruction of the Congo Rainforest. As her message spread across Uganda and beyond, she founded the Rise Up Movement, to amplify the voices of activists from across Africa. In 2022, she was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has addressed world leaders at multiple climate summits. At the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, she urged delegates to put people first instead of profits, to make polluters pay, to cancel debt and direct climate finance toward the most vulnerable countries that did not create the climate crisis, while making sure fossil fuels are not part of their development. Her activism has brought attention to the voices of young activists from the Global South and the need for urgent action on climate change.

Dr. Jacqueline Patterson
Senior Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program and Founder and Executive Director of The Chisholm Legacy Project

Dr. Patterson leads the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program, advocating for policies addressing environmental and climate injustices. She focuses on the disproportionate impacts of pollution and climate change on marginalized communities, working to amplify their voices in policy discussions. She named her organization after Shirley Chisholm to reflect her intersectional approach. The first Black woman elected to Congress strongly advocated uniting fragmented social movements. Dr. Patterson’s work highlights the interconnectedness of environmental issues with social justice and human rights. “Economy, food, housing, transit—all of these are civil rights issues,” she says. “And climate issues intersect with every single one.”

Dr. Samuel Ramsey
Founder and director of The Ramsey Research Foundation, Professor of entomology, and National Geographic Explorer

Described as “your friendly neighborhood entomologist,” Dr. Ramsey is the endowed professor of entomology at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he teaches about effective communication and how understanding the deep interconnectedness of all organisms can solve real-world problems. He is also the founder of The Ramsey Research Foundation, which conducts cutting-edge, novel research on issues affecting pollinator health globally — including parasite spread, disease management, and habitat preservation. He has utilized his exceptional skillset working in academia, industry, and government — including alongside the U.S. Supreme Court, House of Representatives, and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Dr. Dorceta Taylor
Scholar, professor at the Yale School for the Environment, and environmental sociologist

Dr. Taylor is a professor at the Yale School of the Environment and a leading scholar in environmental sociology. Her research examines the social dimensions of environmental issues, focusing on racial and gender disparities in access to resources and environmental decision-making. Her most recent book, The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection, was published in 2016 during the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service. The book examines how conservation ideas and politics are tied to social dynamics such as racism, classism, and gender discrimination. Dr. Taylor’s work sheds light on the lack of diversity in environmental organizations and offers insights into creating more inclusive environmental movements.

Leah Thomas
Environmental writer and intersectional environmental activist

Known as the “GreenGirlLeah,” Leah Thomas is a prominent voice in the intersectional environmental movement. She uses her platform to advocate for environmental justice and inclusivity in the outdoors. She co-founded “Intersectional Environmentalist,” a platform that promotes diversity and equity in the environmental movement. As a Daughters For Earth Advisory Circle member, a new campaign to mobilize women worldwide to support and fund women-led efforts to protect and restore the Earth, she advocates for everyone to join in the fight against climate change. Her work emphasizes the importance of addressing systemic inequalities to achieve environmental sustainability.

A. Alonso Aguirre

World Oceans Day: Protecting our oceans by conserving sea turtles

June 8, 2024

Growing up in the coastal state of Baja California Sur, Mexico, my main access to nature was the ocean, and I was lucky enough to live in an area with some of the richest marine biodiversity in the world. Eighty percent of marine mammals in the Pacific Ocean come to feed near my hometown in the Sea of California, with up to 40 blue whales feeding in a single location – imagine the ocean’s productivity delivering tons of krill, their only prey!

The ocean supported my family’s livelihood. My grandfather was the captain of two fishing boats and my grandmother was the president of the local fish cooperative. I have vivid memories of my uncle taking me out on his fishing boat five miles off the coast where we would watch loggerhead turtles rise to the surface. When multitudes of loggerheads surfaced simultaneously, bubbles would form in the water, and we would watch the ocean “boil.”

We didn’t know it at the time, but this phrase – “watching the ocean boil” – that we used figuratively would one day become literal. And the many sea turtles that I loved watching would dwindle in numbers over time.

Today, climate change sets and then breaks records for the hottest ocean temperatures, pollution and disease spread plastic and sickness to marine species, and beach erosion destroys habitats along coastlines. The oceans are in trouble because of human impacts, and only 7.5% of marine habitats (the size of North America) are protected, leaving ecosystems and the species that depend on them vulnerable.

All seven species of sea turtles are currently endangered. Sea turtles reflect the presence of environmental contaminants and emerging infectious diseases, making them sentinel species. Because sea turtles occupy both land and sea, they move in and out of infected or polluted areas and spread pathogens and contaminants geographically and through the food chain.

I have been fortunate enough to study sea turtles and their pathogens throughout my career as a wildlife veterinarian and later as a wildlife epidemiologist. I have traveled worldwide to study foxes in Patagonia, manatees in Belize, La Plata dolphins in Argentina, and sea turtles in Australia, Hawaii, and Mexico.

While in Hawaii in the ‘90s, I encountered a disease called fibro papillomatosis, a tumor that causes lesions in the skin and appendages on internal organs. Some of those tumors may become malignant as fibrosacomas in the tomium of sea turtles, ultimately growing into their bones. This disease is not limited to populations found off the coast of Hawaii; it has been documented across all oceans in Australia, Florida, Brazil, Chile, Southeast Asia, and Western Africa. This is likely because sea turtles have some of the largest migratory routes of marine animals, meaning any disease they carry has the potential for pantropical distribution.

I also observed sea turtles returning year after year to the beaches where they were born to lay their eggs. A female sea turtle can lay 100 eggs at a time and 1,000-10,000 eggs in a season; yet, only one out of those hatchlings will make it to adulthood.

Not only does beach erosion make it difficult for females to find areas to lay their eggs, but light pollution also impacts newly hatched sea turtles, obscuring their way to the ocean and leaving them more vulnerable to predators like gulls and crabs. If a hatchling does make it into the ocean and survives to adulthood, there’s a good chance that it will be illegally harvested or caught in nets that aren’t meant for it.

This phenomenon – called bycatch – is one of the biggest threats to marine life, especially the loggerhead turtle. Fishers often use large fishing nets that stretch a mile across the water to maximize their catch. However, sea turtles and other unwanted marine species can easily get caught in these nets, and unable to free themselves, they eventually drown and wash up to the beach.

Given these hosts of problems that sea turtles face, it is no surprise that this species is in trouble, and if the sea turtle is in trouble, then our oceans are in trouble. So, what can we do about it?

As a conservationist, I’ve tried all sorts of solutions, including writing to the Mexican government, asking them to do something about bycatch; working with groups who have introduced a technique to monitor sea turtle bycatch, the Turtle Excluder Device, that allows fishers to avoid sea turtles in their nets; and assisting nonprofits, including Sea Turtle Conservation Network of Californias, to tackle conservation issues. But still, these actions are not enough.

One of the reasons why sea turtle conservation has been so difficult to manage is culture. In Latin America, see turtle meat and eggs are believed to act as aphrodisiacs if consumed. Even as a young child, my grandfather used to make me drink sea turtle blood for medicinal reasons. Despite Mexico outlawing sea turtle consumption in the 1990s and creative marketing campaigns creating stigmas against sea turtle consumption, many coastal residents continue to eat sea turtles.

Oceans connect all of us, so the best way to tackle this issue is through transdisciplinary solutions that are supported by the public, stakeholders, and decision-makers and can be enacted on global and local levels. Recently, through One Health, I have worked on a campaign that combines education, conservation and human health. By demonstrating the dangers of eating sea turtles – which include ingesting heavy metals and toxins that can lead to cancer – the hope is that the public will stop eating sea turtles.

I look forward to measuring the outcomes of this new campaign, but in the meantime, on World Oceans Day and every day, I hope we can all continue to learn more about marine species, improve our policies to address harmful human impacts on our oceans, and explore new depths together.

Sea turtles are telling us what’s happening to the oceans, and it’s time we listen. The health of our marine environment depends on it.

A. Alonso Aguirre is the Dean of Warner College of Natural Resources.

Jennifer Kovecses

Celebrating biodiversity action – conservation works; we should do more of it!

May 21, 2024

“Biodiversity starts in the distant past and it points toward the future.”
– Frans Lanting

At the heart of everything we do at The Salazar Center is finding equitable and inclusive solutions to reversing the loss of biodiversity. So, we love a good excuse to elevate and celebrate nature’s critical role in our lives. In this light, the International Day of Biodiversity resonates deeply with our values. For almost a quarter century, the United Nations has gathered the world to celebrate this day with the sole intent of increasing our collective understanding and awareness of biodiversity.

Supporting conservation work that protects and restores biodiversity matters. Recent studies have found that globally, almost $44 trillion of economic value generation – over half the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature. Biodiversity loss is also deeply linked to human health worldwide. And yet, sometimes doing the work of conservation can feel daunting, even Sisyphean. That is why we were so encouraged to see the results from a recent meta-analysis of over 180 conservation interventions published in Science. The researchers found that in two-thirds of cases, the interventions either improved biodiversity or slowed declines. Not only did they find that the interventions were effective, but they also had large, measurable impacts.

A few things really stood out to me as I read this article. First, the results were not restricted to one type of conservation intervention. Impact was found across a spectrum of project types. Similarly, the positive impact was not restricted to one geography or ecosystem type. This shows that the tools that are already in our toolbox can and should be deployed in more places. Results such as this show that our work is not Sisyphean, and there are solid, science-backed reasons to keep doing the work. Turns out conservation works, and we should do more of it!

But as we consider how to scale up the conservation work necessary to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, we need to think about doing more of it in a way that centers people and the expertise embedded in local communities. We heard this clarion call repeatedly at our last International Symposium on Conservation Impact. When we work to convene conservation thought leaders or work to build the capacity of practitioners to lift their projects off the ground, we are always working with that lens in mind. We believe that getting to durable conservation solutions can only happen when the people on the ground – from all walks of life – are heard, empowered, and have the resources to make change happen.

This year’s International Day of Biodiversity theme is “Be Part of the Plan”. This represents a call to action for everyone around the globe to do something – big or small – to contribute to protecting biodiversity. We could not agree more! But everyone needs to be part of the plan and our policies and funding need to recognize, incentivize and support that vision of inclusive action.

From the United Nations:

The United Nations has proclaimed May 22 the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. When first created by the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly in late 1993, 29 December (the date of entry into force of the Convention of Biological Diversity), was designated The International Day for Biological Diversity. In December 2000, the UN General Assembly adopted 22 May as IDB, to commemorate the adoption of the text of the Convention on 22 May 1992 by the Nairobi Final Act of the Conference for the Adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This was partly done because it was difficult for many countries to plan and carry out suitable celebrations for the date of 29 December, given the number of holidays that coincide around that time of year.