Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Alex Hager

September 22, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Alex Hager, Reporter, Colorado River Basin, KUNC, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Alex reports on the Colorado River and water in the West for KUNC and 20+ NPR stations around the Southwest. He spent two years at Aspen Public Radio, mainly reporting on the resort economy, the environment and the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, he covered the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery for KDLG in Dillingham, Alaska. Alex has a journalism degree from Elon University, where he spent four years working for the student newspaper and TV station. Outside of the office, Alex is an avid skier and mountain biker.

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Alonso Aguirre

September 22, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Alonso Aguirre, Dean, Warner College of Natural Resources, CSU, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Dr. Aguirre’s academic mission is to provide the next generation of natural resources, environmental science, sustainability, and policy leaders with unique educational, research, and extension opportunities that are transformational in nature within the context of globalization and international markets. For the past three decades his work has focused on the conservation of endangered wildlife and ecosystems under the tenet “health connects all species in the planet”. He has developed practical, sustainable, and effective solutions understanding local socioeconomic factors, and a solid grasp of complex national and regional health and environmental policies, while building local capacity in over 30 countries.

Warner College of Natural Resources is one of the largest and most comprehensive natural resource colleges in the nation. Offering students the opportunity to immerse themselves in their environmental fields of choice, Warner College is a leader in natural resources education, outreach, and research both in Colorado and around the world.

“Warner College is ahead of its time in addressing so many important issues, including biodiversity and the loss of species, climate change and sustainability,” Aguirre said. “The faculty, staff, students and alumni of the College are poised to accelerate solutions to these issues, and I am thrilled to have this magnificent opportunity to work alongside such wonderful scholars and students to help solve these pressing problems.”

Resources:

Dr. Aguirre’s Research Profile

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Ángel Peña

September 22, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Ángel Peña, Executive Director, Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Ángel was born and raised in the Río Bravo valley, he is a first generation Mexican, American and father of three. Àngel has had the opportunity to support and lead strong effective teams that ultimately secured protections totaling millions of acres across the American Southwest. A founding member and current Vice President of the Next 100 Coalition, founder of the Outdoor F.U.T.U.R.E initiative and the founding Executive Director of the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project he is in the business of people empowerment. Working to empower the people that have true, authentic and deep-rooted ties to the land.

Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project’s mission is to ensure that historically and deliberately excluded communities have access to the outdoors and that our people, history, and values are authentically reflected in public land and conservation management decision making.

Resources:

PBS KRWG: Fronteras

Homegrown Economies Podcast Episode

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Patty Richards

September 22, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Patty Richards, Communities and Conservation Advisor, Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative (Y2Y), will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Patty joined the Yellowstone to Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative team after rewarding careers in not-for-profit and energy arenas – focused on communications and social performance. She brings her skills in pragmatic and collaborative community relations and communication to Y2Y and is happily astonished to continue learning (at this late stage in her career) about conservation science and the value of connected landscapes.

She has a Master’s degree in Communications (focus on social marketing) and an undergraduate degree in Art History. Her informal education, volunteer work, and playtime are focused in the Rocky Mountains of Southwest Alberta and include board work for the environmental granting arm of the Calgary Foundation and hiking and skiing across the region.

Emily Barbo

Get the most out of Symposium: Breakout Sessions

September 22, 2023

This year’s Symposium agenda features thematic breakout sessions on Thursday afternoon. The goal of the breakouts is to give you the opportunity to reflect on the information you’ve received throughout the Symposium and dive deeper into one theme with a smaller group. This is a great opportunity for you to share your expertise with other attendees, presenters, and the Salazar Center.

In each breakout session, a subject matter expert and facilitator will guide you through a series of questions. There are no right or wrong answers. Our goal is to give you the time and space to reflect, ask questions, and get inspired about how you might apply what you’ve learned in your work. Your responses will be recorded and utilized by the Salazar Center to create post-Symposium resources for our network. No matter which thematic breakout session you choose, you will receive a synopsis of all the conversations!

Once you register for the Symposium, you’ll receive more information about how to sign up for your preferred breakout session.

Breakout Session Themes

The role of cities in a nature-positive future

About 80 percent of North Americans live in cities, which means urban environments must have a place on the path toward a nature-positive future. This session will focus on the unique opportunities cities pose for implementing nature-based solutions, and how urban initiatives can serve as model for prioritizing and expanding equitable climate and nature outcomes for all communities.

Speakers: Jessica Montoya, Trust for Public Land; Cindy Chang, Groundwork Denver
Facilitator: Dr. Jeremy Hoffman, Groundwork USA

The role of private lands in a nature-positive future

Private farms, ranches, and working forests comprise more than half our land mass in North America; woven throughout the continental landscape, they support critical habitat and migration corridors and capture significant levels of carbon. This session will focus on the unique opportunities private lands pose for implementing nature-based solutions, and how land managers can contribute to, and benefit from, both climate and biodiversity targets.

Speakers: Dirk Rasmussen, Colorado Open Lands; Helen Silver, Ground Up Consulting; Brendan Boepple, Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust
Facilitator: Alex Hager, KUNC

The nexus between traditional ecological knowledge and nature-based solutions

Across the world, Indigenous lands only make up around 20% of the Earth’s territory yet contain a staggering 80% of its remaining biodiversity, underscoring the importance of elevating Indigenous leadership within conservation. As nature-based solutions are scaled across North America, prioritizing traditional ecological knowledge and collaborating with Indigenous communities will be essential to meeting climate and biodiversity targets. This breakout session will dive deep into what an Indigenous-led nature-positive future could look like, and what solutions are best-positioned to support equitable outcomes for Indigenous communities.

Speakers: Gwen Bridge
Facilitator: James Calabaza, Trees, Water, People

‘Nature-positive communities’ – scaling up for impact: a workshop with the Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative (Y2Y)

Join our friends from Y2Y in this interactive workshop that will discuss case studies on nature positive economic development in high amenity communities. The discussion will highlight the actions, strategies, and approaches they are incorporating to help communities develop sustainably to bring about lasting systemic change that will drive a nature-positive future and scale up impact from local to larger landscapes.

Facilitator: Patty Richards, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative

Financing a nature-positive future through carbon and biodiversity markets

As the world increasingly begins to recognize the values ecosystem services provide, innovative mechanisms for financing conservation are being developed across sectors. Carbon and biodiversity markets have been increasing in popularity; however, the rapid development of these systems has left many in the conservation community with questions of effectiveness, equity, accountability, and how to access the benefits the markets provide. This breakout session will invite attendees to discuss the unique financing opportunities that nature-based solutions and markets can provide to boost conservation efforts.

Speakers: Kevin Maddaford, The Nature Conservancy
Facilitator: Katie Deuel, Center for Large Landscape Conservation

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: James Calabaza

September 21, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that James Calabaza, Indigenous Lands Program Director, Trees, Water & People, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

James is Director of the Indigenous Lands Program at Trees, Water & People (TWP). James engages and works with U.S. Tribal Nations in the American Southwest on efforts centered around community-based, Tribal-led stewardship projects that create economic and environmental development opportunities. In his role, James provides much needed insight and experience on working with Tribal governments that uphold traditional ethics of governance and leadership, while also respecting Tribal sovereignty. His deep-rooted experiences and cultural values strengthens TWP’s approach in building honest, working relationships with Tribes and promoting cross-cultural values of large landscape conservation.

For twenty five years, Trees, Water & People has been a leader in the design and implementation of programs that produce tangible benefits for people and planet. Today, TWP’s work is more urgent than ever, as climate change threatens the livelihoods of millions of people in our region.

James is also an alumni of Colorado State University. In the summer of 2021, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 29 into law, which offers in-state college tuition for members of Native American Tribes with historical ties to Colorado. The law which adds to the foundation laid by the University community a decade ago through the Native American Legacy Award. The CSU tuition reduction offers in-state tuition at the University to qualified students who are citizens of state or federally recognized Tribes or descendants of Tribally enrolled citizens. Since its inception in 2011, more than 479 CSU students have benefitted from NALA. When CSU welcomed its first cohort of 12 students through the Native American Legacy Award in 2011, James was among the students. He is a member of the Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico and earned his bachelor’s degree in agricultural business and economics at CSU while being active in the Native American Cultural Center.

Resources:

Native Voices in STEM

‘Beyond State Lines’ CSU celebrates new law granting in-state tuition for Native American students

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Sacha Spector

September 19, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Sacha Spector, Program Director, Environment at the Doris Duke Foundation, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Sacha oversees all of the foundation grantmaking on climate change, land conservation and stewardship, and inclusive conservation. Sacha has held positions as director of conservation science at Scenic Hudson, manager of the Invertebrate Conservation Program at the American Museum of Natural History, and adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology. Author/co-author of more than 30 research papers, books and articles, he earned his Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Connecticut and his B.S. in environmental biology from Yale University.

The mission of the Doris Duke Foundation (DDF) is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and child well-being, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. DDF’s mission, grantmaking programs and centers are guided by Doris Duke’s will. Learn more about Doris Duke’s life and legacy as well as the history of the Doris Duke Foundation.

Resources:

Building a Durable National Framework for Large Landscape Conservation

Catie Boehmer

Five years of Symposia: Reflecting on how we got to where we are today

September 13, 2023

The Salazar Center is preparing to host its annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact next month (there’s still time to register!), and I have the unique perspective of being part of every symposia to date.

A lot has happened in the past five years—within the Center itself, with regard to climate change and biodiversity loss and inequity in North America, and in my own work as part of this team—so when I was asked to reflect on the history of this event, how it’s evolved, and what connections have sprung up across years and programs, I struggled at first. What could I say that captured five years’ worth of convenings that were shaped not only by our growth as an organization but also by a global pandemic and significant political and cultural upheaval across the continent?

Then I landed on a microcosm of this year’s event: the breakout sessions, and specifically the session focused on cities and urban environments. This session, which will take place on the second day of the symposium, connects a lot of the dots for me and represents not only the evolution of our convening, but the ways that the work happening in our network is evolving and growing.

In 2020, the symposium focused on innovative conservation, equity, and resilience efforts across North American’s urban areas. It also served as the launching pad for our Thriving Cities Challenge, which ultimately awarded more than half a million dollars to 15 grassroots project teams across the continent who were working to implement nature-based solutions and deliver community benefits at the intersection of climate resilience, equity, and urban green space.

It was also announced at the 2020 symposium that the Center would enter into an unprecedented partnership with Denver Parks and Recreation in order to support the city’s efforts to increase community resiliency, urban habitat, and equitable access to green space; this partnership has since resulted in pilot funding for a CSU-led research effort that will culminate next year.

The urban-focused breakout session this year will bring the topic of nature-based solutions in cities back into focus for the Center, which is a testament to the importance of this conversation in driving a sustainable and equitable future for North America, and the strength of the relationships that we cultivated in our earlier work.

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of reconnecting with colleagues at Groundwork USA and the Trust for Public Land when the Doris Duke Foundation (who’s also a sponsor of this year’s event) convened a small group of its previous grantees who’d run programs that re-granted monies for urban nature work, like our Thriving Cities Challenge. These colleagues, in turn, connected us with two of the experts who will help lead the urban breakout session, Jeremy Hoffman and Jessica Montoya.

With an eye toward making sure we have expert practitioners in the room for that breakout session, too, we’re bringing many of our Thriving Cities grantees to Denver for the event, creating a unique opportunity to these teams to meet in person after participating in a capacity-building program that was run entire virtually and to have a dedicated space to continue conversations that began in 2021.

Denver Parks and Recreation, another 2023 symposium sponsor, will also be sending some of their Green Corps members to the event so that they can participate in the urban breakout session.

This is one of the things about what we do at the Center that deeply energizes me and keeps me coming back day after day: we are all in this together, across sectors and years and geographical boundaries; you only have to tug lightly on one thread to see and feel that it’s deeply interwoven with an incredible community of partners and their work—and I can’t wait to see what new stitches will be sewn at our 2023 symposium and become part of this dynamic, inspiring tapestry in the years to come.

Learn more about the International Symposium on Conservation Impact and register to join experts from across sectors and the continent as we discuss a nature-positive future for North America.

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Lydia Olander

September 7, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Dr. Lydia Olander, Director of Nature-Based Resilience, White House Council on Environmental Quality, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Dr. Olander is the Director of Nature-Based Resilience at the White House Council on Environmental Quality where she leads work on nature-based solutions, working with both the conservation and climate resilience teams. She joined CEQ from Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environment, Energy & Sustainability, where she is a program director, an adjunct professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment, and leads the National Ecosystem Services Partnership. Her research includes ecosystem services, natural capital accounting, nature-based solutions, environmental markets, and climate adaptation and resilience. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Prior to joining the Nicholas Institute, she spent a year as an AAAS Congressional Science and Technology Fellow working with Senator Joseph Lieberman on environmental and energy issues. Before that she was a researcher with the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Global Ecology, where she studied the biogeochemical impacts of logging in the Brazilian Amazon and utilized remote sensing to extrapolate regional impacts. She received her PhD from Stanford University, where she studied nutrient cycling in tropical forests, and earned a master’s degree in forest science from Yale University.

Resources

Opportunities to Accelerate Nature-Based Solutions

Roadmap to Nature-Based Solutions

Assessing the Effects of Management Activities on Biodiversity and Carbon Storage on Public and Private Lands and Waters in the United States

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Jeremy Hoffman

September 7, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Jeremy Hoffman, Ph.D., Director of Climate Justice and Impact, Groundwork USA, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Jeremy is the Director of Climate Justice and Impact at Groundwork USA and an affiliate faculty in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Governmental and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Department of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Richmond. Jeremy is an award-winning environmental educator and nationally-recognized climate science researcher and communicator. He is the Lead Author for the Southeast Chapter of The Fifth National Climate Assessment and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Before joining Groundwork USA, Jeremy was the David and Jane Cohn Chief Scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia, where he led award-winning community science, youth, and adult climate resilience programs focused on extreme heat and air quality, including collaborating with Groundwork RVA on several projects. He also serves as the Chapter Lead for the Southeast Chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, giving him a unique balance of community-focused, educational, and academic experiences that he will bring to Groundwork USA. Dr. Hoffman received his Ph.D. from Oregon State University in 2016.

Resources

Throwing Shade on Climate Change | Jeremy Hoffman | TEDxYouth@RVA Accelerating Climate Resiliency Speaker Series: Extreme Heat and the Legacy of Racist Housing Policy

Accelerating Climate Resiliency Speaker Series: Extreme Heat and the Legacy of Racist Housing Policy

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Jessica Montoya

September 7, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Jessica Montoya, Trust for Public Land, Senior Director for Park Equity, Federal Affairs, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Jessica leads Trust for Public Land’s federal advocacy efforts to increase access to the outdoors and parks for underserved communities. She has over 20 years of experience working with Congress and Fortune Global 500 companies. Most recently, she led government affairs for Sodexo, a leading global food service firm, where she facilitated legislation focused on children’s health, better nutrition, and food education in schools. Previously, Montoya managed congressional affairs for the auto giant Chrysler and worked in U.S. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton’s (D-DC) legislative office.

She was born and raised in Northern New Mexico, where her family owns land along the banks of the Rio Grande River passed on from generation to generation. Jessica is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and the University of New Mexico School of Law, and also holds an MBA from the John Hopkins University Carey Business School. Jessica enjoys hiking, kayaking and any outdoor activity. She has two children and a dog, and lives in Alexandria, VA.

Emily Barbo

Symposium Speaker: Lauren E. Oakes

September 7, 2023

The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Lauren E. Oakes, Adjunct Professor and Conservation Scientist at Stanford University, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

Lauren is a conservation scientist and science writer. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University. In addition to publishing her climate- and forest-related research in peer-reviewed journals, Lauren has contributed to many media outlets. Lauren’s first book, In Search of the Canary Tree (Basic Books, 2018) won second place for the 2019 Rachel Carson Book Award and was a finalist for the 2019 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Communication Award. She is working on a new narrative non-fiction book about the global reforestation movement.

By training, Lauren an ecologist and human-natural systems scientist, which means she considers people and “nature” as inherently linked; human and environmental health are intertwined. She works on advancing best practices in climate adaptation and implementation of nature-based solutions. She writes because she loves storytelling, and she believes there’s a pressing need to make science and solutions to environmental problems more accessible to people across the planet.

Resources

Tackling the Science Usability Gap in a Warming World: Co-Producing Useable Climate Information for Natural Resource Management

Strengthening monitoring and evaluation of multiple benefits in conservation initiatives that aim to foster climate change adaptation