The Salazar Center for North American Conservation is bringing together diverse voices in a new essay forum that seeks to explore assumptions about nature within economics, law, and political science — and how those assumptions impact sustainability and society.
What’s Next for Nature: Perspectives on Political Ecology is a unique collection of perspectives from across North America that showcases how people from varying backgrounds, sectors, and disciplines are contemplating and engaging novel ideas and views to address the environmental challenges of our world.
As a new branch of programming, the goal of What’s Next for Nature is to advance the Salazar Center’s mission to support conservation innovation and action across borders, cultures, and sectors. Each series will explore a particular topic, such as democracy, economics, agriculture, law, or technology, with a collection of essays that showcase the diversity of conservation 
worldviews and stewardship across North American communities and cultures. The goal is to spark collaborative learning, thinking, and imagining from across the continent that leads to a more reciprocal and common-sense relationship with nature—a relationship with inherently more promise to ensure the future of life on our planet.
“By elevating new thinking and examples that might not otherwise receive the attention they deserve, we hope What’s Next for Nature will inspire people to believe in and act upon the possibility of a better future for all living beings,” said Leslie Harroun, executive director of the Salazar Center.
The online forum features short essays from subject-matter experts, working professionals, and emerging leaders in response to prompted topics that explore critical questions at the intersection of society and biodiversity. For the first series, the Salazar Center invited reflections on the relationship between nature and democracy.
The inaugural forum includes a collaborative essay from Rick Knight, longtime Warner College of Natural Resources professor emeritus, and Erik Glenn, CSU alumnus and executive director of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust.
In their essay, “Bridging the Great Divide: Reconnecting Rural and Urban Communities by Building Democracy,” Knight and Glenn confront and break down common perceptions in the rural-urban divide narrative. Are the commonalities between urban and rural populations greater than the differences? Can these similarities provide a platform for building common ground?
Other essays in the first series consider similar questions, and all present connections between equitable democratic process and stewardship of healthy ecosystems. Explore the What’s Next for Nature forum on the Center’s website.
The Salazar Center will publish its second set of essays on conservation and democracy this winter. If you’re interested in contributing to a future series, please contact Leslie Harroun, [email protected].
The Salazar Center is honored to have commissioned original artwork from Scott Nieto of Santo Domingo Pueblo for our inaugural What’s Next for Nature forum series on Nature and Democracy. Optimal Blend depicts the blending of elements to achieve ideal balance. Everything in the artwork is mirrored, though not symmetrical. It shows a world that is imperfect but balanced.