Session Summary

Private working lands in the United States represent a substantial portion of the country’s remaining open space and habitat. With 914 million acres in farms or ranches and approximately 300 million acres in private forest,... [ view full abstract ]

Private working lands in the United States represent a substantial portion of the country’s remaining open space and habitat. With 914 million acres in farms or ranches and approximately 300 million acres in private forest, these lands are vitally important to the conservation of soil, water, and fish and wildlife resources. Establishing successful, voluntary conservation efforts by farmers, ranchers, forest landowners, and other private landowners is a necessity for the future of natural resources conservation in the United States.  What may be more important, however, is the ability of these efforts to instill and grow a lasting conservation ethic in the owners of these working lands that transcends generations and individual conservation efforts.  As demonstrated in the session, “The State of Knowledge on Private Lands Habitat Conservation Behavior: Insights for Conservation Professionals”, a wealth of research exists about the human dimensions of successful private lands conservation.  However, bridging the gap between science and successful implementation is challenging at best, and often plagued by practical constraints not easily accounted for in scientific research.  Talks in this session will focus on bridging that implementation gap, exploring how practitioners have successfully engaged landowners in voluntary conservation programs, and how these efforts have worked, or not, to instill a conservation ethic.  The session will close with a 20-minute facilitated round-table discussion with private landowners and practitioners to further explore their experiences and provide additional thoughts on institutionalizing a conservation ethic on private lands.