The Kingsbury Browne Dialogues

Thought Leaders Discuss the Future of Land Conservation in America

People who know the history of the Land Trust Alliance are familiar with the name Kingsbury Browne. Nearly four decades ago, Browne took a sabbatical from his Boston law practice to focus on the future of voluntary land conservation. In 1981, as a fellow at Harvard Law School and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, he convened the National Consultation on Land Conservation at the Lincoln Institute’s Cambridge headquarters.

The assembled participants, affiliated with some 40 land trusts and related organizations from Maine to California, resolved to form a national association they called the Land Trust Exchange, which soon became the Land Trust Alliance. The Alliance and its now 1,000+ member organizations and affiliates subsequently became a nationally significant catalyst for land conservation, collectively protecting more than 56 million acres of land to date.

When Browne passed away in 2005, the Alliance and the Lincoln Institute established the Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award and Fellowship in his memory. Each year since 2006 the award has been presented by the Alliance, along with a one-year fellowship funded by the Lincoln Institute that allows the recipient to develop and share strategic insights with the community.

Steve Small, the attorney who wrote the IRS regulations for conservation easements in the early 1980s, and who won the Kingsbury award in 2015, suggested recently that we bring together the Fellows who had been named over the past dozen years (all long-time veterans of land conservation) and then we decided to add a separate cohort of emerging movers and shakers in conservation.

We organized the pair of meetings in 2018 so attendees could discuss land conservation in America. As the facilitators, we collected what we heard and now present some of the highlights from the gatherings.

Climate Change

Participants at both meetings agreed that climate change is the greatest threat to both natural and human communities, and that this reality presents both challenges and opportunities for land trusts. Alliance President Andrew Bowman, who attended both meetings, argued that land trusts must help lead the way in providing “natural climate solutions” that, according to the accredited Nature Conservancy, may provide as much as 37% of the global carbon reductions needed by 2030. Land trusts already help to protect and manage wetlands and forests that store carbon and farms that sustainably manage soil resources.

Patrick Holmes, former chief of staff to the undersecretary for natural resources and environment and current natural resources policy adviser to Montana Governor Steve Bullock, joined the emerging leaders group, providing insight into how existing public and private insurance programs are falling behind in mitigating climate-related risks to farmers, ranchers and others who make their living off the land. He predicted that these risks “will be further exacerbated by land-use change pressures prompted by climate and innovation in transportation and technology.” Holmes suggested that “through a mix of policy and industry actions, we can shift capital flows into climate-resilient assets and resilience-enhancing investments rather than trying to keep pace with current underwriting exposure.” For example, “in agriculture, closer ties between insurance and climate-smart conservation practices — that win-win-win in terms of profitability, resilience and greenhouse gas mitigation — create new avenues for growing conservation on working landscapes.

”These ideas are in line with the innovative programs that 2008 Kingsbury award recipient Laurie Wayburn, president of the accredited Pacific Forest Trust, helped to devise. She urges the land conservation community to follow California’s lead in giving forests and other landscapes credit in novel and effective carbon trading mechanisms. “Every time we think about climate,” she said, “we should think about land.” In the same spirit, Mark Ackelson (2007 winner) favors the creation of a national carbon credit program that allows for the aggregation of modestly sized parcels and is thereby available to both large and small landowners.

In sum, land conservation offers tangible opportunities to mitigate the impacts of climate change. And land trusts, which have a long history of shaping bipartisan collaboration, are in a special position to host a national dialogue on solutions to climate change.

Diversity

Whether having had a long career in conservation or just starting out, all participants agree that it is essential to expand the diversity of the land conservation community. Peter Stein (2012 winner) eloquently noted that without the support of a more racially, ethnically, socioeconomically and age diverse set of members in the next few decades, “The political/community support, and the durability of conservation mechanisms utilized to conserve land and water resources in the United States...will be dramatically curtailed.” Will Rogers (2017 winner), president emeritus of the accredited Trust for Public Land, described TPL’s vision that “every child in America should grow up within a 10-minute walk of a park, trail or natural area” — a call to action for land trusts to expand parks and trails, especially in cities and communities of color.

Members of the younger cohort expressed urgency and passion about diversity and inclusion. Karena Mahung (at right), a consultant with leading forestry consulting provider Indufor North America, argued that “the transformative change needed for the land conservation movement will require organizations to take bolder stances on a range of issues that aren’t traditionally recognized as ‘green.’ The work needs to be truly intersectional — unafraid to look at the undeniable connections between inequality, race, class, gender and access to natural resources.”

All agreed that the conservation community needs to go beyond recruiting token board members and meaningfully include people with diverse backgrounds in the design, management and ongoing leadership of land conservation programs and organizations. The land conservation community will achieve real inclusion when our programs genuinely reflect the needs and hopes of a wide range of people in communities around the country. Mahung suggested that a significant investment in student scholarships and the funding of endowed chairs for people of color at leading schools of natural resources, environmental studies and forestry could make a lasting difference in the diversity of conservation leadership in years to come. Her colleague, Rodrigo Otárola y Bentín of the Hispanic Access Foundation, suggested that in addition to professional training, we need to approach the conversation regarding land and water “from an emotional and spiritual angle to adequately harness the connection between [diverse] groups and nature.” To sustain a durable conservation movement, we will clearly have to effectively and inclusively work together with a wide spectrum of citizens.

Public Support and Education

Closely related to diversity issues is the challenge of public support and education. Laura Johnson, past board chair of the Land Trust Alliance, underscored the challenge of widespread “biological illiteracy and a lack of engagement.” Land trusts, she suggested, need to “expand their mission to include education and rededicate ourselves to working with school districts.” Jean Hocker, former president of the Alliance and the 2014 award recipient, envisions a day when “every student, every school, every grade level is not just exposed to environ-mental education, but has it infused in their whole curriculum.”

Bowman expanded on this theme, force-fully advocating for comprehensive efforts to maintain public support for conservation. He noted we must sustain efforts to emphasize the relevance of land protection, “countering the long-term threat of public apathy and disinterest in land conservation, as well as the growing lack of connection between many Americans and the land.” Jordan Schreiber, national advocacy manager at the Trust for Public Land, echoed those sentiments: “With urban and suburban areas growing at an exponential rate...people living in the United States run the risk of losing their long-held conservation ideals...land conservation could fail to be a priority for future generations.”

Participants from both meetings agreed that to maintain and increase relevance land trusts will need to respond to broad community needs: jobs, health, affordable housing, education, tourism, agriculture and clean water. Land trusts are already engaging new partners: teachers, health clinics, community gardens, outdoor industry retailers and trail associations. But we have much more work to do. As Wayburn explained, to overcome the perception that land trusts do not care about communities, “We need for our communities to recognize nature as a part of our essential infrastructure.” Michael Dowling, former Alliance board chair and a champion for community engagement, summarized that “changing hearts and minds is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.” Dowling cited Abraham Lincoln’s insight on the subject: “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.”

Innovation in Finance and Technology

In both meetings, wide-ranging discussions emerged regarding technological and financial innovation. These included the use of “big data” to drive geographic information system analyses of land conservation priorities, a topic addressed thoughtfully by Rogers; innovative land conservation finance mechanisms now under development, outlined by Stein; the remarkable growth and avail-ability of capital raised by “green bonds” and “pay-for-success bonds,” topics discussed by emerging leader Carolyn duPont (at right), a director at impact investing advisory firm Quantified Ventures; and a new tool that can quickly identify tree species in shipment by their cellular structure to ensure that endangered species cannot slip through the system, a concept being explored by Martina Müller, a Brazilian-German lawyer who is currently a Louis Bacon Environmental Leadership Fellow at Harvard.

It remains to be seen what impact these innovations will have on global land conservation efforts. However, it’s clear that new technologies and financing mechanisms will be essential for playing the long game of planetary resilience. As biologist E.O. Wilson put it, “We have entered the Century of the Environment, in which the immediate future is usefully conceived as a bottleneck: science and technology, combined with foresight and moral courage, must see us through it and out.” (“The Bottleneck,” Scientific American, Feb. 2002)

Wisdom and Urgency

In 1981, Kingsbury Browne convened a national meeting of land conservationists who were barely acquainted with one another. The outcome was consensus to build a national organization that has proved to be strong, resilient and inventive. Nearly 40 years later, we have again gathered senior leaders and rising stars to the Lincoln Institute to consider the future of voluntary land conservation in America. If we, as a community, mobilize our collective wisdom and sense of urgency on climate change, diversity, relevance and innovation, we, too, will make a historic impact on land conservation.

About the Authors

James N. Levitt and Rand Wentworth organized and facilitated the Kingsbury Browne Dialogues. Wentworth is President Emeritus of the Land Trust Alliance and is the Louis Bacon Senior Fellow in Environmental Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Levitt leads the Land Conservation Programs at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and serves as the Director of the Program on Conservation Innovation at the Harvard Forest.

See the list of past Kingsbury Browne award winners here.

Photos

Top: A group of past Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award winners gathered at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to discuss the future of land conservation. “Through words, actions and non-traditional partnerships, we must demonstrate that we care as much about the human community as the natural community. We must try to incorporate other societal goals — economic development, affordable housing, renewable energy, recreational access, social justice, etc. — into our work whenever possible,” said Darby Bradley, the first winner in 2006 (front, third from left). Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Bottom: The second Kingsbury Browne colloquium included emerging stars in land conservation. Shanelle Smith, like Darby Bradley, also discussed inclusion: “The most urgent challenge that faces the land conservation movement is seeing itself as the solution to the many different socioeconomic issues that cities, both urban and rural face. We must grow our movement outside of ourselves if we are going to ‘win.’” (She is in the center of the middle row, with glasses).