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Conservation Study Institute
About the Institute
New and Noteworthy
Examining and Sharing Best Practices in Partnerships
Exploring Best Practices for Effective Partnerships
Collaboration and Conservation: Lessons Learned from National Park Service Partnership Areas
New Publication on National Park Stewardship
Convening National Dialogues on Conservation
Building Bridges between Public Lands and Their Neighbors: Gateway Communities Leadership Program
National Heritage Areas: Landscapes for Partnerships and Community Engagement
Community Engagement and Place-based Education
Cultivating Leadership
Analyzing Trends in Conservation and Stewardship
Publications and Conservation Resources
To Learn More

"My husband's and my philosophy is that none of us really ever own the land - we only hold it in our hands for a very brief time, and what we do with the land is our gift to the next generation. And some day we'll be held accountable for what happens on this land..." - Lynne Sherrod

Lynne Sherrod and her husband, Del, both come from families with long histories of ranching in Colorado. For 20 years, they have raised cattle on a 1,600-acre ranch straddling the Elk River.

“We had the opportunity to sit together, and dream together, and come up with a shared vision of how we wanted to see this neighborhood develop and what we wanted it to look like…We’ve been able to keep that vision in the front of our minds and not let other little things deter us from that shared vision…”

Ché Madyun lives in the Dudley Street community, a one-and-a-half-square-mile area of the Roxbury/Dorchester section of Boston. Ché served as the first board president of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a community-based nonprofit organization working with Dudley residents to create a vibrant, diverse, and high-quality neighborhood.

The publication, The Landscape of Conservation: The Report of the Stewardship Initiative documents a collaborative research effort by the Conservation Study Institute, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, and The Woodstock Foundation, Inc. The project sought out people and organizations involved in new and thoughtful approaches to conservation of special places in the United States and abroad. This report gives particular attention to work that is bringing conservation stewardship to new audiences or extending stewardship activities in new ways.

The objectives of the research project were to:

Explore current stewardship practice;

Establish a network of conservation practitioners; and

Recommend programs and partnerships that deepen the understanding of conservation stewardship, boost the effectiveness of practitioners, and promote an integrated approach across disciplines, professions, and sectors.


The project team interviewed almost 50 organizations that are working on a wide range of stewardship projects in the U.S. and abroad. Interviewees included nonprofit groups and public agencies, on-the-ground practitioners, organizations that assist the efforts of others, and private foundations that fund stewardship work. While the organizations interviewed represent only a handful of the multitude of groups doing important work in this field, together they provide an interesting and informative sample of innovative stewardship. Their stories reveal a wealth of creative thinking in conservation, and describe the three common threads of good stewardship: 1) a sense of place that is complex and multifaceted; 2) community-based conservation that is comprehensive, collaborative, respectful, and self-sustaining; and 3) a foundation of commitment and passion that works in concert with a sound scientific and cultural understanding to provide enduring inspiration.


The Landscape of Conservation: The Report of the Stewardship Initiative  (PDF format* - 3,292 KB)


Conservation in today's world is shaped by people working to protect the special places they value and integrating conservation into the fabric of their everyday lives. Through the collaborative efforts of the Conservation Study Institute, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, and The Orion Society, the Stewardship Profiles project was initiated to identify and celebrate people and organizations involved in new approaches to conservation in the U.S. and abroad.

Interviews were conducted with a number of individuals who have put their conservationist visions into practice within their communities. Their personal stories speak to the connections made when people decide to take care of the places where they live, and, while their circumstances may vary widely, the impulse to be good stewards and good citizens is universal. The conservationists featured live in rural, urban, and suburban areas, and have gone about protecting their environments in a variety of ways.

Click on the links below to read about and hear them talk about their experiences.

Tim and Dot Leach

Elvera Vigil Ogard

Giles Romulus

Lynne Sherrod

Ché Madyun and the Dudley Street Neighborhood

Rick Bass and the Yaak Valley Forest Council


*PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have Acrobat installed on your system, you can download Acrobat Reader for free.
National Park Service
National Park Service
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
Shelburne FarmsUniversity of VermontQLF Atlantic Center for the Environment		 National Park Service