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"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:
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)
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Acrobat Reader for free.
