Southern Conservation Partners
  • Home
  • What We Do
  • Fiscal Sponsorships
  • Partnerships
  • Resources
  • Defense
  • Viewpoint
  • Contact

Viewpoint

A ​New Green Vision for the South

4/15/2021

0 Comments

 
PicturePhoto by Tom Earnhardt
Southern communities can’t afford to be an after-thought when it comes to federal policy. The South is experiencing more climate impacts than any other region of the US. Rural, Southern communities are facing disproportionate impacts due to logging and wood production. Our region is also home to five of the top 10 carbon emitters in the country and is experiencing forest destruction from industrial logging at four times the rate of South American rainforests. Our survival depends on immediate and inclusive solutions.

The "Southern Communities for a Green New Deal" (SC4GND) policy platform builds on the Green New Deal to center frontline communities in the South. The Dogwood Alliance worked with community leaders and other organizations to develop the forest policy part of the policy platform. The vision we created calls for:
  • A transition away from the industrial model of forestry and agriculture
  • The restoration and preservation of soil and forests
  • A stop to the expansion of new polluting and ecologically destructive industries (i.e. biomass and wood pellets) in environmental justice communities
  • Investment in land protection and nature-based, locally-owned businesses and jobs

It’s time for a new vision for the southern economy. We need a just transition to clean, renewable energy. We need to invest in a regenerative economy rooted in justice and equity. We need to work together for a healthy, strong, and resilient future. Please learn about the SC4GND policy platform: READ MORE. 

--Danna Smith, founder of the Dogwood Alliance
0 Comments

Two from Southern Conservation Partners Honored

3/24/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Kathleen Williams
Picture
Suzi Berl

On International Women's Day, while celebrating women's achievements in conservation, the TennGreen Land Conservvancy honored its founder, Kathleen Williams, a Southern Conservation Partners Board member. Inspired by the book Greenways for America by Charles Little, Kathleen started TennGreen (first named the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation) with a vision to create an interconnected greenway system (large corridors of conserved land) to protect our natural treasures, waters, and wildlife. State parks would be destinations in this network: to get Tennesseans and tourists outside to explore nature and appreciate its beauty. Kathleen's bold vision, impressive successes throughout the years, and her abiding love for Tennessee attracted kindred spirits and other fearless females. Learn more HERE.     
    In addition, National River Network honored Suzi Wilkins Berl with its Compton Award, on the 20th anniversary year of the award, in recognition of her lifetime work and significant contributions to protecting U.S. rivers and waters. Suzi is a Southern Conservation Partners Advisor who has dedicated her life to river conservation: her achievements span 40 years in the nonprofit conservation field. She has worked as River Network’s Southeast Coordinator (2000–2005), American River’s Director of State River Programs (1989–1994), Farmington River Watershed Association’s Executive Director (1984–1989), Connecticut Land Trust Service Bureau’s Executive Director (1980–1984), and Long Island Sound Task Force’s Executive Director (1976–1980). Suzi also served on River Network’s Board of Directors and as board chair. Learn more HERE.




0 Comments

Southern U.S. Needs to Grow Smarter

1/12/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Human population continues to surge across much of the southern United States, with resulting conversion of rural landscapes and environmentally sensitive areas to more urban and industrial uses. As human population grows and more urban/suburban development occurs, we should be embracing wiser and more environmentally balanced alternatives for use of land resources and community development.
Upstate Forever, a multifaceted environmental and community conservation organization based in Greenville, South Carolina, has articulated Ten Principles of Smart Growth. READ M​ORE or click on image.

0 Comments

Alienation: Are You Really at Home?

12/5/2020

0 Comments

 
PicturePhoto by Jared Lloyd
We really enjoyed the following essay, originally published in the NC Coastal Federation's Coastal Review Online. Many thanks to Coastal Review and to author Jared Lloyd, wildlife photographer and nature writer, for allowing us to reprint it here.

I’m on the winter beach, wide, flat and cold. Cobalt-blue skies reign overhead. A biting wind rushes in from the northwest.
    It’s all so different up here on the northern Outer Banks, compared to the southern islands. The Labrador current and cold-slope waters create a dramatically different climate here, compared to those sandbars governed by the Gulf Stream. Seals will be showing up again soon enough. Mostly young harbor seals, but a few fat greys and even some harps, if we are lucky.
    The New England blues have already made it to town, and I can only assume stripers are in their mix. I’ve watched a parade of humpback whales migrating south past this beach for a month now already, their dark, shadowy masses drawing in birds for miles around, occasionally rolling over to lift a great wing of a fin out of the sea like a friendly neighbor waving hello, or goodbye, or maybe just flipping me the bird.   <<continued...>>


Read More
0 Comments

“Conservation is not just a luxury” by Enric Sala

8/29/2020

1 Comment

 
The following is excerpted from a National Geographic magazine essay (Sept. 2020 issue) and from Enric Sala’s book, The Nature of Nature: Why We Need the Wild (2020). (Britain’s Prince Charles and Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson furnish the book’s introductions.)

“If we degrade habitats, animals become stressed and shed more viruses. On the other hand, habitats with diverse species harbor less disease. . . . Nature controls viruses – filtering them out of the system – that we’re only now recognizing. . . .
      "We are all in this together, all species on the planet. So what can we do? While the world has stepped up to help those in need during the COVID-19 outbreaks, we might also start thinking about how to prevent the next zoonotic pandemic.
       "We have seen, again and again, that even though we don’t know what most of them do, all wild animals have important jobs that keep our biosphere running. If we’ve learned anything from our study of natural ecosystems as it applies to these recent diseases, it’s that instead of exterminating wild animals to stop the passage of disease to people, we should do the opposite: We should safeguard the natural ecosystems that are their homes and, if needed, help set them back on their path to maturity through rewilding.
       "If we degrade habitats, animals become stressed and shed more viruses. On the other hand, habitats with diverse microbial, plant, and animal species harbor less disease. Biodiversity dilutes any viruses that emerge and provides a natural shield that absorbs the fallout from pathogens.
        "Clamping down on the illegal trade of wildlife, ending deforestation, protecting intact ecosystems, educating people about the risks of consuming wildlife, changing the way we produce food, phasing out fossil fuels, and transitioning to a circular economy: these are the things we can and must do.
        "Even if it’s just for selfish reasons—for our own survival—now more than ever, we need the wild. A healthy natural world is our best antivirus.” 
1 Comment

Confronting Racism in the Land Conservation Movement

6/23/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Photo by Mike Dunn
​READ the following statement for Southern Conservation Partners authored by board chair Milo Pyne. . . .
In addition, we recommend this Aug. 20, 2020 INTERVIEW with J. Drew Lanham (Clemson University wildlife ecology professor; author of numerous profound essays concerning environmental justice and issues for minority populations in America; and author of books including The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair With Nature  and 9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher. The interview was conducted by Tom Fleischner, Natural History Institute executive director and chair of the Ecological Society of America's natural history section.
___________ 

"Friday, June 19th, was Juneteenth, an annual celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. To honor this solemn anniversary and to demand continued work toward true liberation for black people in this country, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in a national day of action organized by Black-led groups on the front lines of this fight. We will continue to remember ...
George Floyd
Breonna Taylor
Ahmaud Arbery
Rem'mie Fells
Sandra Bland
Rekia Boyd
Trayvon Martin
Riah Milton
Tony McDade
Rayshard Brooks
Oluwatoyin Salau
… and countless other Black lives lost to police brutality and racist violence.
     ​We at Southern Conservation Partners must sadly acknowledge that the conservation lands forming the backbone of land and biodiversity conservation in the southeastern United States were first stolen from the indigenous inhabitants—members of civilizations and groups we now call the Cherokee, Lumbee, Shawnee, Choctaw, Natchez, Yuchi, Eno, Caddo, Timucua, Catawba, Seminole, and many more. Their names live on in the terms by which we describe many of our rivers, National Forests, and other conservation lands.  (continued...) 

Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Conservation, viewed in its entirety, is the slow and laborious unfolding of a new relationship between people and land.
    --Aldo Leopold
    ​There is in fact no distinction between the fate of the land and the fate of the people.  When one is abused, the other suffers.
    --Wendell Berry

    From the President

    SCP President Chuck Roe looked at land conservation along the route of John Muir's "Southern Trek."​
    ​READ ABOUT IT


    About Viewpoint

    This blog offers views of our Board and partners. We invite  your viewpoint on the following questions:
      --How can we work together to overcome isolation among groups working to protect and conserve land, water, wildlife, biodiversity, urban green spaces, productive farms and forests, and communities?
      --How can we devise means to conserve more natural and rural land resources in corporate ownership (even in "syndicated" partnership ownership)? Can that be done ethically, responsibly, effectively?
      --Is there substantive interest in creating a new regional association of nonprofit groups engaged in land conservation and environmental protection in the southern U.S.--for mutual support and exchange ?
      --Is there a need for a regional approach to promote, assess, recognize, and certify operational standards and practices, and performance excellence for nonprofit environmental resource conservation groups?

        Your thoughts on other topics are welcome as well. Email us to submit a "Viewpoint" essay.

    Archives

    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    Aldo Leopold
    Anthropocene
    Biodiversity
    Clean Water Act
    Climate Change
    Coastal Systems
    Conservation
    Conservation Easements
    Cultural Heritage
    Ecological Catastrophe
    Ecological Restoration
    Education
    Environmentalist
    Extinction
    Extractivism
    Forest Ownership
    Forest Products Industry
    Land And Water Trust Funds
    Land Ethic
    Landowner Recognition
    Land Trusts
    Land Trust Tools
    Natural Resource Protection
    Nature Connection
    Partnerships
    Registry
    Resilience
    Southern Forests
    Tax Incentives
    Water Pollution
    Wildlife Trade
    Zoonotic Pandemic

    RSS Feed

Southern Conservation Partners
​P.O. Box 33222,  Raleigh N.C. 27636-3222
    Phone: 919-500-6598
  • Home
  • What We Do
  • Fiscal Sponsorships
  • Partnerships
  • Resources
  • Defense
  • Viewpoint
  • Contact