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

Viewpoint

Forum on The Future of Conservation, 2022

11/15/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
On ​September 6-8, 2022, Southern Conservation Partners teamed with the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, North Carolina Botanical Garden, The Nature Conservancy, and others to co-sponsor a three-day forum on the Future of Conservation that brought together over 140 participants and key experts on biodiversity, changing climate resilience planning, environmental justice and inclusion from all over North Carolina for dialogue and to develop strategies to better understand and protect imperiled species and ecosystems. (View the PROGRAM here.)
  Below download slides from the introductory plenary presentation, titled Diversity, Resilience, Learning, Place, and Conservation, by Dr. Alan Weakley,  University of North Carolina Herbarium Director. 

weakley_2022-09_nc_conservation_forum.pdf
File Size: 24847 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

Environmental Protection and the Biden Administration

5/22/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
​The first four months of President Biden’s administration have presented a watershed change in priorities, promising renewed emphasis on environmental protection, natural resources and land conservation, and mitigation of climate change consequences. We greet this news with renewed hope, even as evidence of the catastrophic consequences of climate change continues to mount.

​​The Washington Post is keeping a TALLY of the administration’s environmental actions. In four months, President Biden has begun to transform the nation’s energy and environmental landscape, according to the Washington Post’s analysis, by overturning 34 of former president Donald Trump’s policies and finalizing 21 of his own, as of this writing. From pausing new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters to rejoining the Paris climate agreement, Biden has elevated the issue of climate change across the U.S. government and signaled a shift away from fossil fuels. In April he pledged that the United States would cut its greenhouse gas emissions between 50 and 52 percent by the end of the decade compared with 2005 levels—a commitment that will trigger major changes in the ways Americans live, work, and travel.​     

“I talked to the experts, and I see the potential for a more prosperous and equitable future. The signs are unmistakable. The science is undeniable,” Biden declared at the virtual climate summit he convened on Earth Day. “The United States isn’t waiting. We are resolving to take action.”       <continued . . .>


Read More
0 Comments

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

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

Rough Waters

12/19/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
Photo by Tom Earnhardt
This year, with clear evidence that the Trump Administration is jeopardizing many U.S. environmental conservation and protection programs and policies, with hugely damaging consequences, Gary E. Machlis, former National Park Service science advisor (and Clemson University professor of environmental sustainability), and Jonathan B. Jarvis, retired NPS career professional and national director from 2009 to 2017, co-authored an important and inspirational book. The Future of Conservation in America: a Chart for Rough Water (University of Chicago Press) asserts that we are in a period of “rough water,” affecting many environmental assets and conservation programs. The authors identify three major environmental and social threats (and the dangerous irresponsibility of denying them) confronting America: climate change, species extinction, and economic inequality. Actions are required to navigate through the very rough waters facing us. It is essential to assure that the conservation movement is understood by Americans (and especially by young people) as critically relevant to public health and interest. A general re-commitment to environmental conservation and protection is necessary.  <<continued>>

Read More
1 Comment

Torpedoes in Our Clean Water

10/24/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
--by Bobby Whitescarver. Note: A different version of this essay was published as an OPED piece distributed by the Bay Journal News Service on October 17, 2017.  Read that article here.

The Clean Water Act is now 45 years old, born in the U.S. Congress on October 18, 1972. Sometime before that date, the river of my childhood – the Roanoke River in southwestern Virginia – had been declared a fire hazard because of pollution.
 
I learned to water-ski on that river, or rather on one of the manmade lakes along its winding path.  It was 1965 and I remember one of those skiing lessons in particular. Dad was the spotter, and his friend George was the driver. I jumped in the water and waited for the handles of the ski rope. When the tips of my skis were up and my butt down, I yelled, “forward!” As the boat began pulling me, I saw banana peels and “floaters” – human waste – drifting past. I was ten years old, and it gave me the heebie-jeebies. “Hit it,” I shouted, now doubly motivated to get up and out of the water.
 
America now has perhaps the best wastewater treatment in the world. . . .


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

    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    November 2021
    August 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    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
    Book Review
    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
    John Muir
    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