Thoughts on Dialogue

Summary

These thoughts are purely my own. No one else is responsible for them. So far as I know, no one agrees with them. And no organization endorses them. But dialogue has to start somewhere. And I have learned through thirty years of building dialogue in the interest of conservation that where there is an interest in dialogue, it is better to explore that potential in a way that does not- at least initially — put the reputations, achievements, and assets of organizations at risk. The risk can be limited to the individuals who, speaking only for themselves, can talk about concerns without committing anyone else. So I will float these ideas and see what happens. And part of building trust is to see what other people do when you take a risk, and whether the response respects that risk and helps to build trust. The Conservation Movement The United States has been blessed by a rich legacy of resources, and thanks to the hard work of generations of conservationists and the leadership of a range of conservation organizations we have much to celebrate as well as much to mourn. Necessary global goals such as conserving our remaining species of wildlife or preventing buildup of carbon in the atmosphere should be much easier to achieve in a country where fully one third of the nation’s land surface is in public lands than in countries where there is effectively no public land, and all conservation efforts have to start with enlisting the cooperation of hundreds or thousands of private landowners.