Our Mission

To provide observations and information on the emerging fields of landscape scale conservation, heritage preservation, and sustainable community development.

About Us
the observer

Newsletter

Stay up-to-date with the latest nature, culture and community news.

Email:

We won’t spam you or share your information. Newsletters are sent approximately 10 times a year. Unsubscribe at any time.

Popular Posts
Get Involved

Potemkin Parks and the Future of Public Lands

The numbers are staggering. Over the last 6-months, the nation’s public land agencies, including the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, have lost thousands of employees, ranging from brand new hires to senior executives. Among those hardest hit are staff working “behind the scenes,” including architects, archaeologists, grant administrators, historians, wildlife biologists, and climate scientists; professionals who have dedicated their lives to the care of public lands. Following several rounds of lay-offs, retirements, and buy-outs, what’s left is only a semblance of the workforce needed to adequately maintain, interpret, and protect sites as diverse as the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Key West National Wildlife Refuge in Florida and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in California. Leadership is being judged primarily on keeping the doors to sites open, with little consideration given to the long term impacts of staff departures.

Read More »

Parks Stewardship Forum Features Living Landscapes

The most recent edition of the Parks Stewardship Forum (PSF), entitled “Politics, Practice, and the Management of Living Landscapes,” was guest-edited by Brenda Barrett and Eleanor Mahoney from the Living Landscape Observer. This issue examines the conservation of living landscapes at sites worldwide.

Read More »

World Rural Landscapes

What are the best ways to identify and conserve rural landscapes? Since 2012, participants at a series of international meetings have sought to answer this complex question, in part through the development of a new set of shared general principles.

Read More »

Potemkin Parks and the Future of Public Lands

The numbers are staggering. Over the last 6-months, the nation’s public land agencies, including the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, have lost thousands of employees, ranging from brand new hires to senior executives. Among those hardest hit are staff working “behind the scenes,” including architects, archaeologists, grant administrators, historians, wildlife biologists, and climate scientists; professionals who have dedicated their lives to the care of public lands. Following several rounds of lay-offs, retirements, and buy-outs, what’s left is only a semblance of the workforce needed to adequately maintain, interpret, and protect sites as diverse as the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Key West National Wildlife Refuge in Florida and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in California. Leadership is being judged primarily on keeping the doors to sites open, with little consideration given to the long term impacts of staff departures.

Read More »

Parks Stewardship Forum Features Living Landscapes

The most recent edition of the Parks Stewardship Forum (PSF), entitled “Politics, Practice, and the Management of Living Landscapes,” was guest-edited by Brenda Barrett and Eleanor Mahoney from the Living Landscape Observer. This issue examines the conservation of living landscapes at sites worldwide.

Read More »

World Rural Landscapes

What are the best ways to identify and conserve rural landscapes? Since 2012, participants at a series of international meetings have sought to answer this complex question, in part through the development of a new set of shared general principles.

Read More »