To provide observations and information on the emerging fields of landscape scale conservation, heritage preservation, and sustainable community development.
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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. The initiative is being lead by the International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes (ISCCL). The […]
Transhumance – the practice of seasonally moving livestock from winter pastures in the lowlands to summer grazing in the mountains – is an ancient intangible and cultural tradition practiced all over the world. The term usually invokes quaint and idyllic images of sheepherders in the European Alps or Pyrenees Mountains and not Wyoming cowboys. Read how the Upper Green River Cattle Association has kept this tradition alive in the United States.
The story of organized labor in the United States is complex, powerful, inspiring, and infuriating. Millions of workers took collective action, often at risk of bodily harm or death, to better their lives and the lives of their peers. As a consequence of their bold efforts, regulations regarding work place safety, wages, hours, and overtime, […]
When does the act of conservation itself become historic? Should the establishment of a permanent easement automatically render farmland as potentially eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places? Read more about how these ideas could affect the the landscape of historic properties within agricultural communities.
Memorial Park in the peaceful Central Pennsylvania town of Carlisle is just one example of the tragic fate of African American burial grounds. The site of this park was once the Lincoln Cemetery used by the African American community from between 1840 and the early 1900s. While the number of burials is not known, they probably numbered in the hundreds including 35 former United States Colored Troops (USCT) veterans. In the 1970s the site’s use as a burial ground was erased, except for one small plaque, to make a community park. What lessons can we lean from this story?
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