In 2020, it often seemed as if each day held a year’s worth of headlines. As a result, stories that might have merited front page coverage in the recent past managed to escape significant media and public scrutiny. Our most popular post of 2020, “While We Were Not Watching,” tried to capture some of these missing narratives, especially as they related to the protection (or lack thereof) of large landscapes. More hopeful writings on the potential for large landscape conservation to aid in economic revitalization or contribute to the practice of interpretation and storytelling, also garnered attention over the past year.

This month, we had the privilege to interview Ta Enos, Founder and CEO of the PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship. The Center is the the coordinating nonprofit for the PA Wilds Conservation Landscape effort, an innovative initiative that promotes economic development, recreation, conservation, and stewardship on a landscape scale.

Creating and implementing programs to jump start community and economic development is never easy. However, there are many benefits of doing so at a landscape scale. The opportunity for regional promotions, sharing capacity building initiatives, and assembling a critical mass of attractions are just a few. What are some successful examples of this work and what might the future hold?

This dialogue session features a number of presentations from an Argentinean perspective. The presenters examined a number of key ideas. For example, the importance of cultural routesand the future of large-scale landscapes in defining the identity of a region and reiterating the indigenous natureculture vision. Also the South American view of the landscape and it’s transformation by Europeans practices. How can these factors be balanced with a traditional and embedded way of life? And then how do these ideas play out on a city scale?