Be a new neighbor, not just a new buyer
“There are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other, and the relation of people to land.”– Aldo Leopold Imagine the situation: A community devastated by wildfire.
Beyond Scarcity: Can we restore vitality in a drying West?
The West is used to drought. Aridification, however, is a whole other level. Aridification is more than drought, more than megadrought. Think Sahara. Think Gobi. Increasingly, this is the forecast for
Almost there! The Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund needs your help
Thanks to a multi-billion-dollar budget surplus, a diverse, state-wide coalition and bipartisan leadership, New Mexico is poised to make a transformative investment in our land and natural resources on a
Intelligent tinkering
Getting the next 50 years of the Endangered Species Act right. We knew the trout darting among the rocks in the tiny stream were special, though at the time, we didn’t
Private Lands are a Lifeline for Wildlife
A 2022 New Mexico Supreme Court decision opening streams on private land to the public has fishermen cheering, but not so much the fish. After all, the decision converted thousands
Making the bottom line work for nature
In May, during the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park, U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Robert Bonnie delivered a landmark speech signaling a major turning point in United States conservation
Can the center hold? Collaborative conservation is the way out West
This issue of On Land takes a look into the rise of landowner-led, collaborative conservation. Pioneered by ranchers from the U.S.-Mexico border to Montana’s Blackfoot Valley, it is a movement
Landowners and sportsmen: Allies or adversaries?
It was just around 8:30 a.m. on a clear morning in mid-September in the southern Colorado Rockies. Turning aspen fluttered lightly in the soft breeze as Dennis, a neighboring ranch
Redefining conservation for a new era
On January 27, President Biden issued a sweeping executive order designed to address climate change and conserve biodiversity. Among its goals is conserving thirty percent of land and water by
Working lands are the future of conservation
In coming decades, conservation will inevitably focus on working lands. Distinct from wilderness, working lands are commonly understood to be those lands tended by human hands. In the West, working
Time to talk about regenerative recreation
As a child, I used to sit on lazy summer afternoons by a little pond on national forest land near my family’s home. Save for the buzzing of an occasional