Environment General Courses (ENVIRON)

graduate level, taught in Durham

298.16 The Practice of Land Conservation

Organizers: Ron Sutherland (5th-year Ph.D. Student) and Dean Urban (Faculty Sponsor)

Motivation for developing a new course: Many of the MEM students interested in nature conservation will end up working for land trusts and other similar non-profit and government agencies after they graduate from the Nicholas School. Although we offer a range of courses on the theoretical and quantitative aspects of conservation biology and ecosystem management, we do not currently offer a course designed specifically to introduce students to the practical side of land conservation. This is a serious gap in our curriculum, especially since the MEM program is intended to serve as a practice-based professional degree program. If we were to offer a high-quality overview of the applied skills and techniques needed by Nicholas School students to succeed as leaders of the modern land conservation movement, we predict such a course would be extremely popular and well-received. A "Practice of Land Conservation" course would also strategically place the Nicholas School well in the forefront of conservation education institutions.

Course Objectives:   
            1. During the course students will achieve familiarity with the basic inner workings of a nonprofit land conservation agency (land trust).
            2. Students will emerge from the course with an appreciation of the daily challenges facing professional staff at land trusts.
            3. Students will also learn which skills and techniques they should cultivate to maximize their chances for professional success in the land conservation field.

Format of the Course: The initial trial version of the course would be a one-credit seminar offered in the middle of the Spring 2007 Semester (mid-February to mid-March). We would meet twice per week for four weeks, and each class would last an hour and a half. A typical class would include a 45 minute-long guest lecture presented by a land conservation professional, followed up by 45 minutes of in-class discussion and group-based activities designed to give the students hands-on experience practicing the skills or concepts described by the guest lecturer. The guest lectures would be open to the public, as they are likely to be of general interest across the Nicholas School conservation community. Readings would be assigned for each topic when available.

Student Assessment: Grades would be based on class participation (20%), two short 2-3 page individual writing assignments (40%) and a small practice-oriented group project (40%). The group projects will focus on solving practical challenges facing local or national land trusts working in North Carolina.

Guest Speakers: Guest speakers for the class will be recruited from the broad array of land conservation nonprofits operating locally in North Carolina. We anticipate making excellent use of the Nicholas School’s extensive network of alumni already working in the field.

Draft Schedule of Class Topics

Listing of Potential Readings for each class session:

1. Introduction to Land Trusts
Brewer, Richard. 2003. Conservancy: The land trust movement in America. University Press of             New England.
Benedict, Mark, and Ed McMahon. 2006. Green Infrastructure: Linking landscapes and
communities. Island Press.
Land Trust Alliance. 2004. Land Trust Standards and Practices.

2. Working with private landowners
Small, Stephen J. 1997-2002. Preserving Family Lands Vol. 1-3. Land Trust Alliance.
Goldstein, J. H., G. C. Daily, J. B. Friday, P. A. Matson, and R. A. Naylor. 2006. Business strategies for conservation on private lands: Koa forestry as a case study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103:10140-10145.
Kabii, T., and P. Horwitz. 2006. A review of landholder motivations and determinants for participation in conservation covenanting programmes. Environmental Conservation 33:11-20.
Langpap, C. 2006. Conservation of endangered species: Can incentives work for private landowners? Ecological Economics 57:558-572.
Kindscher, K., and N. Scott. 1997. Land ownership and tenure of the largest land parcels in the Flint Hills of Kansas, USA. Natural Areas Journal 17:131-135.
Michael, J. A. 2003. Efficient habitat protection with diverse landowners and fragmented landscapes. Environmental Science & Policy 6:243-251.
Polasky, S., H. Doremus, and B. Rettig. 1997. Endangered species conservation on private land. Contemporary Economic Policy 15:66-76.
Raedeke, A. H., C. H. Nilon, and J. S. Rikoon. 2001. Factors affecting landowner participation in ecosystem management: a case study in south-central Missouri. Wildlife Society Bulletin 29:195-206.
Raymond, L. 2006. Cooperation without trust: Overcoming collective action barriers to endangered species protection. Policy Studies Journal 34:37-57.
Shafer, C. L. 2004. A geography of hope: pursuing the voluntary preservation of America's natural heritage. Landscape and Urban Planning 66:127-171.

3. Fundraising: Donors, grants, and bonds
Ginn, William. 2005. Investing in Nature. Island Press - covers new techniques for financing       land conservation
Hooper, Kim, and Ernst Cook. 2004. The Conservation Finance Handbook. Trust for Public    Land.
McQueen, Mike, and Ed McMahon. 2003. Land Conservation Financing. Island Press.

4. Conservation Real Estate 1:Appraisals and Fee Simple Transactions
Land Trust Alliance and the Trust for Public Land. 1995. Doing Deals: A guide to buying land    for conservation.
Newburn, D., S. Reed, P. Berck, and A. Merenlender. 2005. Economics and land-use change in prioritizing private land conservation. Conservation Biology 19:1411-1420.
Parker, D. P. 2004. Land trusts and the choice to conserve land with full ownership or conservation easements. Natural Resources Journal 44:483-518.
Messer, K. D. 2006. The conservation benefits of cost-effective land acquisition: A case study in Maryland. Journal of Environmental Management 79:305-315.
Prendergast, J. R., R. M. Quinn, and J. H. Lawton. 1999. The gaps between theory and practice in selecting nature reserves. Conservation Biology 13:484-492.

5. Conservation Real Estate 2: Easements and Tax Breaks
Land Trust Alliance. 2005. The Conservation Easement Handbook. Includes sample easements             on CD.
Anderson, C. M., and J. R. King. 2004. Equilibrium behavior in the conservation easement game. Land Economics 80:355-374.
Crehan, C. L., D. H. Newman, W. A. Flick, and H. Neuhauserz. 2005. Land trust activity and highest and best uses under conservation easements in Georgia, USA. Natural Areas Journal 25:91-100.
Mahoney, J. D. 2004. The illusion of perpetuity and the preservation of privately owned lands. Natural Resources Journal 44:573-600.
McLaughlin, N. A. 2005. Rethinking the perpetual nature of conservation easements. Harvard Environmental Law Review 29:421-521.
Merenlender, A. M., L. Huntsinger, G. Guthey, and S. K. Fairfax. 2004. Land trusts and conservation easements: Who is conserving what for whom? Conservation Biology 18:65-75.
Morrisette, P. M. 2001. Conservation easements and the public good: Preserving the environment on private lands. Natural Resources Journal 41:373-426.
Wright, J. B. 1994. Designing and Applying Conservation Easements. Journal of the American Planning Association 60:380-388.
Yuan-Farrell, C., M. Marvier, D. Press, and P. Kareiva. 2005. Conservation easements as a conservation strategy: Is there a sense to the spatial distribution of easements? Natural Areas Journal 25:282-289.

6. Stewardship and Land management
Blumstein, D. T., E. Fernandez-Juricic, P. A. Zollner, and S. C. Garity. 2005. Inter-specific variation in avian responses to human disturbance. Journal of Applied Ecology 42:943-953.
Brawn, J. D. 2006. Effects of restoring oak savannas on bird communities and populations. Conservation Biology 20:460-469.
Govender, N., W. S. W. Trollope, and B. W. Van Wilgen. 2006. The effect of fire season, fire frequency, rainfall and management on fire intensity in savanna vegetation in South Africa. Journal of Applied Ecology 43:748-758.
Hulme, P. E. 2006. Beyond control: wider implications for the management of biological invasions. Journal of Applied Ecology 43:835-847.
Noss, R. F., P. Beier, W. W. Covington, R. E. Grumbine, D. B. Lindenmayer, J. W. Prather, F. Schmiegelow, T. D. Sisk, and D. J. Vosick. 2006. Recommendations for integrating restoration ecology and conservation biology in ponderosa pine forests of the southwestern United States. Restoration Ecology 14:4-10.
Seabloom, E. W., J. W. Williams, D. Slayback, D. M. Stoms, J. H. Viers, and A. P. Dobson. 2006. Human impacts, plant invasion, and imperiled plant species in California. Ecological Applications 16:1338-1350.
Varner, J. M., D. R. Gordon, E. Putz, and J. K. Hiers. 2005. Restoring fire to long-unburned Pinus palustris ecosystems: Novel fire effects and consequences for long-unburned ecosystems. Restoration Ecology 13:536-544.

7. Monitoring and Evaluation of conservation Success
Lind, Brenda. 1991. Conservation Easement Stewardship Guide. Land Trust Alliance.
Cullen, R., E. Moran, and K. F. D. Hughey. 2005. Measuring the success and cost effectiveness of New Zealand multiple-species projects to the conservation of threatened species. Ecological Economics 53:311-323.
Noss, R. F. 1990. Indicators for Monitoring Biodiversity - a Hierarchical Approach. Conservation Biology 4:355-364.
Salafsky, N., R. Margoluis, K. H. Redford, and J. G. Robinson. 2002. Improving the practice of conservation: a conceptual framework and research agenda for conservation science. Conservation Biology 16:1469-1479.
Salzer, D., and N. Salafsky. 2006. Allocating resources between taking action, assessing status, and measuring effectiveness of conservation actions. Natural Areas Journal 26:310-316.
Stem, C., R. Margoluis, N. Salafsky, and M. Brown. 2005. Monitoring and evaluation in conservation: a review of trends and approaches. Conservation Biology 19:295-309.

8. Group projects, synthesis
none