Designing Nature’s Half:
The Blog
News and education about landscape conservation and design.
Designing the Energy Transition at Landscape Scale
Renewables have overtaken coal globally. China is reorganizing its energy system at historic speed. Rare earth extraction is leaving visible scars across landscapes. The energy transition is accelerating, but who decides where its burdens fall? Land is being converted. Minerals are being extracted. Water is being withdrawn. Infrastructure is expanding. The question is no longer whether the transition will proceed, but whether the landscapes that sustain it are being deliberately designed — or altered one permit at a time.
Landscape conservation design offers a framework. Ecoregional Cooperatives offer a mechanism. The durability of the transition will depend on whether regions use them.
When Federal Climate Policy Unravels: Ecoregional Cooperation and Landscape Design
When centralized climate policy unravels, landscape-scale institutions matter more than ever. This article makes the case for ecoregional cooperation and design approaches that embed durable decision authority across regions.
Planning and Design in Conservation: Why the Distinction Matters
Conservation is often described in terms of plans—but planning is only part of how conservation decisions come into being. This post explains why design matters, why landscape scale changes the problem, and how landscape conservation design (LCD) operates upstream of planning.
Why Legitimacy, Not Precision, Determines Conservation Outcomes
At large landscape scales, conservation is limited less by the precision of its analyses than by the legitimacy of the decisions those analyses support.
Why Conservation Keeps Falling Short at Scale
Conservation increasingly falls short not because of missing science or ambition, but because the systems meant to govern decisions were never designed to operate at scale.
Book Development Status — Week 2
An early, pre-announcement status update marking Week 2 progress on the Designing Nature’s Half project, including manuscript development and initial system setup, published as part of a long-term development record.
What This Blog Is (and Is Not): Notes on How Designing Nature’s Half Is Being Built
A brief orientation to the Designing Nature’s Half blog, explaining its purpose, boundaries, and role as a public record documenting how the project and book are being built over time.
🌎Ecoregional Cooperatives: A Conceptual Approach to Landscape-Scale Conservation
What if conserving biodiversity at scale requires not just better projects, but new institutional forms? This essay examines Ecoregional Cooperatives as a design hypothesis for rethinking conservation, governance, and regional economies.
🌎The Future of Landscape Conservation: Participatory Multi-Sector Design of Sustainable Landscapes, with Dr. Amanda Sesser
Dr. Amanda Sesser, the Coordinator of the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) Partnership, discusses the need for inclusive design and decision-making processes that involve diverse stakeholders and empower communities.
🌎Restoring Our Landscapes, Reviving Our Future, with Willem Ferwerda
Willem Ferwerda, founder of the international non-governmental organization Commonland and former Director of IUCN Netherlands, dives deep into the innovative landscape restoration approach he developed, known as the 4 Returns framework, discussing its potential to inspire hope and drive sustainable change across large landscapes.
🌎A Blueprint for Collaborative Conservation, with Alex Wright
Alex Wright is a Landscape Science Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Science Applications program in the Midwest Region. In that role, he facilitates partnerships and develops tools to help coordinate voluntary conservation actions and investments across the Midwest vis-a-vis the Midwest Landscape Initiative.
🌎Connectivity Is Key: The Future of Protected Areas for Biodiversity Conservation, with Hugh Possingham
Hugh Possingham, Professor of Mathematics and Ecology at the University of Queensland, Australia, shares his expertise in biodiversity conservation, spatial planning, and decision science in protected area networks and Marxan, a spatial prioritization decision support tool. Tune into this enlightening conversation packed with expert insights perfect for anyone passionate about sustaining nature half through thoughtful planning, design, and collective action!
🌎The Intersection of Ecology and Technology in Landscape Conservation Design, with Pat Comer
Pat Comer, Chief Ecologist (retired) with NatureServe, shares insights on conducting landscape assessments and their application to landscape conservation design (LCD). The discussion provides practical advice for stakeholders interested in LCD—highlighting landscape assessments as a crucial component in the design process. Tune into this enlightening conversation packed with expert insights perfect for anyone passionate about sustaining nature through thoughtful planning, design, and collective action!
🌎The Art and Science of Landscape Conservation Design Using Models – Insights from Dr. Ronald J. McCormick
Dr. Ronald J. McCormick, a field naturalist and systems ecologist, shares insights on complex systems theory, including its application in landscape conservation design (LCD). The discussion provides practical advice for stakeholders interested in LCD—highlighting conceptual modeling as a valuable step and stressing the importance of boundaries within any model used for decision-making processes. The episode serves as a reminder that successful landscape conservation hinges not only on scientific rigor but also on integrating holistic perspectives—including economic realities and cultural values—to resonate with diverse stakeholder groups involved in LCD truly.
🌎The Fiery Balance: Embracing Flames for a Resilient Future, with Steve Markason
Steve Markason, Founder/Principal of the Teton Wildfire Mitigation Team, shares insights on balancing the ecological benefits of wildfires with the risks they pose when out of control. Steve aims to help listeners understand strategies for living with wildland fires while designing communities that can withstand them. Steve brings extensive experience from his work at Bridger Teton National Forest and now educates nationwide on wildfire best practices.
🌎 Climate Adaptation: A Proactive Approach to Our Planetary Crisis Adapting to Change, with Doug Parsons
Doug Parsons, Host of America Adapts: The Climate Change Podcast, discusses climate adaptation.
🌎The Art and Science of Adapting During a Time of Rapid Change, with Robin West
Robin West, Regional Refuge Chief (retired) with the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge System discusses the climate crisis and adaptation on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska and the remote Pacific Islands.
🌎A New Era in Conservation: Understanding Landscape Conservation, Design, and Sustainability, with Rob Campellone and Tom Miewald
Rob Campellone and Tom Miewald, co-hosts of Designing Nature’s Half: The Landscape Conservation Podcast, discuss Empowering Landscape Partnerships: A Journey Towards Sustainability & Resilience.
🌎Conference of the Parties
A 2nd draft of my book is well underway. An employee-owned printing co-op is setting up an online store to sell Designing Nature's Half merch. We're getting closer to kicking off our podcast: Designing Nature's Half: The Landscape Conservation Podcast.
🌎New Podcast and the COP28
My new podcast about landscape conservation kicks off in January 2024...but the COP28 starts this week! What's COP28? Check it out below!