The call for practical science to guide landscape conservation and sustainable land use across the American West is growing, due to increasing human needs and the rapidly changing environment. As the complexity of land and resource management challenges increases, so too does the complexity of policy decisions and the need to engage the public in developing solutions and creating the base of support necessary for implementing them.
The Landscape Conservation Initiative provides scientific and community leadership for addressing emerging broad-scale conservation and environmental challenges in the Grand Canyon region and across the West. Based at Northern Arizona University and drawing on the expertise of its many partners, the LCI leverages a strong research capacity to inform collaborative design, planning, and management efforts. We also leverage this interdisciplinary work to train students and mid-career professionals in practical, yet creative approaches to landscape conservation and stewardship. By engaging students, decision makers, and the public in meaningful dialog grounded in robust science, the LCI helps forge solutions at scales that make a difference to western ecosystems and the people who depend on them.
Our approach engages partners outside the university in novel efforts to study, learn, and solve emerging problems. By meeting partners half way, the Landscape Conservation Initiative brings the best aspects of research and scholarship to pressing real-world issues.
Our priorities are forged through interaction and collaboration. Please contact us with your ideas, challenges and opportunities for blazing a new path toward stewardship, conservation, and sustainable land use practices.
