Welcome from Dan Kimball, Champion of Scaling Up!

For the last year, a dedicated group of National Park Service (NPS) staff from parks, regional offices, and national programs have been leading the efforts of Call to Action #22, “Scaling Up.”  As the NPS carries out its mission to protect and preserve our natural and cultural resources and provide for visitor enjoyment, we must include large landscape conservation as part of our broader strategy.

Many efforts to date have led to greater understanding and advocacy for large landscape scale conservation. The Scaling Up Team’s goal is to expand the conversation about the value of these efforts and successful models for collaborative conservation— in all levels of the organization and across a multitude of programs and disciplines—and it needs to include the great array of partners dedicated to this type of work as well.

To start that process, over the coming week we will hold a strategy session with a small, diverse group of NPS large landscape practitioners and partners to draft an engagement framework. Participants will be challenged to think broadly about cultural change within the NPS around issues of large landscape conservation, and consider an approach that moves people from ideas to strategies to implementation.  

We invite you to join us in the conversations.  Throughout the workshop, we will be posting updates on this Blog site. We hope that you will join the discussion, adding your ideas and contributing to the creation of a community of practice dedicated to advancing this work.