Live from Madison...

I am now blogging on official government time. I am using one of several computers specifically set up for conference users to access social media. This is just one of many ways that the National Wildlife Refuge System is continuing to show that it can step outside of the box and access a wider audience.

The past two days have been an absolute whirlwind of intelligent conversation and networking. Yesterday was focused more on revising the 24 recommendations in the Conserving the Future vision document, while today and yesterday are more focused on implementing those recommendations. Some of the recommendations I have been involved in discussing include:

• Urban Wildlife Refuges - Promoting refuges in urban areas as a means to reach out to more constituents. I was sure to emphasize the role of partners, including private land trusts and local governments, in building conservation properties.
• Land Acquisition - I have been involved in several productive conversations regarding expansion of existing refuges and creation of new ones. Once again, cooperation with partner organizations was a major theme, especially in this day and age of tight budgets.
• Inventory and monitoring - I always end up with the complicated topic, which in this case involved reconciling the dozens of ways that data is stored and managed at the 553 refuges throughout the country. I didn't really understand what was going on (way too many acronyms were thrown around), but I think that we're moving in a direction or standardizing the data that is collected at refuges around the country.
• Adaptive management - Adaptive management is a philosophy that consists of managing land with consistent attention to measurable metrics. I had a great discussion about the struggles of land managers throughout the country, but we identified several challenges that all of us face.

I feel like I'm cutting this short, but I have to take off for a reception. Thanks for reading!

Reboot!

It's official - I'm restarting this blog. I've actually been intending to restart it since I came back from a trip to Germany two months ago (I promise, pictures WILL go up). However, I've got an even better reason to restart - I will be attending Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation, a gathering of over 1200 people in Madison, Wisconsin.

The purpose of Conserving the Future is to facilitate discussion on the further development of America's National Wildlife Refuges. As someone who has worked on and visited wildlife refuges extensively, I am extremely excited to be a part of a larger effort to examine the challenges and prospects that the refuge system faces.

At the core of the conference is a vision document that is a proposed set of goals and objectives for the 553-member refuge system. In addition to facilitated discussions surrounding various facets of the document, the conference will also include talks from leaders in conservation and workshops and discussions on various issues related to refuges (including one led by one of my colleagues).

I'm extremely excited for what I expect to be an extremely fulfilling week. I plan to be giving updates to my readers on people I meet, discussions I take part in, and things I see. I hear Madison's a cool city, so expect lots of pictures (to be followed by the Germany photos).

To follow the conference yourself, go to http://americaswildlife.org/conference/.

Thanks for reading!