Conservation 2000: The New Blueprint for Saving the Diversity of Life in Michigan

Guest Viewpoint
Printed below is an excerpt from the newsletter of the Michigan Chapter of The Nature Conservancy that outlines how they want to help preserve critical habitats in Michigan. They have already preserved 80,000 acres in Michigan. The kinds of partnerships suggested here can help to preserve even more. The RVLT wants to work with The Nature Conservancy and many other partners to identify and protect key habitats in our area. By working together we can ensure that some of the natural features we enjoy today will still be around for future generations. Printed with permission of the Michigan Chapter TNC.

by Helen Taylor, State Director

n Michigan we have many opportunities for globally important conservation. Through comprehensive planning within ecoregions that cross into Michigan, we have a blueprint for conserving the diversity of life in our lands and waters over the long-term.

The Michigan Chapter and partners have identified more than 350 areas of conservation significance — including both terrestrial and aquatic priorities; up until now, the Michigan Chapter’s attention has focused on fewer than 100 sites. This new vision of conservation prioritizes the best and most viable examples of diverse flora and fauna in the Great Lakes region, and was developed with many of you and other experts. Now, we are in the process of determining how most quickly and effectively we and our partners can work together to protect these places.

We cannot and will not be doing this alone. The key to our conservation work in the 21st Century will be innovative collaborations with public and private partners at all scales — local, state, regional, national and international. Partnerships with agencies, decision-makers, leaders and corporations in Michigan and elsewhere will be key to forming high-leverage strategies for large-scale conservation. For many of our sites identified as conservation priorities, our partners are better poised to carry conservation forward, and our role may be to ensure that they have the support and resources to take conservation action. We are eager to share our new vision with others. We’d like to think that our new understanding of priority places can serve as a common bond among our partners who are dedicated to wildlife preservation, open space, land-use planning, free-flowing rivers and clean water and air.

The climate is right for such large-scale conservation. Both favorable public opinion about conservation and public wealth are high; the will and the way is here now. Conservation is becoming a unifying concept, not a divisive one. People are drawn to conservation and the protection of biodiversity for many reasons — be it recreation, open space, the economic value of natural resources or the next medicinal cure. With our long tradition of working collaboratively with diverse interests to protect our natural heritage, the Michigan Chapter of The Nature Conservancy hopes to use our new vision for catalyzing conservation throughout the state during this tremendous time of opportunity. The conservation of biodiversity in the Great Lakes is important to everyone’s interests in this new millennium.

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Design by Kenny King.