In the era of climate change, everything is on the move—people, animals, even entire ecosystems. Prior generations of landscape conservation were predicated on notions of sustainaibility and stability. Those efforts focused on what's become known as fortress conservaton, a model that assumes the best way to protect biodiversity is through the demarcation of protected areas, far removed from intensive human activities—what we might think of as wildlife refuges and preserves, wilderness areas, and national parks.

But as concepts like dynamic equilibrium and resilience became mainstream and began producing alternative models of land conservation, we must now ask: how might we reimagine the design, planning, and management of conservation land in the erea of climate change? This question has animated one of the Center's flagship research projects, the Hotspot Cities Alliance and accompanying Atlas for the End of the World directed by Richard Weller, and it will serve as the central theme of our fall public forum on Conservation With Climate Change.

To drive that discussion, this event will feature brief lectures and a moderated discussion between Jodi Hilty, Richard Weller, and Amy Freitag.

Hilty is the Chief Scientist of the Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative, a transcontinental land conservation effort aimed at placing 500,000 square miles of land into protected status along the U.S.-Canadian Border. Weller is Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism Chair of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning and the Co-Executive Director of the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism + Ecology, where his award-winning Atlas for the End of the World project explores the tension between rapid urbanization and high-value, biodiverse peri-urban landscapes. Freitag is Executive Director of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, an organization that champions transformative social, environmental, and cultural causes through inventive grant-making.

Join us on Thursday evening, September 5th, to hear how these bold leaders are working through Conservation With Climate Change.