Climate change is a real concern with real implications: left unchecked, we are putting ourselves and our planet at great risk. Gases produced from sources like vehicles and power plants build up like a thick blanket in our atmosphere, trapping heat and warming our planet. Already, global temperatures increased by about 1 degree Fahrenheit during the last century. That may seem like a small number, but the rise in temperature is linked to stronger hurricanes, more drought and even extinction of plants and animals.

Americans contribute 22 percent of the world’s carbon emissions despite representing only 5 percent of the population. Regular travel, like business trips and vacations, add up: for each person traveling 5,000 miles by airplane, one ton of carbon is released into the atmosphere, and a 2,500-mile road trip in a medium-sized car will release another ton. But if we are part of the problem, we are also part of the solution.

That’s why The Nature Conservancy has created the Carbon Calculator. It allows you to measure your climate impact and offers ideas on how your entire family can reduce the size of your carbon footprint and make a big impact on the environment.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

The Conservancy is working to reduce the impacts of climate change in ways that protect plants and animals and benefit human welfare:

• Reducing emissions from deforestation – The Stern Review, a report by British economists, noted that deforestation contributes almost 25 percent of current global emissions of carbon dioxide. The Nature Conservancy is working to significantly reduce these emissions by catalyzing a global system of financial incentives that values carbon stored in standing tropical forests while contributing to sustainable development and the protection of ecosystems on which people depend.
• Helping natural areas adapt to the impacts of climate change – Millions of acres of land and thousands of miles of rivers and coastal areas that we’ve protected over the past 55 years are at risk. In response, the Conservancy is, for example, working to build resilient regional conservation networks across the globe that allow plants, animals and natural areas to survive.
• Supporting policies to reduce emissions – In the U.S., the Conservancy is working toward passing federal climate legislation. Internationally, The Nature Conservancy supports the development of a more comprehensive global agreement for emissions reductions that includes all major emitting countries and all major emissions sources. The Conservancy urges governments to incorporate nature-based strategies and funding to help people, plants and animals adapt to climate change.

Action Starts when People Talk.

In the midst of dire warnings about climate change, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. Here you can try out our Carbon Calculator, an interactive tool that lets you measure your household’s climate impact and offers tips and strategies for reducing your footprint. Start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues, and take a look at the Conversation Starters related to climate change for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting the Conservancy’s Climate Change Initiative.

The Illinois wetlands are the land’s natural filters, cleaning and purifying water and delivering nutrients to the soil. People all over the world rely on wetlands not just for food and water, but also for their natural abilities to moderate the environment—such as the wetlands’ natural ability to offset droughts by storing groundwater. Wetlands provide valuable habitat for hundreds of native plant and animal species which rely on the naturally water-drenched lands for their survival.

The natural functions of wetlands used to be poorly understood, and the lands were frequently drained to provide drier land that was suitable for agriculture and considered more beneficial to the growing population. Manmade retention ponds were sometimes built to replace them, but they lack the filtering abilities of natural wetlands. As a result, Illinois wetlands have been reduced to only 4 percent of their original acreage, too small to perform the filtering processes vital to healthy natural lands. In Illinois, wetlands are deeply threatened by unchecked land development, and the people and the wildlife who depend on wetlands are also at risk. Only a few wetlands remain in the state, and those wetlands need to be restored—for wildlife, for nature, and for us.

What is The Nature Conservancy Doing?

The Nature Conservancy in Illinois is a leader in wetland restoration. In 2000, The Nature Conservancy purchased 7,100 acres of corn and soy bean fields southwest of Peoria. Known as Emiquon, these lands are being restored and reconnected to the Illinois River. In only a few months of active restoration work, Emiquon has given concrete evidence to the resilience of wetlands. Water returned to a historic lake bed that had been dry for 83 years, and seeds that had lain dormant in the banks began to push through the earth.

Emiquon is now a model for wetland restoration across the world, and the information and innovative conservation techniques gathered here are helping inform projects along the Yangtze River in China, the Zambezi River in Africa, and the Paraguay-Pantanal River in Brazil.

Spunky Bottoms, another Conservancy preserve in Illinois, has responded impressively to restoration work. In less than five years after discontinuing agricultural production on 2,026 acres, Spunky Bottoms now hosts more than 250 species of plants and animals.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of dire warnings about the loss of wetlands, there are messages of hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s Web site, nature.org.

It is impossible to separate human activities from nature. Even in those places of untamed rivers and wild animals, landscapes often bear signs of human impact—perhaps an invasive species, a pollutant, or the absence of an animal long ago exterminated. About half of the world’s surface area has already been converted to either grazed land or agricultural crops. This human footprint is deep: slash-and-burn agricultural techniques may have been used in the Amazon and Congo more than 1,000 years ago. Today, less than one-fifth of the world’s land area has escaped some form of human contact, whether a large development or a simple nighttime light.

Land is a limited resource, and one that we are quickly developing and fragmenting, making it unusable for crops or for wildlife. Look no further than Chicagoland: the six-county region is predicted to grow by 1.9 million people and 1.2 million jobs over the next 25 years. In only two decades, between 1970 and 1990, residential land in Chicago was devoured at a rate 11 times faster than the population was growing. But it’s not just more homes that are consuming land—commercial and industrial lands also grew at tremendous rates in the same period of time, exceeding population growth by 74 percent.

Poorly planned growth claims thousands of acres of open land each decade. That open land includes high quality farmlands as well as natural, undeveloped areas. When buildings and people encroach on these lands, it affects more than just farmers. It affects wildlife: as their homes become increasingly fragmented, it becomes harder for them to find food, shelter and breeding grounds, and it is more difficult to maintain migratory patterns necessary for their survival. It affects people who enjoy spending time outdoors, as their recreational opportunities get eaten up by spreading home developments and shopping malls. As natural resources become more strained, so does our comfort and well-being. More asphalt means more ground covered and heightened flooding, more developments mean fewer aesthetic views, more concrete means more uncomfortable summer temperatures.

Rapid, poorly planned urban development is the primary threat to the remaining unprotected natural lands in and near Chicago. Breaking land into smaller fragments can be devastating to certain animals, like birds that can only breed in large, continuous habitats. Fragmentation has happened in the past, and it’s what is likely to happen in the future. In fact, over the next 25 years, more than 22,000 acres of natural resources and habitat will be lost to development in rapidly growing areas like Chicago and other metropolises.

What The Nature Conservancy Is Doing.

Chicago, for all its urban density, also contains some of the best remnants of Midwestern wilderness, like eastern tallgrass prairies and open oak woodlands. The Indian Boundary Prairies, a cluster of four prairies south of Chicago, are all that remain of the lakeplain prairie that once extended along the western shores of Lake Michigan. The Conservancy works with Northeastern Illinois University, a major landowner and partner at the Indian Boundary Prairies, to be stewards of these prairie remnants. The Conservancy also works with groups like Chicago Wilderness to protect and promote other natural areas in and around Chicago.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of dire warnings about poorly planned urban development and its negative impact on people and wildlife, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s Web site, nature.org.

Money doesn’t grow on trees. Unless those trees happen to be in Costa Rica—in which case there’s about $26 million dollars growing in its tropical forests.

As part of the debt-for-nature swap, the United States Treasury forgave $26 million of Costa Rica’s debt, money which will now be directed toward the protection of more than 1,000 acres of tropical forest. This deal, brokered by The Nature Conservancy, is the largest debt-for-nature swap under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act. It secures long-term, science-based funding for Costa Rica’s tropical forests.

Some of the tropical forests that will benefit from the deal fall within Costa Rica’s La Amistad region. La Amistad contains the largest untouched tract of rainforest in Costa Rica and is home to more than 350 species of birds. At least a third of those bird species are migrants from North America—so preserving their winter home also helps preserve biodiversity in the United States. La Amistad contains 90 percent of known plants in Costa Rica, a third of which are found nowhere else in the world.

It’s not just about saving plants and wildlife: Costa Rica’s largest population of indigenous people live in and near La Amistad, and the watersheds there provide important freshwater sources for nearby communities. Areas like this are at risk from unregulated development and logging, both of which could have devastating effects on these ecologically rich regions.

What The Nature Conservancy is doing.

Since 1998, The Nature Conservancy has facilitated eight debt-for-nature swaps, contributing some $8 million. This money has resulted in $116 million for conservation in Jamaica, Panama, Peru, Guatemala, Belize, Colombia, and now Costa Rica. Debt-for-nature swaps sustain long-term conservation efforts in countries with rich tropical forests.

Action starts when people talk

Debt-for-nature swaps show how we can start to reverse trends that burden our natural resources, like unregulated development, tourism and logging. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

If you had a time machine and could travel back 200 years or so to Illinois’ early settlement days, you wouldn’t recognize the place. Prairies stretched as far as the eye could see—across more than 60 percent of the state. Herds of bison and elk grazed in tall grasses, and the mating calls of prairie chickens filled the air. Rivers flooded their banks each spring, renewing life in adjacent wetlands. Michigan lilies and prairie-fringed orchids bloomed where downtown Chicago now sits.

Today, most of Illinois’ original prairies, forests and wetlands are either gone—converted to agricultural land or urban areas—or severely degraded. The energy and ingenuity of the early settlers turned Illinois’ rich, black prairie soil into food for the nation. Forests were cut for fuel and lumber. Wetlands were drained and planted to crops.

But happily, this story doesn’t end here. Perhaps because Illinois has so little native habitat left, it has been a leader in protecting what remains and restoring some of the Prairie State’s former grandeur.

All over Illinois, including in the Chicago region, public agencies and private landowners are protecting prairie remnants, reconstructing wetlands and restoring savannas and forests. And ordinary citizens are a driving force in this renaissance.

People like Jay Stacy who has spent the last 13 years, sometimes putting in 10-hour days, removing invasive species and collecting seeds at Nachusa Grasslands, one of Illinois largest remaining prairies. Or people like Jim Judd, a retired engineer from St. Charles, who spends many early mornings making photographs of Kane County forest preserves, which he shares with the Forest Preserve District in hopes of inspiring others to join the restoration effort.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

Through the Volunteer Stewardship Network, The Nature Conservancy, the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission and other partners provide more than 74 groups—39 in the Chicago area—and thousands of volunteers like Jim Judd with training opportunities, tools, funding and information on grants and workshops to assist them with restoring Illinois’ highest quality natural areas.

At Nachusa Grasslands near Rockford, volunteer land stewards like Jay Stacy are restoring one of Illinois’ largest and last remaining prairie landscapes. A remnant of the once vast landscape that greeted Illinois pioneers 200 years ago, today Nachusa is a model for prairie restoration and a training site for public and private land managers interested in prescribed fire, weed management and natural areas restoration.

At Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, southwest of Chicago near Joliet, the Conservancy is coordinating volunteer and environmental monitoring programs at the first national tallgrass prairie in the country. Part of the former Joliet Army Ammunition Plant, today Midewin is dedicated to prairie and wildlife habitat restoration, scientific research, education and recreation. Midewin has about 260 active volunteers who donated more than 8,100 hours last year helping to collect seed and plant prairie, remove brush and invasive species, build trails, conduct plant surveys, lead hikes and much more. Through the Mighty Acorns Youth Stewardship Program, each year volunteers help introduce hundreds of school children to nature.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of the struggle to balance the protection and restoration of natural areas with continued loss from development and invasive species, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to habitat restoration for relevant and compelling facts. Contact the Volunteer Stewardship Network to learn more about how you can get involved in helping restore our prairies, forests and waterways. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s Web site, nature.org.

Given the city’s history, Chicagoans might have more reason than some to fear fire. Even today, most Chicago school children can tell you about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that may or may not have been started by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.

But they might not know just how important fire was in shaping and maintaining the vast prairies that once covered most of Illinois. Or how useful it can be today in the right circumstances.

Like wind and water, fire is a powerful natural force that has shaped life on Earth. It helps determine where different types of habitats exist around the world. The prairies of Illinois, for example, need fire to keep invasive shrubs from taking over, add nutrients to the soil and stimulate growth of native grasses and wildflowers. Tropical rainforests in the Amazon basin, on the other hand, cannot survive regular or intense fires.

When we read or hear about fire in the media, it’s generally a story about the awesome destruction and devastation that fire can wreck upon a landscape or a community. In the wrong place or at the wrong intensity, fire is the enemy.

When utilized carefully by trained land managers, volunteers and private landowners, however, fire can provide many benefits to people and nature. Ranchers use fire to rid pastures of invasive species that, left unchecked, can result in the loss of productive rangeland and thousands of dollars in annual income. Forestry professionals use fire to remove excessive tree and leaf litter from wild lands near urban communities to protect them from catastrophic fires, saving lives, property and millions of dollars in fire-fighting expenses. Thousands of land stewards are using fire regularly on public and private lands to return our native forests, prairies and wetlands to their former glory.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

The Nature Conservancy’s Global Fire Initiative is providing leadership and working with others around the world to find solutions that allow fire to play a role in places where it benefits nature and people and keep fire out of places where it is destructive.

The Conservancy is the only international conservation group with a dedicated team of fire ecologists and fire management specialists. Each year, the Conservancy burns about 100,000 acres of its own land and assists partners in burning another 150,000 acres. We have more than 100 fire-trained staff in more than 35 states that meet or exceed the U.S. federal fire management standards, and our record of success in implementing safe prescribed burns is one of the nation’s best. The Conservancy is also rapidly expanding the on-the-ground fire management capacity of staff and partners in Latin America and the Caribbean.

At Nachusa Grasslands, near Rockford, Illinois, trained volunteer land stewards use fire to restore and maintain one of Illinois’ largest and last remaining prairie landscapes. A remnant of the once vast landscape that greeted Illinois pioneers 200 years ago, today Nachusa is a model for prairie restoration and a training site for public and private land managers interested in controlled fire, weed management and natural areas restoration.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of the struggle to balance the threat of fire with the benefits it provides to people and nature, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to habitat restoration for relevant and compelling facts. Consider a trip to Nachusa Grasslands with family or friends where you will join other volunteers from Chicago and throughout Illinois in collecting and planting seeds or removing invasive plants at a Saturday morning work day. Learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s Web site, nature.org.

It’s no surprise that without careful management, cattle can wreak havoc on landscapes, grazing the land literally to death. What might surprise you is that many cattle ranchers are reversing this trend, turning their ranches into working landscapes where cattle, people and nature benefit.

A working landscape allows the bulls and the bears to get along—it’s a happy coexistence of agriculture and nature, of cattle ranches and wildlife. Private landowners, who are increasingly viewed as the key to protecting open lands and wildlife corridors, can create a working landscape through a conservation easement, a voluntary, legally binding agreement. Conservation easements limit certain types of uses and can prevent development from taking place on a piece of property now and in the future, while protecting the property’s ecological and open-space values.

Working landscapes prove that with careful planning and ongoing management everyone can be good stewards of the land.

What is The Nature Conservancy doing?

The Nature Conservancy is working with ranchers and farmers all over the world to help preserve lands without compromising their livelihoods.

In Brazil, for example, The Nature Conservancy has been working to ensure the integrity of the Pantanal region, the largest freshwater wetland in the world. The Pantanal, the floodplain of the Upper Paraguay River, is nearly 10 times the size of the Florida Everglades. Some of the biggest threats to the Pantanal include unsustainable ranching and agricultural practice in the nearby Cerrado uplands, an area that has been largely converted to ranching and large-scale agriculture based on unsustainable practices. This leads to problems like nutrients and sediment overloading rivers that feed into the Pantanal.

Since 2005, The Nature Conservancy has worked with the Brazilian government to enforce laws that require farmers to set aside between 20 and 35 percent of their lands. Using global positioning devices, the Conservancy is able to determine whether enough land is being preserved, and if not, help farmers increase protection without incurring government fines.

In Illinois, the Mackinaw River demonstration farm stands as another example of a working landscape. The Nature Conservancy signed a 10-year cooperative agreement with the Franklin family, the farm’s owners, to test conservation methods that will benefit both the farm and nature.

Action starts when people talk.

As cattle ranchers work to be better stewards of the earth, so can you. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to habitat preservation for relevant and compelling facts.

Kirtland’s warblers escape the Great Lakes region every year to winter in the Bahamas. But before you get envious of these rare yellow-chested birds’ warm winter vacation, consider the obstacles they have to overcome on their journey: about 85% of adult bird deaths occur during migration.

This number describes the risks of all adult migratory birds, not just Kirtland’s warblers, and it may increase. Migration through the Midwest is thought to be especially risky, as the region is full of hazards for a small bird crossing the country. Vast agricultural landscapes mean fewer places to rest and more work to find food. Large structures, from buildings in concentrated urban centers like downtown Chicago to isolated cell phone towers, result in bird deaths. Many bird species navigate the Great Lakes region during their migrations, providing remarkable bird watching opportunities for people as hundreds of millions of birds pass through—and presenting immense risks for the birds.

Kirtland’s warblers are already rare because of their rigid habitat requirements—they breed only in jack pine forests in the Great Lakes region. Already endangered, the warblers travel 3,000 miles each year—from the Midwest to the Bahamas and back—a trip that puts them at greater risk of death because of human activity.

What is The Nature Conservancy doing?

Conservancy scientists are working to protect the Kirtland’s warblers’ winter habitat in the Bahamas by training Bahamians in conservation techniques and working with local landowners to study these birds. On a broader level, The Nature Conservancy’s Migratory Bird Program protects critical habitats for birds throughout the Western hemisphere by identifying networks of habitats needed by bird species throughout North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Learn more about the Conservancy's Migratory Bird Program.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of dire messages about changing habitats and threats of extinction, there is hope. Because species like Kirtland’s warblers rely just as much on the breeding grounds of Great Lakes as the warm winters of the Bahamas, there are many opportunities for action. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

Conversion of prairie, woodlands and wetlands to crop lands helped feed a growing nation and a hungry world.

Today, most land suited for intensive agriculture is already under cultivation. Meanwhile, federal farm programs like the Conservation Reserve Program have taken millions of acres of marginal crop land out of production. That has helped farmers keep their operations financially viable. And, it has provided vital habitat for animals and plants as well as a host of recreation opportunities.

Yet as demands for commodity crops like corn rise due to growing global population and increasing consumption for byproducts like ethanol, pressure is rising to once again farm marginal lands. In fact, scientists say that with world population predicted to increase by another 3 billion by 2050 more food has to be produced within the next several decades than during the last 10,000 years.

At stake is shrinking and increasingly fragmented natural habitats, already beset by growing urbanization, invasive species and other threats. For some species such as grassland birds, the result is dramatic population declines.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

• At the Emiquon Preserve south of Peoria along the Illinois River, the Conservancy and its partners are working to restore more than 7,000 acres of corn and soybean fields to its former state of wetlands, prairie and woodlands.
• Restoring the Emiquon floodplain will proved vital habitat for aquatic species and migratory birds, among other species. For residents and visitors, the vision for Emiquon is to offer numerous recreation and educational opportunities and provide ecosystem services such as flood control.
• In Brazil’s Cerrado, one of the world’s most biologically diverse savannas, intensive land conversion over the past three decades has increased run-off of topsoil laden with chemicals and nutrients into rivers. Downstream, this affects the people and animals that depend on healthy freshwater habitats. At risk is the Pantanal, home to the greatest concentration of fauna in the Americas.
• Conservancy staff is working with partners to enhance Brazilian programs such as the grasslands exchange that are critical to conservation success in the Cerrado and affected watersheds.

Action starts when people talk.

Even as natural habitats face pressure due to expanding crop production and other threats, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to habitat preservation for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

Formerly lush landscapes transform to arid desert. This isn’t a dystopian landscape from a sci-fi movie—it could soon be reality for millions of people.

Desertification is a gradual habitat shift in which formerly productive lands become degraded, lose their vegetative cover, and ultimately become unusable both for people and wildlife. Desertification is caused by many factors, including over farming, overgrazing, and extreme climatic events. According to the United Nations, some 1.2 billion people are threatened by desertification.

Land degradation such as desertification and deforestation is a major contributor to climate change—responsible for nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. But it’s doing more than harming land, it’s also harming people. Millions of people who live in extreme poverty are directly affected by desertification: their dire economic conditions force them to exploit the land beyond its means, and when it becomes unusable, they often have little choice but to move and start over again, causing further strain to the environment.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of so many dire messages about our changing landscape, there are still many actions we can take. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

What happens in Africa doesn’t stay in Africa.

In fact, when forests get destroyed in Central Africa, it affects rainfall in Chicago. Sound hard to believe? A 2005 study by Duke University found connections between rainfall in Central Africa and the upper and lower Midwest as well as between the Amazon and Texas.

Normally, large areas of vegetation can absorb large amounts of heat. But when areas are deforested, large expanses of soil are left—and soil is unable to absorb the same amount of heat as the vegetative cover. Ultimately, that means less moisture is taken up into the atmosphere, and rainfall patterns across the world are affected.

Besides its significant contribution to climate change, deforestation also impacts the nearly 1 billion people living in extreme poverty that depend on forests for their water, fuel or livelihood, and countless plant and animal species whose homes are threatened.

Deforestation is perhaps less widely recognized as a contributor to climate change than burning fossil fuels, but it has devastating effects. Far from slowing down, deforestation rates are climbing across the tropics, and once remote tropical forests in Central Africa are now sites for extensive logging operations. Not only does this compromise local natural resources and landscapes, perhaps irreversibly, but the echoes of deforestation can be felt around the world.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

The Nature Conservancy believes that addressing deforestation must be part of a larger climate change strategy. We are encouraging the world’s governments to develop meaningful incentives to encourage the preservation and restoration of forests. The Conservancy is conducting research around the world to measure the amount of carbon captured by forests.

Action starts when people talk.

Deforestation in Central Africa affects you, and that means you can do something about it. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

Across the developing world, more than 2 billion people lack access to electricity. As countries seek solutions to soaring energy demands, many are rapidly building hydropower dams. In Central America, more 390 large hydropower dams are planned or under construction, along with more than 40 proposed dams in the Yangtze River basin in China, 270 in Ontario, Canada, 200 in Brazil and hundreds more in other countries.

Dams generate needed electric power and economic opportunities. Yet they also often have profound human and ecological consequences. The 375-mile reservoir created by the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, for example, has displaced more than 1 million people and submerged hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

Overall, dams hinder natural processes such as seasonal flooding and fish migration and divert flows from where they once benefited wildlife and humans.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

The Conservancy is working with governments, multi-lateral lending institutions and energy companies around the world to find ways to generate electricity from hydropower dams in a more sustainable manner. The work begins by helping to determine the environmental flows needed to sustain river ecosystems. Next, Conservancy scientists work with dam designers and operators to locate, design and operate dams in ways that protect necessary environmental flow regimes and river species.

The Conservancy is investing in key field projects for the purpose of demonstrating conservation approaches and tools that can be adopted far more broadly. Our approach is to demonstrate at multiple sites around the globe ways to strike a balance for people and nature, and then leveraging lessons, ideas and expertise to still more places. The aim is to leverage action at specific sites into highly effective policy initiatives in the United States and across the globe.

In the midst of the struggle to balance growing energy demands with impacts on humans and nature, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to habitat restoration for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

Throughout history, humankind’s migration and subsequent trade expansion have introduced non-native species to new ecosystems—often to the detriment of native species. Current scientific evidence shows, for example, that as of 2006, nearly 200 non-native aquatic species now call the Great Lakes home. And their numbers increase every year.

To the causal observer, the effect of alien invasive species in the Great Lakes is readily seen in the degradation of beaches and swimming areas, due in part to weed and mollusk infestations, namely by such species as purple loosestrife and zebra mussels. But look a little further, and the impacts caused by alien invasive species are far more extensive:

• After habitat destruction, invasive species are the second leading cause of species extinctions in the world; and
• Invasive species have directly contributed to the decline of 49 percent of the nation’s threatened and endangered species.

In just the Great Lakes region, economic and environmental losses caused by aquatic invasive species are estimated to be as much as $5.7 billion annually. That’s greater than the 2006 Gross Domestic Product of more than 50 countries.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

Solutions discovered in places where natural systems and commerce intersect, such as the Great Lakes, will provide a gateway to combating the global threat of alien invasive species. That’s why the Conservancy is working to find solutions that can be used in the Great Lakes and elsewhere.

At the heart of this initiative is our collaboration with the University of Notre Dame, which connects groundbreaking invasive species research with the Conservancy’s on-the-ground conservation. Our joint effort applies research directly toward the management and policy solutions needed to address the persistent threat of invasive species. Together we are developing powerful tools to educate the public, inform the debate about new public policy options and provide strategic guidance to decision makers about ways to manage invasive species. Read more about our Great Lakes program.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of dire scenarios about declining natural systems due to invasive species, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about this issue with your friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to invasive species for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about The Nature Conservancy’s work to combat invasive species by visiting our Invasives Initiative information.

You may only think about dirt when you’re trying to get it off your clothes or your floor. But think of it as beneficial instead of bothersome: healthy, fertile soil is vital for healthy, well-fed people.

Soil is eroding at an alarming rate—some 37,000 square miles every year. In only the last four decades, almost one-third of the world’s arable land has been rendered unproductive. The problem isn’t limited to impoverished countries, although the consequences of soil erosion are generally intensified for the poor. In the United States, soil erodes 10 times faster than it can be naturally replenished, leaving less for cropland, less to support plant and animal life, and more washed into our lakes and rivers.

Dirt can even be measured in dollars. The economic impact of soil erosion is tremendous: soil erosion costs the United States some $37 billion a year.

What The Nature Conservancy is doing.

The Cache River Wetlands in Illinois once boasted lush hardwood forests and many large mammal species. Logging and agriculture have resulted in forest loss, and water quality has suffered due to massive soil erosion—150 tons of soil per acre every year. The Nature Conservancy has partnered with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, and Ducks Unlimited. Together we are working to protect and restore a 60,000-acre wetland corridor along 50 miles of the Cache River.

Action starts when people talk.

Change the way you think about dirt. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters for relevant and compelling facts.

Old Man River snakes its way through America’s heartland, widening and accelerating before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico on its more than 2,300 mile journey.

Along its route, hundreds of tributaries add to the Mississippi River’s volume, not only water, but tremendous loads of sediments and nutrients from agricultural fields. These excess fertilizer and sediments make their way to the Gulf, leading to hypoxia, or oxygen depletion, and creating a “dead zone” each summer around the river’s mouth. This zone threatens commercial fishing and important marine habitat.

The Gulf dead zone is the one of largest oxygen-depleted waters in the world. It has more than doubled in size since 1984, reaching a record 8,500 square miles in 2002. Other large dead zones occur in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. There are also hypoxic areas in Lake Erie and Chesapeake Bay, as well as off numerous coasts around the world.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

The Nature Conservancy has identified a set of actions that could contribute to the reduction of the hypoxia zone. By restoring wetlands and riparian systems to capture nutrients and reduce these inputs at the source, the Conservancy and our partners are aiming to slow or even reduce the growth of this hypoxic zone and the effects it is having throughout the region.

The Conservancy’s Mackinaw River Project in Illinois is one example of how the Conservancy is working with farmers to implement Best Management Practices to reduce nutrient and sediment run-off that ultimately enters the Mississippi.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of the dire warnings about expanding marine dead zones, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to habitat restoration for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

If wind in the grass is the music of the prairie, grassland birds give voice to its song.

Yet every year, that song grows ever fainter as the populations of these grassland-dependent species continue to drop. In Illinois, where less than 1 percent of the original prairie remains, once common species such as meadowlark and bobolink have declined 70 to 90 percent in the past 40 years.

And across the Great Plains—where more than 40 percent of all bird species in North America breed—grassland birds are showing steeper, more consistent and more geographically widespread declines than any other comparable group of species in North America. The culprit: destruction and fragmentation of grassland habitats.

Habitat destruction takes many forms including conversion of grasslands to cropland, urbanization, overgrazing and invasive species.

Fragmentation due to roads, fences, fields and other development has negative effects not only on birds, but on other plants and animals as well. It generally leads to isolated populations—of birds, native grasses, insects and small mammals—that gradually die out over time.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

The Nature Conservancy has more than 40 years of grasslands conservation experience in the United States. We have honed an array of strategies to effectively abate threats to grasslands and the numerous bird species and other animals and plants that depend on healthy grasslands for their survival.

• The Conservancy’s Prairie Wings takes a borderless, range-wide approach to reverse declines in grassland birds. In Mexico, the acquisition of the 48,500-acre Rancho El Uno in the Chihuahuan Desert and the protection of 60,000 acres in the La Soledad region protects critical wintering habitat for grassland birds.
• We use a variety of tools proven to be successful in working landscapes where farms and ranches dominate. These include land acquisition, conservation easements, grass banking and beginning rancher programs, among other innovative efforts. Our aim is to achieve conservation success while respecting local traditions and land use.
• We employ a number of strategies to preserve and restore grasslands. For example, we work with private landowners to implement grazing practices to reverse the alarming decline of North American grassland birds. We also work with a variety of partners to introduce and manage programs that help ensure early detection and control of invasive species.
• At the Conservancy’s Nachusa Grasslands preserve in northwest Illinois, a dedicated group of volunteers and staff are working to protect and restore more than 2,000 acres of grasslands, woodlands and wetlands. Their arsenal of restoration tools includes prescribed burns and replanting prairies by hand.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of dire scenarios about declining bird populations, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to habitat preservation for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

Already there are 1 billion people in the world without access to clean drinking water, and another two billion whose access is inadequate.

As the world’s population grows, so does our need for drinking water. City dwellers are expected to grow by another 2 billion people by the year 2050, placing a huge strain on the world’s freshwater ecosystems—requiring perhaps up to 70 percent more water than we currently use.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

If we can protect our waters, we can protect the people who rely on them. To that end, The Nature Conservancy works with partners around the world to establish watershed protection and better water-management practices.

Along the Texas and Louisiana border, the Conservancy is helping local scientists, water managers and community members examine the current and projected demands on the available water from Caddo Lake and surrounding wetlands, the largest natural lake in Texas, stretching 50 square miles. The team is also evaluating how a nearby reservoir could be better operated to meet a broader spectrum of needs. Both efforts seek to improve the overall health of the area’s freshwater system.

Our conservation scientists are also helping protect and restore vast river systems around the globe, such as the Paraguay-Paraná in South America, remain vital. Flowing through Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, the Paraguay-Paraná river system covers an area of almost 1 million square miles, making it the second largest in South America. To help restore the river's health, the Conservancy is collaborating with Brazil's water agencies to encourage large-scale reforestation in the region, while also working with local farmers to increase their knowledge and use of sound agricultural practices.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of urgent warnings about water shortages, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to habitat restoration for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

Restoring forests, grasslands, lakes and rivers benefits more than just wildlife. An unhealthy planet leads to unhealthy people. Through human advancement and development, we have degraded many of our natural landscapes, straining water resources and accelerating climate change. But we can change—and protect the natural resources we all rely on every day.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

From the farthest reaches of the globe to right in your own backyard, The Nature Conservancy is leading the fight to protect nature and by so doing, helping to preserve life as we know it today.

In Illinois, because so little ‘wilderness’ remains in the state’s largest urban center, Chicago, its forests, lakes, rivers and grasslands may be at equal risk as the tropical rainforests of South America. Stretching from southeastern Wisconsin to southwestern Michigan and encompassing more than 225,000 acres, the Conservancy one of the founders of Chicago Wilderness, a coalition of more than 200 organizations that together protect the natural prairies, forests, streams and wetlands that survive amid some of the Midwest’s most highly developed landscape.

Development is the biggest challenge to these natural areas. As the Chicagoland population is expected to rise by 1.5 million people by 2020, there will be an increasing demand for housing and transportation. Yet without careful planning, important natural landscapes may be damaged or destroyed. As the region prepares for expected population growth, the coalition works to ensure that development is conducted with natural habitats in mind. Through education and outreach programs, Chicago Wilderness works with area builders and businesses to promote protection of our natural lands and its benefits for people, nature and the economy. Check out Chicago Wilderness for more information.

The Conservancy’s work in Illinois is evocative of activity spearheaded by Conservancy scientists and staff throughout the United States. For instance, in western states such as North Dakota and South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming, the Conservancy is working with ranchers to combat leafy spurge, an invasive plant that overtakes prime livestock pasture, chokes out native grasses and resists conventional elimination efforts. Through an innovative project, the Conservancy and its partners release flea beetles to feed on leafy spurge, ranchers have been able to better control their losses, which in these states, according to the Department of Agriculture, total more than $144 million annually due to this single plant species.

And the Conservancy’s work extends further across the world in efforts that seek to solve the poverty and conservation equation. In countless poor, rural communities around the world, people get much of their daily needs directly from nature. Dubbed “ecosystem services” by scientists, nature provides wood from the forest for cooking fuel, drinking water from streams and other basic needs from natural surroundings. Losing any of these basic services threatens the survival of these communities.

Just as degrading ecosystem services can disrupt lives, conserving, stewarding and restoring these services helps sustain people and preserve their quality of life. Because the goals of conservation and improving human health are deeply entwined, the Conservancy and its partners are working with communities to preserve ecosystem services and help communities manage their natural resources sustainably, ensuring the future of their livelihoods and well-being.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of so many dire messages about our environment, there are still many actions we can take. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters for relevant and compelling facts.

And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

Conservation is as much about people as it is about places. It can attract investment, support jobs, and protect the environment.

Take the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada, where the economic challenges facing the people of this rainforest are as important as the conservation challenges. Two public-private funds totaling $120 million have been created to finance both conservation management and ecologically sustainable business ventures in this 21-million acre rainforest in British Columbia. With many people dependent on the resources provided by the rainforest, economy and conservation are equally important, and equally challenging.

But in the Great Bear Rainforest, we have a chance to step outside the old models of exploitation and loss that marked the last century. Here, we have a narrow window of opportunity to get it right the first time and create a new way of thinking about our relationship with the environment.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

The Nature Conservancy is part of an unprecedented partnership among industry, ForestEthics, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club of Canada-BC Chapter, First Nations, governments and local communities that are protecting the Great Bear Rainforest. The historic land-use agreements the Conservancy and its partners are spearheading there will protect up to 5 million acres of rainforest from logging and place more than 19 million acres under strict guidelines called ecosystem-based land management. TLearn more about the Conservancy’s work in the Great Bear Rainforest.

Action starts when people talk.

There are things we can do as individuals to create more success stories like the Great Bear Rainforest. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

Unchecked, just one species—the Asian longhorned beetle—threatens to devastate 48 million acres of forest in the Great Lakes and New England. Nationwide, the beetle could kill one-third of all urban trees nationwide. The replacement value of these trees is estimated at nearly $670 billion.

Asian longhorned beetles destroy a variety of hardwood trees, and when they invaded Chicago’s North Side neighborhoods in 1996, hundreds of trees had to be rapidly cut down, robbing Chicagoans of protection against sun, noise, and wind, and leaving their streets bare.

The beetles reportedly first came to the United States burrowed in wooden packing materials in shipments from China. Initially spotted in New York and the Great Lakes region, they have also been seen as far west as California. This isn’t good news: Asian longhorned beetles can devastate the timber industry, maple syrup production, and tourism based on fall foliage. Since their arrival in the U.S., damage from this species is estimated to have already cost state and federal governments some $80 million.

In short, invasive species exact heavy costs in lost economic productivity, particularly agriculture. In Brazil for instance, South African lovegrass has destroyed the pasture value of 10 percent of the country’s southern grazing lands and severely damaged the area’s cattle industry. Annual losses are calculated at $30 million a year. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates the leafy spurge plague costs ranchers in North Dakota and South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming more than $144 million a year in losses. And the arrival of the cactus moth in Mexico could threaten the $80 million annual cactus industry—an important source of food for humans and livestock.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

Throughout the world, The Nature Conservancy provides science-based solutions to help manage invasive plants and animals and restore habitats.

In Illinois, The Nature Conservancy is one of six non-profit, government and volunteer organizations that have partnered to form the New Invaders Watch program, which is dedicated to the early detection and control of new exotic invasive plant and insect species in the Chicago region, an area of globally threatened natural communities. Because this region is a global transportation hub with open access for plant and animal invasions through international shipping, the program seeks to target species known to be invasive in the Midwest or regions of similar climate. Find out how you can get involved with the New Invaders program.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of the dire warnings about the impact of invasive species on our natural systems and economy, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to habitat restoration for relevant and compelling facts.

You can also learn about six easy ways you can help stop invasives in your area.

Think there’s nothing to fear in species loss? Think again.

Biological diversity or “biodiversity” refers to the number and type of plants and animals in a given environment. As biodiversity diminishes, the integrity of an environmental system fails and species loss can occur more rapidly. While much has been learned about the importance of maintaining the biodiversity of our lands and water, this effort presents unique challenges to conservationists the world over, requiring an understanding of how ecosystems are formed and how they function. One of the greatest hopes for maintaining biodiversity lie in the thousands of habitat restoration projects going on around the world. Among these, an important effort has recently begun in Illinois.

What The Nature Conservancy is doing.

One of several large-floodplain rivers considered recoverable in the United States, the Illinois River Valley is home to Emiquon, a 7,100-acre Conservancy-protected floodplain, once deemed one of the most biologically productive floodplain wetlands in the Midwest.

Using state-of-the-art, scientifically driven methodologies, in 2007, the Conservancy began Emiquon restoration efforts. Land that had been corn and soybean fields for most of the last century is being returned to wetlands, forests and prairies. Emiquon’s restoration provides a vision for recovery for the Illinois and Mississippi River systems and those around the world where similar methods can be replicated. Find more on the Emiquon story at www.nature.org/illinois.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of urgent warnings about species decline and extinction, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters related to habitat restoration for relevant and compelling facts. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org.

Coral reefs get stressed out, too—and, in severe but increasingly common cases, stress leads to death. In fact, 60 percent of the world’s coral reefs could be dead by 2030.

But corals can’t just kick back and relax—instead, they respond by bleaching, a startling stress response that transforms the vibrant reefs into bony graveyards. Coral bleaching has already severely damaged or killed some 30 percent of coral reefs in our oceans.

The largest living structures on the planet, coral reefs are important for biodiversity as well as for the millions of tourism dollars they bring in. They also provide food for some 500 million people around the world. Coral reefs cover a fraction of our sea floors—less than 1 percent—but they contain a quarter of all marine life.

Global warming causes water temperatures to rise slightly. It only takes a change of one or two degrees Celsius, sustained over a single month, to bleach coral to its death. The warmer temperatures cause the coral to expel algae necessary for its survival. Some coral starve without the algae, leaving our oceans with vast coral graveyards, a bleached reminder of the life it once contained.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing.

The Nature Conservancy and partners have identified certain coral communities that have survived bleaching, and we are trying to understand the factors that contribute to their resilience, so we can build resilience into other coral areas. We support international initiatives to protect marine habitats; in Micronesia, we are working with partners to conserve 30 percent of their coastal areas, which include coral reefs, by 2020.

Action starts when people talk.

In the midst of dire warnings about dying reefs, there are reasons for hope and things we can do as individuals. First, start a conversation about the issue with friends, family and colleagues. Take a look at our Conversation Starters. And, learn more about our work by visiting related projects on the Conservancy’s web site, nature.org. ]]> Tue, 11 Sep 2007 13:56:01 -0600 http://www.startoneconversation.org/conversations/bleach Start One Conversation 60% of the world's coral reefs could be dead by 2030. 1 /assets/images/topics/bleach.jpg