Landscape Conservation Solutions 
Provide Hope for Rural Lands

By Wendy Williams, CH2M HILL, Inc. and Craig Evans, President, Stewardship America, Inc.

       The goal of Landscape Conservation Solutions (LCS) are to change this way of valuing our rural lands by harnessing the market economy and putting private enterprise and private initiative behind an effort to address multiple issues on a “landscape basis”—issues that include permitting, regulatory compliance, rural economic development, smart growth, and environmental conservation and protection. LCS will provide coordination, cooperation, and communication with:

       ¨       Multiple agencies and levels of government
       ¨       Multiple private and public sector “partners”
       ¨       Multiple landowners in a county, region, or distinct geographic area

       The LCS initiative is being carried out through a joint partnership between Stewardship America, Inc. and CH2M HILL, Inc.  For more details, see announcement. 

       The LCS initiative will implement multiple programs in a coordinated fashion and will promote and encourage community-based actions; voluntary, incentive-based conservation; and methods of conservation delivery that are seamless, easy-to-understand, and provide for easy participation.  

The LCS Initiative Offers New Revenue-Generating Opportunities

       The first beneficiaries of the LCS programs will be CH2M HILL clients (to find out how you can participate, go to http://www.ch2m.com and contact the CH2M HILL office nearest you).  Here’s how you can benefit:   

       LCS::

       u       Adds value to virtually any land utilization, restoration or conservation project;

       u       Expands opportunities within existing projects to pursue additional, complementary, and synergistic projects that can improve efficiencies, reduce costs and/or generate new sources of revenue;

       u       Identifies opportunities for grants and funding that can be obtained to pay all or part of the costs of a project;

       u       Identifies opportunities for generating new or additional sources of revenue;

       u       Identifies opportunities to work with multiple stakeholders in a county, region, watershed, or distinct geographic area, thus expanding the number projects that can be coordinated and carried out, and, through these connections, create synergies and efficiencies that can provide benefits for multiple landowners, the environment and multiple stakeholders within the region.

       New state and federal programs have been signed into law to help implement LCS and provide market-based incentives for maintaining rural values and promoting rural economic growth.  The 2002 Farm Bill includes several innovative new programs, and in June 2001, two new programs were signed into law in Florida and Oregon.  In addition, Wisconsin has recently implemented a new “green tier” program. These programs provide several new incentives for private landowners to participate in conservation activities on their properties.

       Through a variety of individual programs, LCS also can identify and generate new sources of stable, ongoing revenues for rural enterprises.  

LCS Has 5 Objectives 

      1.       Use and enhance market economy incentives;

2.       Capitalize on and harness market economy interactions to create additional value (greater economic value, greater return on investment, greater margin of profit, greater environmental benefit, etc.)

3.       Make government programs and activities more understandable, accessible and easier to participate in;

4.       Make government regulations easier to comprehend, easier to comply with, and more coordinated with one another; and

5.       Assess all existing government grants and programs at the federal, state, regional and local levels to determine which are applicable to a specific landowner’s or region’s needs;

Adjust selected programs to target and address unique local conditions, needs and opportunities; and

Assemble selected programs into a comprehensive “package” of services and opportunities, where credits and income streams can be stacked, and administrative and reporting requirements for each program can be coordinated through a single contract.

20+ Programs for Landscape Conservation Solutions

          LCS programs and services have been organized around 5 objectives.  For information on these programs and services, click on Program List.   Additional details on each program can be obtained by following the hyperlinks, or by going to the Contact Us page.