Inspired by a keynote address at the 2024 Coalition Summit by Leslie Allison of the Western Landowners Alliance, this article takes up a topic the conservation community often sidesteps: what landowners actually feel when endangered species are found on their property. Miranda-Castro is candid about the answer. The reaction is often fear, not because landowners do not care about wildlife, but because the discovery of a listed species can trigger regulations that restrict how they use land they have often stewarded responsibly for generations.
The article argues that the future of conservation depends on fully integrating people and their land-use methods into both policy and practice. Farming, ranching, forestry, and other working land uses are not obstacles to conservation but essential components of functional ecosystems at landscape scale. Shifting from a regulatory posture to one grounded in trust, partnership, and economic incentive is not just ethically preferable but strategically necessary if private landowners are to remain engaged partners in species recovery rather than adversaries of it.
Read the full article on the WMI Outdoor News Bulletin.
