Media Advisory: Salazar Center’s International Symposium on Conservation Impact will bring leaders together in Denver tomorrow
What:
The CSU Salazar Center’s International Symposium on Conservation Impact will bring together a community of conservation leaders to drive the conversation about what landscape connectivity means in North America. The symposium will feature former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, Colorado State University System Chancellor Tony Frank, CSU President Joyce McConnell and other conservation experts from the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Where/When:
Reporters and photographers are invited to attend the event. The daylong symposium will start at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, at the McNichols Civic Center Building, 144 W Colfax Ave., Denver. (mcnicholsbuilding.com). Keynote addresses and panels will take place until 3:30 p.m.; the Center will announce its incentive prize for conservation impact at 4 p.m. The full schedule can be found here.
Details:
Founded by former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the Salazar Center for North American Conservation at Colorado State University is external-facing and impact-oriented, working with a wide range of nonprofit, public, and private partners to drive conservation innovation. It also serves to convene a diversity of stakeholders to explore best-in-class solutions to conservation challenges. The International Symposium on Conservation Impact will be the first of these convenings.
The symposium will bring together thought leaders from the arenas of conservation policy, practice, and research. This group will explore the many dimensions of large landscape connectivity on our continent, including climate, biodiversity, human well-being, big data, conservation finance, and Native American and First Nations initiatives. The event will kick off the 2019 Biennial of the Americas Festival (biennialoftheamericas.org/2019-festival).
Keynote speakers and panelists at the symposium will include former Interior Secretary (and center namesake) Ken Salazar, Governor Jared Polis, Denver Mayor Michal Hancock, Colorado State University System Chancellor Tony Frank, Colorado State University President Joyce McConnell, Luis Benitez (VF Corporation), Gary Tabor (Center for Large Landscape Conservation), Cristina Mormorunni (Wildlife Conservation Society), Ruth Musgrave (National Council of Environmental Legislators), Loren Bird Rattler (Blackfeet Nation), Mark Anderson (The Nature Conservancy), Exequiel Ezcurra (University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States), Terry Tatsey (Blackfeet Tribal Council), Eli Enns (IISAAK Olam Foundation), Alison Woodley (IUCN), and Leigh Whelpton (Conservation Finance Network).
The symposium will also serve as a platform to announce the Salazar Center’s competitive prize for conservation impact. In the face of increasingly complex and urgent challenges facing the environmental and human health of the North American continent, the Center looks to invest new approaches to conservation.
“In order to conserve and steward our continent’s large landscapes and their invaluable resources, we must forge new connections and look to innovative solutions,” said Beth Conover, director of the Salazar Center for North American Conservation at Colorado State University. “This prize is the first of many efforts to advance cutting-edge ideas and support world-class conservation pioneers.”
The symposium and incentive prize are made possible with support from the Trinchera Blanca Foundation, an affiliate of The Moore Charitable Foundation, founded by Louis Bacon; CSU; the Biennial of the Americas; the Center for Large Landscape Conservation; the Bohemian Foundation; the Kendeda Fund; Denver Parks and Recreation; New Belgium Brewing; Jim Kelley; Patrick Phillips; and a number of generous individual donors.
Media contact:
Jennifer Dimas jennifer.dimas@colostate.edu.