Priorities & Projects
The ICNL reserves get used--a lot--by an increasing number of people with a great variety of interests. The term "educational working landscapes" is the best way we could think of to characterize our land management philosophy. These are lands--like farms, pastures, vineyards, orchards, and woodlots--where people do work and earn a livelihood. In our case, that work is primarily educational.
Under this broad banner we identify five management priorities:
- Education - Teaching and learning in all forms, including formal coursework as well as informal activities with students and others in the community
- Preservation - Protection of biological diversity, rare species and communities, ecological structure and function, and ecosystem services
- Research - Natural history, land-use history, ecology, etc.
- Production - Economic activities aimed at generating revenue from undeveloped land, primarily via non-timber forest products
- Recreation - Because we recognize that having fun on the Natural Lands inspires and promotes work on the other four priorities
Each of our reserves is managed according to its own unique combination of these values.