Maine Land Conservation Conference

Each year, Maine Coast Heritage Trust presents the annual Maine Land Conservation Conference for and with Maine’s robust land conservation community. This year, the event will be held in person at Mt. Ararat Middle School & Orion Performing Arts Center in Topsham, ME and will feature a keynote address, Weaving Wisdoms: Introducing the New NSF Science Technology Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledge and Science, by Dr. Bonnie Newsom.

Catherine Schmitt, Science Communication Specialist at Schoodic Institute, and Suzanne Greenlaw, Postdoctoral Scientist – Indigenous Science at Schoodic Institute, will be featured presenters. Learn more below.

Together, let’s create a more inclusive language of conservation

Despite good intentions, land conservation professionals can still choose language that excludes people, inflicts harm, and can perpetuate some of the very systemic injustices they want to redress. In this workshop, participants will learn how the vocabulary, sentences, and framing of land conservation can perpetuate white supremacy, racism, classism, ableism, heteronormativity, ethnocentrism, etc., as well as ways to re-word and re-frame communications to be more welcoming and inclusive. After a brief presentation, participants will work collaboratively to identify jargon and exclusive or problematic language in their own work. Then, in small groups, participants will identify and present creative and original alternatives that better support their communication goals while contributing to conservation for all.

Presenter: Catherine Schmitt, Science Communication Specialist

Wabanaki Plant Gathering in Acadia National Park: Mobilizing Indigenous Knowledge to restore traditional sweet grass harvesting 

Indigenous communities in North America are actively engaged in reestablishing plant gathering rights on federal landscapes, including those of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). Suzanne Greenlaw will present on the interdisciplinary work to restore Wabanaki sweetgrass gathering within Acadia National Park. She will report on a gather-led harvest study and stewardship approach, cultural protocol agreement, and Indigenous developed interpretation. This work is a collaborative effort to address NPS policy requirements and create an emergent shared governance approach within monitoring and management of a culturally important species.   

Presented by Suzanne Greenlaw, Ph.D. 

For more information and to register, click here.