Archives by Tag 'socioeconomic'

Healthy Farms, Healthy People: A Farm and Food Policy Summit (May 2011)

CONCUR Senior Associate Bennett Brooks facilitated a ground-breaking meeting that brought together more than 100 leading agriculture, anti-hunger, public health and environmental advocates to better understand each other’s interests related to the 2012 Farm Bill and identify opportunities for possible future collaboration. The two-day meeting, referred to as Healthy Farms, Healthy People: A [...]

U.S. West Coast Swordfish Workshop: Working Towards Sustainability (May 2011)

On May 10 and 11, 2011, CONCUR facilitated the U.S. West Coast Swordfish Workshop: Working towards Sustainability. The workshop, convened by the National Marine Fisheries Service in San Diego, California, was an exploratory dialogue with several objectives:
• Share information about the global demand relative to U.S. demand for swordfish products;
• Consider the global [...]

CONCUR Facilitates Farm Bill Retreat (January 2011)

CONCUR Senior Associate Bennett Brooks facilitated a one-day retreat exploring the potential for a diverse set of national stakeholders  to build a coalition around the 2012 Farm Bill reauthorization. The January 2011 retreat, held at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California, brought together 30 public health, agriculture, environmental and anti-hunger leaders interested [...]

Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Dialogue (Fall 2010)

Between August and October 2010, CONCUR Principal Scott McCreary convened a phased dialogue focusing on improving land use decision-making for the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area. The dialogue, supported by the Seattle-based Bullitt Foundation, focused in particular on identifying and strengthening concrete commitments to Gorge resource protection and management.
The Gorge, a stunning natural resource [...]

Peer-Reviewed Article on Marine Protected Areas Published in “Ocean & Coastal Management” Journal

CONCUR Principal Scott McCreary co-authored an article with Marine Life Protection Act Initiative colleagues entitled “Science-based and stakeholder-driven marine protected area network planning: A successful case study from north central California“, published in the current issue of Ocean & Coastal Management [53 (2010) 52-68]. Former CONCUR intern Kathryn Hoffman was a key co-author.
In [...]

Wingspread Foundation Water Funders Forum (January 2010)

CONCUR Principal Scott McCreary and Associate Rebecca Tuden teamed with conveners from The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread to facilitate a three-day workshop among 27 leading grant-making organizations involved in national and regional water resource efforts. The meeting was convened from January 13 – 15, 2010 at The Johnson Foundation in Racine, Wisconsin.   Participants in the [...]

Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) – BRTF Unanimously Adopts South Coast Region MPA Proposal (November 2009)

On November 12, 2009, the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) unanimously (5 – 0) adopted a preferred marine protected area (MPA) proposal for the south coast study region, which includes 27 state marine reserves (SMRs), 1 state marine park (SMP) and 16 state marine conservation areas (SMCAs); this recommended proposal is referred to as [...]

New CONCUR Fact Sheet on Watershed Planning

CONCUR has prepared a new fact sheet focused on our watershed planning experience and expertise (download PDF).

Watershed planning touches on a broad range of issues including local land use policies, stream protection concerns, restoration goals, flood control, and water quality. The planning framework can be transboundary and address implications for climate [...]

Marine Protected Areas on California’s North Central Coast (August 2009)

On August 5, 2009, the California Fish & Game Commission voted to place roughly 20 percent of the state’s north central coastal waters (or approximately 153 square miles) into 21 marine protected areas (MPAs) and 3 marine recreational management areas. The designated waters (map below) were identified through a CONCUR-facilitated multi-stakeholder process (DFG project home [...]

CONCUR Op-Ed on Climate Change Published in the Sacramento Bee, August 16, 2009

On Sunday August 16, The Sacramento Bee published an Op-Ed piece by CONCUR Principals John Gamman and Scott McCreary that puts forward a strategy for preventing solar, wind energy and other climate change-focused projects from getting mired in avoidable conflicts. The piece offers an assessment of the source of the potential conflicts and then [...]