Earlier today, Conserv tested a beta version of The Water Supply Watershed Environmental Services Game at the Lands for Tomorrow conference at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. The intent of the game, actually, a simulation, is to demonstrate the costs and benefits of an environmental services-based approach to watershed management in a water-supply reservoir watershed. The simulation featured the [...]

Months ago, after leaving a government job to work nearly full time for Conserv, my wife and I scrutinized our financial spreadsheet and reduced expenses. One of things that had to go was T.V., a difficult choice, sports fan that I am. In its place, I’ve rediscovered radio, albeit 21st century style, through the magic [...]

I’m amazed at the sustainability zeitgeist of our times. Thanks to Joe Starinchak for passing along some great journal articles….

From David J. Brunckhorst at the UNESCO Centre for Bioregional Resource Management in Australia….Institutions to Sustain Ecological and Social Systems, an older article (2002) that gets at the need for bioregional thinking. The article however is [...]

Conserv, working with the Rappahannock River Basin Commission, The Virginia Department of Forestry, and Members of the Commission Non-point Source Workgroup, have completed a Prospectus of the proposed Rappahannock Exchange. The Cover Page and Table of Contents of the Exchange are provided below:

The Rappahannock Exchange
A Bioregional Marketplace to restore the Rappahannock River and [...]

Sixth in the series on the Pillars of a Bioregional Economy to help restore keystone environmental assets…Conserv Executive Director Michael Collins interviews one of the governmental leaders in Virginia in the emerging area of ecosystem services…Virginia Department of Forestry Director of the Division of Forestland Conservation, Everette “Buck” Kline.
This 20 minute broadcast includes basic concepts [...]

The third in a series on the Pillars of A New Bioregional Marketplace to restore ecosystem health of the Rappahannock River and the Chesapeake Bay…
I was talking to my friend and old colleague, David Bearinger, on one hot summer morning this past August about sustainability, its pitfalls and promises, and he noted the aging of [...]

A plane ride to the great northwest state of Washington can be a good thing….
The O’Hare bookstore was filled with goodies, and one in particular caught my eye—The World is Curved, by David M. Smick. Picking it up, then putting it down, thinking it was a flip retort to Hot, Flat, and Crowded, by Tom [...]

In the weeks ahead, as we plan for the launch of the Rappahannock Exchange, we will offer up occasional briefings on the pillars of future bioregional markets to enhance ecosystem health of keystone environmental assets. These include:

Creation-care ministries of faith and ethics communities
Biomimicry
Ecosystem health goal setting
Ecological footprinting
Holistic health care
Bioregionalism
Currency diversity
Ecosystem services
Sustainable macroeconomic theory
Whole system design [...]

Conserv, working with The Virginia Department of Forestry, will submit a proposal to pilot a payment for ecosystem services program in the Rivanna River watershed near Charlottesville, Virginia. The intent of the grant is to reduce sediment and nutrients through a market-based conservation platform. More details forthcoming.
Thanks to Black and White, Photography from the Chesapeake [...]

Conserv is working with Virginia Groundwater, LLC to prepare a report titled Underground Albemarle revised: How do groundwater ecosystem services impact optimal sustainable population size for the Charlottesville/Albemarle community? for the organization Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population. Virginia Groundwater is preparing the hydrogeology portion of the study with Conserv focused on groundwater ecosystem services [...]

Some websites that contain helpful information for those interested in the movement toward ecosystem-based bioregional economies….

Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) resource guide
The Tree Carbon Offsetting Survey 2009
Ecosystem Services by Buck Kline and Vijay Satyal (Powerpoint presentation)
Costa Rica Environmental [...]

Rappahannock River Basin Commission staff, working with Conserv, and The Virginia Department of Forestry, have actively begun the process to create the Rappahannock River Basin Ecosystem Services Council (ESC). The Council, to consist of approximately 30 members, with a majority from business and industry interests working within the basin, will likely convene for a symposium [...]

The Presbyterian Church 2009 PRC National Eco-justice Conference was held at Montreat Conference Center in Montreat, North Carolina, this past week. The conference organizers were clearly focusing on sustainability through attention to links between topics such as global warming, human health, and food. Particularly significant from a conservation marketplace perspective were discussions that touched on [...]

As Conserv’s relationship with the Rappahannock River Basin deepens, I thought it would be a good idea to explore one of my favorite tributaries of the river a little more deeply. With the high waters of early summer, I took the opportunity to kayak the upper Robinson, from Criglersville to Rt. 29. It was a [...]

Yesterday, environmental history was made at the Old Beale Memorial Church in Tappahannock, the oldest documented courthouse in Virginia. Surrounded by Flemish bond brickwork with salt-glazed headers and compass-headed windows, the Rappahannock River Basin Commission took the first step toward moving Virginia into the ranks of the leaders of the worldwide ecosystem services movement.
In a [...]

My colleague Buck Kline, at the Virginia Department of Forestry, attended the Wildlife Habitat Council 1st Ecosystem Services conference last week in Maryland. He just forwarded me his speaker’s notes for Sally Collins’s presentation. Sally Collins, as folks may know, is the new Director of the USDA Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets.
Ms. Collins’s comments [...]

From the Wildlife Habitat Council Website…this is the last day for this conference in Maryland.
Ecosystem Services
on Corporate Lands Conference
June 11-12, 2009
Crowne Plaza Hotel
Silver Spring, MD
The first annual Ecosystem Services on Corporate Lands conference, presented by the Wildlife Habitat Council in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, will focus on the connections between habitat management, biodiversity conservation, [...]

Conserv and the Rappahannock River Basin Commission, working with other agencies and organizations, will soon make an announcement about a major event to be held later this year.

I was in my garden and was reflecting how the depleted soil from past years has been renewed with some half-baked cow manure from my buddy Tim Neale’s Beaver Creek Farm out on Mountain Track Road. My mind wandered to the briefing I gave yesterday to a local group on the idea of creating a [...]

This blog is focused on issues related to the creation of economies that will maintain and restore environmental assets and ecosystem services. A prior post focused on the three dimensions of an economy, allocation, distribution, and scale/quality, and the appropriate role of government, particularly in the setting of scale/quality for environmental resource stocks. The thinking [...]

This week we will feature daily posts on Deep Green Classifieds, Conserv’s newest marketplace. Deep Green was launched last week along with an overall upgrade to Version IV of the site. The following are the themes for each article:

Today - Origins and theory of Deep Green
Tuesday - How to use Deep Green
Wednesday - Deep Green [...]