by Lauren Lesser, Emerald Edge Program Specialist
For conservation that lasts, it’s crucial to look at the “whole system,” and a healthy ecosystem includes the people who are part of it. In the Emerald Edge, our conservation strategy helps reach that goal by investing in local leaders as nature’s best allies.
In Washington, I met one of those allies – Madeline Moore, the founder of an organization called Rethinking Rural. She and her co-founder, Malloree Weinheimer of Chickadee Forestry, are millennial leaders working on the intertwined goals of a sustainable environment, healthy economies, and thriving communities. We first met at a meeting of sustainable local economies the Coast Works Alliance Innovation Network, facilitated by The Nature Conservancy; and again when Weinheimer was part of the 2018 cohort of WA Coast Works Sustainable Small Business Competition. I wanted to learn more about their work, and how healthy rural communities and conservation go hand in hand.
When communities prioritize people and place alongside profit, we create conservation that lasts. Programs like Coast Works Alliance Innovation Network and WA Coast Works Business Competition empower rural leaders to advance the health of their communities and the natural world around them.
Moore grew up in the small town of Ilwaco on the Washington Coast. “Throughout my childhood, the overwhelming message was that in order to be successful, you had to leave this place and make success elsewhere,” said Moore. “And if you did come back as a young person, even if purely by choice, many people assumed it was because you had failed somewhere along the way.”
Rethinking Rural fights such negative stereotypes of rural America by helping connect millennial leaders who are revitalizing economies and ecosystems across the nation. These emerging leaders are all over the country, and they’re dedicated to creating resiliently vibrant communities. In their own words: “Rural is integral to the economic, social, and environmental health of our planet, and millennials are positioned to usher in positive change while celebrating rural life.”
For many rural communities, the local economy and culture are closely intertwined with natural resources. Science and on-the-ground experience tell us that Indigenous peoples and local communities are often the best stewards of the environment. Local leaders are important partners in achieving conservation outcomes, and the members of Rethinking Rural are exemplary.
Rural communities can thrive when conservation aligns with the triple bottom line: people, place and profit. Photo by Kameron Karsten.
They are foresters, farmers, fishers, and triple-bottom-line entrepreneurs, from organic cranberry farmers to newly elected city council members. Some are Indigenous, and many have multi-generational ties to their homes, in addition to first-generation millennials relocating from urban areas to seek a more sustainable way of life. All care deeply about their communities and work to ensure that people and nature thrive together.
In 2018, Rethinking Rural brought together 50 millennials from 9 states in Port Townsend, WA. They gathered to better understand the problems rural leaders face, and what they need from the network to keep making positive change. The gathering was so successful that two more are planned: one in 2020 in Nauvoo, Alabama, and one in 2021 focused on Indian Country in the Pacific Northwest. These gatherings are place-based celebrations and conversations about rural life, all led and hosted by participants in their own towns.
Rethinking Rural’s growing network is helping support stronger local economies and better conservation outcomes. With this next generation of leaders, the Emerald Edge should be in good hands for the future.
To learn more about Rethinking Rural, visit http://www.rethinkingrural.org/.
Banner photo by Kelly Compton.
