JACKSON, Wyo. — Although it might not seem obvious living in an area that boasts one of the last “nearly-intact” natural ecosystems on Earth, the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative (NRCC) has identified this as a critical time in Jackson Hole to focus on improving and preserving coexistence.
Asking Susan Clark, co-founder and emeritus board member of the NRCC, why now is the necessary time to reevaluate the community’s relationships with each other, wildlife and nature, she says to pick up the newspaper any day of the week to see that vast change is underway. It’s happening at both a global level that’s trickling down into the valley, like climate change, but also within the very fabric of the community, with visitation and development.
Peyton Curlee Griffin, president and co-treasurer of the NRCC, emphasizes that this is a big moment in time and a tipping point for a lot of biological systems. While she says it’s important to appreciate living in an ecosystem unique in the lower 48, it’s also important to recognize that trends of development and visitation are bringing about profound change.
“We are hoping to call people together to generate more strategic thinking and behavior, and reexamine how we’re going about conservation and coexistence,” Griffin tells Buckrail.
One of the primary ways that the NRCC is generating a collective conversation is through their 2023 Jackson Hole Wildlife Symposium on Oct. 26, which will bring together experts on wildlife and conservation in a conversation aimed at supporting constructive discourse. Griffin explains that the main theme is coexistence, which includes how people can be change agents towards a future everyone wants to see for both wildlife and human communities.
Speakers will include Spanish biologist with three decades of experience Ignacio Jiménez, Professor of Law, researcher and author Bob Keiter, Teton County Commissioner and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) field researcher for over 40 years Michael Whitfield, retired Senior Wildlife Biologist in Yellowstone National Park Douglas W. Smith and more. There will also be “Quick Talks,” like one with community ecologist for The Nature Conservancy Trevor Bloom, and art exhibits to further highlight the importance of preserving a sustainable relationship with this place and all its inhabitants.
“It’s an irreplaceable public good, you can’t find it anywhere else,” Clark stresses of the GYE. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
The NRCC’s Executive Director Ben Williamson also points out that although it might be easy to think the communities in Jackson Hole inherently coexist with the surrounding nature and wildlife, he would argue that relationship is not as instinctive as one might assume. He suggests the local relationships between people and wildlife is animated a lot by consumerist attitudes that promote using nature in ways that aren’t symbiotically helpful or supportive.
“We are exceptional, but that doesn’t mean we’re exceptional to the forces that are taking place around the globe.”
NRCC Executive Director Ben Williamson
“I think it’s important to say that this sense of exceptionality can sometimes shelter people from recognizing the larger changes that are happening,” Williamson tells Buckrail. “We are exceptional, but that doesn’t mean we’re exceptional to the forces that are taking place around the globe, whether that be climate change or capitalism.”
Griffin also acknowledges that while there is work being done to measure, quantify and analyze the experiences of wildlife in the changing landscape, it’s important to also examine how the community is functioning in terms of decision-making in response to those measurements and the quality of those decisions. These evaluations are being emphasized elsewhere too, and the aim of the symposium is to integrate the local and more global lens to find the most effective ways to implement coexistence into everyone’s future.
Clark notes that the updated Teton County Comprehensive Plan shows that the county and the people who have lived here agree that stewardship of wildlife and climate sustainability is something that’s wanted locally. What the NRCC wants to promote is more alignment between the plan, which is what the community has decided they want to do, and a strategy of how everyone is going to actually achieve that coexistence.
Williamson says that in the conservation world there are many different strategies being implemented, from calls for better zoning to wildlife overpasses, but an important question is how to best coordinate all these actions in a way that is scalable regionally.
“Maybe there’s a way to be more strategic and impactful,” Griffin agrees. “The big, provocative question is where are we? Is this coexistence? What do we want coexistence to really look like and how are we going to get there? This is a critical moment for us to do better, learn more and work better together.”
Stay tuned for an ongoing conversation about the Wildlife Symposium and actionable ways to promote and sustain local coexistence.
