Joint spring conference set for April 26-29

The theme for WSLCA's 1998 Joint Spring Conference with the Eastern Lands Resource Council is "Building Partnerships: Accomplishments and Opportunities."

The meeting is scheduled for April 26-29 and will again be held at the Barcelona Radisson, in the DuPont Circle area of Washington, D.C.

The joint meeting will combine success stories, informal problem-solving sessions on emerging issues, and work sessions on subjects of continuing interest. We are inviting speakers from the Congress and federal and state land management agencies, as well as real estate professionals, journalists and professors.

As part of the "Building Partnerships" theme, we invite conference participants to share brief written summaries of their partnership success stories, to be compiled and distributed to conferees. We anticipate success stories on such subjects as large-scale land exchanges affecting wilderness study areas and tailoring the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program to solve regional environmental objectives.

We will also discuss strategies for dealing with such emerging issues as multiple lawsuits affecting regional ecosystems, tensions among Native American and other traditional users of public lands, and state ballot initiatives on resource management.

We will continue to pursue solutions to appraisals of inholdings, funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and early involvement of affected landowners in endangered species recovery plans.

For more information, or to suggest or contact a speaker, please see page 8.