The George Wright Society champions stewardship of parks, protected & conserved areas, cultural sites, and other kinds of place-based conservation by connecting people, places, knowledge, and ideas. By uniting people from many different backgrounds around a common passion for protecting Earth’s natural and cultural heritage, we create the collaboration needed to meet today’s greatest conservation challenges.
INNOVATING ACROSS BOUNDARIES FOR
Parks • Cultural Sites
Protected / Conserved Areas
INSPIRED BY GEORGE MELÉNDEZ WRIGHT
Watch our virtual chat with author Jerry Emory!
The long-awaited, first-ever biography of our namesake — the visionary who revolutionized management of America‘s national parks
“Emory’s enumeration of Wright’s accomplishments—including a survey of wildlife in Western parks, the first of its kind—is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Highly recommended for nature lovers and park enthusiasts.” LIBRARY JOURNAL
30% discount for GWS members!
Today’s top story • 28 November 2023
Foundation pledges $500M to create more diverse public monuments in US, doubling previous commitment
Since 2020, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has spent nearly $173 million on 80 completed or ongoing monument projects across 37 states, supporting a broader and more diverse range of stories in the nation’s public spaces. On Tuesday, the arts and humanities philanthropy announced it would double its original commitment of $250 million over the next five years, pledging a total of $500 million for its Monuments Project.
The foundation said the half-a-billon-dollar commitment is the largest multiyear funding initiative in its history. “I feel proud that we’ve been catalysts and contributors to a larger conversation in the nation about monuments,” said Elizabeth Alexander, the foundation’s president.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/arts/design/mellon-foundation-funding-monuments.html
What sets us apart: Interdisciplinary conservation thinking
GWS’s unique role is to foster interdisciplinary place-based conservation. Specialist organizations and subject-matter professional societies create essential knowledge. GWS operates one level up from that endeavor: we provide opportunities for specialists to go beyond their usual mental boundaries and see how what they know connects with, and complements, what other specialists know. GWS nurtures the kind of context-aware thinking needed to tackle complex conservation problems.
What we create: Innovation
Innovation only comes from open minds. Open minds thrive in a collegial atmosphere that encourages people to think outside their silo, beyond their usual point of view. GWS is the only conservation organization that exists specifically to bring people together from a wide range of points of view in settings designed to allow open-mindedness to flourish. By doing this, GWS creates space for multidimensional learning and collaboration that leads to innovative conservation action.
How we work: Convening
The learning spaces we create are both physical and virtual. We convene opportunities for people to come together in person: face-to-face events that expand communication networks, support mentoring, and build the capacity of park and protected area stewards, cultural and natural resource managers, scientists and other scholars, and teachers and students. We also help create these goods by nurturing a virtual global community of stewardship through publications and online interactions.