The 2016 Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition Conservation Conference will take place Saturday, April 2, from 8 – 4 at Worcester Technical High School. One Skyline Drive in Worcester. This annual, day-long training and networking event provides an opportunity to participate in a full day of workshops and discussions that focus on fostering healthy communities in Massachusetts through land conservation. Join your colleagues in land conservation and acquire the information, skills, and connections you need to be most effective.

The conference is attended annually by land trust board members and staff; parks administrators and advocates; federal, state and local government employees; planners; foresters, students, and philanthropists. Register online at http://www.massland.org/conference

Dr. M. Sanjayan will give the keynote address entitled How Nature Can Save Us. We live in the Anthropocene—the Age of Man—and not since cyanobacteria transformed the earth’s early atmosphere has one species, humans, had such an outsized influence on the diversity of life on our planet. How to go about saving nature in the human age is understandably challenging. But perhaps we have been asking the wrong question and it’s nature that can actually save us.  Dr. M. Sanjayan, a global conservation scientist and executive vice president at Conservation International, will discuss reframing conservation by making it about human well being. He will talk about how human communities are helping nature thrive and how bringing people into the picture—that is, emphasizing that humans are a part of our world’s natural systems and not separate from them—complements traditional conservation tools such as protecting important natural areas.  Photo from www.blog.conservation.org.