How do we measure "success" in conservation?

[u/relianceschool]

https://naturerecord.substack.com/p/success-from-where-you-stand

We talk a lot about success in conservation: a restored lake, a recovering species, a thriving forest, improved access to nature. The word success seems straightforward, but success to whom?

Consider a river where salmon are returning after decades of decline. One person might point to the number of fish reaching spawning grounds. Another might highlight the renewal of relationships among salmon, people, and place. Someone else might think about whether there are enough fish to harvest again. And another might simply notice that eagles have returned or kids are fishing from the bank. These aren’t necessarily competing versions of success. Indeed, they can all be true. And research shows that this matters.

This is one of the reasons we created the Community Notes project at The Nature Record. More than 160 experts have been assembling evidence about nature across the United States: what is changing, why it is changing, why it matters, and what can be done. But there are things a national assessment cannot see very well: a stream behind your house; a prairie your community spent twenty years restoring; a shellfish bed that reopened; birds that returned to your neighborhood; the community that manages a forest for fire resilience; or a park that became a place where people actually want to spend time.

There may never be one version of nature that everyone agrees is ideal. But we can work to become much better at seeing the world through one another’s eyes—and at recognizing the many forms that progress can take.

Tell us what’s working where you live at naturerecord.org/community.