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Toward a Healthy & Productive West

Six common sense principles endorsed by more than 130 organizations light the path to a better West

We urge Congress and the Administration to advance the following principles to achieve rural economic health and a productive agricultural sector, provide for our human needs, and protect the landscapes in which we live and work.

  • Working lands, human communities, and wild places are all important and interdependent. Their health must be protected and advanced together.
  • Ecosystem productivity, social equity, and economic well-being go hand in hand. Good public policy builds on and reinforces these linkages.
  • Large-scale resource planning that is cross-boundary and inclusive, and science- and place-based, is essential.
  • The cooperative management of private and public lands is good for business, public health, and species conservation.
  • Voluntary, market- and incentive-based programs are key tools for landowners to participate in conservation, diversify their operations, and help keep landscapes intact.
  • Hope for rural America lies in collaboration, common sense and non-partisan solutions that ensure sustainable working lands and diverse new economies.

The Western Landowners Alliance and the authors reserve all copyrights on publications posted on our website unless otherwise noted. Please contact us for reprints or for special use requests.

A Farm Bill that works for the West

WLA’s 2023 Farm Bill Platform There are many threats facing working lands in the West today, from drought and fire to economic challenges to increasingly intense development pressure. With every…

2023 National Policy Platform

As landowners and land managers, we recognize that well-managed working lands are the cornerstones of both human communities and the ecosystems on which we all depend. We know what it…

Western water conservation and drought mitigation on private working lands

Policy opportunities in the farm bill and beyond The western United States continues to face extended and increasingly severe drought conditions that threaten municipal and agricultural water supplies, energy production,…

Letter to NRCS Re: Non-lethal predator risk management

In this letter signed by hundreds of producers from around the West, we ask USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service staff to consider “technical and financial assistance to support producer-implemented natural…

Supporting Working Lands and Wildlife with the Four C’s

Policy Recommendations from the Conflict Reduction Consortium Across the western US, iconic wildlife like elk, deer, grizzly bears, and wolves share lands with humans and their livestock. This comes with…

2022 Policy Platform

As landowners and land managers, we recognize that well-managed working lands are the cornerstones of both human communities and the ecosystems on which we all depend. We have a deep,…

Working across the rural-urban divide: Messaging for large carnivore conflict reduction

Conflicts between large carnivores and livestock can be polarizing. The words used around large carnivore-livestock conflict reduction can either further polarize a sensitive situation or bring people together in a…

Securing Your Legacy on the Land, Part 5: Best Practices of Non-Resident Landowners

How is succession planning different for non-resident or “absentee” landowners? With this ownership type becoming more and more common in the West, how can these landowners best steward their investment to the next generation?

Redefining Conservation for the 21st Century

Our roadmap to a conservation model that works for rural America, working lands and wildlife. Conservation as usual isn’t working. We are literally losing ground and natural resources every day.…

New Mexicans Agree

New Mexico needs permanent statewide funding for agricultural and natural resources projects

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