• Natural areas need sound ecological management to preserve and increase biological diversity;
  
  
• Placing natural areas management in a larger geographic context increases ecological understanding and achieves greater impact on a larger scale
  
  
• Partnerships are fun, challenging, rewarding, take time to build, and successful ones leave our communities and natural areas all stronger collectively and individually;
  
  
• Networking and learning must take place on a local level and be placed within a larger geographic and social context to enable effective implementation by skilled volunteers in their own backyard whether that backyard is their own property, a local greenway, a state park, a private preserve, or a corporate campus;
  
  
• We must continue to observe, assess, and monitor the land and our stewardship efforts so that we can learn how best to manage it to preserve its ecological integrity;
  
  
• Sharing ideas and information allows us to avoid others’ mistakes and learn from their successes to increase, in quantity and quality, on-the-ground management of our important natural areas; and
  
  
• Learning is a lifelong endeavor.

We look forward to your contribution and commitment helping make this vision a reality.