The Wildlands Project's second annual Private Lands Conservation Workshop has once again generated the enthusiasm of a broad collaboration of state and federal agencies, land trusts, and other conservation organizations offering financial incentives to landowners. This year's event, held in the Sky Islands of southeastern Arizona, is designed to help protect key private lands within wildlife linkages in the Sky Islands Wildlands Network.

The annual event has been praised by landowners because of its focus on presenting a broad range of income opportunities available to private land holders wishing to conserve their properties through conservation easements and other protection tools--opportunities that landowners would otherwise not know about and that would go unused.

As part of the workshop, the Wildlands Project and co-sponsor Arizona Open Land Trust published a 50-page resource guide for funding and conservation easement opportunities which was distributed to workshop attendees and mailed to more than 200 private landowners and managers in the Sky Islands region.

According to Arizona Game and Fish Department's Sal Palazzolo, who presented at this year's event, "... one of the most difficult aspects of our jobs is facilitating one-on-one conversations with private landowners. As you can imagine it is nearly impossible to get to know each and every interested landowner across the state. Conferences like this have the ability to bring interested landowners and resource professionals together in a single room to discuss solutions."

For a free copy of the workshop's resource guide, "Income Opportunities for Wildlife Habitat Enhancement: A Private Landowner's Guide to Funding Programs and Resources," contact the Wildlands Project's Southwest Field Office at 520-884-0875.