Oregon Public Broadcasting

Hundreds of environmentalists and rural community leaders are gathering in Central Oregon this week.

Organizers say the Western Stewardship Summit is meant to build connections between farmers, rural landowners, and environmentalists.

Martin Goebel is the president of Sustainable Northwest, the non-profit that spearheaded the summit, to be held at Sunriver.

Martin Goebel: “Stewardship, as a term, and sustainability, as a term, can in fact be used as jargon, and oftentimes are used to mask things that don’t exist. But at this particular conference, we are bringing together the best of the best, practitioners who are actually doing this work.”

The speakers’ list for the four-day event includes Jim Lyons, a former Department of Agriculture Undersecretary.  He was in charge of the Forest Service under President Bill Clinton.

Mark Rey, the current undersecretary over the Forest Service, is also scheduled to speak.

Goebel says he hopes the conference gets the two sides talking about ways to conserve the land while also providing jobs and economic help to the rural West. Specifically, he said market-based projects, like carbon markets, could be discussed.