Photo: Ed Sharron

"Our most effective [conservation] work results from engagement with others, where the collective effort extends the reach of all. The [National Park] Service and our partners understand it is only through our combined efforts that we can help our society to succeed in passing on unimpaired to future generations the national system of parks and special places… "National Park Service Director Fran P. Mainella

Successful stewardship of national parks and other places of heritage depends on broad-based partnerships, increased community engagement, and a commitment to the future. This means that conservation today is complex and challenging, but also provides tremendous opportunities for more people to be involved in many more ways than in the past.

Begun in 1998, the Conservation Study Institute (CSI) was established by the National Park Service (NPS) to help the agency and its partners stay in touch with the evolving field of conservation and develop more sophisticated partnerships and new tools and strategies. A partnership with academic, government, and nonprofit organizations, the institute provides a forum for the National Park Service, the conservation community, and the public to discuss conservation history, contemporary issues and practice, and future directions for the field.

Photo: Kathleen Diehl

The Institute's vision of conservation is inclusive and interdisciplinary. Its vision encompasses natural and cultural heritage in defining sense of place, and emphasizes the role of people in stewardship. Reflecting this vision, the Institute's approach is founded on collaborative leadership and community-based conservation involving cooperation and partnerships.

This website highlights our work in sharing best practices, cultivating leadership, and analyzing trends in conservation. A diversity of programs creates opportunities to reflect on lessons learned, to exchange leadership experience, and to maintain a dialogue on the best thinking and practice in the larger world of conservation. The Institute is dedicated to assisting the National Park Service and its partners in becoming increasingly effective and creative in meeting new challenges, and more open and responsive leaders in building collaboration and commitment for the stewardship of our national system of parks and special places.

The Institute is located at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vermont, because this national park tells the story of conservation history and the evolving nature of land stewardship in America.