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Stewardship Stories

Personal stewardship stories recount local controversies surrounding threatened landscapes and the lessons learned. Whether or not the landscape was ultimately saved, these chronicles bring attention to our rich and diverse legacy of cultural landscapes, and demonstrate how one person can make a difference in any situation. Collectively, these narratives highlight a diversity of geographic locations, landscape types, and individuals.

It Takes One

  • John Russell
    Portland, OR
    Dec 12, 2012
    This Oregon based developer has worked to restore and improve landscape architect Lawrence Halprin's Portland area parks and open spaces.
  • Elena Dorfman
    Apr 27, 2012
    Read about this fine art photographer whose series of landscapes, Empire Falling, explores rock quarries throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.
  • Stan Bales
    Susanville, CA
    Dec 9, 2011
    Read about this committed planner and activist working to conserve natural resources and enhance quality of life in rural Northeastern California. 
  • Harry Wilks
    Hamilton, Ohio
    Dec 5, 2011
    Read about the founder of Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, a 265-acre outdoor museum set among wooded forests and designed gardens.
  • Zara Muren
    Northern California
    Sep 23, 2011
    A landscape architect and filmmaker, Muren focuses on the ecology and poetry of placemaking in the documentary, Dream of The Sea Ranch.
  • Alison Duncan and David Russo
    New York, New York
    Mar 3, 2011
    See how two NYC-based landscape architects are teaching people to value and see the city's design legacy through a forthcoming publication.
  • Ray Owen
    Southern Pines, NC
    Dec 6, 2010
    I am a lifelong resident of Southern Pines, North Carolina, a resort town best known for world class golf courses and beautiful horse country.
  • Anthony Flaccavento
    Castlewood, Virginia
    Feb 11, 2010
    Born in New York City, and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, I first became interested in farming through my dad’s modest organic garden.
  • Rachel Leibowitz
    Austin, Texas
    Dec 15, 2009
    I was raised in the suburbs of Chicago during the 1970s and 1980s, the place represented in John Hughes' comedies Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
  • Bennett Konesni
    Shelter Island, New York
    Oct 1, 2009
    I saw what the Manor and its 243 acres might become, either chopped up, developed and sold off or restored as a living reminder of where we’ve been and where we’re going.
  • Julia Bachrach
    Chicago, Illinois
    Aug 15, 2009
    Throughout my career I have been committed to preserving historic landscapes. When I worked in Highland Park, and found out about the discovery of the archives in Chicago, I was fascinated and intrigued.
  • Ben Haley
    South Hadley, Massachusetts
    Apr 15, 2009
    I got involved with South Hadley’s Independence Tree because there seemed to be a general lack of awareness regarding the tree’s significance.
  • Marc Coir
    Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
    Oct 30, 2008
    " ... what astonished me is that no one paid heed to the cultural landscapes of Cranbrook. As new as I was, I could plainly see that these were created simultaneously with the built environment and that they entailed major alterations to the land ..."
  • Lindsay Bond Totten
    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    Sep 15, 2008
    I couldn’t NOT get involved, when a small group of green industry leaders in this community envisioned starting an organization that would establish as its core purpose the building of a botanic garden for our region.  Having visited public gardens all over the country, I knew what a powerful impact a botanic garden could have on the horticultural community here, and I wanted to be a part of it.
  • Annabel Downs
    London, England
    Sep 15, 2008
    I was invited as a volunteer to catalogue a collection of Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe’s landscape drawings that he had just donated to the Landscape Institute, located in London.
  • Marjetica Potrč
    Ljubljana, Slovenia
    Aug 15, 2008
    To begin with, Liyat and I asked a group of barrio residents what they thought about self-sustainable energy solutions such as solar panels for bringing additional electricity to their homes. They could not care less. They were happy to steal electricity from the municipal power grid.
  • Chris Madrid French
    Charlottesville, Virginia
    Aug 10, 2008
    In 1998, I heard that Richard Neutra's 1961 Cyclorama Center at Gettysburg was to be demolished and the battlefield landscape "restored," an impossibility considering a century of change and the proliferation of private enterprises nearby.
  • Graycliff Conservancy
    Derby, New York
    Jun 15, 2008
    This story focuses on three champions and founding members of the Graycliff Conservancy, Inc. While their involvement in the Graycliff Estate was spurred by differing reasons, the trio is being recognized because of their ability to come together and work “as one” to achieve a successful outcome for this significant property.
  • Lavern Norris Gaynor
    Naples, Florida
    Feb 15, 2008
    " ...significant changes affecting our community brought me to the realization that the faster we grow and change – the closer we come to losing a connection to our local history, to its meaning, and to its benefits for grounding our children in who they are in relationship to their community."
  • Emily Evans
    Nashville, Tennessee
    Sep 30, 2007
    "... a private school ... announced plans to demolish eight historic homes, remove many mature trees, cut and fill and re-grade the parcel to accommodate two regulation size interscholastic athletic fields."