Across the Great Lakes, we know that our most important coastal conservation challenges cannot be addressed by a single organization, agency, or discipline. Success increasingly depends upon partnerships and collaborations that bring diverse people together around a shared purpose. In fact, that is what spurred the birth and growth of the Great Lakes Coastal Assembly! Yet we often overlook an important reality: partnerships and collaborations are living systems too. Like the ecosystems we seek to conserve, these systems require intentional care, adaptability, resilience, and renewal. They are shaped by the relationships, trust, courage, and commitment of the individuals within them. As conservation challenges become increasingly complex, what might it mean to steward our partnerships as intentionally as we steward the landscapes and waters we care about? Drawing on reflections from more than three decades of conservation practice and partnership-building in the Great Lakes region, this session invites participants to consider the human side of collaboration through a brief reflective exercise and a new lens for thinking about partnerships. Participants will leave with a fresh perspective on partnerships as living systems and a practical question to carry with them into their own work.
