April 21, 2023 @ 3:30 p.m. MDT
About the Lecture:
Livermore will describe the role NGOs have playedover time in advocating for the protection of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem. He will summarize the role of the Nature Conservancy in conserving key wetland and upland habitats, efforts to reach diverse audiences and how public awareness initiatives are making a difference. He will describe the landscape planning and design work which goes into establishing Nature Conservancy preserves, and focus on the challenges and opportunities facing the Great Salt Lake at this key time in history.
Speaker Bio:
Dave Livermore has been with The Nature Conservancy since 1980 when he first was hired to cover the states of Utah and Nevada working out of the Conservancy’s Western Regional Office in San Francisco. In 1986, Dave moved to Salt Lake City to open the Great Basin Field Office. In 1995 Utah became its own state program and Dave has been Utah State Director ever since.
Dave has enjoyed working on major land and water conservation projects throughout his 42-year career with TNC. Highlights have included, in Nevada, helping to establish Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, purchasing water rights for Stillwater NWR in one of TNC’s first major water projects, securing conservation easements in the Ruby Valley and running a successful ballot initiative to pass Question 5. In Utah, Dave has worked to acquire key wetlands and water rights on the Great Salt Lake, helped to establish the Scott and Norma Matheson Wetlands Preserve near Moab, was instrumental in the passage of the federal Washington County Growth and Conservation Act and led negations to purchase and preserve the Dugout Ranch near Canyonlands National Park. This last project spans over 350,000 acres of public and private land in the heart of Utah’s red rock country. It is now home to the Canyonlands Research Center. Dave has also led six successful Utah capital campaigns raising over $216 million in private and public funds for land and water conservation. The Conservancy’s Utah Chapter has completed 230 conservation transactions protecting over 1,050,000 acres of private and public land while Dave has been State Director. He is currently leading a collaboration with National Audubon to establish a $40 million water fund/trust for the Great Salt Lake – Utah’s first.
Originally from California, Dave’s family has been involved in western conservation initiatives for three generations. Dave graduated from Williams College with honors in 1977 and received a Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Studies from Harvard University in 1994. He received the Chevron Conservation Award in 2003 and The Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Achievement award in 2015. He has also served three terms as a member of the Governor’s Great Salt Lake Advisory Council and currently serves as its Vice-Chair.
Dave’s wife, Rebecca, is an accomplished watercolor artist who paints landscapes of the American West and Utah’s canyon country. Dave and Rebecca live in Salt Lake City and have a daughter, Jenn Livermore, who is a graphic designer at SFMOMA in San Francisco.
Watch the Lecture Here:
