Jon Christensen is blogging up a storm from the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation in St. Louis at his blog, The Uneasy Chair. I don't have time to summarize all the posts, but among the highlights are an interview with Lynn Scarlett and this post on the Walla Walla Way. I also really liked this post on how on-the-ground conservationists and free-market types are responding to the White House "cooperative conservation" initiatives (excerpted below).

Why Are the True Free Market Conservationists So Worried? I thought this was supposed to be their party. Last night I had dinner with a group of hardcore conservationists, people who have been working in the swamps of conservation for decades. I wasn't surprised to find them pissed off. A little depressed, but not surprised. They're really worried that all the happy talk about cooperation and free market solutions is masking the fact that conservation is hard work, requires sacrifices from landowners, and that this administration is not committed to it at all. Over lunch today, I heard a different worry from some longtime advocates of free market conservation solutions that respect private property and emerge from the grass roots. They're concerned that this administration came in, looked around and saw the cooperative conservation efforts that were already underway around the country, especially out West, and are now taking credit for them. In a plenary speech, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said cooperative conservation was President Bush's vision. But the true believers know nothing will kill these efforts faster than the federal government claiming them.