Track Record
30 years of work across thousands of square miles.
The good news is that landscape and regional renewal are not new. They have been successfully demonstrated and are already underway in many parts of the world. Members of our team have spent decades designing, implementing, and monitoring community-led ecological restoration and stewardship initiatives spanning millions of acres.
Well-documented examples include the Malpai Borderlands in the American Southwest, Montana’s Blackfoot Challenge, and fisheries recovery efforts along the coast of Maine, as well as numerous other initiatives around the globe. These experiences demonstrate that landscape-scale renewal is not simply an aspiration, but a proven approach that can deliver lasting ecological, economic, and community benefits.
Malpai Borderlands
Southern New Mexico1,000,000 acres · 2 countries · 4 states · 8 counties · 30+ years (ongoing)
One of the most intensely studied landscape-scale ecological projects in a similar biome and ecological context to the current NM pilot. The project's Achilles heel, reliance on federal and foundation funding that collapsed after the 2008 financial crisis, is exactly what the Transition Facility architecture solves.
Warner Glenn and Kelly Glenn, ranchers; Richard Knight, Colorado State University. Curtin, C.G. (2015), peer-reviewed book documenting the project
Blackfoot Challenge
Western Montana2,200,000 acres · Multi-watershed collaborative · Multi-decade
A world-renowned trout fishery and watershed where high land values reflect the economic benefits of ecological integrity at the landscape scale. This example also illustrates the importance of community engagement and careful documentation in sustaining the cultural and ecological functions that underpin the region’s natural and economic assets.
Charles Curtin, comparative design and monitoring. Curtin, C.G., peer-reviewed book comparing Malpai Borderlands and Blackfoot Challenge
Downeast Initiative
Gulf of Maine, Downeast Maine7,500 square miles · Nearshore groundfish and lobster fisheries · Since 2001 (ongoing)
The Downeast Initiative has worked since 2001 to revive groundfish and lobster fisheries across a 7,500 square mile coastal region. Much like the landscapes of the West, nearshore fisheries have basins, valleys, and mountains, the highest of which surface as islands. The same patterns of resource use, abundance, and collaborative stewardship hold, which shows these processes are ubiquitous across wet and dry ecosystems.
Charles Curtin, co-founder and science advisor, with Jim Wilson of the University of Maine, fisheries conservationists Robin Alden and Ted Ames, and Reverend Ted HoskinsBooks
“My books explore the intersection of ecology and culture and have focused on how the world's messiness leads to uncertainty and unexpected outcomes…and what to do about it.”
The Science of Open Spaces
Island Press, 2015
This book focuses on landscape conservation as a metaphor for addressing large, complex challenges at the junction of ecology and culture.
“The book offers both inspiration and guidance. It shows that conservation - essentially, sustainability - can indeed be accomplished.”
Complex Ecology: Foundational Perspectives on Dynamic Approaches to Ecology and Conservation
Cambridge University Press, 2018
This book takes a deep dive into the foundations of complexity-based approaches to ecology and conservation, including input from more than 60 of the leading voices from across the globe.
“Complex Ecology provides an essential compass for scientists and conservationists to navigate the shifting ecological context of conservation action.”
Place-Based Solutions: The Power of Regenerative Thinking in the Face of Crisis
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026
The point is to move beyond the resilience framing of societal challenges that largely sustain the status quo.
“Science and technology can identify environmental threats, but don’t solve them.”Articles and Reports
Restoring Our Landscapes, Strengthening Our Communities: Practical, Community-Centered Approaches to Woody Biomass in New Mexico
NM Biomass Working Group
Charting a Pathway Toward Long-term Fire Recovery: Why Our Institutions Are Failing, and What to Do About It
Charles G. Curtin, Green Fire Times, January/February 2026
“The answer to the riddle of why we’ve not made more progress in post-fire recovery is that existing institutions and the systems they embody aren’t working because they’re not designed to work in the face of rapid, repeated and dramatic change.”
Radical Ruralism: Regeneration on the Edge
Rosanna Vitello, The Place Bureau, Meander magazine, 2025
“Author, activist and scientist Charles Curtin is confronting a landscape increasingly defined by fire.”
Examining the Effectiveness of Fuel Treatments on New Mexico Forests
Adam Atchley, Julia Oliveto, Nolan Jenko, Los Alamos National Laboratory
“Our simulations indicate that reducing surface fuels is the most effective strategy for lowering wildfire severity, spread rate, and intensity.”
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Quantification of the Thinning Impact on Carbon Balance and Fire Risks for Ponderosa Pine Forests in New Mexico
Chonggang Xu, Adam Atchley, Zachary Robbins, Julia Oliveto, Alex Jonko, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2023
“A common practice in forest management is to thin forest in order to reduce the fire risks; however, because the trees that are thinned are typically small and of little economic values, they are generally pile burned.”
Beyond Firesheds: Fireshed-Watershed-Foodshed, Reenvisioning Agriculture in the Face of Climate Change
Charles Curtin, edible New Mexico, Spring 2024
“The Pyrocene has arrived, where a warming and drying climate leads to repeated larger and hotter fires.”
Biomass Energy in the Urban-Rural Interface, Sangre de Cristo Mountains, New Mexico
Charles Curtin, Forest Service Wood Innovation Grant Report, July 2024
“Creating carbon-negative markets to support landscape restoration and renewal is a crucial facet of wildfire mitigation and recovery.”
Fire, Power and Privilege in the Pyrocene
Charles Curtin, op-ed, 2023
“The Southwest has passed a climatic threshold where recurrent wildfire is not just a possibility—it’s a near certainty.”
The Sangre de Cristo Mountain Initiative: An Audacious Commonsense Proposal
Charles Curtin, Green Fire Times, November/December 2022
“We need more than short-term band-aid solutions—but also long-term strategic approaches that address causes and not just the symptoms.”
New Mexico Wildfires: The Gift That Keeps Giving
Fear and Loathing Near Las Vegas (Part 2). Charles Curtin, Green Fire Times, November/December 2022
“The water came from miles upstream, and there was no way the flooding could have been predicted, based on local conditions.”
Fear and Loathing Near Las Vegas
Personal Reflections on the Calf Canyon Fire (Part 1). Charles Curtin, Green Fire Times, September/October 2022
“It is Sunday, May 8th, just after dawn on the Cañoncito creek north of Mora, New Mexico.”
Mora County Biomass Energy Feasibility Study
Sangre de Cristo Initiative, 2021