By October Greenfield, Wildlife Habitat Restoration Coordinator, and Lauria McShane, Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative Assistant

When you think of speed-dating, you might picture a dimly-lit bar filled with strangers anxiously sipping cocktails and making awkward small-talk all night. The Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative (VGBI) is flipping that image on its head with Conservation Speed Dating workshops!

Stepping into land conservation for the first time, or starting a new conservation project, can feel as intimidating or overwhelming as a first date might feel. But in these brightly lit rooms with friendly faces, VGBI’s Conservation Speed Dating workshops replace the awkward small-talk with a fun and comfortable atmosphere where neighbors come together with conservation professionals to receive guidance.

When looking to learn more about conservation, landowners often find themselves locating, contacting, and setting up individual meetings with multiple conservation professionals. The options can seem endless! First, there’s the Virginia Department of Forestry, the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), local Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and the Virginia Cooperative Extension. And then there are the myriad conservation nonprofits like PEC, Smithsonian’s Virginia Working Landscapes, American Farmland Trust, Blue Ridge PRISM, The Clifton Institute and local watershed groups. Rather than leaving conservation-minded landowners out there to find all the fish in the sea on their own, Conservation Speed Dating brings all the fish together in the same net!

In a room full of outreach posters, landowners stay seated on one side of their table with their property map, while conservation professionals move from table to table in a whirlwind of excited chatter. For 10 minutes per round, landowners can introduce themselves and their property, share their interests and concerns, ask questions, and dream up new conservation projects with the help of the rotating local experts. 

Rather than numbers exchanged on cocktail napkins, landowners and conservation professionals write or draw out ideas directly on the property maps. These become visual references that inform and inspire conservation practices to their landscape. When a connection sparks, a site visit is scheduled, good times are had, and ultimately, new conservation projects are implemented.

The concept of the Conservation Speed Dating workshop was brought to life with generous funding through the Cornell Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative and the Sarah K. de Coizart Perpetual Charitable Trust. Our goal is to strengthen communication and increase collaboration between community members and the conservation world. We want to help landowners understand their options and make informed decisions about the future of their land. We hope they leave knowing who to follow up with and what opportunities and cost-share programs are available to support them.

At a speed dating workshop in Unison, in Loudoun County, landowner Bob Ellise left with plans for a neighborhood-wide conservation project. “Thank you for including me in the event this morning. It was a blast. Not only did I learn a lot, but I’ll be embarking on a project with my two sets of neighbors who were also in attendance. The only thing that could have made it more fun would be an open bar, but then I wouldn’t remember anything that transpired and the environment would inevitably suffer,” Ellise said with a laugh.

As a founding partner in the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative, PEC believes that collaboration and partnership give people the tools and information they need to participate in the conservation of their own land and catalyze positive change in their communities. Conservation Speed Dating workshops make that possible. After all, not everyone realizes that local conservation practitioners, technical service providers, and neighbors are ready and willing to support those endeavors. We know that when local residents express a shared vision, it becomes a map for great conservation efforts.

So the next time you hear about “speed dating,” don’t get worried about finding Mr. or Mrs. Right in a sea of strangers. Instead, get excited to pull up a chair with your neighbors over colorful maps and refreshing drinks to get to know your local conservation team! There may be plenty of fish in the sea, but we come together at Conservation Speed Dating workshops to help our community make conservation go swimmingly.

This article appeared in the 2024 fall edition of The Piedmont Environmental Council’s member newsletter, The Piedmont View. If you’d like to become a PEC member or renew your membership, please visit pecva.org/join.