Mark Anderson of The Nature Conservancy Receives the Kingsbury Browne Fellowship and Conservation Leadership Award

Mark Anderson, an ecologist who has conducted groundbreaking work to map climate-resilient lands and waters across the United States, has been named the new Kingsbury Browne Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the recipient of the Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award from the Land Trust Alliance.  

In his role as director of The Nature Conservancy’s Center for Resilient Conservation Science, Anderson oversees a team of scientists that has created detailed maps of areas whose topographies, elevations, and geologies are particularly suited for withstanding the impacts of climate change. These maps are used by government agencies, land trusts, and other organizations to prioritize conservation work. Anderson has also produced a deep body of scholarship in the field, including co-authorship of the National Vegetation Classification, an online inventory of plants and plant communities across the United States. 

“Mark is a global leader in applying the science of Geographic Information Systems to the art of land conservation,” said Jim Levitt, director of the International Land Conservation Network at the Lincoln Institute. “His insight has been invaluable in lighting the path forward.” 

“For years, Mark has been at the forefront of climate science and how to combine it effectively with ecology,” said Andrew Bowman, president and CEO of the Land Trust Alliance. “For his visionary climate work and his longstanding commitment to the land trust community, we are honored to name Mark this year’s Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award winner.” 

The fellowship and award, given since 2006, are named for Kingsbury Browne, a Boston tax lawyer and conservationist who served as a Lincoln Fellow in 1980 and helped form the Land Trust Alliance in 1982.  

Recent recipients of the fellowship include Fernando Lloveras San Miguel, executive director of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico; Jane Difley, who led the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests for 23 years; Michael Whitfield, executive director of the Heart of the Rockies Initiative; and Will Rogers, head of the Trust for Public Land. 

Photograph by DJ Glisson, II / Firefly Imageworks.