Eighth Annual Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Conservation Symposium

The Annual Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Conservation Symposium, established in 2012, is designed to address topics that are critical to environmental conservation in our region, as well as nationally and internationally. The keynote speaker is the winner of that year's Pritzlaff Conservation Award, which is given to a global trailblazer in conservation.

Registration fees include lunch.

Children in Nature: Prescription for a Healthy Planet

Children today are in nature less than ever before, and they are suffering for it - with obesity, depression, attention disorders, and a dampening of creativity. Without that connection to nature, we are also losing the next generation of conservationists. Award-winning author Richard Louv coined the phrase “nature-deficit disorder” to describe this problem and helped launch an international movement to connect children, families, and communities to nature. It will take a toolkit of strategies to fix the problem, and they are as diverse as our communities. Join us for the Eighth Annual John C. Pritzlaff Conservation Symposium as we learn about - and even experience - these proven strategies from experts. Participate in our panel discussion as together, we take it to the next level - to build a generation of healthier, happier, and smarter conservationists. 

Richard Louv 

No one is a bigger champion of getting kids back in nature than Richard Louv. It isn’t only that he literally wrote the book on it – Last Child in the Woods - he also put his theories into practice.  Richard co-founded the Children & Nature Network, launching an international movement to connect children, families, and entire communities to nature. He knows that there is a lot riding on this effort, since children who spend time in nature are, as he says, healthier, happier, and smarter. And it certainly helps that he is wonderfully articulate. Mr. Louv is a journalist and author of ten books, many of them about re-connecting humans to health and happiness via nature. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Orion, and Outside, to name a few. But he doesn’t just write about connecting people with nature, he takes his message to the streets and the airwaves, appearing frequently on national radio and television programs, and speaking internationally on “nature deficit disorder,” a term that he coined to describe the consequences of our current disconnect. If you are an environmental educator, you’ve been touched by Richard Louv’s work. We at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden are thrilled to present the 2020 John C. Pritzlaff Conservation Award to Richard Louv. 

Dan Fontaine, Wilderness Youth Project + Marlen Limon- Integrating Nature into our Education System

Fernando Gomez, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority- Engaging Diverse Communities

Mark Wilkinson, SB County Trails- Local Healthy People, Healthy Trails initiative with Sansum Clinic

Laurie Bostick Cammon, Pediatrician in Santa Clara- Santa Clara County Park Prescription Program

Bridget Lewin, UCSB Environmental Studies- Kids in Nature Program, Translating Experiences into Conservation Work

Scot Pipkin, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and Chris Lortie, NCEAS- Cultivating a Connection to Nature: Tools, Apps and Citizen Science

Jennifer Adams, Latino Outdoors- Engaging the LatinX Community 

Generously sponsored by