Politics, Practice, and the Management of Living Landscapes • Brenda Barrett and Eleanor Mahoney, guest editors

Since at least the 1990s, there has been growing awareness that disciplinary barriers between the humanities and the sciences, as well as between “non-human” and “human” nature, are both artificial and harmful, hampering attempts to protect complex, lived-in landscapes. The field of landscape conservation has come to recognize that decision-making and management is best done via collaboration. The theme papers in this issue of Parks Stewardship Forum grow directly out of the guest editors's experience with Living Landscape Observer, a website, blog, and e-newsletter providing commentary and perspective on the evolution of protected area management, with a particular focus on practice and politics. The theme papers presented here highlight the challenges and the opportunities facing the field at all levels as well as the stakes of our shared work at a moment of grave environmental risk.