Close cooperation, an atmosphere of trust, and involvement of private landowners are the keys to preserving California's biodiversity and protecting the economic vitality of the state's rural communities.

Those are the views of Nancy Huffman, a three-term Modoc County supervisor and long-standing member of the California Biodiversity Council.

"The Biodiversity Council will have its greatest success when we sit with everyone who has a stake in management of the land and work together to find ways to manage it best," she says. "We need to be open and honest with each other so we can work toward common goals."

Huffman says that approach is already succeeding in the Modoc Land Use Commission, where an atmosphere of collaboration brings sometimes disparate parties together in a quest for sound resource management.

Though sometimes mislabeled as a County "supremacy" group, Huffman says the commission has helped resource agencies, local government, and private landowners find common ground.

"We did not form the commission as a way to control management of public lands. We wanted to be sure the county had a voice on how those lands are managed, and that agencies understood what the county needed to survive," she says.

As a result, Huffman points out, there has been continuing discussion among state and federal resource managers, county government, and people who depend on natural resources for their economic well-being.

Most recently, the commission played a key role in development of an elk management strategy for the greater Modoc area. It offers suggestions on seizing opportunities offered by the expanding elk herds (wildlife viewing and hunting, for example), and for finding ways to reduce elk herd impacts to private lands and sensitive areas.

The commission also sent the Forest Service a Modoc County alternative for the Sierra Nevada Conservation Framework. It points out the differences between the Modoc Plateau and the Sierra Nevada, and highlights Modoc's collaboration success stories. It argues that the Modoc Plateau warrants management approaches separate from those proposed for the Sierra, but still leading the continuing improvements in resource health.

"We have tried to impress on the agencies that they need to help the counties and the landowners find ways to improve management, rather than just enforcing regulations," Huffman says, adding that the Biodiversity Council can also assist counties by using that approach.

Huffman, whose family has worked the same Tulelake farm for the past 50 years, is especially adamant about the importance of private landowners and resource users in the quest to preserve biodiversity and economic viability.

"Most landowners are interested in conserving the land and resources. I can't see managing the land, including the public lands, without involving the people who use it and know it best. Ranchers are learning how to manage better. We can't discount their love for the land," she says.

That management approach will require an investment in time and trust building, and an agreement that everyone needs to look forward.

"We need to figure out how we are going to improve resource management, without spending time criticizing what we did in the past. We need to figure out approaches where all sides benefit," she says, "and that is where the Biodiversity Council approach benefits us. We are considering the whole, not just the individual parts."