Cole Jenson with the California Department of Conservation

I am a second year EPM student with a specialization in Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture. I came to environmental and agricultural work by way of a bachelors in neuroscience and an early career in public health research. This winding path is a result of the critical importance of climate, ecological, and agricultural issues to the health and wellbeing of individuals and our communities. I hope to work in policy and program level work at the intersection of the health of our environment and of our communities, especially in rural places.

I had the privilege of working with the Department of Conservation’s Division of Land Resource Protection for my practicum project, which involved an interagency educational workshop series at the nexus of conservation and housing. I facilitated and provided administrative support for this series, as well as leading the development of a report on the series’ progress, impact, and future direction.

The Conservation and Housing Educational Workshop Series was established in 2021 in order to aid in the alignment of state efforts towards two significant state priorities: increasing the affordable housing supply and conserving natural and working lands. Conservation of the state of California’s vast natural and working lands (including agricultural lands) is an essential part of solving the global climate crisis, as well as maintaining the health of our environment, the health of our communities, and the stability of our food systems. Affordable housing is also an essential part of individual and community wellbeing, and the current housing crisis in California has ripple effects that touch many other sectors, including the environment and agriculture.

Both housing development and conservation of important environments and agricultural lands can draw from the same pool of undeveloped land, which creates the potential for tension and conflict between efforts to address conservation and housing issues. Because of this, cooperation between efforts to address these issues is essential to the achievement of both goals. I was incredibly lucky to be a part of this work, and to work with staff from across the Department of Conservation, Department of Housing and Community Development, Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and the California Air Resources Board. Both staff participants and the steering committee of leadership from these agencies agreed that the series was valuable to state efforts and achieved its goals of increasing cooperation and alignment by building multilevel networks of key staff, facilitating peer learning and resource sharing, and providing collaborative problem-solving space for important discussions to be had.