Why should you attend the 2024 Natural Areas Conference?

Land stewardship benefits from shared knowledge rich in diverse perspectives. NAC24 invites participation from all viewpoints, backgrounds, abilities, and experiences to enrich learning for all

• The NAC gathers more than 350 natural areas practitioners in one location featuring plenary and concurrent sessions, symposia, round tables, field workshops, and poster presentations.

• The NAC is the forum for information-exchange among natural areas practitioners across North America. Participants have shared countless stories about how information gained from their participation in this conference had a direct impact on the lands they steward.

• The NAC provides science-based content for natural area practitioners and researchers seeking applied science, practical solutions, and knowledge transfer related to the management of natural areas on a day-to-day basis; such as land stewards in land trusts, nature centers, and nature preserves who manage land for their conservation or natural area values.
  

• The NAC supports the conservation and the protection of biodiversity by providing access to quality science, new knowledge, best practices, and emerging methodologies for those who steward natural areas.

2024 Natural Areas Conference (NAC24): Where Science Meets Stewardship

Manhattan Convention Center | October 7-10, 2024 | Manhattan, Kansas

Manhattan, Kansas is nestled in the heart of the scenic Flint Hills, a globally significant remnant of the once vast tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Located near the Konza Prairie Biological Center and Kansas State University, this ecologically significant landscape features nearly 11,000 acres of native tallgrass prairie for research and conservation.

For the past 50 years, NAA’s Natural Areas Conference has gathered federal, tribal, state, regional, and local natural areas practitioners from national nonprofit organizations, private industry, and academic institutions in order to foster communication and collaboration that can lead to progress in connection to challenges in the management of natural areas.

Managing ecologically significant landscapes for the protection of biodiversity is a specialized segment of conservation and ecological science that includes management strategies to avert the permanent loss of or degradation of rare species and to preserve the unique functions of natural communities. Beyond the benefits to nature, well-managed natural areas increase resilience during catastrophic events and thus play an important role in the causes and consequences of climate change.

Tell Your Story | Submit a StoryMap

If public speaking isn't your preference, but you have a success story, scientific or experience-based research, best practices, or a methodology to share, consider submitting a StoryMap. Your StoryMap will be shared through the conference app and NAA's website.

Scholarships

Natural Areas Association is committed to getting important conservation science into the hands of those who need it, and a lack of funding should not get in the way. If you or your organization cannot support your registration for this event, please apply for a scholarship.

Thank you to our partners who make the 2024 Natural Areas Conference possible.

Exhibitors

Audubon of Kansas

Kansas Association of Conservation Districts

Missouri Prairie Foundation/Grow Native!

National Ecological Observatory Network

Oak Woodlands & Forests Fire Consortium

Pollinator Partnership

Truax Company, Inc.

Sponsor and exhibitor options are still available! Contact Holli Redekop for more information.