{"pk":62089,"title":"RISE Declaration: “I could not be more proud of my work and the ongoing service of the men and women at NOAA’s Sanctuary System”","subtitle":null,"abstract":"The federal government has been undergoing dramatic cuts since President Trump took office in January 2025, with ripple effects through partners in state and local government, academia, and the non-profit and private sectors. These changes are affecting all aspects of government, including the place-based conservation roles of agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), US Fish and Wildlife Service, and US Forest Service. This represents an enormous loss of institutional knowledge and capacity. The George Wright Society recognizes that government service, non-profit civil society, and unfettered academic inquiry are foundational to the well-being of the American nation. While the current administration’s policy and budgetary decisions are designed to undermine these values, the Society continues to support them in our focal area—parks, protected/conserved areas, cultural sites, and other forms of place-based conservation.  As part of that response, the Society has launched a new program, the RISE Declarations Project, to support conservation colleagues who have recently lost their jobs due to actions by the current administration: people we refer to as Recent Involuntarily Separated Employees (RISEs). What follows is a RISE Declaration: a statement that lets RISEs summarize in their own words the most important aspects of their career in place-based conservation, along with lessons learned. For a complete introduction to the RISE Declarations Project, please go to https://doi.org/10.5070/P5.62005.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"New Perspectives","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0773f72q","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Matt","middle_name":"","last_name":"Stout","name_suffix":"","institution":"","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2026-01-15T08:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/psf/article/62089/galley/47973/download/"}]}