Last Tuesday, the 25^th of June, was not a good day at work. After sitting down at my small cubicle on the third floor of TNC’s stunningly and sustainably renovated office building, I began working on my Natural Climate Solutions policy brief, editing, re-editing and editing some more.  Earlier, while riding the bus to work, I had checked on the latest news about the walkout by Oregon Senate Republicans.  For the last several days, 11 Republican state senators decamped to undisclosed locations in Idaho to prevent the Senate from having the quorum necessary to vote on Oregon’s “cap-and-invest” climate bill. As I researched policy options for incentivizing private landowners to sequester carbon on natural and working lands, I checked again on the news coming out of Salem.

My First Fortnight(+) At TNC

My introductory post was entitled “Let’s Sequester Some Carbon!” I am sorry to report that nearly three weeks into my placement, I have yet to personally sequester any carbon. However, I have taken the bus to work every day so far, so I am at least limiting my carbon footprint!

In all seriousness, I can honestly say that my first few weeks at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) have gone largely according to expectations. During my first week, I sat in on stakeholder meetings between TNC staff, state government officials and representatives of other environmental groups.  In these meetings, Dr. Rose Graves presented her findings on potential Natural Climate Solution (NCS) pathways in Oregon, demonstrating the carbon sequestration potential of several potential NCS strategies.  Participants were invited to provide feedback and recommendations on Dr. Graves’ initial research. These meetings provided an excellent opportunity to watch NGOs and government officials navigate the science-policy interface (more on this later).