Missoula Linkage Lunch

The Linkage Lunch program was launched to engage, inform, connect, and motivate our Missoula community around landscape conservation.

The general focus of Linkage Lunches are presentations from experts to discuss conservation of habitat, connectivity, wildlife, water, or wildness…and all things in between. They may have a local, statewide, nationwide, or global context. But our goal is that each presentation will include some level of connection to how each of us can help tackle connectivity conservation at home in some way.

Come join the Center for Large Landscape Conservation and other practitioners, agency staff, conservation professionals, and any interested members of the public in these exciting lunchtime talks. You won’t want to miss it! Bring your lunch, if desired. All are welcome!

Our March 2026 Linkage Lunch will highlight similarities in the transboundary topics and issues in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) in Southern Africa with our region of the Crown of the Continent and the broader Yellowstone to Yukon region. Examples include human-wildlife interactions, climate change, sustainable tourism, and river systems. The presenters will start with an overview of the similarities and differences and then engage participants in discussion about ways we can further collaborate and partner on these topics across these complex social-ecological systems.

Presenters will be:

• Jenn Thomsen, Associate Professor, Department of Society and Conservation at the University of Montana
• Joe Mbaiwa, Professor of Tourism Studies, Okavango Research Institute at the University of Botswana (and visiting Fulbright Scholar at University of Montana).

We hope to see you there!

Cheers from the Center for Large Landscape Conservation’s Missoula staff:

Brendan Moynahan, Katie Deuel, Gabriel Oppler, and Kylie Paul

_{Banner photo: Lolo Creek, Lolo National Forest, Montana – Adobe Stock}