# Exploring Pennsylvania's Conservation Landscapes with Meredith Hill, Retired, DCNR, Conservation Landscape Manager

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/think-outside-with-the-pennsylvania-parks-and-forests-foundation-7293119/exploring-pennsylvania-s-conservation-landscapes-with-meredith-hill-retired-dcnr-conservation-landscape-manager
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/think-outside-with-the-pennsylvania-parks-and-forests-foundation-7293119/exploring-pennsylvania-s-conservation-landscapes-with-meredith-hill-retired-dcnr-conservation-landscape-manager.md
Podcast: [Think Outside with the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation](https://stenobird.com/podcast/think-outside-with-the-pennsylvania-parks-and-forests-foundation-7293119)
Published: 2026-06-01T05:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://paparksandforests.org/think-outside/exploring-pennsylvanias-conservation-landscapes-with-meredith-hill-retired-dcnr-conservation-landscape-manager/
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/2f7a8006-54a1-46fc-9ff4-931057a528fa.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/think-outside-with-the-pennsylvania-parks-and-forests-foundation-7293119/episodes/exploring-pennsylvania-s-conservation-landscapes-with-meredith-hill-retired-dcnr-conservation-landscape-manager
Duration seconds: 2317

## Resource

"It's all about co-creation." Meredith Hill spent fifteen years at Pennsylvania's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources managing the Conservation Landscape Program before her recent retirement. She believes that no agency, no organization, no community can accomplish conservation at scale alone. Today, Meredith joins our host Marci Mowery to discuss a program that has quietly reshaped how Pennsylvania thinks about land, community, and the relationship between the two. Born out of a visionary leader's statewide listening tour in the early 2000s, the program designated eight multi-county regions across Pennsylvania, each united by shared values but driven by the distinct needs of its place. In the Wilds, the priority was building a sustainable outdoor recreation economy around vast public lands to revitalize rural communities. In the Lehigh Valley, it was stitching green corridors together before open space disappeared forever. The program is driven, says Meredith, by trust . After all, it takes years to build, and it requires DCNR staff to step outside their bureaus and work shoulder to shoulder with local partners. Trust, in turn, produces the remarkable. Think of a network of local artisans selling handmade goods in state park shops; county planners meeting every other month for nearly two decades; communities like Galeton intentionally dimming their streetlights to protect a night sky that draws stargazers from across the world! Key Topics: What Is the Conservation Landscape Program? (01:42) Pennsylvania's Eight Landscapes (03:31) Building Trust Across Diverse Partners (11:25) The PA Wilds Cooperative: Artisans, Entrepreneurs, and Local Business (14:53) One Experience Every Pennsylvanian Should Have: Dark Skies (23:16) Pennsylvania as a Model for Other Sta…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/think-outside-with-the-pennsylvania-parks-and-forests-foundation-7293119/episodes/exploring-pennsylvania-s-conservation-landscapes-with-meredith-hill-retired-dcnr-conservation-landscape-manager/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/think-outside-with-the-pennsylvania-parks-and-forests-foundation-7293119/exploring-pennsylvania-s-conservation-landscapes-with-meredith-hill-retired-dcnr-conservation-landscape-manager.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.