Nicole Maness

Nicole Maness (she/her), Partner since 2009 | Climate, Habitat, & Working Lands

“There’s a boldness to Willamette Partnership’s commitment to finding solutions. We have complicated problems in the world, but with smart people and good process, creative thinking, and an open heart and mind, we can come up with solutions that work for people and nature.” 

Nicole is motivated by an ardent belief that the Pacific Northwest can be made healthier and more resilient acre by acre, oak by oak, community by community. Her work is powered by a passion for collaborative problem-solving. 

She works with policymakers, land owners, scientists, developers, and other stakeholders to craft innovative approaches to conservation. Nicole excels at helping cross-sector groups navigate strategic challenges – designing processes and engaging people with diverse interests and skills to find and work toward a shared vision for the future. Her current focus is on integrating sound science into effective and thoughtfully designed programs and policies that help climate change impacts and build more climate-adapted human and natural communities.

The creation of The Oak Accord, with over 50 signatories, is her most impactful and rewarding project thus far: “It’s my direct connection to on-the-ground conservation. When I retire, I’ll be able to look at that and say, ‘this sliver of the planet is a little bit better because of the time I was able to spend working on that program.’”

PROJECTS

Yaquina Bay Estuary Management Plan

Pure Water Partners

Oak Accord

Willamette Valley Oak Prairie Cooperative

Pacific Northwest Oak Alliance

SageCon Partnership

 

SKILLS & EXPERIENCES

  • Process design and implementation: facilitating and managing complex, multi-stakeholder processes
  • Strategic visioning and planning for landscape-scale collaboratives
  • Coordination of  technical partnerships with cross-sector collaboratives
  • Development of science-based quantification methods for voluntary ecosystem service programs and compliance-based compensatory mitigation programs

PUBLICATIONS

Altman, B., Evans-Peters, S., Hilton Kim, E., Maness, N., Stephens, J. and Taylor, B. 2017. Prairie, Oaks and People: A Conservation Business Plan to Revitalize the Prairie-Oak Habitats of the Pacific Northwest, 

Cochran, B., and Maness, N. 2015. A Primer on Biodiversity Measurement Systems. In C. J. Donlan (Ed.), Proactive Strategies for Protecting Species: Pre-Listing Conservation and the Endangered Species Act (1st ed., pp. 94–104). University of California Press.

Cochran, B, N. Robinson-Maness, and E. Alcott (Eds.), 2011. Measuring Up: Synchronizing Biodiversity Measurement Systems for Markets and Other Incentive Programs. Willamette Partnership, Portland, OR.

Gosnell H., N. Robinson-Maness and S. Charnley. 2011. Engaging ranchers in market-based approaches to climate change mitigation: Opportunities, challenges, and policy implications. Rangelands 64(6)

Gosnell, H., N. Robinson-Maness and S. Charnley. 2011. Profiting from the sale of carbon offsets: A case study of the Trigg Ranch. Rangelands 64(6)

Toombs T., J.H. Goldstein, C. Hanson, N. Robinson-Maness, and T. Fankhauser. 2011. Rangeland Ecosystem Services, Risk Management, and the Ranch Bottom Line. Rangelands: 33(5): 13-19.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science

Geography and Environmental Science
McGill University, Montreal QC, Canada

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