From the air, the world below unfolds like a living atlas. Rivers wind in serpentine coils. Mountains reach toward the clouds. Farms fashion patchwork quilts across the landscape. We see the world in a beautiful arc curving toward distant horizons. The deeper we look, the more we see, the more we understand. Challenges abound.

EcoFlight offers a fresh perspective for understanding the issues that threaten the integrity of America’s western public lands. An aerial overview from a small aircraft provides invaluable oversight on the enormity of challenges to the natural world. An issues-based dialogue on what is unfolding below – delivered by scientists, indigenous peoples, and experts in environmental fields – stirs dialogue, discussion and debate. The big picture unfolds from the cockpit of a small airplane, while on the ground this oversight perspective finds relevance in current events and issues of pressing importance.

Each year EcoFlight provides perspective to hundreds of community leaders, media representatives, elected officials, conservationists, activists, students and educators who gain the context on which to base their future actions on local and regional environmental issues. An experience with EcoFlight is often the catalyst that spurs action, creates advocacy, and instills commitment. A single flight has the power to influence enlightened natural resource decisions and enhance a participant’s conservation ethic. A flight also encourages the perspective of legacy because our work targets land use and resource issues that extend many generations into the future.