
2018 US/ICOMOS Symposium
November 13-14, 2018
The Presidio, San Francisco, California
Join thought leaders from the U.S. and around the globe in advancing the connections between cultural and natural heritage for more sustainable conservation. This symposium, Forward Together: A Culture-Nature Journey Towards More Effective Conservation in a Changing World, builds on the recognition that integration of cultural and natural heritage conservation and stewardship across professional boundaries and disciplines is essential to improving conservation outcomes.
The symposium kicks off a week of conference activities in San Francisco, in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation:
- November 13-14, 2018: US/International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Symposium
- November 14-16, 2018: The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s PastForward conference
ASLA members participating in the US/ICOMOS Symposium and PastForward include:
Welcome from symposium partners
Michael Boland, ASLA, Chief of Park Development and Visitor Engagement, Presidio Trust
Re-envisioning the Cultural Landscape Report: Straddling the Nature/Culture Divide at Pecos National Historical Park
Theme: Taking a landscape approach to integrating nature and culture
Robert Melnick, FASLA, Senior Cultural Resource Specialist, MIG, Inc.
Protecting Mendocino Woodlands: Lessons from a Landscape of Natural and Cultural Significance
Theme: Linking resilience, sustainable heritage and community livelihoods
Laurie Matthews, ASLA, Director of Preservation Planning + Design, MIG, Inc. (presented by Robert Melnick, FASLA)
Identifying Tangible and Intangible Cultural Relationships in a Rapidly Changing Region of Turkey
Theme: Stewardship of biocultural landscapes in the 21st century: the role of traditional knowledge and practices
Terry Clements, FASLA, Professor and Program Chair, Virginia Tech Landscape Architecture Program
Preservation Leadership Training: Landscape Assessment Workshop
Laurie Matthews, ASLA, Director of Preservation Planning + Design, MIG, Inc.
Learning Lab: So Much to Lose: Assessing and Mitigating Multi-Hazard Risks to Cultural Heritage
Robert Melnick, FASLA, Senior Cultural Resource Specialist, MIG, Inc.
Laurie Matthews, ASLA, and Robert Melnick, FASLA, were also speakers at the 2018 ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in Philadelphia, which concluded yesterday. They presented together on Clarifying Uncertainty: Field Notes from Tackling Climate Change Across the United States.
Attendees of the 2018 US/ICOMOS Symposium will:
- Discuss theory, practices and techniques with a broad audience of conservation practitioners;
- Address the urgency and impact of climate change on heritage places and explore opportunities to build resilience;
- Consider diverse perspectives on nature and culture expressed through practices, approaches and language to inform better integration and conservation outcomes;
- Explore the power of intangible heritage and the diversity of associative values people hold for special places;
- Meet a network of national and international colleagues from a range of disciplines and perspectives and identify the best ways for conservation practitioners to “reach across the culture/nature aisle” while working on a diversity of landscape scales.
Building on past journeys at the 2016 IUCN World Conservation Congress in Honolulu and the 2017 ICOMOS Triennial General Assembly in Delhi, India, Forward Together will identify actionable strategies for furthering the integration of culture and nature for more effective and sustainable conservation.

To register, choose either Forward Together and PastForward (the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual preservation conference) or just Forward Together on the PastForward registration website.
If you can’t make it to PastForward 2018 in San Francisco, you may attend virtually. Select conference programming will be livestreamed for free, including the TrustLive presentations on this year’s main themes: the culture-nature connection, intangible heritage, and resilience. Visit PastForwardConference.org for more information and to sign up to be a virtual attendee.
For more upcoming events, see ASLA’s Conferences for Landscape Architects list.