Justin Thompson is the Executive Director of the Southern Alberta Land Trust Society (SALTS), a rancher-led non-profit in operation for 25 years. More specifically, SALTS works with landowners and communities to protect Alberta’s most ecologically important private lands from development. While our province is blessed with amazing parks, many Albertans are unaware that a significant portion of our most critical wildlife habitat and watersheds are on private land. During Justin’s ten years with SALTS, he has led the conservation of over 40,000 acres (160 km2). These lands include river valleys, habitat for species at risk, wildlife corridors across highways, and land in the headwaters of the Bow and Oldman Rivers that supply drinking water for the majority of Albertans. Justin has also been active in communicating the value of the ecosystem services provided by these natural landscapes and the issues we face if we lose them. He is concerned that with an increasingly urbanized population and Alberta’s rapid growth that our ecological literacy around the link between healthy landscapes and our prosperity will be diminished.  On the other hand, it could be argued that in recent times this literacy hasn’t existed much at all and that we need to be actively building it to avoid more policy decisions that continue to erode Alberta’s unique natural capital. Justin has a BSc in Biology and a Masters in Public Policy. He has worked in land conservation, renewable energy development, and green home building.