The 2025 Land Management Symposium will bring together subject matter experts in the fields of water conservation, soil regeneration stream restoration, land use, fire mitigation and recovery and other related topics. It will focus on lands and properties utilizing a Sustainable Multi-Use Paradigm.
To allow for preeminent networking and personal access opportunities to distinguished experts in their fields, there will be a maximum of 50 attendees.
Hosted at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, NM, the symposium will begin the evening of August 18, 2025, and conclude the morning of August 22. All meals will be provided. Housing is in VIP lodging at the Ranch or, if preferred, rooms are available in the Village of Cimarron.
Conservation and Scouting America
Beginning in 1911, with the first “Handbook for Boys”, Scouts were taught the importance of conservation. President Theodore Roosevelt, a renowned conservationist, was Scouting America’s Chief Scout Citizen. The first head of the U.S. Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, was Scouting America’s first Chief Scout Forester.
Our commitment extends to the outdoors and related youth awards, projects, and educational programs at Philmont and all our High Adventure bases and camps. It is a core component of Scouting.
We never had to jump on the conservation and environment bandwagon. Scouting built the bandwagon more than 110 years ago. Those lessons and programs continue to help some of America’s finest young men and women use their skills and leadership to build a better world for everyone.
Why Philmont Scout Ranch?
Philmont Scout Ranch is the Scouting America’s largest National High Adventure Base. Born in 1938 as Philturn Rocky Mountain Scout Camp, Philmont has become a bustling center for high adventure and training. It covers 140,177 acres of rugged mountain wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rocky Mountains in northeastern New Mexico. Philmont has a unique history of ancient Native Americans who chipped petroglyphs into canyon walls, Spanish conquistadors, who explored the Southwest long before the first colonists arrived on the Atlantic coast, the rugged breed of mountain man such as Kit Carson, who blazed trails across this land, the great land barons like Lucien Maxwell who built ranches along the Santa Fe Trail and miners, loggers and cowboys. All left their mark on Philmont.
Philmont Scout Ranch operates 35 staffed camps and 55 trail camps across the rugged terrain that ranges in elevation from 6,500 to 12,441 feet. More than 1 million Scouts, Venturers, and Advisors have experienced the adventure of Philmont since its first camping season in 1939. Most activities take place during the summer, but Philmont also offers programs during the offseason such as Autumn and Winter Adventure. Throughout its existence, conscientious attention to low-impact camping techniques and diligent wildlife and forestry conservation work has helped maintain Philmont’s wilderness.
In addition to providing an unforgettable adventure in backpacking across miles of rugged, rocky trails, Philmont Scout Ranch offers programs that feature the best of the Old West—horseback riding, burro packing, gold panning, chuckwagon dinners, and interpretive history—with exciting challenges for today such as rock climbing, mountain biking, and sport shooting. It’s an unbeatable recipe for fast-paced fun in the outdoors. It is also a working ranch with hundreds of horses, buffalo, and cattle, and thousands of deer, elk, and antelope. It has an active timbering program and produces 300 tons of hay each year. It is the quintessential “mixed-use” ranch.
Philmont lost thousands of acres to fire in 2018 and 2022. It regularly deals with floods, droughts, soil issues, and other “predictable unpredictables.” We believe that our challenges and responses, highlighted in this Symposium, can help others plan, protect, and preserve their own ranches and properties.
2025 Symposium Schedule
Please check back as complete class synopsis and presenter biographies will soon be posted!
- Monday, August 18 – Arrival day, Reception and Dinner
- Tuesday, August 19 – Overview of Canadian Sub-species Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout – Kirk Van Patten, NM Department of Game and Fish, RGCTT Restoration in the Upper Rio Costilla- Eric Leinonen, Turner Natural Resources, RGCCT Restoration on the South Ponil, Jason Malaney Ph.D., How to make a multi-party landscape Restoration Successful – Carter Kruse, Exec. Director, Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture.
- Wednesday, August 20 – Carbon Credits a Legal Perspective, Andrew Kriha, Holland and Knight LLP., The North Hart Prescribed Fire/Wyden Agreement, Jacob Martinez, Vermejo Park Ranch, Jose Trujillo, Carson National Forest
- Afternoon Field Trip to Middle and South Ponil RGCTT sites
- Thursday, August 21 – Cito Creek Cieneguilla and Stream Restoration, Seth Mangini, Surface vs: Mineral Rights, Sheila Petty and Aaron Powell, Holland and Knight LLP. Soil Restoration and Key-Line Plowing, Gordon Tooley, Tooleys Trees
- Afternoon Field Trip – Cito Creek Restoration, Mastication as a Thinning Treatment and Key-Line Plowing Demonstration.
- Reception and closing dinner at the Kiva Cimarroncita Camp
- Friday, August 22 – Departure day
Please check back for class synopsis, presenter bios and full event schedule
Symposium Cost
This inaugural symposium is being offered at no charge to attendees. Hotel style rooms, meals, and activities are included in the registration.
Want to Experience Philmont?
Guests may choose a pre or post conference day of activities during their online registration.
Guests can choose a half day activity such as hiking in the beautiful backcountry, fly-fishing, horseback riding, shooting sports, climbing tower and high ropes course, and museum tours.
Cost includes meals, lodging, and activities.
Pre-Conference Event – Cost $262 per person
- Sunday Arrival 2:00-4:00 PM
- Dinner
- Monday Breakfast
- Half Day Activity
- Lunch
- Check-in for Symposium
Lodging
Guests will stay in our hotel style rooms. Each room includes a seating room, a bedroom with two twin beds, bedding, linens, a private shower and bathroom, refrigerator, and microwave.
