Academic Programs and Resources
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]
Academic Programs and Resources
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY: The Center for Collaborative Conservation
The Center is a place where stakeholders can come together to collaboratively discuss, define, study and implement conservation practices to sustain both the earth’s ecosystems and the people who depend upon them. The CCC is active in collaborative conservation efforts across Colorado, the US West and around the world. The most important boundary-spanning role of the CCC is bridging the activities and interests of Colorado State University with people who do conservation in communities and local landscapes around the world.
Goal 1: Bring diverse people together to support conservation action. We bring stakeholders together through think tanks, dialogues, conferences and workshops to define, discuss, study, and make plans to act on emerging critical issues.
Goal 2: Learn with and teach students. Current and future practitioners (scientists, students, policy-makers, and other stakeholders) co-learn about collaborative conservation and sustainable human communities, exchange and improve knowledge, and bridge scales of place and time.
Goal 3: Understand and support action in collaborative conservation through research-for-action. We promote basic understanding of human-ecological systems to support collaborative conservation efforts, evaluate and analyze existing projects and initiatives, and create new links between research and action on the ground.
Goal 4: Link efforts in collaborative conservation around the world.
We are creating the Collaborative Conservation Learning Network to exchange innovations, studies, tools, processes, metrics and adaptive management models to help worldwide collaborative conservation efforts become more effective, resilient and sustainable.
WESTERN ASPEN ALLIANCE: Utah State University, Department of Wildland Resources
The Western Aspen Alliance (WAA) is a multi-agency, multi-entity, non-profit organization housed at Utah State University. Our mission is to facilitate resilient management of aspen ecosystems in Western North America through coordinated scientific efforts, shared information, and on-the-ground projects. We are not an advocacy group; our aim is to transfer current aspen science to those who desire it. Quaking aspen forests are among the most biodiverse systems in the West. The WAA is focused on connecting experts and issues across disciplinary lines; we address water, wildlife, livestock, forests, fire ecology, climate change, ecosystem monitoring, biological indicators of stress, restoration techniques, and adaptive management.
Our aim is to deliver the following services throughout Aspen’s North American range, although we have focused many efforts specifically around the American and Canadian West. Here’s what we do:
Outreach: The WAA hosts field workshops, conferences, and webinars which match leading researchers with landowners and managers. We provide consultation, customized literature searches, and maintain an expertise database for land and wildlife stewards.
Facilitation: Our experience in bringing science to diverse audiences to address difficult aspen-related issues originates with the WAA’s 2008 inception. In particular, we specialize in multi-owner, cross-boundary, aspen-related problem solving and educational colloquiums.
Research: Our website hosts the world’s largest digital aspen citation database in the world, assisting scientists of all backgrounds in finding desired materials. We are scientists ourselves! In 2013, a workshop hosted at WLA-member High Lonesome Ranch in Colorado, resulted in a state-of-the-science compendium of 10 topical review papers published in the international journal Forest Ecology and Management (vol. 299).
Communication: Effective communication means using a variety of methods for getting accurate sciences messages to our users. Interactive presentation is the cornerstone of the WAA’s modus operandi. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll get it to you or put you in contact with appropriate experts. We put materials in your hands, present current science orally, use social media, and make recorded presentations available for those unable to attend events in person.
The Western Aspen Alliance is committed to creating the most accessible aspen resources anywhere; we do this, ultimately, to promote sustainable aspen ecosystems. If you value resilient, biodiverse, aspen communities we invite you to find the WAA: attend or host a workshop, get your issues addressed, become a member, or just give us a call.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Sidebar” orientation=”right” area=”cs-resource-library” background_layout=”light” remove_border=”off”]
[/et_pb_sidebar][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]