Collaborative conservation is about taking action to sustain wildlife and landscapes for both nature and people. The CCC works with people and organizations to achieve research and conservation goals by partnering on projects and providing products and services in learning-rich situations, bringing our focus on good, inclusive process.
Below you will find a list of projects we support at the CCC.
The Western Collaborative Conservation Network (WCCN) links hundreds of people across nine states to build capacity for community-based collaborative conservation. The WCCN has several working groups focused on increasing awareness, building capacity, strengthening public agency participation, and creating sustainable funding for conservation solutions.
The purpose of the Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network is to benefit and support place-based forest collaboratives in Colorado by connecting them to information, resources, and each other, and by telling their stories to make their value and needs understood. This nascent network will be driven by collaboratives, for collaboratives. We are seeking input on an ongoing basis to get to know each collaborative and to understand where there are needs and opportunities to support them.
PRTI is a diverse group of regional leaders and experts facilitated by the Colorado Water Center and the Center for Collaborative Conservation working toward the vision “Let’s make the Poudre River the world’s best example of a healthy, working river.” Group members reflect the same diversity of values held by those who live along the Cache la Poudre River, including agricultural, municipal, and industrial needs, rich recreation opportunities, and ecological health. We use what we learn to identify and implement cooperative action.
Preble’s was the first mammal in Colorado listed under the Endangered Species Act, added to the “threatened” list in 1998. The required Recover Plan was finally approved Fall 2019. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is testing a new approach that builds more community and stakeholders collaboration into the recovery process. The first Species Conservation Team (SCT) has been established in the North Fork of the Cache la Poudre Watershed, northwest of Fort Collins. CCC co-chairs the SCT.
November 3, 2020, Colorado voters approved the reintroduction of wolves into the state. Restoring wolves advancing conservation but potentially threatening the viability of livestock producers and their communities. Working with CSU Extension, the Center for Human-Carnivore, Western Landowners Alliance, and several other partners, the CCC will provide Colorado Extension agents and other educators with steady, continued, contemporary, and relevant training and informational resources to help ensure Colorado’s livestock producers can live sustainably with wolves.
The CCC is facilitating a process with City of Fort Collins staff and partners to determine the needs, opportunities, and constraints for incorporation of adaptive management for the proposed Halligan Water Supply Project. A well-developed plan for adaptive management will be critical to the long-term success of the Halligan Project and the ecological health of the North Fork of the Cache la Poudre River.
Excessive sediment from the North Park Sand Dunes has clogged diversion structures and inhibited agricultural use of water rights. CCC is working to determine if a collaborative process that considers the interests of key stakeholders could be used to design and implement a watershed management plan that lowers sedimentation in Sand Creek to support aquatic ecosystem health and allow full use of water rights.
CCC is a collaboration advisor on a research project investigating how invasive mosquitofish can be reduced in concert with decisions water managers make. We are studying (1) how reduced streamflow, altered water quality, and invasive species affect native species, and (2) how people’s knowledge, values, and decision-making at multiple levels interact with ecosystems to support aquatic sustainability. We are working closely with the South Platte Basin Roundtable to identify opportunities to meet environmental goals at the same time as the BRT works to sustain irrigated agriculture and advance multi-purpose water supply projects.
CCC staff and Fellows have participated in a group of ranchers, conservationists, government land managers and researchers seeking improve ranching profits and conserve grassland birds by using a novel adaptive grazing management approach. Key lessons from this project include the importance of building trust to support collaborative learning. Collaborative learning, in turn, helped stakeholders appreciate each other’s unique experiences, knowledge and interests. See our publications page for several papers that emerged from this project.
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Warner College of Natural Resources
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