Blog
Lessons from the Mongolian Sustainable Rangeland Collaborative: Reflections from a CCC Undergraduate Fellow By Oliver D’Orazio Upon learning about the Center for Collaborative Conservation (CCC) at CSU, I immediately wanted to become involved. My volunteer experience with conservation groups and …
Wolves in Colorado By John Sanderson February 12, 2020 Wolves are in Colorado and more may be coming. After being extirpated in the 1940s, wolves began showing up in Colorado in the mid-2000s. In 2004, a wolf was killed by …
CCC Teaches Collaborative Conservation to Tomorrow’s Conservation Leaders Each spring, Dr. Kim Skyelander, CCC Associate Director, teaches the three credit course Collaborative Conservation: NR543B for the Conservation Leadership Through Learning (CLTL) program, a master’s degree in the Department of Human …
This 2.5 day workshop brought together Indigenous scholars, community members and leaders, and collaborative conservation researchers and practitioners, to share experiences and lessons learned about research partnerships that simultaneously address critical conservation and community needs. The overarching goal was to …
The land is green, but there is little for livestock to eat By Cini Brown and the Mongolian Sustainable Rangeland Collaborative It has been over a year since we returned to Colorado after spending a month in Mongolia. I am …
New leadership at the Center for Collaborative Conservation By John Sanderson Everybody loves it when we get along and do great things together. In the West, everyone I know cares about our land and water, as places to recreate, to …
9.29.2019 New Directions New Questions by Kailey Carlson, Undergraduate Student in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology Starting as an undergrad on a project I knew nothing about, this all began with my attempt to understand the complexity of the centuries …
This quarters Blog highlights Members of our Fellows Team visit to Quality Timbers and Wood Products LLC., in the small community of Antonito, Colorado, to facilitate collaboration among their custom milling operation and a developing local guild of Timber Frame …
Trying New Things: Expanding my Interdisciplinary Training with Social Science Methods in Ecology By Jake Marinkovich; Undergraduate student in Ecosystem Sciences and Sustainability Key Words: Ecology, Social Sciences, Fuzzy Cognitive Map, Ethiopia Everyone has their comfort zone. That area right …
On the domestic and the wild by Kevin Jablonski Large carnivores eat large herbivores. Humans also eat large herbivores. Beginning around 10,000 years ago, the long coevolutionary process of domestication enabled humans to largely shift away from hunting wild herbivores …
Modeling and Monitoring Shrub Encroachment in the Guassa Community Conservation Area, Ethiopia By: Cara Steger Since our last post, we returned to the Guassa Community Conservation Area to finalize our co-design of a community-based monitoring program for shrub encroachment. We …
Changes, Challenges and Promising Avenues By Bethlehem Astella, Cohort 9 Fellow As we returned to the fields in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, six months since our last visit in May of 2018, it was evident so much has changed. Our …
Beyond the Data Points Reflections by Kailey Carlson, undergraduate fellow with the CCC Fellows Project, Engaging the Collaborative Capital of Lion Guardians to Reduce Lost Livestock in Maasailands Though we may try relentlessly, we can’t always quantify human and animal …
After the Fire: Finding Value in Burned Timber within the 2-3-2 by Tim Reader In 2018, Colorado and the West experienced one of the worst wildfire seasons on record. Even though a lot of resources are put towards conducting fire …
Strengthening Relationships Through Research Co-Design By: Cara Steger and Bikila Warkineh Dullo We left off our last blog post talking about an up-coming workshop we were planning, which ended up taking place August 4th and 5th in Mehal Meda, the …
By Philip J. Briggs, Lion Monitoring Manager – Lion Guardians As I flew back to Kenya in late February, having spent some weeks in Fort Collins, Colorado, I was eager to get back to the field after an insightful learning …
By Oliver D’Orazio Four vehicles, two large passenger vans and two rugged looking SUVs transported us to the field training site. The SUVs were equipped with snorkel exhaust systems and their chassis were lifted an extra six inches off the …
By CCC fellow Matthew Thornton The aromas of cinnamon, coffee, and pumpkin spice, a telltale sign of the approaching fall season common throughout the US, fill the storeroom of the small coffee roaster. Here, I feel far removed from the …
Collaboration Key to Investing in our Biomass Business Community by Tim Reader A logger in southwestern Colorado approached me following a workshop I had just hosted on a unique lending partnership for our forest products and biomass business community. At …
Undergraduate Involvement with the Center for Collaborative Conservation June 12, 2018 By: Andra Thaden Location: Durango, CO From the moment Tim Reader of the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) asked if I wanted to be part of a project involving …
By Bethlehem Astella “One Park, many worlds” It was in the summer of 2015 when I first traveled to Manyate, a village along the southern border of Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP). But before getting into our story in Manyate, …
MAY 2018 Spring Newsletter IN THIS NEWSLETTER MEET: the Council of Western State Forester’s Forest Utilization Network REQUEST: for feedback on Blanco Basin Vegetation Management Project UPCOMING EVENTS 05232018 AGENDA INTRODUCING: the Council of Western State Forester’s Forest Utilization …
By Oliver D’Orazio, Chief Correspondent, Mongolian Sustainable Rangeland Collaborative With Cini Brown and Khishigbayar Jamiyansharav “Hello… can you hear me? Is that Bulgamaa?” “Hello, yes I am here!” “Hello, is everyone there?” “Yes, I can’t see you but… oh there you …
By Tim Reader and Melissa Simmons Do you ever find yourself stumbling across information that really resonates with you and you wonder why you had never heard of this “new thing” earlier in life? Well, that just happened to me …
By Cara Steger and Bikila Warkineh Dullo A Brief History of Community Conservation The Menz-Guassa Community Conservation Area (“Guassa”) is a 100 km2 Afro-alpine grassland in the north central highlands of Ethiopia. Guassa and its surrounding landscape straddle the catchment basins …
By Kevin Jablonski It is late November and the rains have just returned to the Chyulu Hills, greening them. The two-year drought continues in the Amboseli basin to the west, currently a landscape of dust and desiccated carcasses, so the …
Director of the Center for Collaborative Conservation Dr. Robin Reid won the Warner College Teamsmanship Award on April 18th, 2018 at the WCNR Awards Banquet. Students, staff and faculty gathered to celebrate the accomplishments and work of the people within the …
By Kenzie Schmitt Have you ever been so engaged in a presentation that you were afraid to blink out of fear of missing something? Listening to the keynote speaker from the Planet Forward 2018 Summit in Washington, D.C. made me …
The Bird Conservancy of the Rockies shared two blogs about adaptive management and collaborative conservation recently. Cowboys, Collaboration, and Conservation is on the CARM (Collaborative Adaptive Rangeland Management) project. Building Resilience is from one of our stewardship biologists in Montana …
CCC Associate Director for the Practicioner Program Heather Knight was featured in a blog about the role of collaboration and partnership in conservation. Read the post here: www.landcan.org/landcan-blog/Collaboration-and-Conservation/249
By: Suzanne Kent Collaborators from Honduras, Italy, and the U.S. are working together on a project concerned with environmental processes on the island of Utila, conservation efforts, voluntourism, and local livelihoods. While the roots of the collaboration stretch back a …
By: Julia Thurber Location: Maasailand, Kenya What an incredible trip to Kenya! I’ve been back in the States almost two months now, and my mind is still swimming with all the information I learned and people I met during my time there! …
Slow and steady wins the race. That’s what I keep telling myself. April 12, 2017 Project location: Central Visayas, Philippines Fourteen months after applying for the CCC Student Fellowship, it feels like we are finally making headway towards the design …
By: Tchanan Ross Location: Deadwood, Oregon Attempting to briefly summarize my reflections on the February 2017 journey of Team Kenya is definitely challenging. Grief over losing my son has been primarily quiet, deeply humbling, eviscerating, and at moments de-stabilizing and I know …
By: Johnny Sundstrom Location: Kenya When our son, Shiloh, was killed in a hit-and-run accident (November 22, 2015), he’d been to Kenya 4 times for a total of about one year, studying and doing research for his graduate degrees, looking for ways …
By: Brett Kaufman Location: Beijing, China Last month I returned from a trip to Kenya funded by CCC and Oregon State University, and it was one of the most impactful experiences of my life. As an archaeologist interested in the fusion of …
Perspectives on Kenya from a Montana Rancher So how does a rancher/logger (the order of which depends on which profession is supplementing the other) from western Montana come to find himself in Kenya with another rancher/scholar (Johnny Sundstrom) and a group …
By: Gailmarie Kimmel Location: Northern Colorado Hello! I keep waiting for the final good news to share but realize that CCC readers might well appreciate the details… • December 2016: The Great Outdoors Colorado Grant that Colorado Open Lands submitted to complete the conservation easement funding for …
By: Tony Quy Van Khuc Tuesday, September 27, 2016 Location: Fort Collins, CO I have had a very great summer in U Minh Thuong National Park (UMTNP), where I went to study an endangered bat species. This park in South Vietnam means …
By: Gailmarie Kimmel Friday, September 30, 2016 Location: Northern Colorado Happy almost October! While we wait to hear news of our GOCO grant, which would enable the purchase of the conservation easement by Colorado Open Lands for our pilot land of 50 …
By: Hannah Gosnell Saturday, September 24, 2016 Location: Corvallis, Oregon Having gained tremendous momentum from last spring’s “Future of Pastoralism” symposium here at OSU, which allowed several of our Kenyan team members to visit the US and tell us more about themselves …
By: Johnny Sundstrom Location: Blog Earlier this year, Johnny Sundstrom of the Suislaw Institute in Oregon, and Paul Meiliara of SORALO (South Rift Landowners Association) in Kenya, travelled to Montana for a two-day get-together with the BlackFoot Challenge, hosted by Gary Burnett, …
By: Gailmarie Kimmel Location: Northern Colorado Hi readers, Good news from the Farmland Coop. We’ve just partnered with Colorado Open Lands (COL) – one of our state’s largest non-profit land conservation orgnizations – to successfully submit a grant to GOCO-Great Outdoors Colorado, …
By: Suzanne Kent Location: Fort Collins, CO Team Honduras was again united—this time in Utila—and finally the team members and all Utilian partners were together. Keri Brondo arrived at the start of July and immediately began connecting and collaborating with our partner …
By: Johnny Sundstrom Location: Colorado Hi, my name is Kelsey and I am going to be blogging about the International Pastoralist Association (IPA) as it progresses. I’m very excited to tell you that our project has been funded by the Center for …
By: Erin McCready Location: Fort Collins, Colorado The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions. -Claude Levi-Strauss What do we want to learn? …
By: Gailmarie Kimmel Location: Larimer County, Colorado In early June, Colorado Open Lands (COL) included PVCF’s pilot land soon-to-be purchase in their “2016 Cheers for Conservation” tour. We were happy to host long-time land conservationists, many from our local …
By: Gailmarie Kimmel Location: Fort Collins, CO Greetings from beautiful northern Colorado, in the foothills of the Southern Rockies. I’m a founding Board member with Poudre Valley Community Farms (PVCF) – the first farmland cooperative in the state, if not in the …
By: Erin McCready I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. -Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo! I spent the majority of my first CCC meeting focusing on keeping my …
By: Angelia Lane The Belize project seems to be gaining momentum every day. In case you haven’t been able to follow our progress thus far, we have been diligently working on the development and piloting of the survey, which was …
By: Angelia Lane Friday, September 11, 2015 After multiple truck rides, bus rides, and hitchhiking in a rice delivery truck, Sarah and I finished our pilots with seven participants in five different communities in the time span of a single week. …
By: Matt Luizza Two weeks ago marked only the second time I have flown over Alaska’s Yukon Flats. During this brief flight, I was again awe-struck by its beauty and grandeur. Skirting above this 11,000 square mile lake complex, comprised …
By: Angelia Lane Thursday, August 13, 2015 It has been a whirlwind of two months since moving to Belize. We have met an incredible amount of people from different organizations, cultures, and backgrounds. Belize is unlike any place I have visited …
By: Carrie Olson My heart sank a little as I drove through Hotchkiss, Colorado for the first time. I had known that my summer internship through the Center for Collaborative Conservation and Colorado State University would take me out into …
By: Howard Hallman My Fellows Project is to create a volunteer forest monitoring program tailored to Summit County, Colorado. I am assisted by a core group of dedicated collaborators. Our goal is that this community endeavor be citizen-driven, self-sustaining, credible, …
By: Brittany Messinger It was a chilly morning, last night’s snow quietly clinging to the overhanging branches and cliffs surrounding Sylvan Dale Ranch. It wasn’t long before the lazy sing-song of canyon wrens was interrupted by a new kind of chatter: …
By: Retta Bruegger If you had asked me a few years back to visualize my life in in the future, dissecting a sage-grouse gizzard while the pungent odor of digestive fluid distracted nearby office-mates would probably not have been my prediction. …
By: Jen Higgins Although my long blond hair clearly indicates that I’m a foreigner, over the years Mongolia has begun to feel like a bit of a second home. I’ll never be Mongolian enough to relish eating goat intestine …
The simple task of understanding “who’s doing what where” in collaborative conservation turns out to be not that simple after all. And how does the central notion of collaboration through which each collaborative conservation group operates pertain to my task …
By Anna Mangan When I tell people I’m doing field work on the ecology of song birds, I like to think that they imagine remote forests, untrammeled wilderness and not another soul in sight. Well, the trees are green, …
By: Michael Verdone The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism was created in 2005 to conserve forest carbon stocks in addition to the myriad of other benefits forest dependent communities receive from forests. Under the mechanism countries …
By: Johnny Roos, NR 479 Independent Study Credit on CCC Seminar Series on Perspectives on the Poudre New Belgium Brewing and the Center For Collaborative Conservation held a “World Café” event with Conversketch‘s doing a live mural depicting our …
By: Johnny Roos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6hHNpfeAHE Water is a vital life force for life on our small blue planet and the rivers are often seen as the veins, flowing love and energy from top to bottom and growing green in between. …
By Mikinzie Moydell At the CCC Fellows Training that took place in May, prior to my departure as a summer intern for the Center for Collaborative Conservation and Chama Peak Land Alliance (CPLA or Alliance), there was one prominent theme …
By: Greg Newman Ch’aska and I have begun exploring the needs for an atlas of collaborative conservation groups and possible implementation ides for such an atlas. Our work has been informed and guided by the initial vision of the CCC …
By: Tanmay Telang It’s been almost a year that I’ve been a part of the Fargreen team . However, 8th of June 2014 turned out to be the first day of my life in Vietnam. Initially I was feeling a …
By Shelby Weiss I am an undergraduate at CSU and have had the pleasure of working as an intern for the CCC since the fall of 2011. This semester, I decided to study abroad in Tanzania with SIT on their …
By: R. Patrick Bixler The Rocky Mountain West with its vast expanse of open spaces and abundant natural resources has always held the allure of being a place for utopic visions. It was here where the manifest destiny of …
By Theresa Jedd Since I began my Ph.D. at Colorado State University in 2009, I have been interested in international forest politics from a global governance perspective. My interest in this area was sparked by coursework in my home department, …
By: Justin Lee It feels great to be back in Ecuador! We (my field assistant Mariela Palacios and I) have had a successful week laying the groundwork for our project…getting to know the many people working to conserve a …
By: David Knight Date: 2012, Cohort 4 Any collaborative conservationist would appreciate and readily receive an extra dose of equanimity. But calmness under pressure is hard to come by these days, especially among emotionally charged opinion seekers like me. As …
By Gloria Sumay An event for women’s Networking for sustainable development took place on June 16 at Sinal retreat center in Rio.Women from different parts of the world gathered for networking. Women also participated in planting avocado tree at Sinal …
By: John McGreevy 16 JUNE 2012 Jou 12: Day 12 Lapli Pa Tonbe: The Rain Does Not Fall After 12 days in country, I feel like I have a solid start to my data collection. I have spent the majority …
By Ch’aska As our associate director Kim Skyelander mentioned in a blog last month, the CCC is interested in collecting information on collaborative projects conducted by our fellows in a systematic way in order to identify key variables, emergent patterns, …
By: Jill Lackett I was so pleased to see the article on NSF’s website, “Data Collection by Indigenous People,” validating the ability of indigenous populations to be active participants in the scientific process (http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.cfm?med_id=71673&from=mmg). A research team from Stanford found …
By: Robin Reid Update: Please visit the new Watershed Inventory that describes the current work and knowledge on watershed health in the Cache la Poudre watershed of northern Colorado, where you can browse a map of activities and projects related to the Poudre, …
By Ch’aska I’m a little nervous about being the first blog-poster on the CCLN. Why? Because I am not an expert in the field of collaborative conservation, or any field, for that matter. As it turns out, however, expertise is …