Western Collaborative Conservation Network

Our Mission

The Western Collaborative Conservation Network (WCCN) promotes and supports community-based collaborative conservation efforts that strengthen and sustain healthy landscapes, vibrant communities, and thriving economies.

The West is Under Threat

Increasing population demands on limited resources, declining land management capacity, uncertain climate patterns, and unpredictable natural events are making the West’s natural resources, communities, and economies vulnerable.

How We Are Responding

The Western Collaborative Conservation Network connects partners across more than nine states in the West to advance the practice of community-based collaborative conservation. Read on to learn how we make it happen.

Connecting

Through our newsletter, social media, and regional map of collaboratives, we connect with each other, share knowledge and experiences, tell impactful stories, and create a stronger community.

Convening

Through communities of practice, trainings, and in-person events, we build collaborative skills, tools, and capacities.

Catalyzing

Through our working groups, we tell the story of community-based collaborative conservation, analyze and address barriers to collaboration, and create learning opportunities to grow collaborative capacity.

Confluence

Confluence is the WCCN’s biennial gathering that provides an indispensable space for learning and professional community-building within the collaborative conservation field. This gathering’s location interchanges between Fort Collins, CO (where the WCCN is based), and hubs of collaborative conservation across the West.

Who We Are

We are individuals and organizations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Wyoming—and expanding across the West—working in forests, grasslands, and watersheds.

Our Network Includes:

Private landowners, rural and agricultural communities, tribes
Business and Industry
Community-Based Collaborative Conservation leaders and practitioners
State, sub-regional, and national conservation organizations
Local, state, and federal land management agencies
Academic institutions

Learn more about our members, where they are located, and how to connect with us!

Join our mailing list to receive regular collaboration opportunities and our quarterly newsletters that promote stories to learn and engage in with our network across the West.

Become a WCCN Supporter

Supporters enable the WCCN to amplify our network’s efforts with:

Confluence, a regular gathering of collaboratives and support organizations from across the West for learning and networking
Searchable databases of collaborators, mentors, internships, coaches, and other resources and learning opportunities
A website, newsletter, and social media to share success stories, events, best practices, and funding opportunities
A regional collaborative conservation map that enables collaboratives to tell their story and connect to others
High quality and affordable collaboration trainings to strengthen skills, practice tools and build capacity
Working Groups that take action on capacity, communications, gis, and leadership.
As a WCCN Supporter you are part of a growing network that is enabling conservation impact for varied communities and landscapes across the West!

Thank you to our WCCN Sponsors!

Many supporters give money and/or time to make the WCCN work. Core financial support for the WCCN comes from:

Ed and Jackie Warner
Alper Family
Office of the CSU Vice President of Research
Mighty Arrow Family Foundation

See our full list of individuals and organizations who support the WCCN with time and funding.

We believe that increased collaboration builds stronger communities and creates enduring conservation actions.

To learn more, contact the WCCN Communications Team at Conserve@Colostate.edu

WCCN Testimonies

98% of Confluence 2020 attendees rated their overall conference experience as "good" or "excellent."

96% of Confluence 2020 attendees said WCCN’s role as a connector, convener, and catalyst is “essential” or “very important.”

Several months after Confluence 2020, 70% of attendees still saw clear benefit from connections with new people and organizations they met at the conference.

Several months after Confluence 2020, half of attendees still felt attending the conference had increased their capacity to achieve results and half had shared their learning with others.

“Collaboration brings together a very diverse group of people."

“The community collaboration network is large. We can continue to learn from each other. Many groups have the same challenges.”