The State of the Rockies Project dedicated the year of 2014-15 to recognizing how individuals and organizations from a diverse range of backgrounds and motivations are working to combine economic, cultural, and federal interests to combat the landscape conservation struggles facing the west. The speaker series this year has included activists, authors, and entrepreneurs such as Courtney White, whose book, “Grass, Soil, Hope,” encourages cattle ranchers to take a more holistic approach to animal agriculture, while encouraging consumers to support local and sustainable food producers by voting with their dollar.
On Monday, March 30, a panel discussion was held as the culmination of the State of the Rockies speaker series of 2014-2015. The discussion highlighted four people who are using academic research, entrepreneurial passion, educational initiatives, and non-profit activism to support conservation efforts for large Western landscapes.
Brendan P. Boepple, Assistant Director of the State of the Rockies Project, said, “Our final event of the year will involve speakers from across the spectrum of western land management, which is an ideal way to culminate our focus on large landscape conservation in the West.”
Western landscapes often include multiple jurisdictions and multiple stakeholders, which pushes diverse groups of people to work together. Many people believe the next iteration of American conservation (building on the existing public land system) will be “collaborative conservation.” The panel was designed to be interactive, encouraging an audience composed of community members, college students, and faculty to engage with these pioneers of conservation in a literal demonstration of the collaborative effort that Boepple spoke of.
The panel members include Jennifer Peterson, the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Field Institute; Duke Phillips, CEO of Ranchlands; Bryan Bird, Wildearth Guardians’ Wild Places Program Director; and Thomas E. Sheridan, Ph.D., who is a Research Anthropologist and professor at the University of Arizona.
Each panel member brought to the discussion a unique approach to conservation, but every one of them is interested in implementing community and collaboration to achieve their goals.
Ranchlands is a perfect example of a multifaceted organization that works with ranchers, eco-tourists, and food consumers to fight for conservation. They have tapped into the economic motives of animal agriculture as well as the educational interests behind tourism and environmental activism to manage the financial and resource-intensive costs of ranching.
Ranchlands has demonstrated a rational and profitable approach to agricultural management and land conservation that recognizes and addresses the fact that not everyone can be purely motivated from moral conscience to act in accordance with land conservation.
This view involves taking into consideration how to develop economic, cultural, and demographic motivations for conservation. This is also seen in the anthropological research done by Sheridan. He has approached different demographics by using a historical and cultural narrative of environmental stewardship to unite in a mutually profitable approach to conservation.
As students and local residents of these great Western landscapes, it is important to recognize the ways that we can all conserve the grasslands while profiting culturally and economically at the same time. The West has played a vital role in our history as a nation of farmers, storytellers, artists, and craftsmen, and there are ways of using this land together in a more sustainable way.
This final panel for the 2014-15 edition of the State of the Rockies Project has asked us to collaborate with the pioneers of conservation: the entrepreneurs, the artists and the intellectuals in each of our communities. We are called upon to come up with solutions as a diverse demographic with a diverse range of skills, motivations, and ideas for how to take care of this part of the world that so many call home.