Wyoming Collaboration Conference Will Share Tools to Solve Natural Resource Challenges

Strategies to help communities solve place-based natural resource and environmental problems will be presented during a Wyoming Collaboration Conference Tuesday, Sept. 30, in Room 322 of the UU Building at Casper College.

A skills workshop will precede the conference Monday, Sept. 29. The University of Wyoming Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources hosts both events as part of its Collaborative Solutions Program. Anyone engaged in natural resource issues in Wyoming and the region is invited to register for the workshop and conference.

Registration for the workshop costs $50, conference registration is $30 and, for both events, there is a discounted rate of $60. Register online at www.uwyo.edu/haub, and click on “workshop and conference” under Wyoming Collaboration Conference. Registration will close Wednesday, Sept. 24.

“Participants in the Sept. 29 interactive workshop will learn when and how to best organize decision-focused collaborative processes around contentious natural resource issues and to engage the public in meaningful ways,” says Jessica Clement, director of the Collaboration Program in Natural Resources, who leads the workshop with Steve Smutko, UW Spicer Chair for Collaborative Practice. “This training exposes those new to collaborative processes to the broad range of concepts and skills that one must have to effectively manage public involvement in natural resource issues.”

The conference will feature keynote speakers and concurrent sessions on the theme of place-based collaboration, with an emphasis on using collaboration to address natural resource challenges related to forests, wildlife, and oil and gas development.

Speakers include Gail Bingham, founder, president emeritus and senior consultant with RESOLVE Inc.; George Blankenship, owner of Blankenship Consulting LLC; David Loomis, regional environmental planner for the U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region; and Scott Talbott, Wyoming Game and Fish Department director.

For more information and to register, visit www.uwyo.edu/haub  and click on Wyoming Collaboration Conference.