Ruckelshaus Institute

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The Ruckelshaus Institute, a division of the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, advances the understanding and resolution of complex environmental and natural resources challenges and supports stakeholder-driven solutions to environmental challenges by conducting and communicating relevant research and promoting collaborative decision making.

Group of stakeholders hearing presentation

Collaborative Solutions

Our collaborative solutions work supports natural resource stakeholders, policy makers, and managers in making decisions about the future through trainings, forums, and decision-making support services. Learn more

Private Lands Stewardship

This program addresses the needs of landowners by drawing on expertise and interdisciplinary collaborations across natural resource management, rangeland ecology, business and finance, law, decision-making, collaborative processes, and other fields. Learn more

Open spaces: wide-open grassland and blue sky

Wyoming Open Spaces Initiative

This collaborative initiative makes relevant data and information available to planners, policy makers, leaders, and the public to support effective maintenance of Wyoming's open spaces and working landscapes. Learn more

Publications & Resources

Ruckelshaus Institute publications are a valuable regional resource supporting decisions and management for complex natural resource issues. Learn more

Collaboration Program

Deer 139

Endangered Species Act

Wyoming's Social License to Operate cover image

Social License for Wyoming's Energy Future: What Do Residents Want?

This report summarizes findings from a recent study by the School of Energy Resources and the Ruckelshaus Institute that explores Wyoming residents’ perspectives of energy development, including “social license,” or the level to which Wyoming residents support or oppose different forms and amounts of energy development. View the report >

Wyoming Conservation Easements: Lands, Services, and Economic Benefits

This video provides an overview of a Wyoming Open Spaces Initiative publication, "Wyoming Conservation Easements: Lands, Services, and Economic Benefits." Download the print version.

Conservation Easements Benefits: link to video

History of the Institute

William D. Ruckelshaus came to UW in 1993 at the invitation of U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson to serve as a founding chairman on the board of a new institute dedicated to collaborative problem solving for natural resource challenges. He was a proponent of bringing together diverse stakeholders—different kinds of people who would be affected by any management or policy decision—to engage in civil discourse about desired outcomes for natural resource challenges. The goal was to build inclusive, lasting decisions that could avoid future litigation.

More on William D. Ruckelshaus and the history of the Institute.

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