Registration Open for Outdoor Recreation Emerging Issues Forum at UW

Registration is now open for “Outdoor Recreation in Wyoming: Building It the Way We Want It.” The University of Wyoming’s Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources and Wyoming Outdoor Recreation, Tourism and Hospitality (WORTH) Initiative, in partnership with the Wyoming Office of Outdoor Recreation, host the Emerging Issues Forum.

Past Emerging Issue Forums have addressed conservation finance, big-game migration and wind energy.

The two-day forum will take place Wednesday and Thursday, April 26-27, at UW’s Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center. An additional workshop is scheduled Friday, April 28, at the UW Conference Center.

The forum will explore how Wyoming communities can balance the benefits and impacts of growing outdoor recreation and tourism -- economically, socially and environmentally -- through a mix of keynote discussions, panels and facilitated discussions. The goals of the forum are to provide tools and knowledge that stakeholders can bring back to their constituents and create space for conversations and relationship building among participants.

“This is the first time at UW -- and in Wyoming -- we have convened such a comprehensive and forward-looking forum about outdoor recreation,” says Dan McCoy, interim director of the WORTH Initiative. “It is an important time for Wyoming to be thinking about, planning for and organizing around economic diversification through outdoor recreation.”

Day one of the forum will cover the challenges and opportunities presented by the growth of outdoor recreation in Wyoming, regionally and nationally. Day two will focus on examples from the region of people, coalitions and communities that are “doing it right.” Hiking and biking field trips Thursday afternoon to Curt Gowdy State Park and Pilot Hill will showcase the outstanding recreational opportunities around Laramie.

The April 28 workshop is aimed at the Wyoming Office of Outdoor Recreation’s outdoor recreation collaboratives (ORCs), which bring together local community members, stakeholders, federal agencies and state agencies to support sustainable outdoor recreation growth. The day will focus on community-building, peer-learning and tangible project implementation skills as requested by the ORC steering committees.

For more information about the forum and to register, click here. Registration is capped at 220 people and is expected to fill quickly.

For more information, email Birch Malotky, Emerging Issues Initiative coordinator, at bmalotky@uwyo.edu.

The Ruckelshaus Institute, a division of the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, supports stakeholder-driven solutions to natural resources challenges through collaboration, convening and communication. WORTH supports outdoor recreation, tourism and hospitality industries through applied research, educational products and services, and extension.