News and Events

"Rural Wyoming Community Needs" Summer Project
During the summer of 2025, Mariam Asaba will be interviewing rural Wyoming community leaders to better understand

1. concerns and needs of Wyoming community leaders,
2. changes that communities are navigating, and
3. interest in potential Center programming.

Her activities will include recruiting, interviewing, and analyzing qualitative data to inform development of the Center for Rural Resilience and Innovation at the University of Wyoming. The outcome will be a short report, webinar and factsheet.

Center Retreat

In the spring of 2025 (date and time TBD), we plan to host a retreat in partnership with Professor Maggie Bourque with Climate Wayfinding to engage in a process to develop individual and collective strategic plans, build relationships between interdisciplinary faculty across campus, and begin to brainstorm future projects for the Center for Rural Resilience and Innovation. If you are interested in engaging, please reach out to us.

National Climate Assessment Authorship

In 2024, the 5th National Climate Assessment was published. The Northern Great Plains chapter, a chapter that covers the region encompassing Wyoming, Montana, North & South Dakota, and Nebraska, was led by Dr. Knapp, a Co-PI for the Center. This publication provides valuable synthesis and context of some of the drivers of change impacting this region. In 2024, Dr. Knapp led multiple engagement events across the region, including online webinars, workshops in Montana and Nebraska, and public lectures and outreach across the region.

Informing NRCS Conservation Practices

The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) funds conservation practices on private lands that benefit producers as well as leading to conservation benefits. Working through the Meridian Institute, Dr. Knapp is a lead author on synthesizing literature to understand whether and how existing conservation practices are “climate smart”. Their work will result in a public report assessing the evidence for existing and emerging climate smart conservation practices.