This
is a mock up of a an experimental web site representing the
Virtual component of a long ago (1998) proposed Rural Land Use and Community Development Resource
Network which was an outgrowth of the interagency Terrestrial Ecosystem Regional Research and Analysis Laboratory (TERRA). TERRA was a collaborative organization scuttled during the Gingrich revolution in the mid 1990's when federal agencies displayed timidity at the thought of collaboration, SHARING leadership, and perpetual fear of budget declines. This experimental site was and still is intended to demonstrate the versatility
of this medium in serving the needs of the proposed Network or similar networks. It is intended to be
user friendly. Is it? Please let me know at (Robert.Woodmansee@colostate.edu
or call me (Bob Woodmansee) at 970-736-8153 or my cell phone 970-217-3594).
Currently, I am using
this site as the test site for a library of virtual field trips (VFT's) and other experimental (for me) learning tools for use
in on-line, multimedia instruction at CSU.
LTER users need to click on the "Virtual Field Trip" link below to see examples of prototype field trips. Other technologies and concepts related to the VFT's can be viewed by clicking the "Environmental Literacy Network" and the "Seld-Guided Field Trips" links in the table. The "Environmental Literacy Network" links to a presentation using Adobe Presenter with audio. The "Self-Guided Field Trips" are a device I have used for large on-campus classes and on-line classes to insure students get off their butts and out into the field. I envision many of the VFT's being integrated into appropriate Self-Guided Field Trips. In fact, the Front Range Ecosystems Self-Guided Field Trip and the Colorado Life Zone VFT's will be linked in the near future. Feel free to explore anything else you wish on the page, it's not sacred.
Rural Land
Use and Community Development Resource Network
Collaborative Ecosystem and Community Based
Planning and Management Support
Contents
Background
Population and policy changes, institutional
restructuring, and the explosion of communication technology are all profoundly
affecting the lives of people how people interact in communities and how
people and communities interact with the land. For example, growth in western
Colorado and the Front Range and decline in some eastern counties, is by
all accounts causing major changes in rural land use and community dynamics.
Regardless of what view of growth one holds, change is occurring and the
management and community dynamics consequences are profound in many areas.
As counties, communities,
state and federal agencies, and numerous other public and private entities
wrestle with the many dimensions of change there is an increasing need
for new ways 
of
thinking about agricultural enterprises, public lands, the environment,
social institutions, individual rights, community rights, and thoughtful
land management (click on diagram to the right). New tools and techniques,
reliable and up-to-date information about the land and human communities,
and a great deal of cooperation and collaboration between individuals and
public and private agencies and organizations are required to effectively
deal with these changes. The consequences of doing nothing will be the
continued "Californication" of rural communities with exurban development
with it's consequent erosion of farms, ranches, rural communities and the
environment as we have known it. Many larger and wealthier counties and
communities have the resources to hire planning staffs and management specialists
to deal with change and growth. They are also the areas that have lost
the most of their rural experience Many smaller, resource limited counties
and communities cannot afford to hire planning staffs and land management
specialists and support them with current essential technology. These areas
are the most in danger of losing their rural experience. We propose to
develop the Rural Land Use and Community Development Resource Network
to
help meet the needs of counties, communities, and groups of individuals
who desire thoughtful planning and subsequent innovative land management
and community development but cannot afford to employ professional staffs
and purchase equipment and technology for their support.
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Network Goals
-
Assist community leaders in assessing issues,
needs, and perceptions of local people and determine if they desire to
enter into land use planning and community development processes
-
Provide technical, logistic, training, and
facilitation support for community leaders, agency personnel, and stakeholder
groups to accomplish land use and community development planning
-
Provide technical assistance for developing
management alternatives for agriculture, natural resources, the environment,
and community development initiatives
-
Establish criteria and monitoring protocols
to determine if planning decisions implemented into management activities
are successful and what to do if they are not
-
Train local individuals to perform all of
the steps of the planning protocol, information management, plan implementation,
monitoring, and adaptive management
Location of the
Network
The Network will be partly in fixed locations.
People must have local contact points, computers, access to printed documents,
videos, and other hard information. These locations might be Federal and
State agency offices, University Experiment Stations, Cooperative Extention
Offices, or other locally agreed upon places.
The Network will be partly mobile
meaning all of the technology needed for collaborative analysis and planning
is now fully portable and can be taken to any school house, church, community
building, or indeed someone's living room.
The Network will also be partly virtual,
existing on the Internet for easy communication and information exchange,
distance learning programs, access to vast existing databases and databases
to be developed for specific purposes, and transfer of geographic information
needed for planning and management.
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Philosophy
The driving philosophy of the Rural Land
Use and Community Development Resource Network is that planning
for land use and community development is needed
and that prudent planning can only be accomplished through collaborative
deliberation of all key environmental, economic, and social/cultural values.
Following implementation of land use plans, sound land management must
be practiced on our new landscapes to avoid environmental deterioration
and continued diminishment of environmental, economic, and social and cultural
values.
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Operational Objectives
of the Project
In cooperation with key community leaders, initiate
issue, needs, and perception assessments to determine if local people desire
to enter into land use planning and community development processes.
Based upon the outcomes of the assessments,
if those leaders determine there is sufficient community interest to initiate
a planning process, assist in organization of stakeholder groups, insure
planning activities are publicized, and provide logistic support for groups
and leadership.
Implement collaborative analysis and planning
protocols, including the necessary computer and information management
resources and technologies to support the stakeholder activities.
Provide training to stakeholder groups in the
basics of ecological, economic, and social/cultural issues so that all
participants have a common basis of understanding.
-
SAM-on-Line
-- A simple Internet tutorial for the Structured Analysis Methodology
Land
Use Planning -- NR440 -- A senior level course in the College of Natural
Resources, Colorado State University. (At the prompt type in student
for the User name: and student for password).
-
Fundamentals
of Ecology -- BY220 -- A core biology at Colorado State University.
(At the prompt type in student for the User name: and student
for password).
Provide facilitation for stakeholder groups
to begin their planning activities and suggestions of management actions
In collaboration with the stakeholder groups,
develop user friendly, local information and data bases for the communities
and resources of interest
Provide technical assistance for natural resource
and environmental management and community development activities that
result from planning activities
Develop mechanisms to insure that plans that
aren't working can be altered (adaptive management)
Train local individuals to perform all of the
steps of the planning protocol and information management
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Next Steps
We envision initiating background development
for the Network immediately by identifying and contacting key and respected
members of rural communities. Also, as part of this beginning phase we
will begin assembling land use, agricultural, environmental, economic,
and social/cultural information from the considerable existing data resources
on the Internet and cooperating agencies. Funding for the beginning phase
will come from cooperating agencies with special interests in the region
and concept. Of course, these contacts and funding arrangements are urgent
and critical.
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