Towards a Model for Cross-Boundary Management of Public and Private Lands: The Case of White River National Forest's Blue River Watershed

Date: 11/20/2003      Time: 1530     Location: Colorado State University

Speaker(s):George Wallace (CSU)

Abstract
When the White River National Forest Plan was held up by disgruntled local governments, the Forest Supervisor approached CSU for help in designing a collaborative cross-boundary strategy to help reconcile problems with communities like Silverthorn, Breckenridge, Dillon, Frisco, Kremmling, and Grand and Summit Counties. Over a 14 month period, we developed (felt our way) and implemented a model of collaboration in the Blue River watershed pilot area that ultimately broke the impasse. Model elements are not traditional in that they: temporarily circumvent usual public involvement procedures, employ a Steering Committee comprised of elected and appointed officials with decision authority, require an integrated spatial information data base to unite the participating jurisdictions, count heavily on innovative boundary analysis exercises to identify and describe specific problem areas, and issue prioritizing activities and several mechanisms to institutionalize cross-boundary collaboration beyond the project. The project was called the “Building Bridges” project and ultimately received the Chief of the Forest Service’s Award for Rural Community Assistance.