Center for Public Lands

By Phoebe Mather

Western Colorado University’s Center for Public Lands is a resource for cross-boundary land management and study. This training and resource center brings together students, land managers, and communities with a goal to develop creative responses to contemporary land management challenges.

“We’ve been around for about 8 years, and the Center for Public Lands is meant to be a resource center that brings together students, land managers, faculty and community members to help steward public lands and come up with innovative ways to address challenges,” said Dr. Briget Eastep.

The Center for Public Lands is an educational and community-serving institution working at the core of service, science and scholarship, and we are excited to highlight the work they are doing with the Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (RM-CESU). The Center for Public Lands works in partnership with many CESU partners such as the USDA Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, also including scientists and tribal members in collaboration.

The Center for Public Lands aims to bring together three elements: technical assistance through faculty expertise and research; the ability to support discussion, decisions, and actions that shape the best land management practices; and applied project work to train the next generation of public land stewards. The Center for Public Lands mission is to train a diverse group of leaders who can address public land problems collaboratively and creatively by applying scientific and socio-economic knowledge in the context of the complex realities of planning, management, and policy development for public lands. 

“The EMPLOYS {Ecological Management & Public Lands Opportunities for Young Scientists} program is a National Science Foundation {NSF} Trainee Program, where students choose to take a dual degree that bridges science and management,” said Eastep.

This program aims to grow opportunities for students through the work that they are pursuing involving partner resources. Student projects have included working with remote cameras to monitor and study backcountry winter recreation patterns to help the community of Crested Butte better understand recreation use patterns, or monitor invasive species in designated wilderness areas for the USDA Forest Service to improve carbon sequestration on private rangelands. 

Learn more about the Center for Public Lands and what they do at their website. The Center for Public Lands website is currently being absorbed by the Western Colorado University website, so that is something to keep in mind when visiting.