Finding Common Ground: UM Teaches Environmental Leaders Collaborative Solutions

By Abigail Lauten-Scrivner, UM News Service

MISSOULA – Anyone who manages wildlife, natural resources or the environment is the first to say their work often is less about the elk, minerals or streams they oversee and more about understanding people and their varying opinions on how to steward the natural world. And that can be a lot more complicated. 

The University of Montana’s Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy directs the Natural Resources Conflict Resolution certificate, the only graduate-level certificate in the country that teaches the theory and practice of collaboration and conflict resolution as applied to land use, natural resources and the environment. 

In a time plagued by competing environmental and economic priorities, climate change anxiety and intensifying political rifts, the NRCR certificate program is more relevant than ever.

“We are certainly living in a time of enormous political divide and challenging identity politics that have been corrosive on a broad social level,” said Shawn Johnson, the center’s director and NRCR program chair. “The role of the center is to say, ‘We can come up with approaches that integrate diverse interests, that aren’t about a two party, winner-takes-all approach.’ It's really about trying to find the common ground and look toward longer term, more enduring solutions.”

Formed in 1987, the center’s mission is to bring people together through inclusive, informed and deliberative public processes that improve outcomes for both people and nature. The NRCR program launched in 2005 to integrate that mission into UM classrooms and shepherd new cohorts of leaders skilled in collaboration and conflict resolution. The interdisciplinary program is co-sponsored by the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, Alexander Blewett III School of Law and College of Humanities and Sciences. 

The 15-credit program can be taken as a stand-alone certificate or embedded within any student’s graduate studies. Enrollment has grown as graduate students and mid-career employees seek to better steward the environment and understand the human dimension of their work.

“We are known for this program, and it’s drawing unique students to the University,” Johnson said. “We have students every year come just for the NRCR certificate.”

More state, federal and nonprofit employers also are eager to hire NRCR graduates who are ready to apply their collaboration and conflict resolution skills on the first day of work. 

“I’ve seen a real increase in the number of employers who are reaching out to us for students and requesting recommendations for graduates of our program because they see the relevance of their skillset and the knowledge they bring,” Johnson said. 

UM alumna Taylor Tewksbury graduated last spring with an environmental studies master’s degree focused on environmental education. Adding the NRCR certificate to her studies helped Tewksbury develop skills that are instrumental to her new job as an education program coordinator with Swan Valley Connections, a collaborative conservation and education nonprofit based in Condon. 

Tewksbury enrolled in the program to learn to navigate the human aspect of conservation better, building on the scientific education she received as a marine science undergraduate. 

“I wasn't taught how to be collaborative. You’re taught how to debate, you're taught how to win, not how to come to a place of mutual gains,” Tewksbury said of her prior education. “I think the NRCR program produces young professionals who are more ready to practice skills like empathy and come out with better solutions that work for both human and nonhuman communities.”

Tewksbury gained practical expertise through experiential learning opportunities embedded within the certificate. The program’s three core classes teach students the causes and dynamics of natural resource and environmental conflicts, how to tailor collaboration and conflict resolution processes to unique situations, and how to serve as effective facilitators and mediators during seemingly intractable environmental disputes. 

NRCR students must complete a capstone project that offers hands-on practice in skills like stakeholder analysis and multi-party negotiation. Tewksbury helped facilitate small groups for the ongoing Lolo National Forest Land Management Plan Revision. She said the experience was daunting, but helped her gain confidence and expertise that she applies in her job, working to inspire conservation and expand stewardship in Montana’s Swan Valley. 

“Just knowing how to talk to people about a place they really care about was huge, and a lot of that came from the certificate,” Tewksbury said. “You’re not really managing wildlife; you’re managing the people around it.”

The program’s unique focus attracts students from around the world. Isaiah Tuolienuo traveled from his home in Ghana to enroll at UM, pausing his career as a regional environmental specialist in Western-Central Africa for the U.S. Embassy to complete the certificate and pursue a Ph.D. in forest and conservation sciences. Tuolienuo’s wife and two kids recently joined him in Missoula.

“A lot of people were like, ‘Why do you want to leave? You have an amazing career, and your work is helping us move the needle on critical environmental priorities,’” Tuolienuo said. “But I think there's always room to learn, and there's a need to continue to build the right kind of skillsets to advance solutions to the problems we see.” 

Tuolienuo enrolled in the certificate after witnessing disagreement in Ghana over a plan to extract bauxite from the Atewa Range Forest Reserve and build an integrated aluminum industry. Conservation groups and local communities fear the plan could harm the resource-rich forest, which serves as a carbon sink, a source of water for millions, a home to rare and threatened species, a hub for outdoor tourism and a source of spiritual and cultural connection for local communities. 

“I think there is room to build consensus around this contentious issue,” Tuolienuo said. “I believe natural resource conservation efforts seek to promote healthy, empowered communities. And these goals are not necessarily incongruent with development efforts.”

Tuolienuo’s Ph.D. examines how to best reconcile the region’s economic and environmental priorities through an equity and justice framework. Adding the NRCR certificate to his studies helps bring his research out of the theoretical.

“I think it's one piece of the puzzle that is critical but is often missing for a lot of Ph.D. students. They spend all their time learning and miss out on the applied side of research,” Tuolienuo said. “The NRCR program provides the opportunity to learn and apply these skillsets as you go, and I find that professionally rewarding.” 

Tuolienuo said the mentorship from peers and faculty within the NRCR program honed his facilitation and negotiation skills. The center’s track record of successfully facilitating collaborative solutions to complex environmental problems is something he hopes to replicate and help disseminate once he graduates and returns to work in Ghana. Tuolienuo recently joined a consortium of universities and conservation practitioners working to advance collaborate environmental solutions through an Africa-centered community of practice.

“We’re going to have to deal with balancing biodiversity conservation and economic priorities, and you need people to guide that conversation,” Tuolienuo said. “I think the certificate helps build the kind of skillsets and leadership that is required to solve these complex, intractable challenges that we are seeing globally. 

“And the ripple effect of not doing this is conflict.”

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Contact: Shawn Johnson, Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy director and Natural Resources Conflict Resolution Certificate chair, 406-381-2904, shawn.johnson@umontana.edu.