Center for
Natural Resources and Environmental Policy
www.cnrep.org
Shaping Policy for People and Places
July 2009
From the
President
I welcome the opportunity to
present the Center for Natural
Resources and Environmental Policy.
Formerly known as the Public
Policy Research Institute, the
Center represents one of the
University’s most important
vehicles to help citizens and
officials shape public policy.
The University of Montana is the
perfect location for a Center
dedicated to natural resources and
environmental policy. Montana
contains the headwaters for the
Columbia and Missouri Rivers. It
is rich with federal lands, wildlife,
and unparalleled recreational
opportunities. Because of this
abundance, many of our
communities face tough decisions
on land use and growth.
The Center is a useful resource for
the American West and beyond,
blending expertise in law, policy,
and conflict resolution. It also
offers a unique graduate program
in Natural Resources Conflict
Resolution.
We have great expectations that
the Center will raise the visibility of
the University as a world-class
institution for research, education,
and problem solving. I encourage
you to learn more about the Center
and to explore opportunities to
work together.
President George M. Dennison
An Innovative Approach to Policy
The Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy
(CNREP) bridges the gap between two common types of centers
affiliated with universities: those that focus on natural resource
and environmental law and policy, and those that focus on
collaboration and conflict resolution.
We believe that the most effective way to solve natural resource
and environmental problems is to blend expertise in substance
and process. We help citizens and officials shape policy for
people and places (urban, rural, working, and wild) through
public processes that are well informed and provide meaningful
opportunities for all interested citizens and decision-makers to
participate.
Our staff and Senior Fellows are recognized experts in
facilitation, mediation, collaboration, and conflict resolution.
They are also well known for their work in public lands policy,
water law and policy, land-use planning, and trans-boundary
resource management.
We inform and invigorate policy by providing timely, decisionrelevant research and analysis. We facilitate and mediate
complex, multi-party dialogues on land and water issues. We
build and share knowledge to push the horizons of natural
resource and environmental policy and governance. And we
train future leaders through our unique Natural Resources Conflict
Resolution Program.
We maintain a small staff and partner as needed with recognized
experts around the country. We have recognized some of our
regular partners as Senior Fellows.
We look forward to hearing from you and exploring how we
might work together to shape policy for people and places.
Shaping Policy for People and Places
Staff and
Senior Fellows
We are fortunate to have a truly
talented group of colleagues - core
staff and Senior Fellows. To learn
more about this team, please visit
our web site.
From top to bottom, left to right,
please meet Matt McKinney, Sarah
Bates, Shawn Johnson, Daisy
Patterson, Jim Burchfield, Gloria
Flora, Rich Moy, Joe McMahon,
Pat Field, Robin
Saha, and Daniel
Kemmis. Not
pictured are Tina
Bernd-Cohen and
John Thorson.
July 2009
Facilitating Landscape Conservation:
A Unique Partnership
For nearly ten years, we have enjoyed a productive partnership
with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy – the premier operating
foundation in the USA dedicated exclusively to land policy.
Today we are promoting and supporting large-scale landscape
conservation – including land and water systems -- through
research, education, and policy dialogues.
National Initiative for Landscape Conservation
On April 16-17, 2009, the Lincoln Institute and CNREP
convened a national policy dialogue with leaders from the
public, private, and nongovernmental sectors. The purpose of
the gathering was to synthesize what we know about large-scale
landscape conservation, highlight promising models, and
develop a national framework to promote and support regional
landscape conservation. The participants agreed to two
recommendations:
1. Create a national framework to restore, protect, and
sustain the most valuable lands and waters in the United
States; and
2. Create a national alliance to promote and support
landscape conservation.
The overarching goal of the proposed national framework for
landscape conservation is to encourage management of our
water, land, and biological diversity on a regional basis while
addressing critical issues such as economic vitality and
community resilience. The long-term vision is to create an
interconnected network of urban, rural, working, and natural
landscapes.
The proposed framework encourages “homegrown” regional
initiatives to address issues such as climate change, energy
independence, water security, community resilience, and land
protection. Regional initiatives will compete in a national
competition for federal matching funds and other support and
must be consistent with national laws and policies. The largescale landscape conservation strategies will be implemented
through coordinated action among local, state, tribal, and federal
governments; the private sector; and the non-governmental
community.
To support landscape conservation initiatives – and to help build
the capacity of regions to work across boundaries -- participants
in the national policy dialogue recommend that the Lincoln
Institute and CNREP convene a working group to create a
national alliance (something like the Land Trust Alliance).
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Shaping Policy for People and Places
July 2009
Resources
We are working with officials in the Obama Administration and
others to move both of these recommendations forward.
To help inform and invigorate
natural resources and
environmental policy, future
issues of this newsletter will
examine a particular policy issue
and offer practical strategies on
how to address such issues.
For more information on landscape conservation, including the
proposed framework and background documents that examine
alternative models, go to www.cnrep.org/projects.
For example, topics may include
strategies to link land and water
decisions; alternative approaches
to trans-boundary water
governance; and/or web-based
tools to inform, educate, and
engage citizens in shaping policy.
In addition to these newsletters,
we also publish a series of policy
reports and articles in various
journals and news media.
Learn more about these resources
and ongoing projects on our web
site at www.cnrep.org/projects.
Crown of the Continent
To complement our work on national policy, we are working
with diverse stakeholders in the Crown of the Continent. The
future of this remarkable landscape – and the people that live and
work in the region -- relies in large measure on how well the
roughly 100 government agencies, non-government
organizations, and place-based partnerships work together as
stewards of the region.
Each effort - whether regional (i.e., Crown-wide) or sub-regional
- came into existence because of a government mandate or
because a conservation or stewardship need/opportunity was not
being addressed. And, each initiative continues to operate
because it has mobilized the right people around a compelling
purpose and has found sufficient financial support to continue its
work.
While the efforts of each agency or initiative are important to
conservation and stewardship in the Crown, no initiative works
in a vacuum - all interact with at least some of the other
initiatives. Based on this observation, leaders from the public,
private, and nongovernment sectors have formed a Roundtable
to share information, build relationships, and explore
opportunities to work together on issues of common concern.
The Lincoln Institute and CNREP convene and coordinate the
Roundtable.
During the November 2008 meeting of the Roundtable, the
participants developed a preliminary work plan that includes,
among other items, mobilizing and engaging tribes and the
business community. For more information on the Roundtable
on the Crown of the Continent, go to
www.crownroundtable.org.
Open House
Join us September 3, 2009, from 4
p.m. to 6 p.m. for our annual Open
House. We are meeting in the
President’s Room, Brantley Hall,
The University of Montana.
The primary purpose of the open
house is to allow alumni and faculty
associated with the Natural Resources
Conflict Resolution Program to meet
new students interested in the
program.
This year, we are delighted to
welcome Paul Larmer, publisher of
High Country News, as our keynote
speaker. President George Dennison
is graciously co-hosting the Open
House.
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