Public Land Management: Serving Rural Communities and Livelihoods in Colorado

Across the western United States, many rural communities are surrounded by vast tracks of public lands.  Many livelihoods (such as domestic livestock grazing and recreation), rural economies, and people’s “way of life” depend on the health and productivity of these lands for long-term sustainability.  Colorado is a rapidly changing state, with it ecosystems, communities, and economies all undergoing dramatic shifts over the last several decades.  For the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who’s complicated mission ties together both natural and human systems, the challenge of coping with a dynamic landscape requires a holistic, multi-scaled understanding of how people, wildlife, ecology, and climate interact at both the local and regional scale.

The BLM in Colorado, in collaboration with Colorado Natural Heritage Program, North Central Climate Science Center, Colorado State University, and Western State University, has developed socio-ecological tools and strategies to ensure both long-term health of ecosystems and resilient human livelihoods and communities faced with stressors, such as drought, wildfire, and competing land uses.  Vulnerability assessments for three dominant ecosystems (pinyon-juniper, sagebrush, and riparian) and two economic sectors (livestock grazing and recreation), have been completed and will be used to develop potential adaptation strategies to inform managers in land use planning decision making.  This panel will focus on these assessments and the strong links between healthy, productive ecosystems and human communities, and the role land use decision-making has in ensuring them into the future. Panelists will briefly describe an example of how a vulnerability assessment led to applied adaptation strategies in riparian areas that benefit both endangered species and livestock grazing.  

Panelists:

• Bruce Rittenhouse, Branch Chief Resources, Bureau of Land Management, Lakewood, CO.   
• Corrie Knapp, Associate Professor and Integrative & Public Land Management Track Coordinator, Western State University, Gunnison, CO
• Lee Grunau, Conservation Planner, Colorado Natural Heritage Program, Fort Collins, CO