ABOUT US
This is how we make a difference.
Relevance
Trust
Inclusivity
Science & Knowledge
Effectiveness
Through a collaborative, science-based approach, we strive to create resilient forests, healthy watersheds, and happy people.
Mission:
Advance community action to improve and maintain resilient landscapes.
Vision:
We envision a future where our communities lead stewardship actions that promote resilient watersheds and forests on all lands within our scope, strengthening the ecological, economic, and sociocultural character of the region.
Values:
Relevance
We listen and are responsive to community values and needs as we design and adapt our activities to best support the safety and well-being of the public.
Trust
We work with integrity and practice transparency to promote trust internally among the participants of the collaborative and externally with the community.
Inclusivity
We are inclusive of all voices in community; we strive to promote participation and engagement from a diversity of perspectives, and gather input from underrepresented populations.
Science & Knowledge
Our work, decisions, and actions are driven by the Vision and Desired Conditions adopted by the Collaborative. These are informed by best available science, and local and traditional ecological knowledge. Importantly, we acknowledge that these sources are not always in agreement, and utilize collaborative process to sort through discrepancies.
Effectiveness
We work through adaptive management cycles, being realistic about pace and scale, endeavoring to effect real change through tangible results, and employing a diverse array of tools resilient to economic, ecologic and social change.
The need to act.
The forests and watersheds are foundational to our communities’ economic drivers, recreational opportunities, diverse ecological values and cultural legacies. Within the Animas, Florida, La Plata, and Pine watersheds — as is the case across southwest Colorado — our landscape and communities face increased risk of undesirable disturbance. Driven by past management actions (or inaction), land use, and the uncertainties of a changing climate, we face the potential of catastrophic wildfire, widespread insect outbreaks, and habitat loss; these already have had significant impacts on the land we cherish. While multiple agencies, landowners, and municipalities within our landscape work to address the pressures and disturbances, improved resilience and resistance to disturbance at the landscape level require a high degree of coordination and collaboration.