This page lists who is researching, practicing, and assisting in work related to community-ecosystem stewardship. 

Who is Doing Stewardship Research and Providing Assistance?

Communities Committee of the Seventh American Forests Congress is a diverse group of people from across the United States who believe local participation in stewardship of natural resources is critical to both forest ecosystem health and community well-being. The Committee is comprised of urban foresters, environmental activists, private forest landowners, civil servants, forest stewardship practitioners, professional foresters, forest industry representatives, academics, and researchers. The Communities Committee works through partnerships with like-minded organizations and its task groups in five areas: policy, communications, research, urban-rural, and indicators and monitoring.

Community Based Collaboratives Research Consortium offers a wide range of information about collaborative efforts involving natural resource issues and community development. The CBCRC is a national network comprised of researchers, mediators and facilitators, government agencies, community and environmental groups and others. Teh Consortium provides a venue for researchers, community groups, government agencies, funders, and individuals to share their research, find out about new developments and studies concerning community based collaborative groups adn work in partnership with others on research projects. The Institute of Environmental Negotiation at the University of Virginia maintains the web site for the Consortium.

Ecotrust — Patterns of Conservation Economy is a Website hosted by Ecotrust that seeks to understand the patterns which organize a conservation economy that is restorative. The site is offered to individuals, businesses, and communities as a framework for sustainability.

Green Mountain Institute for Environmental Democracy works to promote effective, collaborative decision making processes by providing services to projects that use information-based tools to address the health of their environment and the people in it.

Institute for Environment and Natural Resources (University of Wyoming) — This partnership among more than 200 research faculty, environment and natural resources leaders, and the University of Wyoming advances effective, collaborative decision-making on environmental and natural resource issues.

Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University is an interdisciplinary public policy research institute founded in 1968 to stimulate and support excellent social science research on significant public policy issues and to disseminate the findings. Links to working papers are provided in several topics, some of which should interest those involved in stewardship.

The Long-Term Ecological Research Network is a collaborative effort involving more than 1100 scientists and students investigating ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales.

The Mountain Institute combines community economic development with biodiversity and resource conservation in its projects. It's Community-Based Tourism for Conservation and Development: A Resource Kit is a useful resource to stewardship efforts. 

The Murie Center in Moose, Wyoming bring together people from many backgrounds, from all over the world for dialogue and collaborative projects.

Natural Resources Law Center (University of Colorado) — This non-profit research and educational organization is committed to improving the governance and management of water and land resources in the western United States.

Office of Community Services - This community study and assistance program at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado assists rural communities, state and federal agencies, and non-profit organizations by facilitating and coordinating projects in planning, historic preservation, community-public land policy and stewardship, and human services.

Second Nature, Education for Sustainability

Sonoran Institute — The Institute was established to fill a need in conservation movement for strategies that address both environmental issues and community concerns. Its Website's "Main Street" on its Community Stewardship Exchange page is inviting.

Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy (University of Arizona) - The Udall Center facilitates, analyzes, and provides options for solving issues related to American Indian policy, environmental conflict and policy in the Southwest, and the U.S.-Mexico Border.

Community-Based Stewardship Organizations

Alliance for National Renewal

Applegate Watershed Partnership is a community-based project involving industry, conservation groups, natural resource agencies, and residents cooperating to encourage and facilitate the use of natural resource principles that promote ecosystem health and diversity.

Collaborative Learning Circle is made up of 17 community development and sustainable resource management organizations from Northern California and Southern Oregon experimenting in collaboratively implementing ecologically sound, community-based redevelopment strategies.

The Community Forestry Resource Center

The Diablo Trust  The Diablo Trust is a collaborative group of ranchers, environmentalists, agency representatives, educators, community leaders, and others who for the last five years have been managing approximately 400,000 acres of Forest and High Desert land located about 30 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona on the Flying M and Bar T Bar Ranches.

The Forest Trust

The Four Corners Sustainable Forests Partnership

Forest Community Research

National Network of Forest Practitioners

Participatory Action Network

A Project to Develop Best Practices Guidance for Collaborative Approaches to Environmental Management

The National Audubon Society (NAS), The Wilderness Society (TWS) and the Institute for Environmental Negotiation (IEN) of the University of Virginia are coordinating a project to develop guidance for environmental advocates who may consider convening or participating in collaborative processes to address natural resource issues.

The Sustainable Forestry Partnership

Government Agencies Involved in Community-Public Land Stewardship

USDA Forest Service Rural Community Assistance Program helps rural communities to build skills, networks, and strategies to address social, environmental and economic changes.

The Rural Development Partnership works to strengthen rural America through collaborative partnerships by bringing together partners from local, state, tribal, and federal governments, as well as from the for-profit and nonprofit private sector.

Sustainable Resource Management. This web site stems from an interagency forum for Federal coordination to resolve issues related to collecting, monitoring, analyzing, reporting, and making data available on an ongoing basis. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by 11 entities to get involved in a process for helping Federal agencies develop a national report by 2003 on the state of the Nation’s forests and progress towards sustainable forest management.

Western Community Stewardship Forum — The National Association of Counties and the Sonoran Institute have created this partnership to address the increasing need for innovative community-driven solutions to land-use issues. It provides training and technical assistance to county officials in the use of information, tools, and strategies to address community stewardship goals.

Colorado Regional Resource Coordinating Committee - The RRCC is a collaborative effort in southwest Colorado of nine regional providers of community and economic services for various community and public land needs.

Foundations

The Ford Foundation - The Ford Foundation's website contains links to programs, including Education, Media, Arts & Culture; Assets Building & Community Development; Peace and Social Justice. Its publications page lists links to its Annual Report, Quarterly Magazine, recent publications and a catalog for ordering. 

International Organizations

Southwestern Ontario Land Stewardship Demonstration Areas Catalogue is an innovative project of the Ontario Stewardship Program which documents practices that improve resource and land management.

Canadian Policy Research Center

International Model Forest Network works to foster cooperation and collaboration in the advancement of management, conservation and sustainable development of forest resources, through a world-wide network of working model forests.

Other Unique Sites of Interest

Community University Research Consortium for Regional Environmental Justice

Sustainable Measures develops indicators that measure progress toward a sustainable economy, society, and environment.

The Stewardship Community — Located in Loveland Colorado, the Stewardship Community's offers examples of appropriate land stewardship to create a urban and rural food economy based on health and social responsibility.