Welcome to The Collaboration Site. Engineered as a full support site for collaborative groups committed to resolving resource use conflicts throughout the interior west.	We'll help you get started and keep going! Direct you to funding sources! Supply the latest news affecting your work! Collaboration at work - stories from the field! Update you on legislation and regulations!

Grazing does irreparable damage to the land—the position held by some advocates. Others counter that traditional ranching preserves open space that would otherwise be gobbled up and that proper grazing can improve land health. Where do we go from here? The working wilderness COURTNEY WHITE, DIRECTOR, QUIVIRA COALITION Knowledge, more than ethics, is the key to good land stewardship. Ranchers do have an environmental ethic—often a powerful one. What many lack, however, is new knowledge. The same is true of many conservationists. READ MORE >> The chimera of collaboration JON MARVEL, DIRECTOR, WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT Collaborative groups are a way to pretend that the public interest is being addressed when, in all cases, the public is being euchred financially and by the continued destruction of their public lands. READ MORE >> Cow-free crowd ignores science, sprawl ED MARSTON, PUBLISHER EMERITUS, HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Sprawl can’t be stopped by ranchers alone. The protection of wide-open spaces is a job for all of us...it’s also up to the cattle-free people, who must become reformers and cooperators and realists before it is too late for the West. READ MORE >> Condos or Cows? Neither! GEORGE WUERTHNER, NTL. PUBLIC LANDS GRAZING CAMPAIGN While ranching advocates are quick to point out the negative impacts of sprawl—as they should—they fail to apply the same critical analysis to the social and ecological effects of livestock production. READ MORE >> IN THE NEWS High early expectations, current realities—Valles Caldera Preserve With its vast meadows of native grasses, much of this 89,000-acre expanse of volcanic highlands in northern New Mexico's Jemez Mountains is a cow's paradise. But as preserve managers mull the area's grazing future as part of an experiment in public lands management, critics worry cows may get preferential treatment at the expense of recreation, conservation and other values. SEE FULL STORY >> MORE ON THE VALLES CALDERA >> IN THE NEWS Texas rancher embraces conservation plan How much is the last of a specie worth, the fast disappearing golden-cheeked warbler, for instance? SEE FULL STORY >> MORE ON SAFE HARBOR AGREEMENTS >>

Stakes are high as timber giant plans massive land sale Private forest ownership in the United States is expected to continue on the path of radical transformation this year as large industrial owners of timberland quicken the pace of forest divestment— a byproduct of industry consolidation and efforts to streamline operations. SEE FULL STORY >> LEGISLATION & REGULATIONS Conservation easements We've added new material to the site regarding recent controversies surrounding easments and have highlighted a few of the collaborative efforts that use conservation easements to achieve their goals. CONTROVERSIES >> COLLABORATION IN ACTION >> LEGISLATION & REGULATIONS Ranchers, enviros challenge New Mexico pipeline project An unusual coalition of ranchers and environmentalists filed a protest last week with the Bureau of Land Management over an eight-mile natural gas pipeline in northwestern New Mexico they say would harm both wildlife and livestock. SEE FULL STORY >> CONTACT US Ross Johnson 32 South Ewing, Suite 326 Helena, Montana 59601 Phone: (406) 495-1069 Toll Free: (888) 495-0757 Fax: (406) 495-1074     The Red Lodge Clearinghouse is a program of the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation.

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