July 2007, Newsletter #24 Welcome to THE RED LODGE CLEARINGHOUSE, the full-service information source for collaborative groups committed to resolving resource-use conflicts. In the News From grouse to the Rio Grande, from split estates to clean water. See what Congress, the states, conservation groups and your neighbors are doing to conserve natural resources and reduce conflicts. Check out In the News. Legislation and Regulations We update the L&R section of the website on an as-needed basis as new laws and regulations come into effect. The exception to this is the Pending Legislation of the 110th Congress section of each law or topic area. Here we link you to the most important bills being considered in the current Congress. Let us know if we are missing something that you want us to track. From Red Lodge to Boulder — Another Step Forward In May of this year, we announced transition of the Red Lodge Clearinghouse to management by the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado. We also began a search for a project manager and asked you to start thinking about how we might better serve the collaboration community and promote conservation of natural resources while protecting and strengthening western communities. We are pleased to announce that we have successfully completed our search and that Lauren Ris will join the Center as the Clearinghouse program manager at the end of August. In the coming months, Lauren will be reaching out individually to those who value our natural resources and western communities to both diversify and better serve Clearinghouse constituents. But before she even joins the Clearinghouse full-time, Lauren can begin — with your help — to reassess our mission and services. Please read on. The Red Lodge Clearinghouse website was launched in the summer of 2003 with direction from the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation and the Workshop on Collaborative Resource Management in the Interior West held at Red Lodge, Montana. The first homepage stated our mission as a "full support site for collaborative groups committed to resolving resource use conflicts throughout the interior west." The page went on to list Clearinghouse services: Help you get started, keep going and stay focused Help you learn about groups like yours, past and present, lessons learned and objectives gained Direct you to funding sources Connect you to peers who've been there Confirm that you are part of a growing movement Provide links to upcoming workshops and seminars relevant to collaborative work Connect you to people with broad technical expertise Link you to conservation and industry organizations and their positions on the issues Keep you informed of the main body of resource legislation and regulations Help you figure out who's who - the important agency people, the important policy makers Keep you alerted to those fast changing policies that can affect your work Well . . . How are we doing? What features of the Clearinghouse do you find most useful? What can we do better? How can we do it better? What isn't on the website that should be? Beyond the website, what more can we do to help you do your work? And, just as important - Who are you? How are you involved in natural resources and community conservation? PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO: Email us with your ideas Share your ideas on the phone at 888-495-0757 Answer a short internet survey In the coming months the Clearinghouse will be running a series on conservation strategies. We plan to focus on the nuts and bolts of collaborative conservation (for example, creating and nurturing a collaborative group, programmatic and project funding, monitoring and evaluation). We also want to include other strategies - sometimes used in collaborative processes; sometimes used as alternatives to collaboration. Here we will include other options for public participation in resource management (commenting on rulemaking, the NEPA process, influencing the federal agency budget process) as well as state and federal legislative processes, agency resources and more. What aspect of collaborative or non-collaborative conservation would you like us to address? What successes (or failures) have you had in using some of these strategies? HOME PAGE  |   CONTACT US