PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #17: Resource Management and Risk Assessment.
Tuesday, August 7, 2001. Presentation from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM. Exhibition Hall
103
Evaluation of a participatory approach to mediate conflicts between livestock and wildlife interests in Colorado.
McAndrews, Gina1, Salvador, Ricardo 1, 1
ABSTRACT- The Habitat Partnership Program (HPP) is a collaborative initiative of the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the Colorado Cattleman′s Association. The program consists of 15 committees, distributed over western Colorado, representing the interests of public resource managers, livestock growers and hunters. Each committee strives to minimize fence and forage damage from big game activity. Information gathered from interviews, documents, projects and observation was used to assess the effectiveness of HPP in meeting its stated goals: resolve conflicts, improve ecosystem health, raise local knowledge about resource management and improve communication and understanding. Over seven years (1991-1998), committees completed habitat improvement projects on 77,856 hectares of public and private land, established 124 water developments, assisted with noxious weed control on 5,904 hectares and monitored the movement of 9,274 elk. Moreover, 193 kilometers of new ′wildlife friendly′ fence, 66 stackyards and 60 big game crossings were built. For educational purposes, committees sponsored 31 workshops in holistic resource management and developed 37 brochures on natural resource issues. Ninety-five percent of committee members thought the program improved communication between landowners, sportspersons and government agencies. As measured by independent indicators and the degree of satisfaction of program participants, HPP can be considered an improvement over previous directive programs. However, the continuous influx of people and the loss of habitat in Colorado – over 110,000 hectares per year– may render moot the issues addressed by collaborative wildlife and natural resource management programs.
KEY WORDS: resource management, big game , grazing habitat, environmental conflict resolution