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Wallowa Mountain Institute “The oldest task in human history: To live on a piece of land without spoiling it.” - Aldo Leopold Loggers Invaded Butterfly Haven, Photos Show Images by Robert Simmon and Daniel Slayback, based on data © GeoEye Satellite images of the site of the Lomas de Aparicio monarch colony in Mexico taken on March 22, 2004, left, and February 23, 2008, right. Areas that were green and are now brown have been logged (from NYTimes) Scientists Are Making Brazil’s Savannah Bloom The New York Times What We Know • Population is increasing • Affluence is increasing • Demand for food, fiber, renewable energy and fun are all increasing • Climate change is creating uncertainties and challenges • World is increasingly complex Why WMI? • How we steward the working landscape is the defining conservation issue of our time • Good stewardship requires collaborative learning and adaptive management • Stewardship requires complex and critical thinking, it prepares us for solving complex or “wicked” problems • Rural Places Matter Wallowa Mountain Institute An educational model for how rural areas create, access, share and use stewardship knowledge to benefit the community and environment. WMI Mission • WMI promotes sustainable livelihoods and landscapes in the Intermountain West through research and education that integrates social, economic and ecological knowledge. • WMI seeks to foster, enhance and actively support individual stewardship of the land and people, as well as economic relationships and strategies that connect community and ecological well-being. Stewardship Working Landscape Can we define them? Stewardship Stewardship is the opportunity to fulfill our responsibilities to land, community and future generations and enjoy the resulting benefits. Working Landscape Defined by WMI as the public and private land and water used by and for humans for food, fiber, energy, pleasure and economic gain WMI Vision WMI envisions a county and region with the information, knowledge, skills and decisionmaking systems to sustain a resilient natural resource stewardship based rural economy. Comprehensive stewardship knowledge center Goal 1 Make the Wallowa Mountain Institute a learning center and Wallowa County a learning destination with regard to stewardship and natural resource management. Local economic engine Goal 2 Boost Wallowa County’s economy by employing local social and educational capital, and establishing place-based, outdoor and stewardship education as a local economic force. Local know how and know why Goal 3 Contribute directly to public and private land stewardship, and the sustenance of local knowledge and ethic of stewardship. Wallowa Mountain Institute • K-12 program with multiple learning opportunities ranging from awareness to research • college level courses and research • public seminars • field trips offered through The Nature Conservancy, Elderhostel, Universities and other national and regional organizations. OSU Summer Semester I • • • • • Forest Ecology Ecological Restoration Wildland Fire Ecology Society and Natural Resources Field Research Methods OSU Summer Semester II • • • • The Essential Working Landscape Consensus and Natural Resources Rangeland Ecology and Stewardship Climate Change: monitoring, mitigation and adaptation in rural areas • Watershed dynamics OSU Research Jesse Abrams – PhD research will examine the ways land ownership changes in rural Oregon are affecting rural communities and the management of privately-owned rangelands and forestlands. Devora Shamah – PhD research will examine how individual, family, and community processes impact aspirations and sense of purpose in rural youth. Wallowa Mountain Institute Wendell Berry has described farming (and ranching) …as an ancient, useful, honorable vocation, requiring admirable intelligence and skill, a complex local culture, great patience and endurance, and moral responsibilities of the gravest kind. For More Information www.wallowaresources.org Email Don Harker [email protected]