UNCOMPAHGRE PLATEAU PROJECT: LINKING SCIENCE AND PUBLIC INPUT FOR COLLABORATIVE NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

This presentation overviews a pioneer planning process developed by the Uncompahgre Plateau Project (UP) for collaborative natural resource management. UP is a partnership of resource management agencies, power companies, and citizen groups working together at a landscape scale to restore and maintain the ecosystem on 1.5 million acres of the Uncompahgre Plateau in western Colorado. The goal of the project is to develop resource management strategies using science and collaborative input from the agencies and the public. The presentation details the collaborative planning process developed for restoring a desired vegetation mosaic in two priority watersheds on the Plateau and illustrates one implementation project. The intent is to provide an example of linking science and resource modeling to collaborative resource management.