Communicating with Community: Complex Collaborative Conservation at the Creek

Communicating with Community: Complex Collaborative Conservation at the Creek 

Julia Lankisch1*, John Sanderson2, Allison Brody3, Aireona Bonnie Raschke4 

1Center for Collaborative Conservation, Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States, julia.lankisch@colostate.edu 

2Center for Collaborative Conservation, Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States, john.sanderson@colostate.edu 

3Center for Collaborative Conservation, Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States, allison.brody@colostate.edu 

4Center for Collaborative Conservation, Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States, aireona.raschke@colostate.edu 

A lapse in communication with vital communities can interfere with both trust and restoration outcomes in conservation efforts, particularly in riparian systems which link many different users and communities. The North Sand Creek Restoration Partnership is working with a variety of stakeholders to increase water quality and stream flow in the North Sand Creek in North Park, Colorado. Although the stream borders a sand dune system and is naturally sandy, excess sediment is being pushed into the creek by climate-change-related impacts and upstream OHV (off-highway vehicle) use. This is having a significant, adverse effect on downstream water rights. One of the solutions to this issue was fencing off the dune slipface above the creek from OHV access. As the user base of the North Sand Hills OHV recreation area has changed over the past decade to include more Spanish-speaking families, limited bilingual capacity in management agencies meant opportunities for conversations about the fencing with users was slim, and this negatively impacted OHV cooperation with area closures. Our Partnership is exploring educational outreach developed using the Theory of Planned Behavior as an avenue to bridge cultural divides with OHV’ers in both Spanish and English to address this outreach shortfall. This allows us to understand their values around livelihoods, nature, and recreation, and convey ours as a restoration collaborative. We aim to create pathways to lasting stewardship behaviors through identifying the beliefs and values that influence this community and then crafting impactful messages. Our presentation will share our initial outreach results and explore how social science methods can illuminate strategies for effective, audience-centric, and values-based communication in stream restoration across cultural barriers.