Center for the American West

College names interim faculty director of Center of the American West

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 23:13:07 +0000

College names interim faculty director of Center of the American West Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/05/2022 - 17:13

The College of Arts and Sciences has named an interim director to carry the Center of the American West into the future.

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ history Professor Tom Zeiler will serve as interim faculty director of the Center of the American West, effective immediately.

Professor Tom Zeiler

Zeiler was chair of the ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ History Department from 2000-2004, and he has directed ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ’s International Affairs Program since 2013. Zeiler has received Fulbright fellowships for teaching and research, as well as the Teacher Recognition Award given by the Student Organization for Alumni Relations.

He served as editor-in-chief of American Foreign Relations Since 1600: A Guide to the Literature, and he has served as President of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the Society’s Council, Bernath Dissertation Award, Program, Teaching, and Membership Committees. He was also a member of the State Department Historical Advisory Committee on Diplomatic Documentation.

The Center of the American West serves as a national resource illuminating the history, culture, politics and tradition of the American West through its focus on applied history. The Center of the American West will continue to play a vital role at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ, and we look forward to its continued contributions to national thought and discourse regarding the American West and our shared history.

“Professor Zeiler is a proven dynamic and vibrant voice in the academic community, with a unique perspective on the history of the American West,” said Glen Krutz, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“We look forward to his leadership in rebuilding relationships with staff and center supporters, strengthening ties to our other academic departments at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ, and setting the stage for the center to reach its next great level of success.”

Professor Zeiler will continue to teach his scheduled courses in addition to his new duties with the center.

The College of Arts and Sciences has named an interim director to carry the Center of the American West into the future.

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From Congress to higher education

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 15:02:09 +0000

From Congress to higher education Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/13/2021 - 09:02

Event will bring together two former congressmen, including CU system president, to talk about friendship across the aisle

Politics need not be divisive. Sometimes bipartisanship—and even friendship—can happen and that is the focus of an event happening this week.

Two politicians turned university presidents, including University of Colorado President Mark Kennedy, will virtually meet to discuss bipartisanship and their enduring friendship as part of an ongoing series, “Bipartisanship (and Friendship) Happen!”

Kennedy will speak with his former colleague Marty Meehan, University of Massachusetts Amherst president, as part of this series which brings together accomplished and dedicated public officials to discuss their determination to extend the ties of shared enterprise and friendship across the divisions of recent times.

University of Colorado President, Mark Kennedy & University of Massachusetts President, Marty Meehan (Center of the American West)

This virtual event, which is hosted by the Center of the American West at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ and moderated by Patty Limerick, the center’s director, will be held April 15, 2021, at 12 p.m. MDT, 2 p.m. ET.

Prior to becoming the CU system president, Kennedy, a Republican, was the president of the University of North Dakota and served in the U.S. House of Representatives, first for Minnesota’s second congressional district and then for its sixth congressional district.

Meehan, a Democrat, has served as the UMass president since 2015. Prior to that, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Massachusetts’ fifth congressional district.

“You learn a lot about a person when you travel with them, particularly overseas. Marty and I really became friends when we traveled the Middle East together as congressmen. While we don’t always agree on issues, I respect and appreciate his ability to look at all sides of an issue and think critically about a solution. He is also a man with deep integrity and a strong sense of public service,” said Kennedy.

And Meehan agrees:

“I am looking forward to a conversation with Mark, my friend and former congressional colleague, with whom I enjoyed working even though we often had different views on issues. Mark was and continues to be a person who loves a good debate rooted in reason but underpinned by respect for the ‘other side’s’ perspective. I’m sure we will have a lot to talk about regarding the current state of political discourse and potential for bipartisan action on the challenges facing our nation,” said Meehan.

Learn more about the event, including how to register, at the Center of the American West’s website.

Event will bring together two former congressmen, including CU system president, to talk about friendship across the aisle.

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Award prompts students to rethink the last year and the West

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 19:24:29 +0000

Award prompts students to rethink the last year and the West Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/09/2021 - 12:24

Cay Leytham-Powell

The Thompson awards from the Center of the American West urge students to write about the West and show them the year that was for a $500 prize

The American West is often seen as a land of bounty and opportunity—but for many, that hasn’t necessarily been their experience.

It is those forgotten voices, highlighted by the song “The Line” by Bruce Springsteen, that inspired Darren Alberti (Law’18) to create his screenplay, “Crossing,” which won first place for graduate fiction category of the Thompson Writing Awards in 2016.

The Thompson Writing Awards, given out every year by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado Boulder, recognizes writings related to the American West, and this year videos highlighting 2020. The center is accepting applications for the 2021 cycle, which closes March 15.

Just like its inspiration song, Alberti’s piece tells a story of love and morality in the context of Mexican-U.S. immigration. In the screenplay, a U.S. border agent falls for a woman from Sonora, Mexico, who tried to cross illegally, forcing him to navigate the tension he finds between federal immigration law and a higher, nameless law. He ultimately helps the woman and her son cross the border in the cover of night, only to never see her again.

At the top of the page, the U.S.-Mexico border in Jacumba Hot Springs, California (Anthony Albright/Flickr). Above, Darren Alberti

For Alberti, now a lawyer in Denver, this wasn’t just an award—it was a beginning; one that he used to create a whole new playwriting, acting and directing program at a maximum-security women’s correctional facility. This eventually led to two stage productions performed by incarcerated women for the prison community, including an original play written by one of the women, in which Alberti also acted.

“To me, theatrical writing and performance—it’s such an incredible form of expression and such a shared, collaborative human art form with the magical ability to connect people. I wanted to bring that artform to this prison, but I knew it was bold and something of a long-shot—approaching a maximum-security facility about starting this program from scratch. Then, having this award on my resume where I could point to a screenplay that I wrote and say I won this award at the Center of the American West, it just definitely seemed to give me more standing and credibility than I would have had without it to do something that I very much wanted to do,” said Alberti, who is also building a body of work as a filmmaker and is currently submitting his first short film as writer and director, upekkhā, to festivals.

“In a beautiful way, I got to share a piece of theatrical writing, got recognized for it, and then that recognition in turn helped me bring the gift of the art form itself into a maximum-security prison.”

The Thompson Writing Awards, endowed by Jack (Hist’64) and Jeannie (Zool’64) Thompson in 2004, typically recognizes any kind of writing—fiction, poetry, creative or academic non-fiction, or memoir—from undergraduate and graduate students related to the American West, a vast area that includes anything west of the 100^th Meridian, including Alaska and Hawaii.

This year, though, in addition to writing about the American West, the awards will also recognize video in a brand-new contest, titled “2020 Through My Lens,” which accepts any type of video reflecting on the year that was.

Altogether, this year, 11 $500 prizes will be awarded to ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ students for their writing and video work.

Navigating risk in the high country

For Adrianne Kroepsch (MGeog’11; PhDEnvSt’16), who won as a graduate student in 2011 for her memoir “Boxing Season,” the experience with the Thompson Writing Awards was invaluable.

Adrianne Kroepsch

“The Thompson Writing Awards made me feel so recognized and valued as a student writer, and that was really lovely and also gave me so much more confidence in my writing and my voice and my ability to publish,” said Kroepsch.

Kroepsch, who is now an assistant professor who studies environmental governance at the Colorado School of Mines, wrote about avalanche risks while backcountry skiing in the Colorado high country.

“I started to backcountry ski as a grad student … but as I got into it, I discovered just how much avalanche risk is involved in safely navigating the backcountry in the wintertime, and that whole array of risks was really fascinating to me and really scared me,” Kroepsch remarked.

Those risks, which include multiple, shifty layers of snow that can collapse with one wrong move, kills an average of six people in Colorado each year.

“The Thompsons were this really neat opportunity to write through that and process how I was perceiving those risks and how I was behaving in relationship to those risks and to put it in a creative form,” Kroepsch said.

For Kroepsch, who still goes backcountry skiing, the awards also connected her, and many other students like her, to the Center of the American West.

“The center helped make a really big campus feel smaller,” Kroepsch said. “It helped me feel like I had a family on campus, which, for any student, can be the difference between a successful degree and an unsuccessful degree, no matter if you’re a freshman or a fourth-year PhD student.”

Thinking about entering?

One of the freeing—and challenging—aspects of the Thompson Awards is just how vast the possibilities are for those thinking about entering, the center said.

Could you be the next winner?

Eleven $500 prizes will be awarded to ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ students in the Spring of 2021 for both writing and video on Western American topics.

Learn more about the contest rules on the Center of the American West website.

As long as the writing is related to the American West, though, anything is fair game for the writing awards, whether it be writing about suburban backyards in the desert southwest or rodeos on the great plains.

For the video awards, anything related to 2020 is welcome, whether it’s about the pandemic, the protests, or just the isolation of the year.

For those thinking about entering, Kroepsch, who is also one of the judges this year, has two pieces of advice.

First, find and use your own voice. “I think often students try and put on this academic, omniscient, third-person thing to sound more sophisticated, and all it does is drown out their own creativity and voice.”

Second, to have an impressive, striking first sentence. “Obviously, the whole introductory paragraph matters immensely, right? But one way to really get that to shine is by having an awesome first sentence.”

For Alberti, who also won an honorable mention in graduate fiction in 2017, his advice is simple: “Stop considering it, and just do it.”

A full list of past winners can be found on the Center of the American West’s website.

The Thompson awards from the Center of the American West urge students to write about the West and show them the year that was for a $500 prize.

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2020 through students’ eyes (and lenses)

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 15:30:23 +0000

2020 through students’ eyes (and lenses) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/22/2021 - 08:30

New competition encourages students to create videos reflecting on the multifaceted year that was

This past year was historic in many ways and for many reasons. No one had the same year, so the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado Boulder wants to recognize those different experiences through a new video competition.

This new award competition, part of the annual Thompson Writing Awards and titled, “2020 Through My Lens,” encourages undergraduate and graduate students to reflect and create video stories of their experience with this notable year through the topic or medium of their choosing.

The awards are now open until March 15.

“We created the video category because we wanted to give students a creative opportunity to reflect on how they navigated what was, by any measure, a remarkably tumultuous year,” said Kurt Gutjahr, the center’s managing director.

“We want to know what students think and feel about it all.”

The Thompson Writing Awards, endowed by Jack (Hist’64) and Jeannie (Zool’64) Thompson in 2004, are given out every year to undergraduate and graduate ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ students to recognize their writing related to the American West.

With the exception of the video category, that is still the case. In 2021, there will be 10 $500 prizes awarded to the writing competition in the genres of poetry, fiction, memoir, academic nonfiction and creative nonfiction. Students may apply to one or all of the categories using works they created for class or on their own—as long as the pieces are about the American West.

For the video category, though, the center welcomes any and all videos related to 2020, whether they be about the isolation, protests, pandemic, election or even just some small slice of everyday life. These videos can also come in any genre, whether that be documentary, commentary, visual images, narrative or even musical performance. This award also comes with a $500 prize.

“The palette is vast,” commented Gutjahr.

Learn more about the award, including rules and how to submit for both the writing and video competitions, on the Center of the American West’s website.

New competition encourages students to create videos reflecting on the multifaceted year that was.

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From the post office to turnaround artists

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 23:36:32 +0000

From the post office to turnaround artists Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/14/2020 - 17:36

Kirsten Kochheiser

A new lecture series from the Center of the American West delves into current issues

Turnaround artists, bipartisan issues, the history of pandemics, and the U.S. Post Office.

These topics, while differing in scale and historical precedence, all have one thing in common: They will be part of the four-part Lunch with Limerick series.

This virtual interview series, organized by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado Boulder, and hosted by Patty Limerick, the center’s director, will be held at noon via zoom throughout Sept. into the beginning of October. In these one-hour programs, Limerick will interview a range of guests on current issues and a variety of topics relevant to the West and beyond.

Back in mid-March, I thought the pandemic had shut the door on that dynamic aspect of the Center's work."

For the center, what started as a way to adjust to a pandemic world while continuing an ongoing effort by the center to embrace dialogue around divisive key issues has blossomed into the opportunity to spread information beyond the traditional limits of in-person meetings.

“Back in mid-March, I thought the pandemic had shut the door on that dynamic aspect of the Center's work,” said Limerick, who is also a professor of history. “But then I caught on to the amazing opportunities offered by Zoom! When it comes to the privilege of introducing people I admire to a wide audience, a Zoom interview can put my guests and me into the ‘presence’ of a lot more people, living in many different places, than could ever fit into a lecture hall or auditorium.”

Later this semester, the center will also host a two-part program on immigration, titled “The Party of Practicality.”

Interviews as part of the Lunch with Limerick series include:

“Rescuing a Nation: Advice from a ‘Turnaround Artist’”

Gus Halas

Topic: Halas will discuss leadership during tumultuous times and how his history as a turnaround artist—or a person who repairs broken organizations—applies to our current world.

Date: Sept. 18

Time: 12 p.m.

“‘Bipartisan Happens’: How Western Governors Set an Example for the Nation’s Leaders”

Jim Ogsbury

Topic: Ogsbury will bring his signature storytelling, utilizing humor and an engaging approach, to discuss remedies for bipartisan issues, with a focus on solutions and the goal of overcoming divisiveness.

Date: Sept. 25

Time: 12 p.m.

“Getting Sick and Getting Well: How American Have Understood Disease and Health”

Conevery Valencius

Topic: Valencius will discuss how 19th century Americans understood health and disease, focusing on how clues from our history can help people understand how diseases interact with a community with a focus on our new world in a pandemic.

Date: Oct. 1

Time: 12 p.m.

“The Post Office’s Central Role in American Life: An Advocate for 21st Century Voting by Mail and a Historian of the 19th Century U.S. Post Get Acquainted”

Phil Keislings and Cameron Blevin

Topic: Keislings and Blevin will discuss the role of the post office as it impacts communities, specifically how they are a central hub of connection at a time when mail in ballots are anticipated to flood the system.

Date: Oct. 2

Time: 12 p.m.

A new lecture series from the Center of the American West delves into current issues

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Symposium brings energy and water together

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 16:18:44 +0000

Symposium brings energy and water together Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/07/2020 - 10:18

Cay Leytham-Powell

Upcoming virtual events to explore the scientific and cultural facets of two important issues for Coloradans: energy and water

Water and energy are two of the most divisive and essential issues to Westerners, and yet they are rarely discussed side-by-side—until now.

A new four-day symposium, put on in collaboration between the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Colorado Scientific Society, and hosted by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, will delve into these two related and yet separate issues and all of the scientific and cultural nuances that come with them.

These dialogues, being held on Aug. 11, 13, 18 and 20, will not only provide insightful commentary on Colorado’s present challenges but also on future opportunities with these resources, which are forecasted to take on greater importance in the years to come.

We have recruited a spectacular set of presenters for each of these sessions"

The event, which was originally planned to be a one-day, in-person conference, will feature four to five diverse speakers for an hour and a half each day engaging in a moderated conversation on that day’s theme. Registration for the event is available through the Denver Museum of Nature and Science’s website.

“We have recruited a spectacular set of presenters for each of these sessions,” said Patty Limerick, director of the Center of the American West and the moderator of all of the events. “I am very lucky to have been given the role of moderator to orchestrate a conversation among people who are, first, extremely knowledgeable about the complicated and dynamic relationship between water and energy, and, second, very capable of sharing their knowledge with an audience that covers a spectrum of sophistication.”

Event details include:

Part 1: Resource providers

Event Date: Aug. 11, 2020

Event Time: 10-11:30 a.m.

Participants:

Laurna Kaatz, climate science, policy, and adaptation program director for Denver Water
- Title: Providing Drinking water to Colorado
Jeff Lyng, director of energy and environmental policy, Xcel Energy
- Title: Building a Carbon-Free Future
Eric Kuhn, formerly the general manager of the Colorado River District
- Title: West-Slope Water Use, Trends, and Issues in the Age of Climate Change
Bruce Finley, senior staff writer for the Denver Post; Senior Staff writer
- Title: Reckoning

Part 2: User community perspectives

Event Date: Aug. 13, 2020

Event Time: 10-11:30 a.m.

Participants:

Jan Kulmann, mayor of the City of Thornton
- Title: Where the Need for Water in Communities and Businesses Meet
Roger Fragua, president of Cota Holdings, LLC, and NDN Energy, LLC
- Title: Indian Country and Access to Energy & Water
Jerd Smith, editor of Fresh Water News
- Title: Outsized Issues of Water-Use in a Headwater State
Luke Runyon, reporter for Colorado Public Radio Station KUNC
- Title: Uniting and Dividing: How Water Can Bring Western Communities Together or Drive Them Apart

Part 3: Technology addressing current challenges

Event Date: Aug. 18, 2020

Event Time: 10-11:30 a.m.

Participants:

Thomas Cech, director of One World One Water Center
- Title: Technology Addressing Current Challenges: The Importance of Water Education
Christy Woodward, senior director of regulatory affairs, Colorado Oil & Gas Association
- Title: Innovation and Adaptation in Colorado’s Oil and Natural Gas Industry
Tracy Kosloff, assistant state engineer, Colorado Division of Water Resources
- Title: More Information About Water Diversions Faster Makes for Better Decisions
Seth Haines, research geophysicist, U.S. Geological Survey
- Title: Uniting and Dividing: How Water Can Bring Western Communities Together or Drive Them Apart

Part 4: Future pathways

Event Date: Aug. 20, 2020

Event Time: 10-11:30 a.m.

Participants:

Elizabeth Garner, Colorado state demographer with the Department of Local Affairs
- Title: Where Do We Grow from Here?
Russ Sands, senior program manager of water supply planning, Colorado Water Conservation Board
- Title: The Colorado Water Plan: Where We’ve Been and the Path Forward
Peter Barkmann, senior hydrologist, Colorado Geological Survey
- Title: Groundwater Resources in Colorado: An Online Atlas
Jordan Macknick, lead energy-water-land analyst, USDOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Title: Transformation of Colorado’s Energy Sector
Mark Jensen, chemistry professor, Colorado School of Mines
- Title: Is There a Future for Nuclear Energy in The Mountain West?

Upcoming virtual events to explore the scientific and cultural facets of two important issues for Coloradans: energy and water.

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Celebrating the 2020 Thompson Writing Award winners

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 15:41:00 +0000

Celebrating the 2020 Thompson Writing Award winners Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/30/2020 - 09:41

Cay Leytham-Powell

The Center of the American West awards the 21st annual Thompson Awards for Western American Writing

Family lore, conflicting heritages, the smell of Nag Champa, the Rocky Mountain snowpack, and a pink plantation loveseat.

The American West can take on different forms, and for this year’s recipients of the 2020 Thompson Writing Awards, these topics encapsulate what the West means to them.

The Thompson Writing Awards, endowed by Jack (Hist’64) and Jeannie (Zool’64) Thompson in 2004, are given out annually by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado Boulder in recognition of outstanding student writing that pertains in some way—whether that be geographically speaking or the ethos—to the American West.

Winners receives $500 per piece and are invited to read their work at a reception, which was held this year over zoom on April 29, 2020.

“I think the Thompson Writing Awards are a terrific opportunity to recognize student writers. Some of them are very good writers and the winners are always top-notch,” said Sandra Laursen, senior research associate and director of Ethnography & Evaluation Research at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ’s Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences, and one of this year’s judges.

This year’s winners include:

Creative Non-Fiction

Amorina Lee-Martinez

PhD candidate, environmental studies

“Learning How to Be a Good Ancestor”

Undergraduate Academic Non-Fiction

Maisy Weiss

Bachelor of Arts candidate, geography and ecology and evolutionary biology

“Rocky Mountain Snowpack”

Poetry

Ethan Glenn Robinson

Bachelor of Arts candidate, creative writing

“What Comes and Goes in Merino Colorado”

Undergraduate Fiction

Ethan Glenn Robinson

Bachelor of Arts candidate, creative writing

“The Hand in the Hayloft”

Memoir

Breanne Marie Pye

MFA candidate, creative writing

“Please Take Me With You”

“The Thompson Writing Awards really highlight the uniqueness of the American West,” said Charles Scoggin, a physician, emeritus board member for the Center of the American West, and one of this year’s judges.

“I really want to salute the Thompsons for their very generous support of this program. It’s wonderful to have people that spent their lives in higher education that have been willing to both put their name and their treasurer to work to encourage this kind of opportunity.”

Honorable mentions include Vanessa Gabel for her memoir, “Highway Prison,” and Liyu Berhanu for her non-fiction essay, “Black Cowboys: Ned Logan and the Portrayal of Blackness in Unforgiven.”

Judges for this year’s awards are as follows:

Creative Non-Fiction: Laursen; James E. Fell, Department of History, University of Colorado Denver; and Albert Hand, retired lawyer and board member for the Center of the American West.

Graduate Academic Non-Fiction: David E. Meens, director for the Office of Outreach and Engagement; Richard J. Meisinger, retired associate vice president for academic affairs for the University of Illinois system; and JoAnn Silverstein, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Center of the American West Board Member and Faculty Council member.

Graduate Fiction: Andrew Cowell, director, Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ; Catherine Kunce, senior instructor, Program for Writing and Rhetoric, Center of the American West Faculty Affiliate; and Finn Murphy, author of the national bestseller, The Long Haul: A Trucker’s Tale of Life on the Road.

Memoir: Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz, chair of the Department of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts, Center of the American West Faculty Affiliate; Katie King, Skyline High School history teacher, James Madison Memorial Foundation fellow; and Tamar V.S. McKee, anthropologist, manager, Stephen H. Hart Research Center, History Colorado, and founder and owner, Khala and Company.

The Thompson Writing Awards really highlight the uniqueness of the American West"

Poetry: Kit Armstrong, University of Colorado Boulder class of 2017, Center of the American West Certificate Alum; Buzzy Jackson, writer, historian and educator, book critic for the Boston Globe, Author of The Inspirational Atheist; and Malinda Miller, assistant dean for communications and engagement, College of Media, Communication and Information.

Undergraduate Academic Non-Fiction: Douglas Bamforth, archaeologist, chair of the Department of Anthropology, Center of the American West Faculty Affiliate; Bud Coleman, director of the CU in D.C. Internship Program, Roe Green Professor of Theatre, Center of the American West Faculty Council Member; and Debbie Frazier, former Rocky Mountain News reporter, former communications director for Colorado Natural Resources Department, author of Colorado’s Hot Springs.

Undergraduate Fiction: Scoggin; Jay Ellis, Journal Twenty Twenty faculty advisor and novelist, Center of the American West Faculty Affiliate; and Alison Richards, calligrapher.

Discover past recipients of the award on the Center of the American West’s website.

The Center of the American West awards the 21st annual Thompson Awards for Western American Writing

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Experts at CU to mull next 50 years of local open space

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 19:39:57 +0000

Experts at CU to mull next 50 years of local open space Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/21/2016 - 13:39

Boulder’s public open-space system was launched 50 years ago, and an event at CU-Boulder will bring together experts who will discuss the lay of the land in the next half-century.

The event, called “Our Open Space Lands: Scenarios for the Future,” is scheduled for Thursday, April 28, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the new Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex on the University of Colorado Boulder’s East Campus.

Now, with over 100,000 acres of land and more than 260 miles of trails in our city and county open space systems, we need to think about the next 50 years.”

Speakers include Patty Limerick, history professor and faculty director of the Center of the American West; John Tayer, president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce; Sharon Collinge, professor of biology and member of the Environmental Studies Program; and students from the CU Environmental Studies and Environmental Design programs.

The city of Boulder has preserved open land informally for more than 100 years, but preservation became a formal, publicly funded program after a community outcry. In 1964, developers planned to build a luxury hotel on Enchanted Mesa, and the idea prompted an outcry. The Boulder City Council voted to condemn the land and force its sale.

Boulder’s mountain backdrop has been largely preserved by its public open-space system, initiated 50 years ago.In this photo, taken on the morning of winter solstice, a snow storm hovered over the mountains and threatened to sweep into Boulder. Almost everything in this photo is Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks. Photo by Jeff Mitton.

In 1966, the city adopted its open space charter, and the following year, Boulder voters overwhelmingly approved a 0.40 of a cent sales tax to buy, manage and maintain open space. It was reportedly the first time citizens in any U.S. city had voted to tax themselves specifically for open space.

Boulder County later launched its own open-space program. “Now, with over 100,000 acres of land and more than 260 miles of trails in our city and county open space systems, we need to think about the next 50 years,” the event organizers state.

The event is part of the 2015-16 Community Colloquium Series, presented by the Initiative for Sustainable Communities and Landscapes, a collaborative research and public engagement effort among Boulder County Parks and Open Space, City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, CU-Boulder’s Program in Environmental Design, CU-Boulder’s Environmental Studies Program and community members.

For more information click here, or contact Joni Palmer or Stacey Schulte.

<p>Boulder’s public open-space system was launched 50 years ago, and an event at CU-Boulder will bring together experts who will discuss the lay of the land in the next half-century.</p>

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Center for the American West

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