STATE OF THE ROCKIES

2006 State of the Rockies Conference

By Tonya Poole, 4-10-06

This year’s State of the Rockies project kicked off this afternoon at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, armed with an agenda packed with tough questions, new goals and a long, hard glimpse at the trajectory of our future as a region. Topics of the 2006 conference and report card include climate change, environmental justice, conservation easements, ranching, biodiversity and youth – as speakers and researchers take their turn at the podium discussing findings and forging paths for ever-better, broader solutions.

In 2005, the conference carried the torch of sentiment that the Rockies were a mistreateded inland empire of the U.S., receiving little attention from policy-makers. But a new year has birthed a new attitude, and a new approach, from the Rockies project: hope, action and regional responsibility. This year the project focuses on standing up and being heard, on fostering a common western voice that speaks to, and for, our area as a unified region with common issues to solve together.

Throughout the conference, we’ll cover and encourage discussion on the critical questions and issues brought forward by each of the following conference segments:

Monday
Introduction/Unveiling of the 2006 Report Card
Land Conservation: Protecting Unique Landscapes and Habitats
Preserving Biodiversity: Addressing Threatened, Endangered and Invasive Species

Tuesday
Ranching in the Rockies: Threats and Signs of Hope
Conservation in Action: Success Stories

Wednesday
Environmental Justice: Equally Protecting All Humans and The Environment
New Approaches to Governing the Rockies: Can Our Region’s Political Voices Be Heard?

Thursday
Climate Change: What Happens In a Warmer Rockies?
Rockies History Comes Alive: John Wesley Powell Returns

Ultimately, the goal of the conference this year is to address and report on key demographic indicators that influence our region, and to redirect political tributaries back into the Rockies to help temper and manage the many drivers of rapid change we’re experiencing, especially those that so heavily impact our futures and those of our children.

We’ve talked amongst ourselves for many, many years; it’s time to take that conversation and move it into the larger public dialog. Will you be there?
[End of article]

Aaaaah, yes ~ you ask, "Will (I) be there?"
In clean levis and well-coifed hair?
Should one assume that "you" to be
A plural form of word I see?
If so, perhaps it's right to note
That many persons with a vote
Might also have a job to do?
Not able to be there with you?

With that in mind, my dear Ms. Poole,
I hope you'll look around that school
And write what you will see and hear;
Take note of persons sitting near.
For instance, I would like to know
If persons OWNING land will show;
If those with land to be "conserved"
Are raising voices or unnerved.

Please count those ranchers there today;
How many made it all that way
While calving season ain't yet done;
Are spouses home while off they run?
Conservation stories told
On ranches can be very bold!
But are those folks who own a cow
There in your midst to tell us how?

When "Justice" rolls around next day
We'll all await all you will say!!!
We'll want to know, and hope you'll tell,
Who says WHICH politics are swell!
Please tell us WHO will govern who;
WHICH ones are "equal" when they do;
WHICH judge and jury has the "say",
Complete control every day.

Those days of "Warmer Rockies" here;
A drought that raises not one cheer.
We'll all await, anticipation,
'Bout the climate of our Nation.
Those who lived The Dust Bowl days
Are hoping you will hear some ways
To bring the WALLS of dirt to ground;
Will make green grass once more abound.

When "Rockies History Comes Alive"
Record each detail to survive
Within reports you'll send our way!
We'll read with relish on that day!!!
But when it comes to "redirect",
Those tributaries to dissect,
Please tell us WHO will chart that course;
Please tell us WHO will have remorse.

Although I wish I could be there,
In clean levis with well-coifed hair,
Like others I'll depend on YOU
To tell us ALL you see and do!!!
Please let us know if YOU agree
With all you hear and all you see!
And if you do, please tell us WHY!
What YOU think is a truth or lie!!!

We await ~ ~ ~ with great anticipation!!!

Rose Mary

Rosemary! Thanks for the great prose. Collective "you" indeed, and when I say "Will you be there?" - I refer less to the conference itself and more for the coming months when we'll need all those voices speaking for our region in that ongoing effort.

Thank you, Tonya! My friends are all accustomed to my riddles in rhyme but one never knows the tolerance level of others!!! ;-)

Wish I could be sitting beside you this week and I really do anticipate each and every report you will be making. I think it is, indeed, a very important Conference and many folks sit up and pay attention to the results when they are posted and distributed. But, as you might have figured out long ago, I do continue to worry about WHO is on WHAT payroll and how that effects, bottom-line, proclamations, directives and assumptions. All of us fall under the heading of "self-serving", of course, but it can be rather scary when the "serving" folks do not have their own "self" on the line when making some of these big decisions.

Hope you have a dandy week!!!

Rose Mary

Rose Mary-
This year's staff at the State of the Rockies Project have taken great pleasure in reading your poem, and we have included stanzas from it in several upcoming presentations about public responses to the project. Might we have your mailing address to send you a copy of last years State of the Rockies Report card, as well as on the mailing list for future publications?

Thank you for your interest and contribution

Chris