Purdue News
Purdue News
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June 11, 2004 Purdue offers leadership training for natural resources communityWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - As Hoosiers grapple with controversial environmental issues like farmland development, Purdue University is gearing up to present its second annual Natural Resources Leadership Development Institute, a program designed to help those in the natural resources community work together to solve issues at the state and local level. "Natural resources issues, like agricultural land use, water quality and soil erosion, are becoming more important every day," said William Hoover, a professor of forestry and institute co-leader. "The goal of this training institute is to give people who might represent opposite sides of some of these issues the tools to reach collaborative solutions to contentious situations." Through workshops, activities and discussions, participants in the Natural Resources Leadership Development Institute, or NRLDI, will learn collaborative approaches to problem-solving, how to identify sources of conflict in a community, how to include citizens in the decision-making process and many other skills. "These are not natural skills; they are skills we need to learn," said Janet Ayres, Extension specialist in community leadership development and co-director of the institute. "As humans, our response when we perceive a threat to something we value is usually 'fight or flight.' In the public arena that usually plays out as either litigation or ignoring a problem in the hope it will go away. Neither of these is ideal, so we aim to teach some of the skills that will help people work together to find solutions to complex environmental problems." Hoover also said that equipping community leaders with these skills provides an alternative to litigation, which often polarizes opinions on certain topics and makes it more difficult to resolve future problems. The institute's directors hope to draw participants with a diversity of perspectives, including representatives of government agencies, private companies and not-for-profit organizations. "It's important that we have people who represent a variety of interests and backgrounds," Hoover said. "One goal of the institute is to simply get them talking to each other. More often than not, differing parties will see that they have more in common than they thought." Ayres said, "We want people to recognize that a community can develop to strengthen its economic base while, at the same time, preserving its natural assets, whether it is prime agricultural land, forested property or critical watersheds. These goals are not mutually exclusive. Communities can achieve both, but it takes creativity, openness and good leadership skills to reach sustainable solutions." NRLDI is partially funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Renewable Resources Extension Act, and is run in partnership among the Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Indiana Ag Leadership Program, Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Indiana chapters of the American Society of Foresters and the Wildlife Society, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Indiana Land Resources Council, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the USDA. The institute includes three two-day sessions at various state parks throughout Indiana. The first session, from Sept. 16-19, will take place at Turkey Run State Park; the second, from Oct. 19-21, will be at Spring Mill State Park; and the third will be Nov. 16-18 at McCormick's Creek State Park. Participants are expected to attend all three sessions, which will begin at 7 p.m. on the first day and end at 5:30 p.m. the third day. Application forms are available through Purdue's Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. Downloadable forms are available online. Completed applications are due by July 9, and participants will be notified of their selection by mail in mid-July. Writer: Jennifer Cutraro, (765) 496-2050, jcutraro@purdue.edu Sources: William Hoover, (765) 494-3580, billh@fnr.purdue.edu Janet Ayres, (765) 494-4125, ayres@purdue.edu Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722; Beth Forbes, forbes@purdue.edu Related Web sites:
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