Photo - Superstition Mountains, Arizona |
A Partnership that is Shaping the Future of the West |
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Friends,
Many legendary partnerships have shaped the West - Lewis and Clark, Roosevelt and Pinchot, Butch and Sundance, Adams and O'Keefe. The success of these duos lay in how well they complemented each other's strengths.
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Sonoran Institute have been partners and collaborators since 2003. This month, Armando Carbonell, Senior Fellow and Chairman of the Lincoln Institute's Department of Planning and Urban Form, joins me in announcing exciting news. Recently our team chose a new leader, Dr. Jim Holway, to become Director of the Joint Venture. Jim currently is Director of the Sustainability Partnership at Arizona State University's Global Institute of Sustainability and a Professor of Practice in the School of Sustainability and the Department of Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. He also served as the ASU Coordinator for the Arizona Water Institute.
Jim's impressive background in growth management, land use, and water management positions him to fully leverage the strengths of both organizations. He believes that as partners we bring a unique focus to addressing the West's biggest challenges - helping to build management capacity in communities that need it, creating knowledge and understanding of what to do by sharing research tools and best practices and sparking the political will to meet challenges head on.
"The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has a national reputation for its research and innovation in land policy and strong understanding of how public policy impacts land use patterns that, in turn, shape the economy," Jim says. "The Sonoran Institute brings boots-on-the-ground involvement throughout the Intermountain West with extensive experience engaging key stakeholders on growth, natural resources and public lands management. I came to the Joint Venture because I felt I could make more of a difference here."
At ASU, Jim broadened the role of applied work within the university by building partnerships that focus on growth, land use and water issues. Prior to joining ASU, he was the Assistant Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources where he oversaw regulatory programs and developed water management policy. He earned his PhD and MRP at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor's degree from Cornell University.
"After 28 years working for state and regional government and universities, I am looking forward to returning to where I started, working with non-governmental organizations," Jim says.
While the strengths of the two Institutes may be different, there's a passion that both partners share: sustainability and quality of life in the Intermountain West. Striving for both will continue to be the Joint Venture's mission under Jim's leadership, focusing on promoting regional scale planning, improving the management of state and federal public lands west-wide, and integrating energy, transportation, water and conservation infrastructure at the landscape level within the urban West. Geographic areas of special focus include Arizona's Sun Corridor of Phoenix and Tucson, the West Slope of Colorado and the Northern Rockies.
The Joint Venture accomplishes these objectives through a variety of activities:
Research, Policy Analysis & Tool Development - Research and development of peer-reviewed publications, policy focus reports, analyses and white papers to increase the body of knowledge around land use policy in the West, as well as compilation of best practices, assessment instruments and other tools for use by target audiences.
Place-Based Demonstration Projects - On-the-ground efforts in partnership with agencies, local communities, and other stakeholders to apply knowledge, highlight best practices and serve as real-world laboratories that further inform our work.
Education & Capacity Building - Publishing knowledge gained through our research activities and disseminating it through targeted delivery to professional audiences, stakeholders, and key decision makers.
Policy Engagement - Engage with partners and decision makers to influence land use policy at state and federal levels to achieve goals of the partnership project.
We are excited to have Jim on board, and look forward to his leadership in pooling our strengths to shape the future of sustainability in the West.
Sincerely,
Luther Propst Armando Carbonell
  Luther Propst Senior Fellow and Chairman
Executive Director Planning & Urban Form Dept.
Sonoran Institute Lincoln Institute of Land Policy | |
| Joint Venture Leadership Team |
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Photo - Luther Propst, Katie Lincoln, Jim Holway
For more information on the project work of the Sonoran Institute's Joint Venture with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, go to www.sonoraninstitute.org.
To receive a copy of Building Trust, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy-Sonoran Institute Joint Venture's e-news alert, send an e-mail to trustland@sonoraninstitute.org. |
The Best Investment in the West
Sonoran Institute Offices:
Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona; Bozeman and Helena, Montana; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Denver and Glenwood Springs, Colorado; Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico
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Congress Acts to Protect 26 Million Acres in the West
On March 30, President Barack Obama signed into law one of the nation's most ambitious land protection initiatives. Called the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, it includes a provision to permanently conserve and protect 26 million acres of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's "crown jewel" areas in the West.
With a stroke of a Presidential pen, the National Landscape Conservation System is now permanent, protecting national monuments, conservation areas, wild and scenic rivers and historic trails stretching across 11 western states.
The Institute has been an active player in advocating for permanent protection of these lands. Last year, we partnered with BLM to host a media tour highlighting some of these pristine areas in southern Arizona, including the Sonoran Desert and Ironwood Forest national monuments, and the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.
We also have done considerable economics research on these properties highlighting their economic value, and helped create Las Cienegas National Conservation Area.
Congratulations to all who worked to recognize the importance of these magnificent lands - and to improve the protection of these lands.
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