Enrich and Broaden Communications about Conservation
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This digital collection includes presentations given at the 8th International Wildlife Ranching Symposium held in 2014 for the symposium theme: Enrich and Broaden Communications about Conservation.
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Item Open Access How teaching ethics can be the most persuasive method for preserving our hunting and conservation heritage(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014-09) Sabbeth, Michael, speaker; Calderazzo, John, moderator; International Wildlife Ranching Symposium, producerOur Land Ethic and our conservation and hunting traditions cannot defend or advance themselves. Such achievements require rhetorical skill, wisdom, confidence, moral clarity and hard work. Skillful persuasion that appeals to ethics and character can most effectively sustain and strengthen our conservations and hunting traditions. Rhetorical skills can be used to re-frame and refute the moral and factual foundations of uninformed or bad-faith arguments that attack hunting and conservation models. It is effective to craft the most effective arguments that justify hunting and conservation as virtuous qualities of the American character and which are necessary for wildlife's survival. Three levels of ethical obligations link us to future generations: duties to the animals and the land; duties to self and duties to society. We cannot preserve for the future if we fail to preserve what we have today. Relationships need to be established among information, wisdom, character, consequences, and persuasion; and how each affects the future of hunting and conservation in our current and evolving culture. We cannot win elections, we cannot win funding, and we cannot win the popular culture unless we first persuasively win the arguments based on ethics and facts. Learn how to win arguments to secure the future of hunting and the land ethic we value.Item Open Access Training wildlife biologists for work on private lands(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014-09) Brown, Mary Bomberger, speaker; Smith, Jennifer A., speaker; Powell, Larkin A., speaker; Calderazzo, John, moderator; International Wildlife Ranching Symposium, producerConservation and management of wildlife on private lands in the United States is a critical component of the wildlife profession, although university curricula focus on public lands management. Wildlife biologists working on private lands are faced with a mutable landscape and pressures of alternative land uses that shift with changes in economics, regulatory regimes, and societal or cultural values. Loss of biodiversity can be lessened if wildlife biologists are better prepared to work in this challenging landscape. Colleges and universities are faced with training wildlife biologists to work on both public and private lands. Unfortunately, however, wildlife training programs often fail to integrate the management techniques, policy, economics, human dimensions, problem solving, and communication skills required by private lands professionals. Of 14 leading undergraduate wildlife programs that we identified, 36% required a policy class, 36% required a human dimensions class and 7% required an economics class; although most universities did offer interdisciplinary courses, participation was seldom mandatory. We suggest that students and current professionals need to be trained in the skills necessary to protect wildlife when working on privately owned lands. We highlight tools needed for effective private lands conservation such as economic incentives, education, and outreach, and we suggest ways in which they can be taught through modifications to current curriculum, short-courses, continuing education credits, certificate programs, internships, externships, and involvement of agency personnel in the classroom.Item Open Access LandHelp.info II: providing collaborative Web services to the world through a modern interactive format for private and public uses(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014-09) Schrupp, Donald L., speaker; Halseide, Peder, speaker; Benson, Delwin E., speaker; Calderazzo, John, moderator; International Wildlife Ranching Symposium, producerLandHelp (www.LandHelp.info) was developed and used over two decades by professionals and consumers to easily store and retrieve web-based links to manage land, wildlife and people under a common brand name. LandHelp was developed as a first-stop-shop to evaluate, organize and provide access to existing useful information from credible sources that might otherwise go unnoticed, not accessed, or not heeded. LandHelp started when a network of organization professionals were seeking management information for landowners and found that significant written information existed, from a variety of sources and formats, but it often was pulled from print without notice. The web emerged as a commonly-used, dynamic and editable, information resource; consequently LandHelp was created for outreach. A recent evaluation, resulted in an improved, second generation content management system including the original > 5000 web-based links and/or PDF documents and it now uses a dynamic, data-based approach providing for more opportunities to collaborate in its development from the conservation communities that include natural resources professionals, agriculturalists, and resource users. Regular visitors to the site can become registered users, which allows them to provide interactive feedback on LandHelp content, and if so inspired, to submit content themselves for monitored posting at the site. We will present an overview of LandHelp's layout and capabilities. We encourage Wildlife Congress participants to visit LandHelp and take it for a test drive. The ideal outcome is for all states, provinces, and countries to have approved contributors to LandHelp; then, your inputs can be accessed and shared with others.Item Open Access The puppet: communication to promote understanding and conservation(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014-09) Griego, Jeri, speaker; Stratton, David, speaker; Calderazzo, John, moderator; International Wildlife Ranching Symposium, producerBaba Dioum, an African environmental champion said: "In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught." How do we teach, help persons to understand, and to practice conservation? Puppetry is a communication and art form from many regions of the world including eastern and western cultures, Native Americans, and on Sesame Street. Radical puppets are used with adults for social change. Puppets entertain, communicate, and people relate to them with less intimidation. Puppet Jedediah Johnston, a historical mountain man, tells stories of the Congress and area bridging history, the present, and future together better than humans because he has no temporal or spatial limits. He can discuss balancing wildlife management and landowner livelihoods without biases that could be associated with humans. Children build unique relationships with puppets and communicate through them. Through the use of puppets and role-playing, children express points of view that are not necessarily their own. This process develops a deeper understanding of their issues, provides an opportunity for reasoning rather than recall, and allows learners to share authority and to assume responsibility for their learning. Research indicates puppets have positive effects on children's motivation and engagement in learning. This offers hope that children and adults can be motivated to develop environmental values and to become stewards who will manage the diversity and wonders of nature. Puppets are tools to broaden understanding. With understanding, there can be more effective actions.