COLLEGE STATION — A workshop entitled, “Systems Thinking and Collaborative Learning in Natural Resources Decision Making,” will be presented from 9 a.m. until noon on Feb. 28 at the College Station Hilton and Conference Center.
Workshop participants will learn how to use systems thinking to encourage citizen involvement in land-use planning. It will be led by Dr. Greg B. Walker, Texas A&M University department of speech communication chair, and Dr. Steven Daniels, associate professor of forest resources at Oregon State University.
The workshop fee is $75 per person and space is limited to 30 participants.
Participants will explore public deliberation, collaborative learning and conflict management with a systems approach to natural resource management. The workshop emphasizes collaboration between groups.
Walker and Daniels participate in teaching, basic research and consulting activities related to natural resource management. They began working together in 1993 when they discovered their areas of expertise were complementary. Since that time, they have assisted in several potentially contentious planning processes sponsored by the National Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
The Clearwater, Nez Perce and Panhandle National Forests in northern Idaho are in the process of adopting the Walker and Daniels collaborative learning process as the basis for public involvement in their region.
The workshop is sponsored by Texas A&M University’s Center for Science and Technology Policy and Ethics, with assistance from the Program in Presidential Rhetoric, a research unit of the Center for Presidential Studies and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service.
For more information, contact Tarla Rai Peterson, (979) 845-5500, tarla@unix.tamu.edu.
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