- Rocky Mountain Research Station
- 240 West Prospect
- Fort Collins, CO 80526
- (970) 498-1100
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Home > Science Program Areas > Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute
Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute
The Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute serves as a model for
interdisciplinary, cross-programmatic science and application. A small
core of scientists and research application specialists familiar with wilderness
law, policy, and management provide a nucleus for working with
scientists from all program areas to help assure that the science necessary
for the understanding and stewardship of designated wilderness and
similarly managed wild ecosystems is developed, delivered and applied to
those responsible for managing such lands. Developed as an interagency
program (support is provided by the FS, BLM, FWS, NPS and USGS) with
national scope, the Leopold Institute's recent Program Review identified the
following five Problems upon which it will focus it's initial efforts:
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Recreation impacts and management.
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Relationships between people and public lands.
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Wilderness fire stewardship and management, including wildland
fire use.
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Wilderness in the context of larger ecological and social systems,
including issues related to wildlife, water, and invasive species that
do not recognize administrative boundaries.
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Science delivery and application.
In the new RMRS structure, the Leopold Institute will serve as a crosscutting
science program that provides a focal point for partnerships and
collaborations between scientists and managers for development, discussion
and debate about information and ideas related to the natural resources,
values and benefits of wild lands as well as the opportunities and
challenges of wilderness stewardship. In addition to continuing its long
history of conducting, supporting, and facilitating scientifically rigorous
research, Institute staff will work with the seven primary RMRS
Science Programs to assure that scientists from multiple disciplines
collaborate in ways that maximizes the utility of the research conducted
to better understand and manage wild ecosystems. We anticipate
that new liaisons will be developed with scientists in other Programs
through cross-programmatic science teams and other collaborative arrangements.
These will bring new expertise to the wilderness arena
as well as facilitate the application of knowledge and lessons learned
in wilderness to broader landscapes. We will work cooperatively with
Station and R&D leadership to develop the capacity to serve as a
clearing house for tracking research relevant to wilderness that is conducted
throughout the Station as well as the rest of the agency. The
Institute's established Research Application Program will also work to
establish effective working arrangements with other science Programs.
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Congressional Notebook