Saturday, September 17, 8:00-10:30 AM; College Center South Ballroom

Breakfast and Conference Registration begin at 7:15 AM

Community leaders focused on climate change solutions will share and imagine the diverse "small steps" possible across the Headwaters, and discuss with audience members the common stories that emerge from these steps.

Panelists:

Roger Wilson is a Colorado House Representative from House District 61, which includes Headwaters communities throughout Gunnison, Eagle, Pitkin, Hinsdale, and Garfield Counties.  He serves on the Agriculture, Livestock, and Natural Resources Committee, as well as the Economic and Business Development Committee.  He views tourism, energy, technology, and education as central to the economic future of the Western Slope, and believes such economic development can occur in tandem with both protecting and improving our environmental heritage with "good management and creative solutions."  He lives in the Roaring Fork Valley, holds a BA in Physics from the University of Colorado, and is currently the Chief Technical Officer for Starfall Education and Blue Mountain Arts.

 

Alison Gannett is a World Champion Extreme Skier, Founder of the Save Our Snow Foundation, and an award-winning global cooling consultant.  Ski Magazine named her "Ski Hero of 2010," while Outside Magazine named her a "Green All-Star."  She trains individuals, businesses, and governments on her four-step, cost-saving, climate change solutions framework, including Al Gore's Climate Project team and the US Congress.  Her talk will take two approaches:

1. Connection: connect with solutions that help the things we love, along with providing actual photos of glaciers that I have skied that have disappeared in the last ten years, not predictions and forecasts. Saving our snow so that our children can do the sports that we love.

2. Saving money: Why I talk people out of solar panels, new windows and the Prius. Communicate with people on how their business, school, government or home can save money not spend money. How my easy four-step framework shows the low hanging fruit and the fruit that is on the ground - to create energy independence, save energy, save our snow, and most importantly, save money.

 

Tom Easley is the director of programs of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO), which works to reduce climate disruption and its effects on the interior West.  Tom has over 28 years experience in public policy development, strategic and tactical planning, and resource management.  His work with RMCO has included recruitment and coordination of a wide range of stakeholders and policy-makers in formulating statewide and regional climate action and clean energy policies.  He coordinates the Colorado Climate Network, an organization of, by, and for local governments to reduce heat-trapping gases and to prepare for the changes that are coming.  Prior to joining RMCO, he was manager of Colorado State Parks' statewide programs with responsibilities for public policy, strategic planning, project management, inter-governmental relations, land and water acquisitions, resource stewardship, and public education programs.  Previously he worked with non-profit organizations, specializing in strategic partnerships for natural resources public policy development among public agencies, non-profits, and private enterprise.  He holds a M.S. from the University of Colorado-Denver in Urban and Regional Planning.

 

 

 

Estevan Arellano is a journalist, writer, researcher, and a Fellow of the Washington Journalism Center. He is now a Visiting Research Scholar at the University of New Mexico’s School of Architecture.  His extensive publications include: La Acequia de Juan del Oso, John the Bear and the Water of Life; Ancient Agriculture: Roots and Application of Sustaniable Farming; Inocencio: Ni pica ni escarda pero siempre se come el mejor elote; Low n Slow: Lowrideing in New Mexico; Descansos: an Interrupeted Journey; Cuentos de CafÈ y Tortilla; and Entre Verde y Seco.  He has received an Individual Fellowship from the Ford Foundation and in 2007 the New Mexico State Legislature recognized him as one of the 15 top Hispanics in New Mexico. He is also involved in setting up and International Acequia Documentation Center, under the auspices of the Lore of the Land.  Among the projects he is working on is an Acequia Handbook, with architect Arnie Valdez; a book on the Chinampas in Xochimilco, a theater piece Esperano el agua about a mayordomo; another picaresque novel based on the folklore character Pedro Urdemalas y su carnal Juan Tonto. He has just completed a manuscript on arid land irrigation, titled, The Knowledge of Water and the Wisdom of the Land.  His talk, "Oral History and Reskilling for the Future" will discuss the role of story in reskilling youth to grow food more sustainably and address climate change.  He states, "the old stories, whether in the form of folk lore, oral history or personal history are what we need to use to 'retool' the youth with for them to face an uncertain future."