Center Projects

Abandoned Mines

In October, 2004, the Center took on the thorny environmental problems posed by abandoned hardrock mines in the West. A conference of mining, governmental, and environmental representatives greatly contributed to building an agreement on how best to clean up these mines, the findings of which were subsequently published in a Center report. We hope this report will educate Westerners and inform federal legislators as they address this problem.

Abandoned Mines - An Analysis

An Analysis of US Environmental Policy and the Perpetual Management of Hardrock Mines

Energy Initiative

Since releasing the Center's report “What Every Westerner Should Know About Energy” in June of 2003, we've enjoyed many opportunities to speak to public audiences in Colorado about energy development in the West. Highlights from our speaking engagements include presentations to: The Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 Office in Denver (April 2004), The Colorado Oil and Gas Association Annual Conference in Denver (August 2004), and The Rocky Mountain Electrical League Fall Conference in Vail (September 2004).

Healing the West

Faculty associated with CAW are collaborating on a volume entitled “Healing the West,” co—edited by Patty Limerick, Andy Cowell, and Sharon Collinge, and under contract at University of Arizona Press. The book brings together contributions from disciplines including engineering, biology, journalism, linguistics, music, law, and literary studies. The book focuses on strategies for restoration, repair, and remediation in response to historical injuries to the people and landscapes of the West.

Past Initiatives

The Center has been hard work, constantly bringing forth new ideas and finishing new projects. Here is a look back at some that still have just as much relevance to the present as they did when they were completed. Come check out “Justice for All,” “Listening to the West,” “Native Hands,” and “Noise and Our National Parks”.

Secretaries of the Interior

Among the most exciting activities of the Center in the past years were the visits to the University of Colorado at Boulder campus by nearly all of the living Secretaries of Interior. The visiting Secretaries spent time with students, professors, and administrators and also submitted to careful questioning about their time in office. Co-sponsored by the Nature Conservancy, these interviews constitute a unique historical archive, illuminating especially the relationship between the federal government and the American West. It is now the task of the Center to make available these records to scholars and the interested public. Secretaries who visited for this series included: Stewart Udall, Walter Hickel, James Watt, Don Hodel, Manuel Lujan Jr., Bruce Babbitt, Gale Norton, and Undersecretary John Whitaker.

Urban/Rural Divorce

The Urban/Rural Divorce in the West is a program that outlines the delicate relationship held between the growing cities and the retracting countrysides of the American West. It does so in very human terms — in the form of a troubled marriage on trial. The mock “divorce” hearing presents three characters: Sandy Greenhills West, his wife, Urbana Asphalt West, and their adolescent daughter, Suburbia Greenlawn West. Each new performance brings to light something new to properly address the ever–changing issues in the West.

Water in the West

The growth and transformation of the Denver metropolitan area in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were due in large part to the development of water resources. This project will explore multiple themes — the significance of shifting public values, the role of entrepreneurs and engineers, the impact of natural cycles of drought and flooding, and the rural/urban water dynamic. Making use of the Water Board's rich photographic holdings, we anticipate the final product will be an engaging conversation of visual imagery, written description, narrative, and analysis.

Western Lands

Research by Center of the American West Co-Founder, William Travis and his dynamic team. This section contains three projects Western Futures, Ranchland Dynamics, and Global Warming in the West.

Western Science

This report from the Center had its genesis in a workshop on the history of science in the American West, co-sponsored by the National Park Service and the Gilder-Lehrman Institute in May of 2002. For two–and–a–half days, we had a lively exchange on these issues with National Park Service personnel, within proximity to Rocky Mountain National Park. We hope that this report captures the high points of that gathering, and we hope, moreover, that reading it and responding to it will provide the occasion for many more such discussions through the West.

Western Wildfire

The Center of the American West has over the last year and a half actively participated in the Front Range Fuel Treatment Partnership roundtable, a diverse consortium of federal and state land agencies, environmental groups, scientists, and economists. This group has dedicated itself to formulating a comprehensive approach to the management of wildfire and to the restoration of ecological health along the Front Range. The Center now plans to draw on this group's work to produce a book that would be of interest to any resident of this region.