The Seville Lab

MacKinnon, A. and R.S. Seville. A model program for combining education and outreach: the North Platte River Course and Lecture Series. Proceedings of the Riparian Habitat and Floodplains Conference, in press.

The North Platte River in Wyoming is at the center of a number of regional natural resource issues including water rights, water development, endangered species management, and habitat restoration.  We developed a program to promote ongoing public discussion of environment and natural resources issues in central Wyoming. The program goal is to provide a forum in which students, local citizens and natural resource professionals can learn more about each other and about the place in which we live.  Our first project, the North Platte River Course and Lecture Series, now two years in existence, presented a biweekly series of free public lectures by visiting experts in conjunction with an undergraduate/graduate course on the North Platte River. The first year program examined the physical setting and the policy decisions that have affected the river.  In the second year we focused on the issue that audiences, students and speakers raised repeatedly the first year: What the future could be for the North Platte River in central Wyoming.  Through discussion, readings and guest speakers, we have examined the experiences of communities living on other western rivers (California Bay Delta, Arkansas, Colorado, etc…) to identify common issues that arise with development and considered how we might plan today in central Wyoming to avoid problems in the future.  During the course of the semester students were required to focus on a particular aspect of the river and create a presentation (poster, video, etc…) for display and discussion.  The student projects are integrated into a portable format that was presented in various public forums such as the public library, local mall, and local museums to further inform the local populace about the relationship of our community with the river that flows through it. 

This page compiled by R. Scott Seville ,

last update on 01/04/05