forests | watersheds | land protection | wildfires

The protection of ecologically and environmentally sensitive lands often is dependent on local action in the United States. While fifteen states have centralized power at the statewide or regional level to address growth management, the remaining thirty-five states have opted for more decentralized approaches and continue to allow local governments to address growth issues . Even among those states that have adopted more centralized approaches to land management, the trends have been toward more decentralized, voluntary approaches

In an era of decentralized land use management, it increasingly is important for land use planners and policy makers to understand which localities have the capacity to initiate and implement land protection activities. However, this raises two questions. First, what does it mean to have the "capacity" to protect land and how can it be measured? Second, what is the role for state governments in cultivating or enhancing capacity to protect land in a devolved environment? A potential answer to these questions can be found in the practices of the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) program-an innovative, quasi-governmental agency that provides funding to city, town and county governments, special districts and non-profit organizations to protect land and enhance outdoor recreation opportunities. Since 1994 GOCO, within a competitive grant competition, has been providing funds to local governments and non-profit land protection organizations to facilitate the purchase, enhancement and protection of land.

Articles and Papers about Great Outdoors Colorado

Steelman, Toddi A. 2002. "Land Protection in Colorado: A Report on Great Outdoors Colorado". University of Colorado at Denver, Wirth Chair on Environmental and Community Development. White Paper.

Steelman, Toddi A. 2000. "Innovation in Local Land Protection: The Case of Great Outdoors Colorado" American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 44, No. 4: 579-597.

Steelman, Toddi A. 2001. "Land Use Protection, Common Property, and Great Outdoors Colorado." For presentation at Western Political Science Association Conference. March 15-17, Las Vegas, NV.

Kaplan, Marshall, Toddi A. Steelman and Allan Wallis. 1999. Sprawl and Growth Management: Problems, Experience and Opportunity. University of Colorado at Denver, Wirth Chair on Environmental and Community Development.

Steelman, Toddi A. 1998. "Land Use Protection in a Decentralized Regulatory Environment: Predicting and Enhancing Local Capacity." For presentation at the 20th Annual Research Conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. New York, NY. October 29-31, 1998.

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