Work by CCC staff on protecting the Temash River with community management, which began in 1988, has resulted in the creation of a local committee to co-manage the Sarstoon-Temash National Park with the Government of Belize. In 1989, CCC Director Horwich proposed a biosphere sanctuary with three core areas including the Toledo Forest Reserve, the Temash River and the Sapodilla Cayes. The proposal, which came from discussions with Chet Schmidt of Punta Gorda, also included a green corridor surrounding Punta Gorda. In 1989, Horwich made trips to Baranco and Crique Sarco villages and Punta Gorda, introducing the biosphere concept to the people in those areas. Villagers and their leaders then signed a petition requesting CCC staff to proceed with the community-based biosphere. Although the Belize Government did not create such a Biosphere Reserve at the time, the proposal resulted in a number of projects which are now coming to fruition.

In 1992 the proposal was sent to The Nature Conservancy to help their intended work in Toledo. They modified and used the proposal to create a management plan for the Bay of Honduras and the Sapodilla Cayes, which they are currently working on with the Belize Center for Environmental Studies in Punta Gorda.

In 1994, the Government of Belize created the Sarstoon-Temash National Park, a 42,000 acre park bordering Guatemala to the south. This park includes an important old mangrove forest along the Temash River.

Judy Lumb, editor of Producciones de la Hamaca, coordinated the planning of the workshop which included 6 villages surrounding the park, members of the Belize Ministry of Natural Resources as well as a number of non-governmental organizations.

In February of this year, Horwich journeyed with Lumb, photographer Jim Beveridge and Steve Peterson of the Wisconsin DNR to invite 5 villages to take part in the workshop on co-management of the Sarstoon-Temash National Park. Initially the group of four travelled by boat to the Garifuna village of Barranco from Punta Gorda, and thereafter by foot and horseback to the Kekchi Mayan villages of Midway, Conejo, and Sunday Wood. Sunday Wood , the most outlying village was 15 miles by foot. They also made a boat trip to Crique Sarco.

At each village. Dr. Horwich addressed villagers and village leaders, explaining the meaning of the National Park and how it might affect the villagers. They were encourged to attend the workshop so that they would have input in the management of the park. In most cases, villagers did not know of the National Park even though its boundaries were sometimes less than a mile from the villages and the park was often used for hunting and farming.

The workshop was carried out in four languages including English, Spanish, Kekchi Mayan and Garifuna. It was moderated by Fabian and Sebastian Cayetano, two former residents of Barranco. After the breakfast prepared by women of Barranco and opening prayers and invocations, a number of presentations were made in the morning session. These included ones by Minister Joseph Cayetano, the area representative, Rafael Manzanero of the Conservation Division, Leonardo Acal, Chair of the Alcaldes Association, Philip Balderamos of the United Nations Development Program, Humberto Paredes of the Protected Areas Conservation Trust, Victor Cal and Gregorio Choc of the Kekchi Maya Council, Rob Horwich of CCC, and Will Mahaeia of the Belize Center for Environmental Studies.

The afternoon session was composed of community small group meetings in which each of six communities arrived at a consensed position. Their spokesmen then presented to the main group. The workshop ended with a newly formed committee and a series of meeting dates arranged. The committee has already met at least two times and is beginning the co-management process for the National Park.

Start-up of a community-based water quality monitoring project first conceived in 1994 by CCC and the West Fork Sports Club Avalanche, Wisconsin has been achieved. Planned around the involvement of the secondary schools within the Kickapoo River Watershed, eight valley schools are now participating in the monitoring program. The project goals include a promotion of community awareness and involvement in the environmental protection of the Kickapoo watershed.

Tina Hirsch, with degrees in science education and formerly of Chicago, has been hired as the Educational Coordinator. Trout Unlimited has begun a two-year initiative in the valley focusing upon trout habitat improvement and has joined with CCC by partially funding the education effort and helping to move the project forward. La Crosse Footwear has generously contributed over 70 pairs of rubber boots and waders for use by the school groups to facilitate their water monitoring work. Additional equipment for testing kits and monitoring data are also being sought.

Central to the program is water stewardship and baseline water quality data is currently being gathered by the schools. It will be compiled in a watershed data base and be available for use by teachers and students in their studies of tine Kickapoo River. A community monitoring workshop for community members interested in contributing their energies was held in June. Additionally CCC, in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin, is offering a Summer Training Institute for teachers to learn more about river monitoring and to prepare them for creating curriculum programs for use in the 1997-98 school year and beyond.

The Kickapoo River watershed in southwestern Wisconsin represents a unique region within the state. Untouched by the glaciers, it is hilly and lush, with many small trout streams and wooded hillsides. It is a region now experiencing the pressures of migration from urban centers, changes in land use and the associated environmental stresses. With the implementation of the CCC concepts of community-based stewardship, it is hoped that this region will better appreciate what exceptional resources they possess and value them highly in their decisions affecting natural resources. The project goal of linking research with environmental education, land use planning and land use management speaks to these concerns.

The Blue Mounds project is establishing a successful protocol for reaching private landowners and helping them to preserve the biodiversity on their lands. Brian Pruka, the coordinator of the project which operates under the auspices of CCC, serves as an ecological extension agent to residents of Iowa and Dane counties in the Blue Mounds area. He has thus far walked the lands with over 30 landowners, pointing out special flora and fauna on their lands and giving some suggestions on how to enhance the habitats for these special plants and animals.

He has also recently offered a workshop on interpreting historical aerial photographs for use by landowners on their own lands. Workshop participants learned to recognize special ecological habitats and past land uses of their lands going back to the 1930's. He has also written a column for the Mount Horeb Mail called "Your Wild Neighbors". The project is currently partially funded by a Wisconsin Environmental Education Boand grant which is ending this July.

The Blue Mounds project is overseen by a Steering Committee of area residents and interested parties, most of whom are professional biologists and conservationists. One committee member, Henry Conaway Bauman, a wildlife biologist conducted a winter workshop on animal tracking for the project.

As a result of the Sarstoon Temash co-management work shop and discussions with Rafael Manzanero of the Belize Conservation Division, it became obvious that CCC work in Belize had influenced many villages which are now approaching the government to comanage reserves with them. In January of this year, a co-management workshop was run which included the Kekchi Council, the Inuit Council from Canada and the Government of Belize. They used the Community Baboon Sanctuary as an example of community co-management.

Recently a number of towns and communities have been working with Manzanero to begin a community co-management process. The areas of potential co-management include 5 Blues National Park, Sarstoon-Temash National Park, Cay Caulker, Laughingbird Cay, Monkey River and Manatee Special Development areas, Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary and Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve. A number of other villages and areas are also under consideration for co-management.

With this high level of interest in participation at the village level, CCC Director Dr. Rob Horwich discussed writing a proposal for a community co-managed park system with Richard Belisle and Rafael Manzanero of the Belize Forest Department and with Humberto Paredes of the Protected Areas Conservation Trust. A proposal is currently being written.

CCC began a project with the Punta Gorda Conservation Committee to protect a natural area which currently surrounds the town of Punta Gorda in southern Belize. The concept, which emerged in conversations with Chet Schmidt of Punta Gorda in 1988, proposes to maintain a forested area surrounding the town as it expands with the growing population needs.

Since there is a small howler population within the area, some of the same methods used in formation of the Community Baboon Sanctuary are being used. Two volunteers, Heather Donahue arid Donna Estess worked on the initial aspects of the project. They have mapped the natural areas and censused lhe current howler population. Six howler troops were censused in the rainforests which are contiguous with forests to the east and west of Punta Gorda. Heather, who has remained in the area, has begun to contact private landowners to encourage them to maintain some of their private lands as corridors for the howlers and other wildlife. There are also plans to petition the government for protection of the public lands currently within the corridor.

Begun in 1992 by CCC volunteers, an effort to conserve ornate box turtles in Wisconsin has been maintained. The effort now being headed by Bob Hay of the Wisconsin DNR, has two primary focuses. Hay has been working with landowners in the Rock County area of Wisconsin to enact a management plan for the one viable turtle population in the state. A second focus involves translocating turtles from isolated populations to a common site to build up and maintain another breeding population. Thus far, about 45 turtles have been translocated and additional hatchlings have been "headstarted". Tentative success indicates abut 16 years will be needed to establish a viable second population.

Marta Anderscal, a University of Wisconsin graduate student, is spear heading the Cherrywood Community Conservation Project to protect migrating tiger salamanders and other migrating amphibians in the suburban Middleton, Wisconsin neighborilood. As part of her graduate studies, Marta is organizing local boyscout toops and others to help salamanders, frogs and toads from being hit by cars during their migrations to and from breeding ponds. CCC staff have consulted on the project.

During early spring, on rainy nights over 40 degrees, these amphibians migrate to ponds where they will breed and lay their eggs. Often these migrations occur on the first rainy night following "frost-out" in late March or early April. The young amphibians then develop in the aquatic envirinment and eventually transform to land dwellers.

Again in late August to mid-September the maturing amphibians will be ready to travel on land to seek their adult habitat. Often these migrations are stimulated by rains. Marta's campaign has included informational brochures, maps of the migratory routes, and anti-squish buttons for publicity. The literature tells local residents what they can do to help their amphibian neighbors who have been using these migratory routes for a long while.

In February this year lhe Belize Audubon Society dedicated "Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, Its History, Flora for Visitors, Teachers and Scientists". This guide published jointly by Orang-utan Press, the publication division of CCC, and Producciones de la Hamaca, is a compilation of the work 16 authors and 12 artists representing the US, Belize, Canada, the Netherlands, England and Scotland, including CCC Director Horwich and CCC Associates Robin Brockett and Fred Koontz. It began as a series of projects and interests culminating in a 334 pg illustrated guide of the 140,000 acre reserve in Belize.

Dr. Judy Lumb of Producciones de la Hamaca played a major role in editing the guide and integrating the work of so many authors. The book idea was instigated by Horwich and Koontz based on the 1987 thesis by James Kamstra on Cockscomb. It then was merged with the education thesis of Kate Emmons who became the primary author. All proceeds from sales of the book will go to the Belize Audubon Society for the benefit of the Cockscomb Sanctuary.

A second book, "The Natural Resources of the Garifuna of Orinoco, Nicaragua" was published in November, 1996. It is an oral history by students of Orinoco who interviewed village elders under the guidance of CCC Associate, Ginger Nickerson and Noreen White. 100 copies were donated to the Orinoco schools. Additional copies will be sold in Nicaragua, Belize and the US. Dr. Horwich donated a number to the Garifuna community in Belize during his recent trip to Punta Gorda. Members of the community in Barranco village and Punta Gorda were recipients of the book.