In 1997, CCC staff initiated contact with Rafael Manzanero of the Belize Conservation Department and Humberto Paredes of the Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT) about establishing a community co-managed park system. The process was begun at a seminar CCC sponsored on the Sarstoon-Temash National Park. Following that meeting CCC staff developed a proposal with PACT for a three year parks initiation program. The proposal focuses on 4 protected areas and would extend for at least three years. This would give the community comanaged parks a chance to begin and plan for sustainability. One of the main problems for the community co-managed parks in Belize has been sporadic funding, offering no real chance for continuity.

The 4 protected areas are the Five Blues National Park, Freshwater Creek National Park, Aquascalientes National Park and the Manatee Special Development Areas. CCC has already been working with two of these areas. The proposal has been submitted to the United Nations through PACT.

While in Belize this January, CCC Director Horwich, met with Humberto Paredes, Executive Director of PACT. They attended a conference on Freshwater Creek National Park at St. Estephan. Three communities surrounding the park have been laying the foundation for managing the park for the last three years. The seminar displayed the amount of work and committment put into the project by these communities. In addition to PACT staff, the Freshwater Creek Communities (located in the north of Belize), invited members from the communities surrounding Aquascalientes National Park.

Horwich, also went with a student volunteer, Andrea Lorbenblatt to visit 5 Blues National Park. They conferred with the Friends of 5 Blues Association concerning the progress being made. The following day Horwich and volunteer Director of 5 Blues National Park, Evelyn Schuler, met with Paredes to discuss the possibility of further funding from PACT. They are currently running the park on a small PACT grant.

Horwich also spent time in Gales Point to discuss the Co-management grant and to connect the Gales Point Progressive Cooperative with PACT staff. A new active committee has formed and was able to obtain a United Nations grant for the next 1.5 years. The grant was already being used to clean the village and the cooperative hotel site. The committee has been additionally working to get the hotel land site correctly deeded over to the Cooperative so that additional grants can be obtained to complete the hotel.

Through the efforts of Dr. Jon Lyon, Assistant Director, CCC received a grant for $49,618 from the Wisconsin Advanced Telecommunications Foundation. The grant will enable CCC to introduce Geographic Information System (GIS) computer mapping and computer based water monitoring into the Kickapoo Valley schools in Wisconsin. The 8 school systems involved include Wauzeka, North Crawford, Kickapoo, Viroqua, Westby, Cashton, La Farge and Ontario-Norwalk.

Bringing GIS capabilities into rural schools is seen as a cutting edge project. This watershed connection may be the only total school watershed connection in the US. The Arc View software provides a series of informational overlays - natural formations, roads, towns, etc. as well as a time component and encyclopedic knowledge base of local and global data. Trout Unlimited is supporting the grant by making regional data on maps available to all school systems participating. This project provides for linking the schools via the internet for data sharing and joint mapping and watershed monitoring projects.

Twenty teachers from these schools and representatives from CCC received two days of training from Dr. Lyon in use of the GIS mapping sytem. Each school will receive a computer and color printer as well as the Arc View software and water monitoring equipment. Anticipated project outcomes will be the utilization of water quality monitoring and other natural resource data to create curriculum components such as mapping microhabitats, local stewardship projects, land histories, etc.

Training will continue this summer with another two day session for experienced and new teachers. This will include both GIS training and training to use the water monitoring equipment. Additional sessions will resume during the fall semester. As part of the training, each teacher is requested to participate in a joint water quality monitoring program which includes taking data on pH, sediment, temperature, flow and conductivity. Each teacher will then carry out a personal GIS project which is relevant to the Kickapoo Valley and their school curriculum.

The community co-management program for Five Blues National Park continues to move ahead due to a grant from the Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT). A new Board of Directors of the Friends of 5 Blues Association has been moving the project along. The Association currently has an office building where CCC Director, Horwich met with the Association Board.

A Swiss volunteer Evelyn Schuler has taken the temporary job as the Park Manager. She has done an exceptional job of reorganizing the park. The PACT grant will be used to rebuild the Education Center which was demolished by a fire last year. The new building is currently being built with the help of Raleigh International. Recently, the park held a community day with many children's activities.

In Horwich's visit with Schuler and Humberto Paredes of PACT, a discussion was held on future grants from PACT. There is a good chance that the Association will get a follow-up grant which will be used to hire a warden for thepark.

Meanwhile, there has been some work to connect the park and St Margaret's village with potential support from the US. Wendy Gerlitz, who wrote the management plan for the park under the Association of Friends of 5 Blues has formed a North American Friends of 5 Blues.

Fran Hunter and Eric Schneider who worked on the howler research project with Dr. Horwich became interested in helping the 5 Blues project as well. Their connection with the Louisville Zoo allowed them to make some preliminary plans for a connection between the Zoo, the town of Louisville and 5 Blues National Park and St. Margaret's Village. This was further facilitated by the fact that the University of Louisville has had a number of Belizean students in attendance. A University medical team is planning a trip to conduct a clinic for the village in the future.

Dr. Jon Lyon, CCC Assistant Director and teacher at Edgewood College of Madison, Wisconsin led a group of 14 students to view community conservation efforts first hand in Belize. He was accompanied by Jim Lorman of Edgewood and CCC Director Horwich. The trip was slowed by illness of some students and Dr. Lyon.

After a brief stay in Belize City, the students stayed 4 nights at the Community Baboon Sanctuary and learned about the sanctuary and censusing howler monkeys. They next met with Humberto Paredes of the Protected Areas Trust who discussed PACT's role in Belize. This was followed by a visit to Cockscomb Basin Wildife Sanctuary, with some lessons on tropical ecology. Two nights were spent at Cay Calker including snorkling expeditions and lectures on the reef. The final 4 days were spent at Gales Point where the students visited a number of environments and learned of their community conservation program. The trip concluded with a visit to the Mayan ruins at Altun Ha.

The Blue Mounds Program in southwestern Wisconsin has undergone a strong transformation by integrating a large number of landowners into running the program. The original program, begun by Brian Pruka under CCC's auspices began in 1995 in order to provide an "ecological extension " service for landowners in Dane and Iowa counties who wanted to encourage biodiversity on their lands. The program provided services for over 50 landowners during 1996-7 with the support of a Wisconsin Environmental Education Board grant.

In 1997 the Steering Committee, which was composed mainly of professionals with few landowners, underwent a change with the inclusion of a number of interested landowners. The enlarged, and strengthened committee is under the direction of new President Dean Lesser, supported by Vice-President Carroll Schall, Secretary Nancy Pfotenhauer and Treasurer Jim Zerwick. Other members include Mike Anderson, Mary Fritz, Marie Wilhelm, Ursula Peterson, Wendell Burkholder, Bob Wernerehl and CCC's Rob Horwich.

The active committee began their new educational work with a program on prairie restoration. A lecture by Board member Mike Anderson, a prairie landscaper and land planner was given. The informative lecture, which was attended by over 100 landowners, ended by inviting other members to join and to participate in project committees. The committees include, Land Stewardship, Education, Fund Raising, Membership and Policy.

The project has been able to continue with grants from the Laird Norton Foundation and the Madison Community Foundation as well as from memberships and donations. Membership has grown to over 120 landowner members from the area.

The Steering Committe has created a newsletter to outline their programs for 1998. The Land Stewardship Committee has laid out the program for land visits and developed a site visit request form. Currently there are 80 landowners who have requested visits. They have hired Bob Wernerehl, to continue the landowner outreach and are currently determining the priorities for the 1998 visits. Wernerehl has lived in the area for the past 25 years. He has a degree in botany with plant identification skills.

Wernerehl will keep records on the visits he has made with data on what specific interesting ecosystems or species are found in the area. This will allow the project to bring landowners together to focus on some regional planning to protect some of the important ecosytems in the area.

With the success of the prairie lecture, additional lecture programs have been planned. They will include three programs. An ecology walk conducted by board member Mike Anderson will focus on observing current vegetation and how it relates to the historical past land use. Programs on wildflowers and land management will be conducted by Wernerehl.

Dr.Horwich will be returning to Assam, India to work with the Indo-US Primate project on a conservation plan for the golden langur. The golden langur is a leaf eating primate species with a very limited range in Assam, India and Bhutan. Grants of over $22,000 from the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation and $3500 from Primate Conservation Inc, will allow all aspects of the project to go forward, including the purchase of vehicles to patrol the Forest Reserves against illegal logging that is presently a problem.

Dr. Arun Srivastava, Director of the Northeast Centre of the Indo-US Primate Project will visit the CCC Office to confer with Horwich to lay detailed plans for the program which will begin in October. There are 3 main aspects to the project: 1) working with the Assam government to upgrade the status of the Assam Forest Reserves and working to encourage cooperation of the Assam and Bhutan governments in protection of the contiguous areas, 2) work with communities adjacent to the Assam Forest Reserves to begin community forest protection and reforestation programs. This will involve working with Natures's Foster and the Central Land and Forest Protection Committee, two local conservation groups who will continue the work within communities, 3) create educational materials to propagate the general primate and forest protection principles to local people within the area.

With the news of the imminent closure of the Badger Army Ammunitions Plant (BAAP) in Wisconsin, Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) hosted a meeting to begin a process of community activity to look for alternative uses for the lands which would be compatible with the land uses of the surrounding community. CCC unveiled a proposal for Badger Army lands at a presentation by Director Rob Horwich on March 30 this year at a meeting in Sauk City, hosted by CSWAB, Society for Conservation Biology (Aldo Leopold Chapter), International Crane Foundation, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Prairie Enthusiasts.

In the presentation, Horwich emphasized the ecotourism potential and community co-management of the lands. Ecotourism, which is the fastest growing branch of tourism, provides over $600,000 annually to the Sauk City area from tourists who observe eagles which roost and feed along the Lower Wisconsin River during the winter. Horwich also emphasized two related examples of land transfer which resulted in reserves with local input: the Kickapoo Reserve and the Joliet (Illinois) Army Ammunition Plant.

The Badger land is surrounded by a number of protected lands which makes it conducive to natural resource protection and potential tourism based on recreation or eco-activities. BAAP abuts Devil's Lake State Park and two protected areas held by The Nature Conservancy and Wisconsin Power and Light. Thus, its surroundings speak for a prospective function in land protection. The army, working with a number of environmental groups, has already begun a program of prairie restoration on the lands. CSWAB members have gone to the Joliet, Illinois Arsenal to seek an additional model for land management of similar army lands.

When Olin Corporation, which manages the lands for the army, proposed an industrial park, there was a public outcry against such land use. Given the Joliet and Kickapoo models and the community interest in a clean and harmonic use of the BAAP lands, CCC is working with CSWAB to push this alternate for a multiple land use which will include prairie and oak savanna restoration along with tourism and other compatible uses for the land.