Media Advisory: Colorado State University’s Public Lands History Center Reception is Oct. 27

What: Colorado State University’s Public Lands History Center, formally the Center for Public History and Archaeology, is hosting a reception that members of the media are welcome to attend. Vaughn Baker, superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park, and Ben Bobowski, chief of Resource Stewardship at the park, will address the importance of research partnerships between the National Park Service and Colorado State University. The event is not open to the public.

When: 4-5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27.

Where: Grey Rock Room in CSU’s Lory Student Center.

Details: The Public Lands History Center at CSU fosters the collaborative, democratic production of historical knowledge about America’s protected landscapes through engagement with institutions responsible for their stewardship.

With seed money from the College of Liberal Arts, a group of CSU history and anthropology faculty members and research associates founded the Center for Public History and Archaeology in June 2007. The center functioned under that name until June 2010, when a new title, Public Lands History Center, was chosen to better reflect the faculty affiliates’ research strengths and experience and focus on cooperative engagement with the National Park Service and similar entities.

In the first three years of operation, the center has launched 16 research projects that have provided research opportunities for 17 CSU students and alumni and brought nearly $500,000 in external funding into the College of Liberal Arts.

Examples of research that has come out of the Public Lands History Center include:

  • A project documenting Utah’s Zion National Park’s historic trails that are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places;
  • A study on the impacts of hiking, mountaineering and climbing on Longs Peak; and
  • A comprehensive resource stewardship strategy with the National Park service for Pecos National Historical Park in New Mexico to protect the park’s ecological health while also preserving important cultural history.

For more information about the center, visit www.publiclands.colostate.edu.

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