Researcher seeks local opinions

An independent researcher from the University of Queensland in Australia is taking an opinion survey of local residents to get their perspective on wilderness areas managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

Greg Siepen has been studying the views and attitudes of neighbors to protected areas like national parks, forest and wilderness areas in Queensland for three years. Now he wants to compare experiences in the United States.

His goal is to collect information from both land managers and community residents to find solutions to common issues of concern, he said, explaining that many perceived problems are caused by miscommunication. Once people get together, they can find common points that lead to solutions, he said.

Siepen has met personally with residents of Rustic, Poudre Park and Red Feather Lakes, but he would like to get more opinions for his study. Anyone interested in participating may reach him by e-mail at g.siepen@uq.edu.au. He will e-mail an eight-question survey to be filled out and returned by e-mail. All participants will get a summary of the findings from a report that will be produced in February or March for the forest and wilderness managers in the Fort Collins area.