The Open Space Management Practicum (OSMP) is a class offered at Stanford, taught by Sarah Truebe and Aaron Strong. The class was borne out of a burgeoning partnership between the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Peninsula Open Space Trust, and it grew quickly from there. The official course description is:
In this course, students will work directly on real-world open space management projects in partnership with one of three community organizations: the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation and preservation of open space, farmland and parkland in and around Silicon Valley, Grassroots Ecology, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing people together to work on local solutions for a healthy planet, or the Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT), a non-profit organization dedicated to the management of lands to protect their ability to sustain future generations.
From ensuring equitable access to recreation opportunities in a heavily populated area to stemming the spread of invasive species, from enhancing ecosystem carbon sequestration to protecting water quality in our seasonal creeks, the unique patchwork of urban-to-rural land uses, property ownership, and ecosystems in our region poses numerous challenges and opportunities for regional conservation and environmental stewardship. Environmental stewardship and conservation organizations must make decisions under uncertainty, and to achieve different, varying, and competing goals.
Each student or group of students will address a particular challenge facing one of these organizations through a faculty-mentored research project done in conjunction with either POST, Grassroots Ecology, or AMLT. By focusing on a project driven by the partner’s identified needs and carried out through engagement with the community partner, and with thorough reflection, study, and discussion about the roles of scientific, economic, and policy research in local-scale environmental decision-making, this course will allow students to explore the underlying challenges and complexities of what it means to actually do environmental stewardship. As such, this course will provide students with skills and experience in research design in conservation biology and ecology, community and stakeholder engagement, land use policy and planning, and the practical aspects of land and environmental management.
Sarah Truebe, Director of Community Engaged Learning in Environmental Sustainability and Becky Niemiec, PhD Candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources are the instructors for the course. Sarah and Aaron Strong, now an assistant professor at the University of Maine, developed the course in 2015. We work with partners in the Bay Area, including the Peninsula Open Space Trust, Grassroots Ecology, and the Amah Mutsun Land Trust. Ambitious classes like this are the result of strong partnerships and lots of follow-through!
When is the class offered and where does it take place?
The class takes place during Stanford's Fall Quarter from September-December. Students can continue projects through the rest of the academic year or as interns the following summer. But the bulk of the activity will take place Sept-Dec.
How do you get involved?
Contact us! We welcome partnerships across open space and land use topics, with non-profits, governmental agencies, or anyone interested in open space issues in the Bay Area.