Activity Report Explorer

Tucson Broadband • Entered by Andrea Hoerr on May 6, 2025

University of Arizona Graduate Student Project

January 22, 2025 – April 22, 2025

Key Issue: Public Lands Health & Protection
Activity Type: Education & Outreach (tabling, films & lectures, regional B-walks/works)
Key Partners: University of Arizona School of Government & Public Policy
Landscape/area: Coronado National Forest (AZ) (1718945 acres)

Measurable Outcomes

Outcome 1: Event Attendees (6 people)

Short Description of Activity

The description of the project from the professor, Dr. Theresa Ricke-Kiely follows:
This project aims to comprehensively analyze a proposed mining operation in Southern Arizona, focusing on the social, economic, and environmental implications. The purpose is to understand the motivations, ethics, and leadership responsibilities of various participants (including local communities, environmental groups (e.g., Great Old Broads for Wilderness), academic institutions, businesses, and government. The Social Change Wheel framework will guide our engagement strategy to foster constructive dialogue and proactive solutions.
This is an active project that is constantly changing and growing. Your assignment is to examine the overall project and develop a list of possible scenarios for your community partner with a list of realistic actions and activities. Your group will develop a document of possible activities based on likely scenarios. Your partner, The Great Old Broads for Wilderness, wants to explore possible solutions for environmental health.The paper and plan should discuss leadership, motivations and ethics as background with possible scenarios of what is to come.
For example, who are the key participants and their motivations in government. This may look like:
o Motivations: Economic growth, tax revenue, job creation, and political support from businesses and local communities.
o Responsibilities: Balancing economic benefits with environmental protection, safeguarding public health (e.g., Tucson water aquifer), and ensuring transparent decision-making.
o Ethical Considerations: How to prioritize the long-term well-being of residents over short-term gains.
o Leadership: Governor and City leaders
o Technological Innovation: How does the changing landscape of new breakthroughs in battery technology inform our path forward?
Potential Scenarios may include short-term economic gains vs. long-term environmental risks, unintended impacts on local biodiversity, or water scarcity and contamination.
Strategies for action for the community partner may include advocacy, policy, and or deliberative dialogue. Strategies for action should be realistic and those that are not should be briefly discussed with reasons why they would not work.

Reflection/Evaluation

The students are all future governmental leaders in Arizona. There was a mix of backgrounds and countries of origin, including Tohono O’odham Nation, Columbia, Tajikistan and the US. The students prepared two deliverables which are attached and presented their findings to me and their Professor on April 22, 2025. My goal was to provide these future leaders with a taste of the complexity and competing interests in how our public lands are viewed and used so that they have a basis for better future decision making.

Photos/Uploads

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Photo Captions

Photo 1: Students for UA graduate class UA529 presenting their project to the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Tucson Broadband