About Andrea Erickson

n Job: Executive director, Wyoming chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

n Upbringing: Native of rural, upstate New York farm country.

n Education: Master's degree in environment and development, Cambridge University, England. Bachelor's degree in industrial and labor relations, Cornell University, New York.

LANDER -- At first glance, the verdant jungles of the Yucatan and the wide-open spaces of Wyoming have little in common -- until you look at the people.

"They're just folks who want to do better for themselves," said Andrea Erickson, the new executive director of the Wyoming chapter of The Nature Conservancy, fresh from more than a decade of conservation work in Latin America.

Her task, in Latin America and Wyoming, is to find those common threads that run through the environment and the use of natural resources for a sustainable but high quality of life, she said.

"I'm a watchful catalyst," she said, looking at needs of people and opportunities to benefit the people on the land and the land itself.

Her academic background in economics, natural resources and rural economic development was applied to the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador and southern Mexico, where she built partnerships with ranchers, farmers, scientists, environmental groups, state and national governments.

The islands

Off the coast of Ecuador are the Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin began his musings on the origin of species. The isolation of the islands makes them living laboratories for biologists, yet over-grazing and the invasion of exotic species from the mainland threaten the ecology of the islands.

Erickson's task was to find a way to link economic development for the islands' ranchers to conservation strategies.

"There was no way I was going to tell them what to do," she said, and little likelihood she'd ever be allowed to step on their properties. Galapagos ranchers were raising good beef, she said, but were hurt by high shipping costs, over-grazing and invasive species that damaged pastures, productivity and endangered species.

Erickson learned that the national government had never sent surveyors or set up a system to record property boundaries or even ownership. Erickson offered to map their lands with global positioning system tools, for free, if landowners would let the conservancy inventory native species.

"It worked so well that everyone wanted a map," Erickson said. That "foot in the door" led to a program to help ranchers improve the quality of their herds via artificial insemination from high-performance bulls on the mainland.

The communications and trust built from those early efforts led to community outreach and education events, plus beneficial changes in grazing management and invasive species research and control.

The jungle

The Yucatan Peninsula has one of the most biologically diverse and archaeologically significant sites in North America. Erickson was instrumental in the creation of the Calakmul Reserve -- 600,000 acres of jungle on the southern border of Mexico -- at the core of a 6 million-acre Mayan forest.

Large-scale logging and ranching never got a foothold in the Yucatan, defeated by limestone formations that quickly absorb heavy rains. Yet the jungle was threatened by an invasion of sorts -- economic and political refugees who carved out tenuous lives through slash and burn agriculture. The jungle was falling, not to bulldozers and chainsaws, but to thousands of machetes and fires wielded by hungry people.

The Nature Conservancy, based in Virginia, stepped in to find a solution for the people, the land and the land's 86 species of mammals, 358 species of birds, 75 reptiles, 18 amphibians, 31 fish, 380 butterflies, 1,500 plants and 73 species of orchids.

As the Southern Mexico Program director, Erickson and her conservation staff across five states worked to forge partnerships with agricultural co-ops, conservation groups, government officials and scientists.

"We asked, 'How can we help?'" Erickson said. "'What can we bring that will add value to what you're doing? What science do you need, what tools, resources, money?'"

After almost seven years of work, 600,000 acres are permanently protected as the core of the reserve. Surrounding the core is a protective belt of 72 ejidos, or cooperative farms. The farms are owned by families who stay to build up and work their land, rather than move on every few years when the soil gives out.

With money raised by the conservancy, many acres unsuited to agriculture were purchased from farmers eager to reinvest back into their family farms.

"It was win-win for everyone," Erickson said. "The farmers received payment for unutilized properties many miles from their homes and too difficult to farm. Now Calakmul's natural and archaeological treasures will be preserved for future generals to enjoy."

The Malapai model

Erickson likes the concept of "the radical center," an approach to bringing people from different perspectives together to solve problems. As an example, she cites the Malapai Border Group in southwestern New Mexico, which brought together ranchers, state and federal land managers, scientists and conservationists in a voluntary, community-based, ecosystem management program aimed at restoration of watersheds, forage and wildlife habitat.

It works because it is flexible, local, not a government initiative and is driven by area ranchers, Erickson said. The whole effort is built on personal relationships and trust.

"I want us (the Wyoming chapter) to continue providing good science," Erickson said. "I want us to be trusted by ranchers because we provide good land management science. I want us to be trusted by environmental groups, because we can show them good examples of best grazing practices."

Erickson said she believes strongly that the best way to protect land in Wyoming is to keep ranchers on the land.

Agriculture is the connecting thread in Nature Conservancy goals in Wyoming, she said. The eastern grasslands of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado are ecologically valuable, as are Wyoming's rivers and streams. The organization is also concerned about fragile desert ecosystems.

Through it all, she wants the conservancy to help ranchers as stewards of the land, she said.

"I don't assume that we have all the answers," she said, "and I've got a lot to learn about Wyoming."

She said she intends to keep her eyes and ears open.

Erickson said she's working on a five-year strategic plan and plans to spend much of this spring traveling the state, consulting with conservancy supporters and others.

"I hope to have a strong vision of where we want to go by this summer," she said.