Mission​ statement
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The Western Slope Institute cultivates regenerative leaders through immersive place-informed, field-based education that weaves together personal transformation, living systems thinking, and applied regenerative design in service of resilient and thriving individuals, communities and landscapes.
Founder and Director
Dr. Kobe Biederman is originally from the Northwest and grew up spending his summers exploring the Four Corners region. Dr. Biederman graduated with a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Oregon and received a Master’s degree in Recreation Administration from Aurora University and a Master’s in Education from Northern Arizona University. Dr. Biederman more recently completed a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education through Prescott College. His dissertation focused on applying regenerative development and design principles to place-informed educational design for young adults.
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Dr. Biederman's career includes working with young adults in outdoor education and residential therapeutic programs, serving as a wilderness orientation guide for incoming freshman and transfer students at the University of California San Diego, teaching for Prescott College in the Master's of Education with an Emphasis in Environmental Education program, teaching for Fort Lewis College in the Environment and Sustainability Department, acting as a wilderness instructor for Outward Bound and engaging in nature based human development and regenerative education frameworks with a wide range of participants.
Dr. Biederman is highly engaged in local social and ecological sustainability efforts and sits on the Sustainability of Alliance of Southwest Colorado board of directors and the San Juan Citizens Alliance board of directors. Dr. Biederman is also a certified Regenerative Practitioner through the Regenesis Institute in Santa Fe, NM. He founded the Western Slope Institute to further his research and pioneer educational program designs for young adults that contribute to multi-scale regeneration in Southwest Colorado.
location
The Western Slope Institute is located in the socio-ecological system that contains Durango, CO and the Animas River Watershed. This region lies at the interface of the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountain bioregions.
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A Land Acknowledgment is a formal statement that respects, honors, and recognizes Indigenous Peoples as the traditional stewards of this land and the ongoing relationship between Indigenous Peoples and the land.
The Western Slope Land Acknowledgement:
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"We acknowledge that the land The Western Slope Institute is in relationship with is the ancestral territory of the Nuuchiu (Ute) people who were forcibly removed by the United States Government. We also acknowledge that this land is connected to the communal and ceremonial spaces of the Jicarilla Abache (Apache), Pueblos of New Mexico, Hopi Sinom (Hopi), and Diné (Navajo) Nations. It is important to acknowledge this setting because the narratives of the lands in this region have long been told from dominant perspectives, without full recognition of the original land stewards who continue to inhabit and connect with this land. We would like to pay our respects to their elders, past and present in hopes of building mutual respect and understanding."
Video from Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO that depicts Indigenous Peoples land stewardship in this region
bioregion
The Western Slope Institute is located at the interface of the Colorado Plateau and
Southern Rocky Mountain bioregions and engages in regenerative education and practice within multiple nested living systems that include the larger San Juan Watershed and its tributary the Animas Watershed.
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San Juan Watershed
The San Juan River is approximately 355 miles long, and originates in the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado. It flows westerly into New Mexico and is detained in the Navajo Reservoir.
The river continues into southern Utah and ultimately terminates in Lake Powell in Utah. Lake Powell lies on the Colorado River, along the Utah-Arizona border. At 186 miles long and with 1,960 miles of shoreline when full, it is the second largest manmade reservoir in the country.
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animas Watershed
The 126-mile long Animas River originates in the mountain peaks northeast of Silverton, Colorado. It flows southward thorough the heart of Durango and into the San Juan River in Farmington, New Mexico.
