Crowley Creek Collaboration 2003-2005.  Thank you to all of the many people contributed to the research and final project report! 

"While science dominates restoration thought, it seems increasingly clear that science is necessary, but it's not sufficient - and neither is art. I think this CCC Project can help establish a clear role for artists and humanists, not as solitary visionaries, but as participants; not as some mystical or magical process, but as an important, critical perspective; not as arbitrator, but as coworker, one among many disciplines equally necessary to the recovery and revitalization of this whole place."--T. Allan Comp, Ph.D. - Crowley Creek Collaboration Project Director
Common(s)
That which is common, the community: a tract of ground, the use of which is not appropriated to an individual, but belongs to or is used by the public: to discourse together; to confer [Obs]: to participate or share [Obs].
McKee Commons
on Crowley Creek
A tract of ground, an old farm pasture overlooking the Salmon River, that will become a community place dedicated to discourse and sharing, defined by its communities of interest and by the natural world: a synthesis of elements critical to a sustainable environmental future.
Crowley
Creek
Collaboration
(CCC)
A Project, directed by Principal Resident T. Allan Comp, Ph.D. and sponsored by the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, that will explore the intersections of Science and the Arts and their specific application potential for the McKee Commons and the Crowley Creek watershed. Over the next months, the Crowley Creek Collaboration will engage multiple disciplines in Science and the Arts, drawn from local and national sources, to create a holistic plan for watershed restoration and the McKee Commons on Crowley Creek.


The CCC is a case study in collaboration. It is a conscious, experimental effort; a discourse committed to create a plan for a real place. We will first build a multidisciplinary team and engage it in creating a plan for the McKee Commons. Then we will follow that plan into real action. Ultimately, we believe that this approach can restore both place and people, leaving for both a Commons where new futures can be explored. The CCC is an opportunity to build a different, more effective, model for restoration.

We will engage our community. Scientifically strong restoration projects too often fail to connect with the interests of nearby community members. Critical opportunities to engage far broader constituencies and more diverse approaches--to find better, bigger answers at a time when both are needed--are lost. The CCC Project Team includes traditional peoples, long-time local residents, scientific researchers, students from economically disadvantaged schools, and Sitka Center visitors, who all bring fresh perspectives to the table. The McKee Commons will cross lines of class, discipline, prejudice, and ideology as any Commons should. When people connect to a place--a real plot of earth that is welcoming, inspiring, interesting, even healing--they return, and they begin to care, feel responsible, and participate. Civic engagement will occur when people see their voices being listened to, when they come together and make meaningful, well-informed decisions about the places they share, places like the McKee Commons.