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The Catamount Institute was born in 1997 when Julie Francis and Howard Drossman purchased 177 acres of the old YMCA Catamount Ranch on the north slope of Pikes Peak and founded a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring ecological stewardship through research, education and leadership.
Since its earliest days the Catamount Institute has looked at innovative ways to encourage people to think about their relationship to the environment. Research has focused on forest management techniques, using the forests of Catamount as a laboratory to evaluate the ecological impacts of traditional and non-traditional forest uses. The award-winning Young Environmental Stewards program was begun to teach disadvantaged youth about leadership, ecology and technology. The Pikes Peak Sustainable Business Network was founded to illustrate the advantages of using sustainable strategies to local businesses.
Today, the Catamount Institute has evolved into two organizations--both having the mission of inspiring ecological stewardship. Our sister organization, the Catamount Center for the Geography of the Southern Rockies, focuses solely on coordinating and conducting biological research. The Catamount Institute gives its undivided attention to environmental education and leadership. Together we share use of the mountain campus.
The Catamount Institute conducts programs throughout the Pikes Peak region from its mountain campus and our offices at the Beidleman Environmental Center in Sondermann Park on the westside of Colorado Springs. Our programs include environmental and outdoor education for adults, kids and families--from nature programs to hikes to camps. We also teach sustainability to businesses and individuals through seminars, workshops and the Living Simply, Living Well series. Finally, our leadership training programs use the principles of Natural Intelligence to generate a systems perspective for business and nonprofit leaders.
The Six "S" Philosophy
Basic ecological research at Catamount Institute provides a focus for other Institute programs. Education and leadership development programs incorporate the Institute's Six “S" Curriculum Model:
- Science
- Service
- Spirit
- Systems
- Stewardship
- Sustainability
Science:
Sound science provides the conceptual and intellectual framework for all Institute programs. Our ecological research program contributes to an increased understanding of the structure and function of Front Range ecological systems by employing the highest quality data collection and analysis and publishing all relevant findings in appropriate journals.
"Science advances through tentative answers to a series of more and more subtle questions which reach deeper and deeper into the essence of natural phenomena." Louis Pasteur
Systems:
Systems study requires viewing a problem in the context of the whole and recognizing the interrelatedness of it components. The study of ecosystems at Catamount Institute provides a metaphor for learning about ourselves and structuring our organizations and communities.
"Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself." Attributed to Chief Seattle
Service:
Service learning and servant leadership are cornerstones of Catamount's approach to our education and leadership programs. Service learning benefits the institute, its participants and the environment by providing hands-on, minds-on activities for all program participants. Students of all ages participate in institute research projects as part of their programs. Servant leaders learn to empower others by enabling systems that function with high trust and effective communication.
"We choose to be the change we wish to see in the world." Gandhi
Spirit:
Sound science does not preclude the human need to reconnect with nature. Those who study nature with a sense of detachment are bound to be part of the problem rather than designers of creative solutions that are in harmony with natural systems. It is essential for our ultimate survival that humans feel a sense of connection to all that is. We call this sense of universal connection the spirit.
"When the concept of the human spirit is understood as the mode of consciousness in which the individual feels a sense of connectedness to the entire universe it becomes clear that ecological awareness is truly spiritual." Fritjof Capra
Stewardship:
Stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. Our premise is that stewardship is a logical consequence of sound science, systems thinking and service learning integrated with a spiritual connection to the Earth. Perhaps a critical number of enlightened stewards can alter the inertial force of environmental ennui.
"We are nature, long have we been absent, now we return." Walt Whitman
Sustainability:
A sustainable system is one that is self-perpetuating. A sustainable Earth system is a logical goal for those who have an understanding of their interdependence with natural systems. Catamount's infrastructure is planned to serve as a model for sustainable systems by using renewable energy and generating no waste. Catamount's hypothesis is that sustainability is the result of educating a critical mass of well-informed stewards.
"We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers our actions run as causes and return to us as results." Herman Melville
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