Get Involved with Us!

There are a number of ways to engage with the GNAR Initiative

The GNAR Initiative is always looking to engage new people who are passionate about our mission. Learn more about our involvement opportunities below. Questions? Feel free to reach out to liz.sodja@usu.edu

Community Members

GNAR officials, elected leaders or passionate community members can all get involved with our initiative. Our goal is to help GNAR communities preserve what makes them special, and community-to-community learning is one of the ways we make that happen.

Partners & Practitioners

Government officials, nonprofits and professional community practicioners are the backbone to our success. Our partners help guide our work, and sharing your expertise, tools, resources, and lessons learned help GNAR communities everywhere.

Researchers

Professional research is a critical component of our work. By grounding research in GNAR communities, we help validate their challenges and gather critical data to support future solutions. Professional researchers help make that possible.

Students

By engaging students on the ground in communities, we help develop the next generation of community leaders and practicioners. Student involvement also helps provide critical support to smaller communities with limited resources.

Sign Up for Our Email List

Our email is the best way to stay up-to-date with the GNAR Initiative. We announce new research projects, toolkit pages, and blog posts on our email and don't send emails more than once a week.

Join the GNAR Network & Peer-to-Peer Learning

The GNAR Network is a forum where representatives of gateway communities from around the West can meet, share ideas, and identify immediate and high-priority needs that would allow them to make more informed decisions to protect the well-being of their residents and their local economies.

We build the Network by engaging elected officials, city and county planners, economic development and tourism specialists, and others from gateway communities in interactive webinars and peer-to-peer learning sessions.

To stay in the loop on when our next peer-to-peer learning meeting or is happening, you can sign up for our email list.
To see a list of our past webinars.

Write a GNARly Blog

The GNARly Blog is one way the GNAR Initiative spurs inter-community communication. It shares stories and best practices from GNAR Communities, practicioners, and researchers. These posts can be about lessons learned, case studies, model ordinances, new programs, or opportunities for collaboration within communities.

Interested in writing a blog? Download our blog guidelines.
Examples of previous blogs.
New blogs as they come out, sign up for our email list.

Toolkit Support

The GNAR Initiative online toolkit is a critical part of our mission to provide communities with resources that will help them thrive into the future. We house a growing number of pages across various categories relevant to GNAR communities.

Using the guidelines below, partners like you can help us grow this toolkit using your expertise and existing resources.

Download our Toolkit Page Guidelines

Join Our Research Network

We have created a GNAR research group, a group of academic researchers from across the country working on gateway and natural amenity region community issues and challenges.

This group aims to get together at least twice a year to discuss research everyone is working on and network.

Learn more about the GNAR Research Network

Get Involved in Research

Community-based, on the ground research is a core part of the GNAR Initiative. Students can play a key role in completing research projects, while gaining both research and community engagement experience in the process.

If you are a student at Utah State University, or interested in research relating to outdoor recreation, email Dr. Jordan Smith at jordan.smith@usu.edu
If you are a student at the University of Utah, or intersted in research relating to community collaboration and planning practices, email Dr. Danya Rumore at danya.rumore@law.utah.edu