How do you know space? How are you shaped by the landscape you live in?

The folks at the 2 Watersheds - 3 Rivers - 2 States Cohesive Strategy Partnership (the 2-3-2) like to remind themselves that their work is the world we live in, the one right in front of our noses (once we leave the office).

But what about beyond our noses? For example, how can we know five million acres?

Five million acres happens to be the size of the 2 Watersheds - 3 Rivers - 2 States Cohesive Strategy Partnership (the 2-3-2), who works collaboratively, bringing together government agencies, tribal partners, non-profits, community members, and more to make decisions collectively about our forests, rivers, wildlife, and communities in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico,.

The 2-3-2 recently created an audio storytelling series, The Dirt and Dust, to explore questions and stories across the landscape. The first episode, Five Million Acres or Roughly the Size of the Moon, follows Alex Handloff, Collaborative Communications Manager at Mountain Studies Institute, who caught up with a through hiker on the 2-3-2 landscape, covering 35 miles in a couple of days on the Continental Divide Trail, exploring the idea of knowing a large landscape more intimately by walking through it.

A special thanks to Jefferson Schleifer.

The Dirt and Dust is brought to you by the 2-3-2, Mountain Studies Institute, the Forest Stewards Guild, the USDA Forest Service and Zebulon Krol.

Want to hear more? Listen to our audio story map to hear the history of the 2-3-2.