The Center initiates projects and responds to requests for technical assistance. Each project is tailored to meet the specific situation and needs of the people involved, and may range from short consultations to one-time meetings to multi-year negotiations.
Beetle Mortality
This project will explore the role and value of Joint Fact Finding (JFF) as a means to avoid and/or resolve disagreements over scientific and technical information and to explicitly link science and policy considerations in decision-making and evaluation processes. This exploration will take place in the context of a demonstration project using JFF methodology to address the current controversy surrounding fuels-reduction programs in beetle-killed lodgepole pine stands in Colorado.
Working with the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region, we will design and carry out a collaborative process among scientists and stakeholders to explore the reasons for apparent scientific discrepancies in views on the value of fuels reduction in beetle-killed lodgepole pine zones and to develop a research agenda aimed at resolving questions of fuels treatment effectiveness in reducing fire and other risk in these zones.
The Center is working with the Idaho Water Resource Board to develop a Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan (CAMP) for the Rathdrum Prairie basin in the Cour d’Alene area and Treasure Valley basin around Boise. The water management plans are designed to address water supply and demand issues projecting 50 years into the future.
The Center will work with participants during a 12-to-16 month process to clarify the capacity of existing surface and ground water supplies and to build agreement on how best to meet current and future demands, along with multiple interests.
With almost 97% of the land base in Inyo and Mono counties owned by the federal government and City of Los Angeles, there is a distinct lack of private land within and adjacent to existing communities available for community expansion and sustainability. Much of the undeveloped private land is isolated, usually surrounded by federal and/or Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) lands, and may contain valuable wildlife habitat and other natural resources. As growth demands increase, more of these isolated private parcels are being proposed for residential subdivision. Development of the these isolated parcels may be at odds with both counties' general plans and citizen desire to encourage growth adjacent to existing communities.
The Center worked with the Sierra Business Council and several other partners to identify opportunities for land exchanges along the east-side of the Sierra Nevada. The Center prepared a policy brief to assist community planning agencies as they consider using Federal Land Exchanges as a tool to meet community goals.
Federal Land Exchanges:A Primer for Local Citizens and Planners (2010) (PDF)
At the request of the Resources Legacy Foundation, the Center prepared a draft report examining alternative institutional structures to govern a water delivery entity separately from the DWR. The analysis suggests criteria to evaluate alternative governance options, based on case studies of a variety of special-purpose public entities. It provides a starting point for the detailed deliberations that necessarily accompany consideration of major institutional change. This report provides a template for considering a range of options and highlights key elements of an accountable and responsive governance structure, but it does not advocate a single “ideal” model.
The report is available here (accompanying table is here).
This report informed a recently released study of the Little Hoover Commission, Managing for Change: Modernizing California’s Water Governance (Aug. 2010), available here.
The Center teamed with Joe McMahon at Collaborative Processes to provide facilitation services to the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program stakeholder group. The Center assisted the group as they developed a plan to address protection of the Edwards Aquifer as a water supply and address protection of the threatened and endangered species associated with the San Marcos and Comal Springs.
The Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program (EARIP) is a collaborative, consensus-based stakeholder process to protect and contribute to the recovery of the federally listed species associated with the San Marcos and Comal Springs, while also protecting the Edwards Aquifer as a water supply source. The EARIP consists of a diverse group of regional stakeholders. Additional information regarding the EARIP can be found at http://earip.tamu.edu/.
32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812