Successful Approaches to Change-Working Together to Get Things Done (2015 State of the Bay Presentation)

https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/cbep-presentations/1014/thumbnail.jp

Collaborative Learning Strategies To Overcome Barriers To Science Translation In Coastal Watershed Management: A Final Report Submitted To The NOAA/UNH Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET)

An important non-point source pollution challenge facing municipal officials in southern Maine is the conversion of forested and undeveloped land to development (Krum & Feurt, 2002; Wells NERR, 2003; 2001). There is a critical need, during the next decade, to apply science-based knowledge and facilitate the adoption of practices associated with low impact development, protection of riparian buffers, preservation of wetlands and innovative stormwater management technology to land use decision-making. The science and technology that supports municipal efforts to preserve the ecological services provided by an undeveloped landscape as it is converted to what is considered economic use are the focus for science translation and technology transfer by the Coastal Training Program of the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) in Wells, Maine (Krum & Feurt, 2002). Barriers to watershed stewardship that protects ecosystem services are frequently misunderstood. Timely application of scientific research and technological innovations with potential to sustain or restore coastal water quality can be blocked when potential adopters of the information fail to recognize or understand the relevance or benefits. This project used an interdisciplinary approach to understand and overcome barriers to science translation in municipal decision-making about land use and water management. This project combined knowledge about the cultural models used by southern Maine water managers in environmental decision-making (Feurt, 2007) with the process and strategies of Collaborative Learning (Daniels & Walker, 2001) to facilitate watershed stewardship and community based ecosystem management. Project objectives included creation of watershed councils to support collaboration across municipal boundaries, implementation of watershed management plans, identification of action strategies to reduce non-point source pollution, and adoption of innovative stormwater management technologies. Collaborative Learning is a stakeholder engagement process designed to make progress to improve environmental problems. The practice of Collaborative Learning employs a toolkit of techniques to stimulate creative discussion, foster dialogue despite conflict and controversy, and develop group-generated implementation strategies. Collaborative Learning is especially amenable to issues involving conflict and scientific uncertainty (Daniels & Walker, 2001). This project tested, refined and disseminated the cultural models based Collaborative Learning approach through engagement with southern Maine watershed councils and presentations and trainings to coastal managers at national and international conferences and meetings. A practitioners\u27 guide, Collaborative Learning for Ecosystem Management, and training module were developed and are available upon request through Digital UNE

Working Together To Get Things Done: Collaborative Learning Training

This workbook was created to support “Working Together to Get Things Done,” a two-day training designed to build participant capacity to work collaboratively with people who have different priorities, viewpoints, and knowledge to achieve mutual goals. The training and this workbook are based on Dr. Christine Feurt’s adaptation of the Collaborative Learning methodology described in Working Through Environmental Conflict: The Collaborative Learning Approach (Daniels and Walker 2002)

Collaborative Learning And Land Use Tools To Support Community Based Ecosystem Management: A Final Report Submitted To The NOAA/UNH Cooperative Institute For Coastal And Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET)

This project developed a model conservation plan for local land use decision making that engaged diverse stakeholders in discussions about conservation values, ecosystem services and strategies to balance conservation and economic development. This locally focused action research case study tested the application of ecosystem based management (EBM), Collaborative Learning and land use technology tools to land use planning. Lessons learned were scaled up to create capacity building training for land use decision makers and coastal managers to increase interdisciplinary skills for implementing ecosystem based management. Collaborative Learning and EBM Tools were tested and evaluated for their contribution to implementing EBM in the context of local land use. EBM is a holistic approach to managing coupled ecological and social systems that incorporates the knowledge and perspectives of diverse stakeholders into a shared vision of desired future outcomes (Meffee, et al 2002). The long term goal of EBM is to sustain the provision of valued goods and services provided by ecological systems (MacLeod and Leslie, 2009). Community based ecosystem management (CBEM) shares the principles and theoretical foundation of EBM with an added focus on actions that make the places where people live, work and play noticeable better today and in the future (Meffe et al., 2002). The place-based focus of CBEM combined with the stakeholder engagement practices of Collaborative Learning provided an adaptable and practical framework for development of Headwaters – A Collaborative Conservation Plan for Sanford, Maine

Collaborative Learning Guide for Ecosystem Management

Community-based ecosystem management is an approach to getting things done. It manifests as actions that collectively maintain or restore nature’s ability to provide clean water, clean air and support for living systems. Sustaining the earth’s natural capital requires integration within the system of social capital. Through collaboration, people can accomplish the first step toward sustainability – the development of a collective vision of desired future outcomes for the places where they live, work and play. The individual perspectives that shape these visions take many forms. They are present in town Comprehensive and Open Space plans, in mission statements for organizations and agencies, in public opinion surveys, management plans and research reports. This booklet is a guide to using a collaborative approach to community-based ecosystem management. It is based on seven years of social science research and a project that created a shared vision for clean water that united a group of planners, managers, community leaders and scientists with a common vision – Protecting Our Children’s Water. This guide describes a practical method for transforming the science to management paradigm from the traditional Delivery of Science-based Information model to Engaging the Kaleidoscope of Expertise mode

The Complexity of the Practice of Ecosystem-Based Management.

In the United States, there are more than 20 federal agencies that manage over 140 ocean statutes (Crowder et al., 2006). A history of disjointed, single sector management has resulted in a one-dimensional view of ecosystems, administrative systems, and the socio-economic drivers that affect them. In contrast, an ecosystem-based approach to management is inherently multi-dimensional. Ecosystem-based approaches to management (EBM) are at the forefront of progressive science and policy discussions. Both the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy (USCOP, 2004) and the Pew Oceans Commission (POC, 2003) reports called for a better understanding of the impact of human activities on the coastal ocean and the result was President Obama’s National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, our Coasts, and the Great Lakes (2010). EBM is holistic by seeking to include all stakeholders affected by marine policy in decision-making. Stakeholders may include individuals from all levels of government, academia, environmental organizations, and marine-dependent businesses and industry. EBM processes require decision-makers to approach marine management differently and more comprehensively to sufficiently require a more sophisticated conceptual understanding of the process and the people involved. There are implicit cognitive, interpersonal, and intra-personal demands of EBM that are not addressed by current literature. This research seeks to understand the mental demands of EBM. A constructive developmental framework is used to illuminate how decision-makers reason or make sense of the ideals and values underlying EBM, the mutual relationships that must be built among natural resource management agencies, and the personal experiences and emotions that accompany change

Sustaining The Saco Estuary: Final Report 2015

This study focuses on the Saco estuary, the tidal portion of the Saco River, which drains the largest watershed in southern Maine. With headwaters in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the watershed encompasses more than 4,400 km2, and provides clean healthy drinking water to over 100,000 people living and working in communities in southern Maine. When the study began in 2009, very little was known about the ecology of the Saco estuary. Researchers at the University of New England and the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve employed the process of collaborative learning to bring together people who care about the estuary in order to identify their concerns. A Stewardship Network composed of people employed by municipal, state and federal governments, water supply organizations and businesses, volunteers from municipal boards making land use decisions, land trusts, property owners and representatives from other organizations that are uniquely focused on the region was formed. The Stewardship Network helped to define the project goals and objectives, and provided input and guidance over the five-year project. This report explains what the researchers discovered about the ecology of the estuary, along with what they learned about its social and economic components. This baseline assessment contributes to the long-term goal of restoring and sustaining the structure and function of the estuary, and supports the efforts of government, businesses and local organizations that value the estuary and depend upon the natural services it provides

Breakfast at the Cockpit Café and Other Innovations in Protected Area Outreach

Fundamental changes in protected area outreach and education strategies are dissolving old boundaries and fostering innovative approaches to civic engagement. The practice of community-based ecosystem management as presented by Meffe et al. (2002) provides an organizing framework blending ecological, institutional and sociocultural perspectives. This framework flows from a definition of ecosystem management that considers sustaining ecosystem structure and processes across spatial and temporal scales in tandem with societal priorities. The decision-making authority in this system, envisioned as collaborative and participatory, can present challenges for traditionally trained protected area managers. This definition views ecosystem management as: . . . an approach to maintaining or restoring the composition, structure, and function of natural and modified ecosystems for the goal of long-term sustainability. It is based on a collaboratively developed vision of desired future conditions that integrates ecological, socioeconomic and institutional perspectives, applied within a geographic framework defined primarily by natural ecological boundaries (Meffe et al. 2002:70, emphasis added)