Paul Lachapelle

Barriers to Effective Natural Resource Planning in a "Messy" World

In the increasingly wicked and messy world in which natural resource planners function, traditional rational-comprehensive planning processes seem to function poorly, exacerbating already contentious situations, leading to decision paralysis and public dissatisfaction. New paradigms for natural resource planning have been recommended by many academics, planning theorists, and practitioners. Understanding the barriers experienced in current planning processes may suggest design criteria for these new processes. This study of planners, using a qualitative methodology, in four typical Western U.S. planning situations revealed some fundamental barriers to their effectiveness. These included lack of agreement on goals, rigidity in process design, procedural obligations and requirements. and a lack of trust. More fundamentally, institutional barriers in the design of natural resource planning processes often lead to these more operational level issues. The authors pose a heuristic model for understanding the linkages among these barriers.

Exploring the Concept of “Ownership” in Natural Resource Planning

ABSTRACT Literature associated with natural resource planning reveals that in situations characterized as wicked (i.e., those to which there is great uncertainty about cause–effect relationships and where values and goals are conflicting or competing), traditional planning processes that emphasize technical analysis and limit citizen involvement often create tensions between citizens and agencies in the form of inaction, distrust, litigation, and occasionally even threats and violence. A new concept is emerging that describes the potential for individuals to address wicked situations. The term is “ownership” and has been defined as responsibility, obligation, and caring imbued by individuals in problem situations. We expand this definition to include three characteristics: ownership in process (whose voice is heard), ownership in outcome (whose voice is codified), and the ownership distribution (who is affected by the action). Ownership involves the association of citizens and agencies to collectively define, share, and address problem situations with implicit reexamination of the distribution of power.

The Role of Trust in Community Wildland Fire Protection Planning

Growing accumulations of fuel, changing climates, and residential development in forested landscapes have accelerated the risk of wildland fire, particularly in the western United States. The magnifying level of risk of fire in the urban–wildland interface requires multiple actors implementing coordinated fuel management, fire suppression, and community protection activities. The successful implementation of such actions is built upon trusting relationships in fire protection planning process. Trust is fundamental to cooperative human relationships and natural resource planning literature increasingly cites lack of trust as a major issue for plan implementation. This study of two community wildland fire protection planning processes revealed the importance of transparency in decisions, effective leadership, consensus on the framing of risk, and planning scale in affecting trust. Based on these results, five suggestions are offered as necessary conditions to promote effective community wildland fire protection plans.

Applying indigenous community-based participatory research principles to partnership development in health disparities research.

This case study of community and university research partnerships utilizes previously developed principles for conducting research in the context of Native American communities to consider how partners understand and apply the principles in developing community-based participatory research partnerships to reduce health disparities. The 7 partnership projects are coordinated through a National Institutes of Health–funded center and involve a variety of tribal members, including both health care professionals and lay persons and native and nonnative university researchers. This article provides detailed examples of how these principles are applied to the projects and discusses the overarching and interrelated emergent themes of sharing power and building trust.

A Sense of Ownership in Community Development: Understanding the Potential for Participation in Community Planning Efforts

The term “sense of ownership” is frequently cited as a significant characteristic of community development. While there is increasing use of the terms ownership or sense of ownership, there is a paucity of research regarding what these terms mean, how this body of knowledge influences community development, and the various approaches that can be applied in contemporary community research and practice. A sense of ownership in community development is described as a concept through which to assess whose voice is heard, who has influence over decisions, and who is affected by the process and outcome. Applying the concept of ownership can determine how the strategic interests and actions of individuals or organizations contribute to community development efforts. In addition, the potential for ownership can be understood in part by examining the capacity for and quality of trust. Implications are discussed regarding how the concept of ownership advances the current field, specifically regarding community development research and practice.

Can leadership development act as a rural poverty alleviation strategy

Though it is a pervasive problem, relatively little research focuses on rural poverty and leadership initiatives designed to alleviate rural poverty. Using a comparative case study approach, this article assesses community-level change in rural communities in Montana and Minnesota that participated in Horizons, a leadership development program that seeks to encourage community action to reduce poverty. We focus on the effects of various strategies for Horizons implementation in Montana and Minnesota as a possible explanation for different community-level outcomes experienced in these states. We argue that different methods of Horizons implementation influenced the skills and knowledge that coaches brought to their communities and also helped to determine how receptive communities were toward working with coaches. Research results also indicate that relatively minor investments in leadership development can yield dramatic changes in a communitys capacity to identify and address problems.

The pedagogy and the practice of community visioning: evaluating effective community strategic planning in rural Montana

Community visioning is increasingly used as a community development technique in a variety of settings. Sixteen communities in rural eastern Montana participated in a multi-phase poverty reduction program from 2006 to 2008 that culminated in a community vision process. Regional workshops were delivered to community visioning coordinators at the onset to explain principles of visioning and coaching, set expectations, and provide concrete guidelines and ideas on ways to implement the program. Using a case study approach, we conducted a series of focus group interviews to better understand the usefulness of the workshops, and the changes and actions that resulted from visioning. Results show the importance of a coordinated training program prior to the visioning program in each community and how intangible outcomes, including increased trust, improved relationships, and a sense of ownership in the process, were also significant factors both during and subsequent to the visioning program.

The Pedagogy of Citizen Participation in Local government: Designing and implementing effective board training programs for municipalities and counties

Although there are some general resources for citizens who are appointed or elected to local government boards, there is a clear need to develop comprehensive and context-specific training material to better prepare citizens for public service and board governance. This study details the development, delivery, and impact of a structured curriculum developed by the authors and used for citizen board training in Montana. The curriculum covers four key areas: (1) Foundations of governance (such as relevant statutes, including state constitutional provisions on the right to participate and right to know, and good governance principles); (2) effective meeting techniques, with a focus on procedural methods such as Robert’s Rules of Order; (3) conflict management; and (4) leadership and team-building skills. Curricular materials include a detailed handbook, case study exercises, relevant handouts and worksheets, and Web-based resources such as podcasts. At the end of the training, we asked participants to self-evaluate their level of change in terms of knowledge and behavior, using both print and online surveys with Likert-scale items and open-ended questions. We used the responses to measure the impact of the educational program; analysis showed a positive change in participants’ knowledge and behavior as a result of the training. Strengths, challenges, and implications of the current training curriculum, as well as further program refinement and its delivery in various contexts, are presented and discussed.

Assessing, monitoring, and addressing boomtown impacts in the US: evaluating an existing public health model

Abstract Identifying strategies for conducting impact assessment (IA) suited to unconventional fossil fuel (UFF) development, and practical opportunities to apply them, is an important activity given the continued importance of shale and other UFF energy resources. This paper offers a case study of an iterative public health planning process – Mobilizing Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) – that produced a version of integrated IA over a 10-year period in the Bakken region in the US. Through mixed qualitative methods, including focus groups, Ripple Effect Mapping and interviews, this study assessed the applicability of the MAPP process in the UFF development environment. The assessment draws on evaluation frameworks offered in theoretical and applied IA literatures. We found evidence to recommend MAPP as a possible solution to the lack of mandated, formal IA practices in UFF regions in the US based on three benefits: (1) MAPP aligns closely with IA best practices in form and approach; (2) our case study suggests that MAPP creates the for direct linkages between assessment, monitoring, and mitigation that are frequently absent in IA processes; and (3) participants in the process in our study note its utility in helping them negotiate the specific challenges of UFF development.

Claiming Ownership: A Response to Manning and Ginger

We had two major objectives in publishing our manuscript ‘‘Exploring the Concept of Ownership in Natural Resource Planning’’ (Lachapelle and McCool 2005). First, we hoped to clarify how the term ownership has evolved into new meanings as citizens, scientists, and managers sought ways to respond to the weaknesses of traditional rational–comprehensive planning. Our observation was, and still is, that the term ownership is used in a variety of ways in different contexts for different purposes, leading to some confusion about what the concept means. Such confusion hinders good practice and good science. Our second objective was to encourage a disciplined dialogue within the social science community, for, as we see it, the concept is still evolving, but could benefit from more deliberation and dialogue. This dialogue would itself enhance the conduct of science on the topic as well as the practice of public engagement. Manning and Ginger (this issue) raise several issues regarding our notion of ownership: specifically how we expand on existing scholarship, how we address representation and accountability, our need to reflect on advances in existing planning processes, and our suggested role of science both in research and in planning processes. We agree with many of their concerns and hope to show here that our ownership model addresses and responds to these concerns. Ownership as we define it entails not only a sense of caring and responsibility toward a particular issue, but also identifying who has a voice in a process, who has influence in a decision, and who is affected by an outcome. Our notion of ownership is closely aligned to how power has been characterized and is admittedly far from new, for as (Dahl 1957, 201) notes, ‘‘the concept of power is as ancient and ubiquitous as any that social theory can boast.’’ An ownership model seeks to make explicit power dynamics such as symbolic and material forces that can lead to patterns of domination, and identifies different strategies for dealing with different segments of the public. An ownership model recognizes differences in access, control,