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The Politics of Watershed Policymaking
Author(s) -
Woolley John T.,
McGinnis Michale Vincent
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-0072.1999.tb01987.x
Subject(s) - watershed , politics , watershed management , fell , drainage basin , geography , environmental planning , environmental resource management , political science , environmental science , cartography , computer science , machine learning , law
In 1996, we began a study of contrasting efforts to restore and enhance watershed health in three different river basins. While we were organizing our study, one of the watershed groups that we were examining “fell apart,” therebey providing us with an unusual opportunity of study the difference between organizational success and failure. Obviously there are many problems in brawing broad conciusions from the study of a few cases, and we are well aware of those limits. Nonetheless, this paper's focus is on what can be learned about this failed attempt at watershed planning and organizing. We do this by combining descriptive case materials and evidence drawn from surveys of participating members of watershed organizations. We first describe the gerneral challenges to watershed policymaking. Second, with a focus on the decline of wild salmon in the Pacific Nortwest, including California, we briefly characterize our case studies of watershed organization that exist in three river systems—the Yakima River (in cenral Washington) and the Santa Ynez and Sacramento Rivers in California. In both of these stes, watershed organizations are the primary architects of watershed policymaking. Third, we present an analysis of survey results, emphasizing a search for whether the views of participants in the “failing” case of watershed organization differ from those of participants in the ongoing cases.