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Adaptive Management for Oil and Gas Development on Public Lands: An Innovative Approach to Resource Protection, or Symbolic Placation of Public Interests?
Author(s) -
Wurtzebach Zachary
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/ropr.12117
Subject(s) - adaptive management , context (archaeology) , scope (computer science) , harm , environmental resource management , wildlife , business , environmental planning , containment (computer programming) , political science , public administration , economics , law , ecology , environmental science , computer science , geography , archaeology , biology , programming language
Energy development on public lands in the intermountain west is often contentious due to concerns over detrimental impacts to wildlife. To mitigate harm to ungulates and other species, federal agencies often utilize adaptive management, a structured decision‐making framework predicated on “learning while doing.” But in the context of recent energy development, does adaptive management represent an innovative approach to conservation, or is it a largely symbolic policy used to contain the scope of conflict? This article, rooted in the agenda‐setting literature, applies Sarah Pralle's (2006) framework to strategies of conflict containment used by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and industry in three contentious energy development projects in Wyoming. The findings indicate that the BLM's use of adaptive management can be understood as a strategy for conflict containment, rather than as a substantive policy change in public lands oil and gas development.