Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:16:27.838Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Policy Tools and Capacities for Adaptiveness in US Public Land Management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2021

By
Zachary Wurtzebach  and
Courtney Schultz
Edited by
Riyanti Djalante  and
Bernd Siebenhüner
Riyanti Djalante
Affiliation:
United Nations University, Tokyo
Bernd Siebenhüner
Affiliation:
Carl V. Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany
Get access

Summary

Adaptive management and adaptive governance are key paradigms for improved adaptiveness in natural resource governance. Recent scholarship on adaptive governance highlights the importance of legal tools that provide elements of both flexibility and stability needed to enable collaborative and adaptive natural resource management across scales of socio-ecological organisation. However, a lack of understanding remains around the specific attributes of policies and the capacities needed to design and implement them in multilevel governance contexts where state bureaucracies retain significant authority for natural resource governance. In this chapter, we examine novel policy tools and capacities for adaptiveness in US federal forest management. Drawing on empirical research on collaborative forest restoration and multilevel monitoring for forest planning, we highlight the importance of different dimensions of policy capacity for the design and implementation of policy tools for improved adaptiveness. Our analysis underscores the importance of incorporating considerations of policy capacity into conceptualisations of institutional flexibility and draws attention to the importance of administrative policies, and agents in state bureaucracies, for more adaptive forms of governance.

Keywords

adaptive managementadaptive governancepolicy designpolicy capacityforest management
Type
Chapter
Information
Adaptiveness: Changing Earth System Governance , pp. 166 - 187
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, J.B., Davis, E.J., Moseley, C., & Nowell, B. (2017). Building practical authority for community forestry in and through networks: the role of community-based organisations in the U.S. West. Environmental Policy and Governance, 27(4), 285–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrams, J.B., Huber-Stearns, H., Bone, C., & Moseley, C. (2017). Adaptation to a landscape-scale mountain pine beetle epidemic in the era of networked governance: the enduring importance of bureaucratic institutions. Ecology and Society, 22(4), 22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, C.R. & Gunderson, L.H. (2011). Pathology and failure in the design and implementation of adaptive management. Journal of Environmental Management, 92(5), 1379–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arts, B., Buizer, M., Horlings, L. et al. (2017). Landscape approaches: a state-of-the-art review. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 42(1), 439–63.Google Scholar
Armitage, D.R., Plummer, R., Berkes, F. et al. (2009). Adaptive co‐management for social–ecological complexity. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 7(2), 95–102.Google Scholar
Bennetts, R.E. & Gross, J. (2007). Linking monitoring to management and planning: assessment points as a generalized approach. George Wright Forum, 24(2), 59–77.Google Scholar
Berends, H., Boersma, K., & Weggeman, M. (2003). The structuration of organizational learning. Human Relations, 56(9), 1035–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beunen, R., Patterson, J., & van Assche, K. (2017). Governing for resilience: the role of institutional work. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 28, 10–16.Google Scholar
Biber, E. (2011). The problem of environmental monitoring. University of Colorado Law Review, 83, 1–82.Google Scholar
Burch, S., Gupta, A., Inoue, C.Y. et al. (2019). New directions in earth system governance research. Earth System Governance, 1, 100006.Google Scholar
Butler, W.H. & Schultz, C.A. (2019). A New Era for Collaborative Forest Management: Policy and Practice Insights from the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cash, D.W., Adger, W.N., Berkes, F. et al. (2006). Scale and cross-scale dynamics: governance and information in a multilevel world. Ecology and Society, 11(2), 8–19.Google Scholar
Chaffin, B.C., Gosnell, H., & Cosens, B.A. (2014). A decade of adaptive governance scholarship: synthesis and future directions. Ecology and Society, 19(3), 56.Google Scholar
Cloutier, C., Denis, J.-L., Langley, A., & Lamothe, L. (2016). Agency at the managerial interface: public sector reform as institutional work. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 26(2), 259–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, K. & Stern, M.J. (2018). Boundary spanners as trust ambassadors in collaborative natural resource management. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 61(2), 291–308.Google Scholar
Cortner, H.J. & Moore, M.A. (1999). The Politics of Ecosystem Management. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Cosens, B.A., Craig, R.A., Hirsch, S.L. et al. (2017). The role of law in adaptive governance. Ecology and Society, 22(1), 30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cosens, B.A. & Williams, M. (2012). Resilience and water governance: adaptive governance in the Columbia River basin. Ecology and Society, 17(4), 3.Google Scholar
Craig, R.K., Garmenstani, A.S., Allen, C.R. et al. (2017). Balancing stability and flexibility in adaptive governance: an analysis of tools available in U.S. environmental law. Ecology and Society, 22(2), 3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cyphers, L.A. & Schultz, C.A. (2019). Policy design to support cross-boundary land management: the example of the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership. Land Use Policy, 80(10), 362–9.Google Scholar
DeCaro, D.A., Chaffin, B.C., Schlager, E., Garmestani, A.S., & Ruhl, J.B. (2017). Legal and institutional foundations of adaptive environmental governance. Ecology and Society, 22(1), 1689–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeLuca, T.H., Aplet, G.H., Wilmer, B., & Burchfield, J. (2010). The unknown trajectory of forest restoration: a call for ecosystem monitoring. Journal of Forestry, 108, 288–95.Google Scholar
Elliott, O.V. & Salamon, L.M. (2002). The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Federal Register (2012). Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 36. Parks, Forests, and Public Property, Subpart A – National Forest System Land Management Planning (§§219.1–219.19). 77 FR 21260. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.Google Scholar
Folke, C., Hahn, T., Olsson, P., & Norberg, J. (2005). Adaptive governance of social-ecological systems. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 30(1), 441–73.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, F. (2013). What is governance? Governance, 26(3), 347–68.Google Scholar
Gregory, R., Ohlson, D., & Arvai, J. (2006). Deconstructing adaptive management: criteria for applications to environmental management. Ecological Applications, 16(6), 2411–25.Google Scholar
Guerrero, A.M., McAllister, R.R., Corcoran, J. et al. (2013). Scale mismatches, conservation planning, and the value of social-network analyses. Conservation Biology, 27(1), 35–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrington, C., Curtis, A., & Black, R. (2008). Locating communities in natural resource management. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 10(2), 199–215.Google Scholar
Hirt, P.W. (1994). A Conspiracy of Optimism: Management of the National Forests Since World War Two. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Hoberg, G. (2001). The emerging triumph of ecosystem management: the transformation of federal forest policy. In Davis, C., ed., Environmental Politics and Western Public Lands. New York: Routledge, 55–86.Google Scholar
Howlett, M. (2009). Governance modes, policy regimes and operational plans: a multi-level nested model of policy instrument choice and policy design. Policy Sciences, 42(1), 73–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howlett, M. & Rayner, J. (2007). Design principles for policy mixes: cohesion and coherence in ‘new governance arrangements’. Policy and Society, 26(4), 1–18.Google Scholar
Huitema, D., Mostert, E., Egas, W. et al. (2009). Adaptive water governance: assessing the institutional prescriptions of adaptive (co-)management from a governance perspective and defining a research agenda. Ecology and Society, 14(1), 26.Google Scholar
Hutto, R.L. & Belote, R.T. (2013). Distinguishing four types of monitoring based on the questions they address. Forest Ecology and Management, 289, 183–9.Google Scholar
Klyza, C.M.G. & Sousa, D. (2010). Beyond gridlock: green drift in American environmental policymaking. Political Science Quarterly, 125(3), 443–63.Google Scholar
Lawrence, T.B. & Suddaby, R. (2006). Institutions and institutional work. In Clegg, S.R., Hardy, C., Lawrence, T.B., & Nord, W. R., eds., The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies. London: Sage, 215–54.Google Scholar
Lemos, M.C. & Agrawal, A. (2006). Environmental governance. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 31(1), 297–325.Google Scholar
Lindenmayer, D.B. & Likens, G.E. (2010). The science and application of ecological monitoring. Biological Conservation, 143(6), 1317–28.Google Scholar
Lynn, L.E. Jr, Heinrich, C.J., & Hill, C.J. (2000). Studying governance and public management: challenges and prospects. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10(2), 233–62.Google Scholar
Mcguire, M. & Agranoff, R. (2011). The limitations of public management networks. Public Administration, 89(2), 265–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maier, C. & Abrams, J.B. (2018). Navigating social forestry: a street-level perspective on national forest management in the US Pacific Northwest. Land Use Policy, 70(11), 432–41.Google Scholar
March, J.G. (1999). Exploration and exploitation in organizations. Pursuit of Organizational Intelligence, 2(1), 114–36.Google Scholar
May, P.J. (2012). Policy design and implementation. In Aguilera, J., ed., The Sage Handbook of Public Administration. London: Sage, 279–91.Google Scholar
Morrison, T.H., Adger, W.N., Brown, K. et al. (2017). Mitigation and adaptation in polycentric systems: sources of power in the pursuit of collective goals. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 8(5), 1–16.Google Scholar
Moulton, S. & Sandfort, J.R. (2016). The strategic action field framework for policy implementation research. Policy Studies Journal, 45(1), 144–69.Google Scholar
Nie, M.A. (2008). The Governance of Western Public Lands, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Nie, M.A. & Schultz, C.A. (2012). Decision-making triggers in adaptive management. Conservation Biology, 26(6), 1137–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peters, B.G. (2010). The Politics of Bureaucracy: An Introduction to Comparative Public Administration, Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Phuong, L.T.H., Biesbroek, G.R., & Wals, A.E.J. (2018). Barriers and enablers to climate change adaptation in hierarchical governance systems: the case of Vietnam. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 20(4), 518–32.Google Scholar
Predmore, A.S., Copenheaver, C.A., & Mortimer, M.J. (2008). Ecosystem management in the US forest service: a persistent process but dying discourse. Journal of Forestry, 106(6), 339–45.Google Scholar
Pressman, J.L. & Wildavsky, A.B. (1973). Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington Are Dashed in Oakland. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ringold, P.L., Mulder, B., Alegria, J. et al. (1999). Establishing a regional monitoring strategy: the Pacific Northwest forest plan. Environmental Management, 23, 179–92.Google Scholar
Rutherford, T.K. & Schultz, C.A. (2019). Adapting wildland fire governance to climate change in Alaska. Ecology and Society, 24(1), 27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabatier, P.A. (1986). Top-down and bottom-up approaches to implementation research: a critical analysis and suggested synthesis. Journal of Public Policy, 6(1), 2148.Google Scholar
Schneider, A. & Ingram, H. (1990). Behavioral assumptions of policy tools. Journal of Politics, 52(2), 510–29.Google Scholar
Schultz, C.A., Coelho, D.L., & Beam, R.D. (2014). Design and governance of multiparty monitoring under the USDA Forest Service’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program. Journal of Forestry, 112(2), 198–206.Google Scholar
Schultz, C.A., Huber-Stearns, H., McCaffrey, S. et al. (2018). Prescribed Fire Policy Barriers and Opportunities: A Diversity of Challenges and Strategies across the West. Eugene: Ecosystem Institute, University of Oregon. Retrieved from https://ewp.uoregon.edu/sites/ewp.uoregon.edu/files/WP_86.pdf.Google Scholar
Schultz, C.A., Jedd, T., & Beam, R.D. (2012). The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program: a history and overview of the first projects. Journal of Forestry, 110(7), 381–91.Google Scholar
Schultz, C.A., McIntyre, K.B., Cyphers, L. et al. (2018). Policy design to support forest restoration: the value of focused investment and collaboration. Forests, 9(9), 512.Google Scholar
Schultz, C.A., Timberlake, T.J., Wurtzebach, Z., et al. (2019). Policy tools to address scale mismatches: insights from US forest governance. Ecology and Society, 24(1), 21.Google Scholar
Sharma-Wallace, L., Velarde, S.J., & Wreford, A. (2018). Adaptive governance good practice: show me the evidence! Journal of Environmental Management, 222(3), 174–84.Google Scholar
Stankey, G.H., Bormann, B.T., Ryan, C. et al. (2003). Adaptive management and the northwest forest plan rhetoric and reality. Journal of Forestry, 101(1), 40–6.Google Scholar
Stephens, S.L., Collins, B.M., Biber, E., & Fulé, P.Z. (2016). U.S. Federal fire and forest policy: emphasizing resilience in dry forests. Ecosphere, 7(11), 1–19.Google Scholar
Termeer, C.J.A.M., Dewulf, A., & van Lieshout, M. (2010). Disentangling scale approaches in governance research: comparing monocentric, multilevel, and adaptive governance. Ecology and Society, 15(4), 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United States Forest Service (USFS) (2012). Increasing the Pace of Restoration and Job Creation on Our National Forests. Retrieved from www.fs.fed.us/sites/default/files/media/ types/publication/field_pdf/increasing-pace-restoration-job-creation-2012.pdf.Google Scholar
United States Forest Service (USFS) (2018). Toward Shared Stewardship across Landscapes: An Outcome-Based Investment Strategy. Retrieved from www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/toward-shared-stewardship.pdf.Google Scholar
Walters, C.J. & Holling, C.S. (1990). Large‐scale management experiments and learning by doing. Ecology, 71(6), 2060–8.Google Scholar
Waltz, A., Wurtzebach, Z., Esch, B., Wasserman, T., & Schultz, C. (2017). Developing a Framework for the U.S. Forest Service Broader-Scale Monitoring Strategy: Processes and Outcomes. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona University Ecological Restoration Institute.Google Scholar
Westgate, M.J., Likens, G.E., & Lindenmayer, D.B. (2013). Adaptive management of biological systems: a review. Biological Conservation, 158, 128–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, B.K. (2011). Adaptive management of natural resources framework and issues. Journal of Environmental Management, 92(5), 1346–53.Google Scholar
Wu, X., Ramesh, M., & Howlett, M. (2015). Policy capacity: a conceptual framework for understanding policy competences and capabilities. Policy and Society, 34(3–4), 165–71.Google Scholar
Wurtzebach, Z., Casse, T., Meilby, H., Nielsen, M.R., & Milhoj, A. (2019). REDD+ policy design and policy learning: the emergence of an integrated landscape approach in Vietnam. Forest Policy and Economics, 101(11), 129–39.Google Scholar
Wurtzebach, Z. & Schultz, C. (2016). Measuring ecological integrity: history, practical applications, and research opportunities. BioScience, 66(6), 446–57.Google Scholar
Wurtzebach, Z., Schultz, C., Waltz, A.E.M., Esch, B.E., & Wasserman, T.N. (2019). Broader-scale monitoring for federal forest planning: challenges and opportunities. Journal of Forestry, 117(3), 244–55Google Scholar
Wyborn, C. & Dovers, S. (2014). Prescribing adaptiveness in agencies of the state. Global Environmental Change, 24(1), 5–7.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×