Importance

There is a recognized need in the Pacific Northwest for meaningful citizen participation that builds on past examples and fosters informed, constructive ecosystem management and land use decision making. This necessarily requires looking at natural and cultural processes which operate over territories larger than individual parcels of land. In doing so, it is equally necessary to acknowledge and respect the rights and responsibilities of land owners. This project sought a balance between responding solely to parcel-transcending processes on the one hand, and solely emphasizing landowners' interest on the other. Further, it sought to do so explicitly by articulating, in detail, the assumptions about future land use and management explored in the course of the project. As a result, land owners and managers with varied mandates exchanged information during the process about why they manage land the way they do. These varied land management mandates and the assumptions on which they are based, were incorporated into later stages of the project during the formulation of the possible futures. An equally important educational effect of this information exchange was that, at the conclusion of the process, stakeholders and the research team had a better understanding of the varied mandates at work in the watershed.

Phase one: Open Public Meetings to Identify Community Concerns

Phase one of the community involvement component began with a landscape architecture studio class of 35 University of Oregon students who worked with the research team to initiate two open community meetings for all residents of the watershed. This phase occurred between June 1995 and December 1995.

Meetings were facilitated by the landscape architecture students, with research team members also in attendance. The meetings provided a forum for community members to identify issues of concern in the watershed. Student groups then met individually with willing community members throughout the academic term. Through these individual meetings, information was gathered to help characterize and address common concerns and possible actions. At the second public meeting, students presented their summaries of community concerns identified in the first meeting. These were: maintaining rural character, reducing burdensome land use regulations, improving summer stream flow and enhancing fish habitat. The students then received feedback about how well they had captured community sentiments. Following this second meeting, community members who voiced interest in continuing to work with the research project were encouraged to speak with the research team about continuing their involvement.

Phase two: Core Stakeholder Group

Phase two involved more intensive interaction between the research team and a representative group of community members. Phase two occurred between January 1996 and July 1996. Additionally, community members from different professional backgrounds who had not participated in the open public meetings were contacted. These included the owner of a small wood lot, a county extension agent, members of the county soil and water conservation district board, a member of the real-estate development community, a public land manager, grass seed farmers, vineyard owners and commercial foresters.

Improving Summer Stream Flows

(Click for 612K Quicktime Movie)

A stakeholder at the first public meeting discussing the problem of low summer stream flows in the mainstem of the Muddy.

Educating Urbanites / Preserving Rural Lifestyles