Welcome to The Collaboration Site. Engineered as a full support site for collaborative groups committed to resolving resource use conflicts throughout the interior west.	We'll help you get started and keep going! Direct you to funding sources! Supply the latest news affecting your work! Collaboration at work - stories from the field! Update you on legislation and regulations!

The original Applegate quartet   Common ground can be tricky. It's sometimes hard to recognize even when you're standing on it. Greely Wells, Jack Shipley, Jan Perttu, and Chris Bratt didn't make that mistake, and the Applegate River watershed is much better for it. In response to conflict and stalemate, the Applegate Partnership they founded championed collaboration. Based on the premise that sustaining ecosystem health is essential for economic and community stability, the Partnership joined loggers, ranchers, and conservationists, federal land managers and private landowners in one of the longest-running and most productive community-based partnerships in the country.   READ MORE >> IN THE NEWS Conservationists, rancher reach agreement Strange bedfellows a court case has made. When a local opponent of public lands grazing recently sued the federal government, few could have pictured an alliance with the West's most prominent rancher in the group's future. Yet on Tuesday, that's just what happened with Western Watersheds Project and J.R. Simplot.   READ MORE >> IN THE NEWS A river runs through it—usually Recent rains in southeast Arizona have returned water to the San Pedro River. In July, the river ran dry for the first time since 1904—when data was first recorded. The dewatering may be partially attributed to a late-arriving monsoon season; also being studied are the effects of groundwater pumping. SEE FULL STORY >> UPPER SAN PEDRO PARTNERSHIP >> IN THE NEWS Collaboration at work on the Lolo Two nascent collaborations on Montana's Lolo National have recently undertaken demonstration projects. The Lolo watershed group is embarking on its first project, which is designed to greatly improve trout habitat quality while reducing the creek's erosion against a nearby roadway. Meanwhile, a set of "no-holds-barred" enviromental groups is teaming up with the forest service on a fuel reduction project. A plan of action was collaboratively designed, complete with goals and means for evaluating progress. Those involved say the Monture Creek demonstration project is an educational experience as well as a trust-building exercise. LOLO CREEK RESTORATION (.DOC) >> AGENCY, GROUPS BUILD TRUST >>

WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE: Positive conversations—contingent outcomes—our view from St. Louis The White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation concluded last Wednesday following two days of informative presentations highlighting the depth and breadth of cooperative conservation initiatives across the country, followed by in-depth conversations addressing overarching themes affecting those initiatives. By all reports, the conversations, which took place in 72 concurrent sessions, were by and large spontaneous, thoughtful, diverse, and constructive. On the other hand, the conference itself and the plenary sessions in particular, were carefully controlled and choreographed. The plenary presentations and remarks, almost without exception, were tightly scripted. The invited audience, representing a cross section of participants in cooperative conservation initiatives, was not allowed to pose questions or offer comments. There was clear evidence among the participants of commitment to the concept of cooperative conservation and belief in its potential to overcome conflict and gridlock, solve pressing problems, and rationalize natural resource management across both public and private land ownership. It may not yet represent a "massive experiment in Jeffersonian democracy" as William Ruckelshaus, former director of the EPA, described it, but the participants clearly sensed that a new and as yet open-ended opportunity to advance conservation was in the offing, perhaps "the next era in conservation." There were strong threads through the conversations that took place. Outcome-based adaptive management rather than process-based management should be the rule; The focus should be on joint problem identification and problem solving; Consensus as an end in itself is not productive; Cooperative processes have to become the preferred way of doing business within the agencies; There has to be increased and systematic support within and from the agencies—training, funding, incentives and rewards; Policies and processes need to be coordinated across the agencies; Science has to be brought to bear constructively and transparently with a special emphasis on applied research and monitoring; Incentive programs for private landowners have to be expanded and adequately funded, with the Farm Bill representing the best single vehicle; There has to be increased flexibility in the regulatory/rule making process to encourage innovation and creativity, particularly at the local level, and a corresponding willingness to risk failure and the openness to learn from it; and, There must be clear recognition that regulations are essential—to set standards, shape objectives, and proof outcomes. READ MORE >>

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