| Collaborative approaches to natural resource management planning that emphasize decentralization, public participation, and flexibility in the crafting of solutions to environmental problems have become increasingly applied in the United States in recent decades. Reflecting a belief in the promise of such approaches, the Washington State Legislature enacted into law the Watershed Planning Act (WPA) in 1998 which prescribes a voluntary collaborative process to promote the integration of policy efforts concerning instream flow regimes, efficient water use practices, water quality standards, and fish habitat protection. The WPA encourages cooperation among citizens, government agencies (federal, state and local), and tribal governments at the watershed level to gather citizens' input concerning their goals and objectives for water resource management and development.; This dissertation advances our knowledge of the design and practice of successful collaboratives by, first, clarifying and synthesizing the lessons learned from five different theoretical frameworks---the Institutional Analysis and Development, the Social Capital, the Advocacy Coalition Framework, the Collaborative Learning approach, and the Assurance Mechanism. This analysis found that these five frameworks embrace a common, core set of factors as essential to collaborative success. The research then focuses on which factors matter most to collaborative success and which frameworks help us to best understand collaborative success using three case studies of watershed planning in Washington State---the Colville River Watershed, the Wenatchee River Watershed, and the Kettle River Watershed. Interviews with key participants and a review of primary and secondary sources revealed that nine factors were the key to collaborative success, or the lack thereof. The findings observed in this study have important implications for political scientists, governmental officials, and environmental groups for understanding collaborative watershed management and for enhancing Pacific Northwest regional public policy studies. |
