The Gwynns Falls Watershed: A case study of public and non-profit sector behavior in natural resource management (Maryland)

This research explores the activities and roles of the non-profit and public sectors in the natural resource management regime in the Gwynns Falls Watershed (GFW), in western Baltimore City and County, Md., USA. A case study of this system is presented, including a quantitative analysis of the relative activities and positions of organizations in the public and nonprofit sectors; and a detailed, qualitative analysis of the interactions among three actors.; A survey of formal non-profit organizations and government agencies conducted in the GM, a watershed of 66.2 square miles, indicates that a primary group of 45 organizations, of which 53% are non-profit organizations and 47% are public agencies, is involved in management of public natural resources in the GM.; Social network analysis quantitatively verified the observation that the relative positions of a public agency and a non-profit organization appeared to reverse between the late 1980s and the late 1990s. The non-profit organization became a central actor in the natural resource management regime in the GFW, while the public agency moved into an increasingly peripheral position. This switch is attributable in part to the fiscal crisis faced by the City of Baltimore, which resulted in regular reductions in the agency's budget; and to a concurrent reduction in federal funding available to urban areas in the United States.; Two additional factors were found to explain the relative centrality of the non-profit organization: (1) the comparative flexibility of its organizational structure and mission, and (2) the comparative inability of the public agency to recognize and capitalize on the concept of ecosystem-based resource management as a means of gaining political and constituency support, and funding. Qualitative analysis of the organizational responses to the presence of change agents, faculty and graduate student interns from a well-respected school of forestry and environmental studies, revealed these relative strengths and weaknesses of the two organizations.