Mountain Scholar :: Browsing by Author "Cheng, Antony, committee member"

Browsing by Author "Cheng, Antony, committee member"

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Open Access
Accountability and legitimacy in transboundary networked forest governance: a case study of the Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Jedd, Theresa, author; Betsill, Michele, advisor; Stevis, Dimitris, committee member; Mumme, Stephen, committee member; Cheng, Antony, committee member
Using a social constructivist ontology to examine key debates and areas of inquiry vis-à-vis the democratic nature of transboundary forest governance, this research examines the case of the Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent, an instance of networked governance. Part I builds up to an examination of the movement toward conceptualizing transboundary networked governance, exploring the claim that government has given way to governance, blurring the lines between public and private, and moving beyond its antecedent models--systems theory and complexity, corporatism, state-in-society, new public management and privatization, inter alia--to reflect a more complicated and inherently collaborative relationship between state, society, and market-based actors. The dissertation project, then, investigates several key questions. At a basic level, it asks, what does networked governance look like, and in the case of the Crown Roundtable, how might these arrangements be adaptive given the absence of an overarching forests treaty? Looking deeper into the implications of networked governance, the project then moves to an investigation of the ways that these processes become legitimate modes of governing and how they allow actors to hold each other accountable. Evidence in the Crown Roundtable suggests that the state is simply one actor among many. In this sea of various players, without the traditional forms of accountability, how do we ensure that governance retains its democratic qualities? The second part (chapters 4, 5, 6, 7) builds from the initial observations in the first part (chapters 1, 2, and 3) that state boundaries in the Crown of the Continent are transected by landscape identities and norms. It examines the implications for maintaining democracy in governance. Given the lack of institutions (such as the juridical, legal, and electoral channels) available at the domestic level, how can actors be held accountable? What do shifts toward a flattened and fragmented forest governance landscape represent in terms of both the ability of diverse actors to relate to one another and also for the participants to see NG as a worthwhile process to engage? In answering these questions, Part II examines whether NG architectures are able to incorporate channels for accountability while simultaneously drawing upon a broad base of participation and maintaining social legitimacy. Finally, the dissertation concludes with thoughts on institutional design. In so doing, it hopefully contributes to an understanding of how to build collaborative networked arrangements that are better able to address transboundary environmental problems.
Open Access
Assessing the social benefits to stakeholders of place-based forest restoration organizations in Colorado
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Lund Snee, Torsten A., author; Seidl, Andrew, advisor; Loomis, John, committee member; Cheng, Antony, committee member
Collaborative forestry organizations such as the Front Range Roundtable provide goods and services to their members which have not yet been valued using economic methodology. The primary good provided by the Front Range Roundtable is quarterly stakeholder meetings where proposed landscape restoration projects are discussed and members are able to reach consensus on appropriate monitoring and implementation without resorting to legal measures. Attendance at these meetings suggests that members derive benefits from attendance and have a positive willingness-to-pay for these goods. This study contributes to the natural resource and environmental economics literature by estimating values associated with the social capital that is developed at collaborative forestry meetings, and should serve to inform the policy debate regarding funding of place-based forestry collaboratives. Attendees at the April 11, 2014 quarterly meeting of the Front Range Roundtable were asked travel cost questions and a dichotomous choice willingness to pay question regarding membership dues for the Front Range Roundtable's quarterly meetings. Results from 50 paper and online surveys indicate that respondents would pay a minimum of $6.60 per quarter to travel to the FRR's quarterly meetings, and a maximum of $83 in membership dues to allow the FRR to continue to provide conflict mediation and resolution services. Generalizing these amounts to the sample yields an annual value of $1,241 for minimum WTP for travel expenses and an annual value of $16,609 for FRR's mediation and conflict resolution services.
Embargo
Cultivating collaborative adaptability in public lands social-ecological settings: linking theory, practice, and evaluation across cases and contexts
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Beeton, Tyler Andrew, author; Galvin, Kathleen, advisor; Cheng, Antony, committee member; Schultz, Courtney, committee member; Snodgrass, Jeffrey, committee member
Collaborative and adaptive forms of governance have become increasingly common in environmental management as they are claimed to help reduce conflict over resource management issues and uncertainty, increase trust, support shared understanding and buy-in for management actions, and facilitate social learning. In the USDA Forest Service, legal, regulatory, and bureaucratic challenges, and the increased emphasis on ecosystem management has increased the demand for, and investment in, collaboration as a tool to meet forest and fire management goals. Collaborative governance and adaptability scholarship has documented the key drivers and external conditions that influence collaboration, the internal dynamics that cultivate or constrain collaboration, and the outputs and outcomes of collaboration. Still, a number of research gaps remain that, if addressed, could advance the theory and practice of collaborative governance. First, the ways in which groups adapt and remain resilient to inevitable internal and external changes remains underexplored. Second, despite over twenty years of research in this space, relatively little is known about the configuration of, and relationship between, factors that comprise collaborative governance and adaptability. Third, collaboration is dynamic. As groups evolve, they create value in different ways, and their needs and priorities change. Thus, there is a need for periodic and ongoing assessments of how collaboration is working in local contexts, current challenges, and what adaptations are needed to improve collaborative processes and progress. This dissertation starts to address these research gaps and needs. I situated this work within the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, a Forest Service-administered program first authorized in 2009 and reauthorized in 2019. The work presented in this dissertation was co-developed with the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes and the Forest Service Forest, Range Management, and Vegetation Ecology Program. Specifically, the work supported synthesis of lessons learned from the first 10 years of the CFLRP and the development of a standardized and longitudinal assessment of collaborative governance and adaptability for use in the CFLRP Common Monitoring Strategy. Broadly, my dissertation contributes to our understanding of the factors that facilitate or frustrate adaptation to inevitable change in collaborative settings. This is a critical line of inquiry given the increased and sustained investment in long-term collaborative environmental management in the United States and beyond. I employed a mixed-method analysis consisting of focus groups, program-wide surveys, and a systematic review, and I drew on the Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance, collaborative adaptability and resilience literature, and organization theory to frame my analysis. In Chapter 2, I asked, how do collaborative governance regimes adapt to disruptions and what barriers constrained collaborative resilience? I found that collaboratives demonstrated the ability to mobilize social capital, learning, resources, and flexibility to respond to disruptions. Yet authority, accountability, and capacity complicated collaborative resilience. I conclude Chapter 2 with policy and practice recommendations to cultivate collaborative resilience moving forward. In Chapter 3, I developed and deployed a program-wide collaborative governance and adaptability assessment to all currently authorized CFLRP projects. I used a modified grounded theory approach to document and describe CFLRP project respondents' recommended actions and adaptations to improve collaborative processes and progress towards desired outcomes. Key recommendations included the need for: inclusive engagement throughout the process; institutional arrangements; resources and capacity; monitoring and social learning; trust, relationships, and commitment; external communication and outreach; and local autonomy in decision making. I discussed these findings in light of collaborative governance theory and practice and included relevant resources and actions that practitioners and funders of collaboratives and policy actors may consider to support collaboratives in working towards forest and fire management objectives. In chapter 4, I again used the program-wide CFLRP collaborative governance and adaptability assessment, and I used confirmatory factor analysis to test assumptions underlying the dimensional structure, reliability, and validity of measures thought to comprise collaborative governance and adaptability. I found that the components of collaborative governance and adaptability comprised six dimensions – principled engagement, shared motivation, leadership, resources, knowledge and learning, and institutional arrangements. As expected, several dimensions were significantly related, and the pattern of inter-factor relationships aligned with theoretical and empirical assumptions. We also found that the six dimensions represent statistically reliable, valid, and distinct measures that may be used to evaluate collaborative governance and adaptability. While our focus was on the CFLRP, the assessment can be adapted to other collaborative environmental governance contexts. Chapter 5 ends with a summary of findings, limitations of the work, and future research directions to address lingering questions about collaborative environmental governance.
Open Access
Knowledge management for adaptive planning and decision-making in federal land management agencies
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Wurtzebach, Zachary Pyne, author; Schultz, Courtney, advisor; Cheng, Antony, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee member; Opp, Susan, committee member
Scholarship on environmental governance emphasizes the importance of institutions with the capacity to integrate scientific knowledge from multiple scales of assessment into decision-making processes at multiple levels of governance. A major gap in our knowledge exists around the design of policies and administrative strategies that can support knowledge management and address scalar challenges for adaptive governance in public organizations such as land management agencies. This research examines challenges and opportunities for improving knowledge management for multiscale monitoring, which is a fundamental component of public land planning and decision-making for the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the National Park Service (NPS). My objective is to expand our understanding of the governance institutions that support improved knowledge management, looking specifically at the legal and administrative variables that impede and promote improved knowledge generation and application in a hierarchical public bureaucracy. In the U.S. Forest Service, I found that limited capacity, decentralized decision-making structures, and organizational culture are critical barriers for implementing forest and broader-scale monitoring associated with recent regulations for National Forest planning under the National Forest Management Act of 1976. However, there are opportunities for addressing these challenges through partnerships, investment in "administrative knowledge brokers," and formalized collaborative processes. While these policies and practices can generate efficiencies and address scalar challenges for knowledge management, leadership commitment and capacity are needed for implementation. Both the BLM and NPS used similar policy tools to address capacity and commitment challenges for effective knowledge management among administrative actors, including: clear goals linked to agency mission and mandates; funding and specialized staffing positions dedicated to inventory and monitoring at multiple levels of administration; centralized authority for implementation, coordination, and budgetary allocation; and structured collaborative processes. However, there are also differences in tools that reflect the unique administrative context and constraints faced by each agency. Collectively, my findings highlight several important considerations for future research on environmental governance. Rather than characterizing institutional actors as knowledge users, producers, and intermediaries, I argue that it is more appropriate to evaluate the specific capabilities and multiple roles of diverse actors in different knowledge management processes. Given the complexity of today's management challenges, administrative structures dedicated to knowledge management and embedded in public organizations are needed to link knowledge to action across scales of governance. I also highlight the problematic assumption that decentralization and flexibility are essential for adaptive practice; the critical barrier in my findings is not limited flexibility, but limited administrative capacity. My research suggests that hierarchical governance structures and a diverse mix of policy tools are essential for addressing mismatches between the temporal and spatial scales of assessment and decision-making, realizing efficiencies for implementation, and linking knowledge to action across levels of governance.
Open Access
Policies and other institutions to support cross-boundary forest management: lessons from four "shared stewardship" projects in the western United States
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Aldworth, Tyler Lee, author; Schultz, Courtney, advisor; Cheng, Antony, committee member; Scott, Ryan, committee member
Land managers are increasingly seeking to increase the pace and scale of management actions by working across boundaries, but a key question is whether new approaches can be undertaken within the confines of existing institutions. Climate change, past forest management practices, and alterations in land use have led to increases in both the extent and severity of wildland fire in recent decades. Growing the pace and scale of land management activities to meet these challenges requires the cooperation of a diverse set of jurisdictions, organizations, and actors operating at various scales and with different capacities while balancing sometimes conflicting suites of objectives and public interests. In 2018 the United States Forest Service published "A Shared Stewardship Strategy" – an initiative focused on increasing the pace and scale of management actions and providing leadership direction for cross-boundary work, elevating as part of a longer-term trend the role of states and non-federal entities in managing forested ecosystems. Through qualitative inquiry, this thesis reports on four landscape-scale cross-boundary projects that meet the intent of Shared Stewardship. Chapter One introduces the study and reviews relevant literature related to institutions, policy implementation, cross-boundary work, and the context of forest management in the United States. Chapter Two, a research product written for a practitioner audience, discusses the involvement of partners and their roles in each project, the prioritization processes utilized by each project, and the key formal and informal factors that influenced each project. Chapter Three, a research product intended for a peer-reviewed journal, evaluates the institutions that facilitate and challenge cross-boundary work, and ways that actors attempted to overcome institutional challenges using a framework that integrates theories of policy implementation and historical institutionalism. Chapter Four conveys overall conclusions and suggestions for further inquiry. Key findings were that guaranteed funding and central coordinators helped projects move forward, while internal USFS policies often negatively impacted a project's relative success. Project planners often innovated around institutional challenges through creative agreements and contracting methods. Insights from this research could help inform forest managers across the United States on ways to design and execute large-scale, cross-boundary work. This study also contributes to the growing body of literature on using policy implementation and institutional innovation lenses to investigate forest and other land management governance contexts. Further research should investigate the consequences of novel institutional changes, such as budget modernization and the impact of additional funding opportunities presented by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
Open Access
Policy innovation and change: the diffusion and modification of the renewable portfolio standard, 1994 – 2014
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Hoffer, Katherine Anne Heriot, author; Davis, Charles E., advisor; Cheng, Antony, committee member; Moore, Scott T., committee member; Saunders, Kyle L., committee member
To date, the U.S. federal government has not enacted a national renewable energy policy. Inertia at this level of government creates a policy space that allows American states to take the lead. State policy drives clean energy development. By the fall of 2014, every state in the nation had adopted at least one policy supportive of increased market penetration of renewable energy, and 38 states had adopted either a mandatory renewable portfolio standard (RPS) or a voluntary renewable energy goal. Between January 1, 1995 and the end of 2014, over 207 legislative changes amended existing RPSs and voluntary goals. Of these, most made small modifications or increased renewable energy requirements. Far fewer made significant changes to weaken state policy. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of energy policy innovation and change, where the adoption of an innovation is defined as a policy that is new to the state adopting it. It does so using a mixed methods approach that answers two major research questions: Why do states adopt different types of renewable portfolio standards (RPSs), while others fail to adopt any type of RPS? And, after states adopt an RPS, why do they amend the policy in the manner that they do over time? Using case studies and event history analysis based on a unified model of policy innovation suggested by existing literature, this study finds that both the size and direction of the effects of explanatory variables as well as the individual variables themselves vary across decision types, time, and space. More specifically, while the results confirm that household incomes, citizen and government ideology, and educational attainment are important internal state characteristics for explaining decisions to adopt and amend RPSs, the effect of these variables varies across different types of decisions. In addition, renewable energy interests and resources, fossil fuel resources and related interest groups, policy entrepreneurs, collaboration, and coalition building are important for explaining policy adoption and change. While this study found little to suggest that renewable energy potential is an important predictor of the decision to adopt an RPS, it did find that other state and federal policies are significant factors influencing the decision to adopt a certain type of RPS or amend an RPS in a certain manner. While the results of the case studies suggest that policy diffusion also plays an important role in explaining policy innovation and change, the results of the quantitative models must be interpreted with some caution.
Open Access
State climate adaptation policy and forest management case studies in the American West: Colorado and Washington State
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Breidenbach, Tamera Elizabeth, author; Schultz, Courtney, advisor; Cheng, Antony, committee member; Scott, Ryan, committee member
Climate change and past management practices are impacting and creating hazards for forests and forest-adjacent landscapes and communities. State governments are considered leaders in climate policy and increasingly are facilitating a state-led response to observed and predicted future impacts from climate-related hazards. Hazards and risks to forests and forest-adjacent communities include wildfire, insects and disease, drought, and a loss of economic and social goods and amenities. Adaptation facilitates a response to risks and provides opportunities to adjust to and become resilient to current and future hazards. Utilizing a qualitative approach and a policy design framework, my research had two primary objectives: characterize state-level natural resource adaptation goals and objectives for forests and how these efforts are implemented by state agencies and with other actors (e.g., collaborative groups and non-governmental organizations (NGO's), other government entities, industrial and private forestry, etc.); and analyze the policy design utilized to address climate hazards through climate adaptation for forested landscapes. I interviewed 43 individuals, including state-level policy decisionmakers, federal and state land managers, local governments and utilities, industrial and private forestry entities, collaborative groups and NGO's, academics and practitioners from universities, other forestry-related professionals, and key partners. This thesis explores state climate adaptation policies for forested landscapes in Colorado and Washington State through four chapters. Chapter 1 consists of a brief introduction to this study, including a literature review on relevant climate-induced impacts to forests and forest-adjacent lands, state-level climate adaptation planning, and policy design theory, along with other intersecting and sensitizing concepts important to facilitating a thorough and holistic approach towards climate adaptation. Chapter 2 is a practitioner report intended for federal and state policy decisionmakers, land managers and practitioners, and land management partners. In this chapter, I discuss key research findings and offer recommendations based on research outcomes. Chapter 3 highlights research findings in a product intended for a peer-reviewed journal utilizing the policy design framework. This chapter focuses only on findings from Washington State. Chapter 4 highlights the overall findings from this study, discusses study limitations, and offers recommendations for future research exploration. My thesis contributes to the novel and growing area of literature working to understand climate adaptation and the role that state governments have in facilitating a future's thinking approach and response to climate hazards, particularly for forested and forest-adjacent landscapes and communities. The insights from my work help to inform policy decision-makers and land management practitioners on how states are facilitating climate adaptation through state policy, how states are working to implement climate adaptation actions, the perceptions of state climate adaptation policy, and the potential areas of growth and opportunity for climate adaptation efforts on forested lands. There are still gaps in knowledge that exist for state-related climate and adaptation policies, including how states are incorporating pillars such as equity and environmental justice, how recent federal law, legislation, and funding have increased or facilitated climate adaptation implementation through state partnerships, and future research can further explore how states are working across boundaries to address climate hazards through adaptation.
Open Access
The collaborative forest landscape restoration program: lessons from two Colorado-based forest restoration projects
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Bergemann, Hannah, author; Schultz, Courtney, advisor; Cheng, Antony, committee member; Davis, Sandra, committee member
The U.S. Forest Service's Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) emphasizes collaboration throughout the planning, monitoring, and implementation of landscape-scale forest restoration projects. The requirement for stakeholder participation in implementation is a policy innovation that is part of the agency's broader shift towards collaborative governance approaches. The purpose of this study was to investigate how CFLRP stakeholders and Forest Service personnel are collaborating during the implementation process, the extent to which they are satisfied with their involvement, and the factors that influence the ability of stakeholders to participate in this process. The study used a comparative case study approach to investigate the two CFLRP projects in Colorado. We conducted interviews with 27 collaborative group participants and Forest Service personnel, in addition to participant observation of collaborative meetings and field site visits. Interviewees described five major categories of factors that impacted their ability to participate in the implementation of the CFLRP projects: agency-wide structural factors, factors related to individual agency personnel, collaborative group characteristics, local economic conditions, and aspects of biophysical conditions. We used this empirical work to build a framework that can be used to assess the factors that affect a group's ability to collaboratively implement projects on public lands. We propose that in future efforts to engage collaborative groups in the implementation of large-scale forest restoration projects, the factors identified in this study should be considered due to the role they may play in facilitating or impeding successful collaborative participation.
Open Access
The role of scientific evidence in collective action decision-making
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Roberts, Ryan, author; Jones, Kelly, advisor; Cottrell, Stuart, advisor; Reid, Robin, committee member; Cheng, Antony, committee member; Duke, Esther A., committee member
As our world grows ever more complex, novel forms of governance arise that attempt to manage this complexity. One such governing system is collective action, where multiple stakeholders come together to solve large-scale problems for the benefit of all involved. Collective action is especially prevalent in conservation due to the increased degradation of natural resources, which are often public goods that cross administrative boundaries. Stakeholders whom make collective action decisions typically work with limited resources, and as such it is important they work with adequate information to lead to an increase in efficiency and ultimate success. The growing field of evidence-based conservation highlights this point, which urges practitioners to base their decisions on the best scientific evidence available. The literature repeatedly stresses the importance of information in collective action, yet limited studies exist as to the role of scientific evidence as a specific form of information used in collective action decisions. This dissertation set out to determine this role relative to other factors considered important for success. I drew on the rational decision-making model as a framework for assessing the role of evidence. Using a non-random sample of eight watershed partnerships as a case study, I used a mixed method approach and explored: 1) decision-makers understanding of a specific form of scientific evidence available (Chapter 1), 2) the importance of scientific evidence as a motivation to invest in these watershed partnerships (Chapter 2), and 3) the role of scientific evidence in the partnerships' internal decision-making (Chapter 3). I found that scientific evidence is primarily important to wildfire and forestry specialists regarding decision-making. I also discovered that although evidence is important to internal partnership decision-making, a variety of additional sources of information and other factors that have an equal influence on watershed management exist. The way the watershed partnerships in this study disseminate evidence via outreach strategies was also revealed as a highly important component of success. Synthesizing across these results, I adapted a framework from the literature that incorporates elements of dynamic information pathways that, in conjunction, leads to the long-term success of these eight programs. Some practical considerations for increasing the dissemination and utilization of scientific evidence include translating this type of information into an easily interpretable form and creating web-based tools to organize evidence. Broadly, these results contribute to the collective action literature on the factors necessary in decision-making for the continued endurance of these forms of governance.

Browsing by Author "Cheng, Antony, committee member"

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