Mountain Scholar :: Browsing by Author "Scott, Ryan, committee member"

Browsing by Author "Scott, Ryan, committee member"

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Open Access
A vision of ourselves: regional rhetoric's impact upon public policy relating to individuals experiencing homelessness
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Anderson, Garrison Michael, author; Dunn, Thomas, advisor; Prasch, Allison, committee member; Scott, Ryan, committee member
Public policy at all levels, local, state, and national, has a profound, yet seldom, recognized impact upon the lives of citizens unless the policy directly impacts them. In the following thesis, I explore the discourse and debate that a local-level public policy can have upon the construction of space, impact upon already marginalized populations, and the use of regional identity to justify said policy. More specifically, I explore the consideration of a "appropriate-use of public space ordinance" in a mid-sized city, Fort Collins, Colorado. I argue that visions of Fort Collins regional identity are used to justify certain aspects of the ordinance that criminalize individuals experiencing homelessness. In my analysis, I make use of theories of communication and space including critical regionalism, juxtaposition, and spatial trajectories. In application of these theories to understand my text I am performing an analysis of critical rhetoric to reveal potential power struggles at play and the possibility for change.
Open Access
Governance approaches for scale mismatches in pre-wildfire planning and post-wildfire response and recovery
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Buettner, William Cole, author; Schultz, Courtney, advisor; Cheng, Tony, committee member; Scott, Ryan, committee member
Wildfires in the western United States have become an increasingly complex management challenge. Increased fire extent and severity, longer fire seasons, housing development in the wildland-urban interface, jurisdictional complexities, and interactions between fire and other disturbances combine to exacerbate risks to different critical values. Managers have recognized the need for greater pre-wildfire planning by reducing wildfire risk through fuel treatments and contingency planning in anticipation of fire. Less explored, however, are how managers are responding to changing environmental conditions after wildfires and planning for long-term recovery efforts. Challenges in pre-wildfire planning and post-wildfire response and recovery share similar scalar mismatches that frustrate effective governance. Scale is the spatial, temporal, and functional dimensions used to measure and study any phenomenon, and mismatches arise from challenges within relationships between ecological and social systems. In this thesis, I explore different scale mismatches in pre-wildfire and post-wildfire management to derive an understanding of potential adaptation options in complex management systems. This thesis consists of five standalone chapters. The first chapter introduces the two primary studies and reviews relevant literature related to wildfire governance and tools used to facilitate adaptive management approaches. The second chapter is a peer-reviewed manuscript that investigates the use of Potential Wildfire Operational Delineations (PODs) for fire and fuel management. In collaboration with the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, we filled gaps in PODs research by investigating how PODs are being utilized in non-incident management contexts to align forest and fire planning objectives with incident response tactics. We found that PODs help validate fuel treatment plans and support communication among agency staff, and with private landowners and collaborators. Challenges included lack of technical knowledge and skills, unclear leadership direction, potential misalignment with other forest management goals, and community and agency buy-in to using PODs. Recommendations from interviewees were to address knowledge gaps and capacity challenges. In our paper, we offer insights into how PODs are being utilized within our case studies and align these findings with the diffusion of innovation literature. This second chapter of my thesis has already been published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire as a Research Note. The third chapter, intended for a practitioner audience, explores the governance approaches to post-wildfire policies and programs following the Hermit's Peak-Calf Canyon Fire response and recovery efforts. Interviewees shared program and policy challenges, adding that policies did not incorporate local contexts, had prolonged treatment timelines, and federal staff were uneducated on program nuances. Facilitators of success were the Monsoon Taskforce and Lines of Effort Framework created by New Mexico State Agencies to allow for greater communication, coordination, and collaboration. Interviewees recommended an increase in workforce capacity and education, as well as legislative changes. The fourth chapter, intended for a peer-reviewed journal, aligns adaptive governance theory and literature on boundary organizations with the governance approaches following the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Wildfire. I found that adaptive governance arrangements are occurring in New Mexico and that boundary organizations are playing a significant role by facilitating information transfer and addressing knowledge gaps. In chapter five, I share concluding thoughts for both studies and suggestions for further inquiry and policy guidance.
Open Access
Phenomenologically separating nature from us: the role of nature in relation to human capabilities and environmental value
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Watters, Andrew, author; Shockley, Kenneth, advisor; Cafaro, Philip, advisor; Scott, Ryan, committee member
The role of nature in human well-being is often left unrecognized. In Thinking like a Mall, Steven Vogel provides a materialist argument that as humans we are always already engaged in a world that we have helped transform through our practices (our active and concernful involvement), and so it makes no sense to think of nature as something independent of us. I argue, drawing from the work of Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger, that while we are a part of Nature understood as a totality of things given that we are embodied-in-the-world, we are distinct from Nature insofar as we are concerned about our capabilities; our phenomenological concerns not being reducible to a thing-in-the-world. While the interconnection of things-in-the-world enable our capabilities given that we are embodied-in-the-world, they do so beyond our concerns. Hence, while we are part of Nature, there is a sense in which it is independent from us insofar as it contributes to our capabilities or practices independently of our knowledge; paralleling Breena Holland's characterization of the environment as a meta-capability with objective instrumental value. In addition to having objective instrumental value, it is shown through the work of Simon P. James and Kenneth Shockley that environmental features can have constitutive value and non-projected generative value. Insofar as we value our capabilities, we ought to protect the environment that makes them possible, recognizing that the environment enables our capabilities, in part, independently of our concerns.
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
Scaling up collaborative governance for better fit and flexibility: a case study of the Two-Rivers Three-Watersheds Two-States (2-3-2) partnership
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Bruce, Lily Appleby Calfee, author; Schultz, Courtney, advisor; Cheng, Tony, committee member; Scott, Ryan, committee member
Over the past ten years, multiple place-based collaborative groups have partnered across jurisdictional divides to form a unique structure of nested collaborative groups, but little is known about what drives the formation of these umbrella collaborative groups or how they function. Due to the changing climate and a legacy of fire suppression, the United States Forest Services (USFS) and academic scholars have promoted the planning and implementation of forest restoration activities at larger geographic scales than has been typical in forest management. To achieve landscape-level restoration, efforts must be coordinated across jurisdictional boundaries. Collaborative governance arose as an alternative to the centralized and adversarial approaches that had dominated environmental policy since the passage of core environmental statutes in the 1970s. Collaborative groups seek to overcome conflict by facilitating cooperative decision-making between government and non-government actors to achieve ecological and community benefits, reducing the risk of uncharacteristic wildfires, and addressing watershed function. Collaborative groups that are focused on forest restoration operate at larger scales than ever before, filling gaps resulting from limited government capacity and addressing complex and multi-jurisdictional environmental challenges. In the last fifteen years, federal and state policies emerged to support landscape-level collaboration, including the 2009 Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP). An important question is how collaborative groups operate in response to such drivers that require scaling up when they typically have existed at smaller spatial extents of individual national forests or communities. In this thesis, I explore the formation of an umbrella collaborative group and the opportunities and challenges associated with collaborating at the multiple-watershed level. I use qualitative analysis of a series of interviews with partners of the Two Watershed-Three Rivers-Two States Cohesive Strategy Partnership (2-3-2), an umbrella collaborative, to understand opportunities for adaptation and adapting to a variety of scale-fit needs that arise for collaborative governance regimes. In forest policy, scale mismatch is the lack of fit between the temporal or spatial scales of policy mechanisms, collective action, and ecosystem processes. Scale mismatch is prevalent in natural resource management; perhaps a better way to conceive of this issue is the need to have flexibility to adapt to drivers or concerns that operate and vary across scales. Collaborative governance may improve scale fit, especially for ecological processes and federal-level policies that require restoration work across huge acreages, but we also know from research that the trust- and relationship-building required by collaborative processes work best at smaller scales. This thesis consists of four interrelated but independent chapters. Chapter 1 introduces my research and provides foundational concepts to understand collaborative and adaptive governance. Chapter 2 summarizes interview results and is intended as a practitioner paper for partners and leaders of the 2-3-2. I describe interviewee perspectives on the current priorities of the 2-3-2, the advantages and challenges of collaboration at the multi-watershed scale, and recommendations for further strengthening the efficacy of the 2-3-2. Chapter 3, intended for a peer-reviewed journal, discusses these results in the context of collaborative and adaptive governance theory to understand factors that drive the formation of umbrella collaborative groups, as well as how umbrella collaboratives allow for greater adaptiveness to different scale dynamics. Finally, in Chapter 4, I summarize and draw overarching conclusions from my separate analyses of the interview data and address the limitations of this research with a view to future research.
Open Access
Small government, big problems: climate change adaptation policy in North American Great Lakes localities
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Gelardi, Carrington, author; Schomburg, Madeline, advisor; Scott, Ryan, committee member; Mumme, Stephen, committee member; Denning, Scott, committee member
The Great Lakes region is home to 30 million people, one of the world's largest economies, and the world's largest freshwater ecosystem. These characteristics make the region uniquely vulnerable to climate change. Local governments in the area are subject to the impacts of climate change whether they are prepared for them or not. To explore this issue, this paper seeks to answer the question, "What is the state of local climate change adaptation policy in the Great Lakes region?" Most literature that exists on local adaptation focuses on larger cities with populations over 50,000 people. This project fills that gap by looking at climate plans from all U.S. local governments that border the Great Lakes regardless of their size. To do this, climate change adaptation plans and policies were gathered from each county and sub-county municipality (such as cities, villages, towns, and townships) in the United States that border the Great Lakes. A text analysis was performed that compared the documents to regional climate science, as well as an inductive content analysis to pull out the major topics in each plan. Local governments in the Great Lakes region are in the beginning stages of adapting to climate change. 6% sent back relevant policies. Many of them were small governments with under 20,000. Findings suggest a lack the capacity to adequately adapt, especially within the smallest governments. The degree of assistance needed from larger institutions to supplement any insufficiencies is still unclear. The results of this project capture a snapshot of how local governments bordering the Great Lakes are (or are not) adapting to climate change. This can be used to foster intergovernmental learning on how sub-state governments in the region can adapt, while also providing insight into the boundaries of local action in the face of a global issue.
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 provisions and implementation of just transitions: lessons learned from Colorado's Just Transition
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Aghababian, Sidra, author; Stevis, Dimitris, advisor; Scott, Ryan, committee member; Fremstad, Anders, committee member
As the world progresses on a path towards decarbonization to achieve emission reduction and climate goals, the question of how to transition from fossil fuel energy sources arises. Transitions from fossil fuel energy sources have the potential to be "just" by addressing social and environmental justice implications. It is important to understand how to create and implement transitions that are "just". This work explores the provisions and implementations of Colorado's Just Transition Policy. Using qualitative analysis, it first examines and evaluates the goals or provisions of Colorado's Just Transition Policy. It then examines whether and how the implementation of the policy is weakening, reproducing, or strengthening these goals.

Browsing by Author "Scott, Ryan, committee member"

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