Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Adaptation and water resources management: examining adaptive governance in Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Gilbert, Ashlie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Sarah P. Church; This is a manuscript style paper that includes co-authored chapters.A pressing challenge facing water resource users and managers of the twenty-first century is how to address resource needs under the complexities of climate change, growth and development, habitat degradation, and more. Under these pressures, scholars and practitioners look to adaptive frameworks to increase the resilience of communities and ecosystems. Popular adaptive approaches to natural resource management include adaptive management, adaptive co-management, and adaptive governance. In this thesis, we examine adaptive governance in Montana, USA. Adaptive governance is commonly conceptualized as the multitude of actors, organizations, and institutions that utilize information sharing, collaboration, and flexible policies to promote resilient social-ecological systems. Although there has been a substantial increase in scholarship examining adaptive governance and related adaptation terms in the last forty years, scholars have yet to distinguish them from one another clearly. Further, there has been little research on adaptive governance conducted in the headwaters State of Montana. This thesis is an attempt to reduce these gaps in the literature. First, I review the command-and-control paradigm, decentralized approaches to natural resource management, adaptive management, and adaptive co-management. These concepts provide important background for examining the saliency of adaptive governance and separating it from related terminology. Then, we examine adaptive governance in Montana using semi-structured interviews (n=36), a round one survey (n=79), and a round two survey (n=42). Our findings show that water resource professionals and stewards working with non-governmental and governmental entities in Montana embrace collaboration, diverse viewpoints, information sharing, and local knowledge in their work, all of which are described as necessary for adaptive governance. However, we find that this water resource stewardship and protection work is sometimes stalled or derailed by a lack of government support and shifting administrations. Our findings lead us to assert the importance of governmental support in adaptive governance and propose a definition to re-frame the concept for future scholars and practitioners.Item Coalbed methane reclamation activities in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming: social and policy dimensions of environmental legacy management(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2020) Walsh, Kathryn Bills; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Julia Hobson Haggerty; Julia H. Haggerty was a co-author of the article, 'Governing unconventional legacies: lessons from the coalbed methane boom in Wyoming' in 'Governing Shale Gas: Development, Citizen Participation and Decision Making in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe' which is contained within this dissertation.; Julia H. Haggerty was a co-author of the article, 'Social license to operate during Wyoming's coalbed methane boom: implications of private participation' in the journal 'Energy policy' which is contained within this dissertation.; Julia H. Haggerty was a co-author of the article, 'The 'learn as you go' approach: a cautionary tale of environmental legacy management in Wyoming's coalbed methane fields' which is contained within this dissertation.The United States is producing more oil and natural gas than ever before. Sites of production are contributing to the known land-use phenomenon of energy sprawl, though little is known about how these sites will be reclaimed and how legacy effects will be governed and managed. Reclamation returns degraded energy landscapes to some productive capacity in order to avoid permanent environmental harm. Thus far, the technical aspects of reclamation have been the topic of most research while the human dimensions are under-studied. This research draws attention to the social and political dimensions of environmental legacy management. A period of coalbed methane development in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming (1999-2009) provides an instructive case study to investigate the legacy effects of energy resource development. After a decade of coalbed methane production, about 5,700 orphaned wells remained without viable industry operators to fund and manage well-plugging and reclamation. This dissertation uses a qualitative case study approach including document analysis, policy analysis, and forty semi-structured interviews with local surface owners, attorneys, state and federal regulators, local government officials, and industry personnel. Contextual research revealed that management of post-production oil and gas is a highly complex governance challenge made more complicated by the split estate property regime that characterizes the American West. Empirical research found that environmental legacy issues are exacerbated by 'private participation'. Applying a framework tied to the concept of social license to operate, investigation of surface owner-industry relations revealed that individuals played a critical role in decision-making processes. Surface owner's private participation resulted in decisions to forgo reclamation and integrate CBM-related infrastructure into ranching operations, therefore contributing to the scale and extent of environmental legacies. This dissertation also found that an adaptive, or 'learn as you go', policy approach in Wyoming enabled cost-shifting mechanisms to gain foothold, creating serious long-term environmental costs. Three specific cost-shifting mechanisms for CBM were identified: regulatory misalignment, overadaptation to the oil and gas industry, and industry bankruptcy. Together this dissertation highlights the importance of studying the social and political dimensions of post-production oil and gas activities for more effective environmental legacy management.Item Assessment of resource changes in backcountry campsites from 1989-1996 in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 1998) Steele, Victoria GraceItem Campsite impacts and the limits of acceptable change planning process : a case study of the Jedediah Smith Wilderness(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2007) Grossenburg, Chad G.; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Jian-yi LiuThe Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) planning process is a means by which planners attempt to preserve naturalness while facilitating public use in federally designated wilderness areas. The biophysical condition of campsites is often used as one indicator of naturalness in LAC plans. Despite the emergence of scientific methods to monitor campsites, campsite standards often neglect to reflect the findings of this science. The LAC process was used in Wyoming's Jedediah Smith Wilderness, which is situated east of fast growing Teton County, Idaho and west of popular Grand Teton National Park. Teton County and many other Western counties next to wilderness have outgrown other counties further from wilderness. Grand Teton Park receives tens of thousands of backcountry campers that may access the Wilderness depending on the degree of connectivity between the two protected areas. Many other wildernesses also share borders with popular national parks.