ABSTRACT
At a recent Forest Service workshop about collaboration that helped facilitate, participants shared some of their greatest hopes and fears. The collaborative groups have become institutionalized, participants have oft-mentioned, well-trodden spaces through which they travel. Most common perhaps is the meeting room with its attendant flip charts, presentations, and shuffling papers – and a neutral, skilled facilitator who sets the tone and creates safety. Ample research in areas such as organizational development, public administration, and climate change shows that collaborative groups are not the first form of environmental governance to experience change and challenge, and offers insights that we should explore more deeply. Both industry and environmental groups have argued that the other side dominates collaborative discourse, while others in some rural communities see collaboration as a vehicle for restricting public access and use of national forestland.
