ABSTRACT

Ecosystem management has growing support from practitioners, government officials, and researchers and has been utilized in a variety of settings to address a wide range of resource management problems (Cortner and Moote 1994; Grumbine 1994; Slocombe 1998; Slocombe 1993)i. A prominent application of the ecosystem-based approach is watershed management. Since watersheds are defined by their hydrology, they provide a logical boundary for managing water resources and problems like nonpoint source pollution (NPS) and habitat protection. Accordingly, it should not be surprising to find numerous examples of efforts to ‘manage’

watershed problems in various estuaries, lakes, and river basins (Lubell, 2004; Imperial and Hennessey, 2000; Imperial and Hennessey, 1996; Kenney et al, 2000; Mackenizie, 1996).ii Characteristics of these efforts include:

• Approaching problems from an integrated or systems perspective; • Promoting a stronger scientific basis behind government policies; • Integrating and coordinating policies and programs across the

government; • Improving relationships between governmental and nongovernmental

organizations; • Broad public participation and stakeholder involvement in decision

making; • Changing or expanding policies, programs, and interorganizational

relationships; and, • Improving the performance of programs that address watershed

However, hydrologic boundaries rarely correspond to political boundaries. Accordingly, watershed problems are often addressed by agencies at different levels of government. This can produce governance problems such as: (1) fragmentation and duplication of responsibility; (2) poor use of information and resources; and, (3) inconsistency of policies across levels of government (Imperial, 1999). It is also common that the capacity (e.g., knowledge, power, authority, and resources) for solving complex watershed problems is widely dispersed such that no organization can solve the problems by acting alone (Bressers, 1995).