The Politics of Collaboration: Producing Restoration Knowledge and Practice in the Feather River Headwaters
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The Politics of Collaboration: Producing Restoration Knowledge and Practice in the Feather River Headwaters By Sarah Ann Bickel Di Vittorio A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor J. Keith Gilless (Chair) Professor Jeffrey Romm Professor Christopher Ansell Spring 2014 Abstract The Politics of Collaboration: Producing Restoration Knowledge and Practice in the Feather River Headwaters by Sarah Ann Bickel Di Vittorio Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management University of California, Berkeley Professor J. Keith Gilless, Chair This research project situates a long-term collaborative effort to restore headwaters meadows within the political, institutional, and historical contexts that have shaped relations of power over watershed resources in the Feather River region. The study addresses a need in the literature for more nuanced studies of the ways that collaborative environmental governance takes shape within and engages these contexts and what the implications are for resource control and access. Using a grounded approach, informed by several bodies of theory from governance, political ecology, and science and technology studies, the project first locates collaboration as part of an ongoing history of resource politics in the United States and then identifies three key loci where collaboration catalyzed renegotiations of politics and power in the Feather River case. These loci are 1) the collaborative production of restoration knowledge and practice in response to both biophysical and social conditions of the watershed, 2) the development of new policy frames that enabled members of the headwaters community to challenge the invisibility of watersheds in California water supply policy and make new political claims against historically powerful downstream interests, and 3) the participation of the U.S. Forest Service, which facilitated collaborative restoration projects and efforts to increase the visibility of headwaters but declined to take on more controversial policy changes. Taken together, these findings portray a complex relationship between collaboration, power, and politics. Knowledge production and policy reframing were important sources of power that grew from collaboration. Although limited by the durability of long-standing relations of resource control in wider institutional and political contexts, collaboration created power for headwaters actors to effect innovative restoration solutions and motivate wider policy changes with benefits to headwaters communities and ecosystems. 1 To my daughter, Eleana Rose, whose delightful smile, infectious laughter, and playful spirit brighten my days and my life. i TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 THE HEADWATERS IN BIOPHYSICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT .......................................................................... 1 CHAPTER PREVIEW ........................................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 2. ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE, POLITICS, AND POWER: THEORY, APPROACH, AND CASE ............................................................................................................................... 5 THE NEW POLITICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE ............................................................................. 6 THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE ................................................................... 9 UNDERSTANDING POWER AND POLITICS: CONCEPTS AND ANALYTICAL TOOLS .............................................. 12 ANALYTICAL APPROACH AND METHODS .............................................................................................. 15 Case study site and background: The Upper Feather River watershed ......................................... 18 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 23 CHAPTER 3. CHANGING LOGICS FOR GOVERNING NATURE SINCE THE PROGRESSIVE ERA ..... 25 THE LEGACY OF PROGRESSIVE ERA CONSERVATION ............................................................................... 25 Environmentalism, gridlock, and the search for new approaches ................................................ 32 The durability of the Conservationist logic ................................................................................ 34 NATURE AND POWER IN THE FEATHER RIVER REGION: A HISTORY ............................................................. 35 Incursions: From the fur trade to the Gold Rush ........................................................................ 36 Hydro-Power .......................................................................................................................... 39 We are all “downstream:” The Feather River as California’s watershed ....................................... 42 Food and timber production in the headwaters ......................................................................... 47 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 49 CHAPTER 4. CONTESTED TERRAIN: THE KNOWLEDGE POLITICS OF COLLABORATIVE MEADOW RESTORATION ...................................................................................................................... 51 THEORY: SOCIAL LEARNING IN COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE .......................................... 52 Social learning theories and critiques ........................................................................................ 53 Knowledge production and power ............................................................................................ 54 Scale, power, and knowledge production .................................................................................. 56 Key points for a theory of power and social learning .................................................................. 58 CASE STUDY: THE SOCIALLY EMBEDDED EVOLUTION OF HEADWATERS RESTORATION TECHNIQUES ................... 59 The Feather River watershed as the unique setting for pond and plug ........................................ 59 The CRM as a collaborative, learning organization ..................................................................... 61 Learning from experience: toward a floodplain approach to restoration ..................................... 65 The emergence of pond and plug as a socially embedded process .............................................. 68 Upper watershed controversies: Uncertainties, risks, and community identities .......................... 75 Conflicts and uncertainties about stream flow effects ................................................................ 79 DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 81 CHAPTER 5. UPSTREAM WATER, DOWNSTREAM WEALTH: THE POLITICS OF REINVESTMENT IN THE FEATHER RIVER WATERSHED ......................................................................................... 85 CONCEPTS: POLICY FRAMES AND PES ................................................................................................ 86 Policy frames .......................................................................................................................... 86 ii Payment for ecosystem services ............................................................................................... 87 COMPETING POLICY FRAMES IN CALIFORNIA WATER SUPPLY POLICY .......................................................... 89 Engineering solutions: moving water ........................................................................................ 89 “Reinvestment:” The emergence of a new policy frame in the Feather River watershed ............... 92 Outcomes of the reinvestment reframing strategy .................................................................... 98 THE LIMITS OF “REINVESTMENT” ..................................................................................................... 101 PG&E: It’s not our responsibility ............................................................................................. 102 State water contractors: What about the Delta? ..................................................................... 104 Technocratic knowledge and the limits of PES ......................................................................... 106 CONCLUSIONS: THE POLITICS AND PITFALLS OF REINVESTMENT AS A FRAMING DEVICE ................................. 108 CHAPTER 6: NAVIGATING CONFLICT, SCIENTIFIC UNCERTAINTY, AND POLITICAL RISK: HEADWATERS RESTORATION AND THE FOREST SERVICE ..................................................... 110 LITERATURE STRESSES ORGANIZATIONAL BARRIERS TO GOVERNMENT COLLABORATION ................................ 111 CONTEXT: EVOLVING AGENCY APPROACHES TO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ................................................ 113 WHAT SHAPES AGENCY COLLABORATION: POLITICS AND ORGANIZATION .................................................. 117 Benefits and incentives for collaboration ...................................................................................... 117 Collaborative