Stumbling forward: The organizational challenges of building and sustaining collaborative watershed management

Abstract

This article examines the challenges of collaborative approaches to ecosystem management associated with the formation and maintenance of new institutions. Individuals who lead collaborative watershed partnerships must grapple not only with complex environmental issues, but also the more mundane - but no less critical - challenges associated with building and sustaining a new organization. The authors focus on the nexus of organizational development and ecosystem (i.e., watershed) management by examining in depth how one group, the Little Miami River Partnership (LMRP), experienced and responded to the challenges of creating a collaborative organization. Results shed light on the disproportionate role that organizational development, as compared to watershed planning, efforts can play in the day-to-day operations of a watershed group. By linking the results to prior research studies, the authors draw conclusions about when and why this disproportionate emphasis on organizational development occurs and implications for practitioners and policymakers.