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PART I INTRODUCTION <br />CHAPTER ONE: <br />PROBLEM AND SIGNIFICANCE <br />Brought to the negotiating table by the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, <br />representatives of the Department of Interior and three states-Colorado, Nebraska, and <br />Wyoming-have been negotiating the terms and conditions under which they will collaboratively <br />organize to re-regulate about 11 % of the average annual surface flow of the Platte River (as <br />measured near Grand Island, Nebraska) in conjunction with restoring 10,000 acres of critical <br />habitat for whooping cranes, piping plovers, and least terns during the first 13 year cooperative <br />program increment. In addition, they are prepared to test the hypothesis that the basin-wide <br />recovery program will demonstrably serve needs of pallid sturgeon, although efforts on behalf of <br />the fish will not be addressed here due to limits of space and the fact that, at this writing, there <br />are substantial unknowns that make the pallid sturgeon story best left for another moment. Most <br />parties hope that recovery program negotiations are now in their late stages but, at the very <br />earliest, any agreement will not be ready for signing until late 2004 or early 2005. Although <br />story told here ends in late 2002, the major negotiating themes and challenges were by then well <br />established. A more complete tale must await a subsequent edition. <br />Questions <br />? Two sets of questions are paramount. First, there are descriptive questions to be <br />- addressed. What is the ecosystem issue? How have water users, environmentalists, state and <br />federal authorities found themselves locked into a prolonged discussion focusing on how to <br />? mitigate the problem? What are the agendas of the participants? What are their options and how <br />? do they exert themselves in problem-solving? How does science play a role? The second <br />? question set is analytical and will be examined at the beginning and end of this essay. Why do <br />- perfectly rational resource appropriators neglect environmental matters in the first place? What <br />does it take to mobilize them to undertake concerted and collaborative action to preserve <br />? available remnants of high quality habitat and restore degraded segments? Case studies can <br />? never provide adequate testing of hypotheses, but they can generate propositions worthy of <br />? further consideration. <br />The descriptive questions will be addressed part by part, chapter by chapter. Analytical <br />questions require brief explanation. <br />Analytical Perspective <br />Why will rational resource users degrade environments? What can be done to mobilize <br />these same users to stop and then reverse environmental degradation? A tradition of inquiry in <br />the social sciences has emerged over the last three decades that has closely examined problems of <br />natural resource degradation, requisites of effective mobilization to reverse matters, and <br />attributes of the most effective long-enduring resource management organizations (Bromley