7846

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7846
• Author: American River Management Society
• Title: Editor
• USFW Year: Series
• USFW - Doc Type: 1994
• Copyright Material: NO

Public Involvement Across Boundaries 1

Paul D. Cowles, Edwin E. Krumpe, Ph.D., K. Lynn McCoy

Introduction

Perhaps no where else on earth, and like no other time in history, the American public is expecting and
demanding to playa greater role in river planning and management. Public involvement has been touted as
synonymous with our democratic principles of government of the people, by the people andfor the people. It
has been codified in law, ensconced in agency regulations, and embraced in the very psyche of special intereSt
groups and conservation organizations. We all know some of the many advantages of public involvement -- a
better informed public, an improved understanding of the issues faced by managers, avoidance of untenable
solutions, a sharing of values, better support for reasonable decisions, and a more positive attitude and outlook
by the public for our natural resource agencies.

At the same time, we all know that public involvement is not without its darker side, too. We know that we
can quickly become mired in endless public meetings. Our offices have become smothered tnlder motnltains of
mail and band written response forms which must be content analyzed. We have been assaulted by angry
outbursts and narne-calling, and we have been dismayed by individuals and groups selfishly pitted against one
another. Too often we have been disappointed by small town meetings where practically no one shows up. We
are often perplexed by what to do wben we are faced by the diametrically opposed viewpoints of people who
refuse to compromise. Too many times we have been disappointed when our supervisors seem to summarily
ignore what the public bas told us. Couple these problems with the general public's cynical attitude about
bureaucracy and their mis-trust of public offIcials and it is easy to see why public involvement presents a
particularly tough cballenge to river managers and planners.

In this paper we will concentrate on three important problem areas surrounding public involvement in river
planning and management. These include (1) old-fasbioned regulations, (2) basin-wide coordination, and (3)
structuring effective public meetings. Rather than just focusing on the negative, however, we will also present
some practical solutions to some of the issues surrounding these "problem areas". In addition, we will present
the results from three small working groups of American River Management Society (ARMS) members who, at
the 1994 ARMS conference in Grand Junction, Colorado, identified what they felt were some of the critical
issues related to the aforementioned problems and shared some of their own ideas for ways of implementing
public involvement across boundaries.

Regulations And Policies

Issues

It's time to face up to the fact that many of the very laws and regulations which were supposed to foster better
public involvement may indeed be working against us. For instance the NEPA legislation which brought us the
EIS and the EA has been interpreted througb regulations to require a formal, structured process of public scoping
of issues; lengthy public comment periods of 60 or 90 or 120 days; voluminous documents which analyze,
report and respond to citizen comments; sterile reports; and unresponsive hearing offIcers. All of this results in a
long protracted process which the public finds difficult to follow, impersonal, and largely tokenistic because the

IThis paper highligbts the major discussion points addressed in the public involvement session at the 1994
ARMS conference. During the session, participant work groups brainstormed issues and potential solutions, the
results of these groups' work have been included under the appropriate sub-heading.