[...]... use of the initiative, in Colorado and other states, became an increasingly popular policy tool in the 1990s, especially for environmental and natural resource policy In Colorado, the number of initiatives on the ballot in the 1990s surpassed the total number that was on the ballot in the 1970s and 1980s combined.80 Since the initiative process was adopted in Colorado in 1910, 175 initiative and referenda... USFWS U.S Fish and Wildlife Service USOSM U.S Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement WVAML West Virginia Abandoned Mine Lands WVDEP West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection WVDMR West Virginia Division of Mining and Reclamation WVDNR West Virginia Department of Natural Resources xiii This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 1 Innovation, Implementation, and Institutions THE... regulation, and voluntary regulation were increasingly popular in the 1980s and 1990s as alternative means to traditional environmental and natural resource regulation The scholarly and practitioner literature is filled with stories describing new innovations in environmental and natural resource policy.24 What we do not understand is why such innovations persist and 8 CHAPTER 1 what factors influence... among Individual, Structural, and Cultural Factors That Influence the Implementation of Innovation 18 2.1: Influences on Innovative Policy 31 2.2: Influences of Environmental and Natural Resource Governance on Innovations 38 3.1: Influences on Land Use Governance 71 4.1: Hierarchical Influences on Watershed Governance 5.1: Hierarchical Influences on Forest Governance 102 139 6.1: Consistent Alignment in. .. inherent tensions between innovation and institutions Innovations, by definition, are transitory Institutions are not How then do we establish new practices that can endure? If institutional context matters during implementation, then the dominant ways of researching, understanding, and promoting innovation are wrong Existing theory and practice fail to recognize these institutional opportunities and. .. PROBLEM WITH INNOVATION A DEFINING TREND IN THE 1980s AND 1990s was the proliferation of seemingly innovative solutions to difficult environmental and natural resource problems Innovation emerged in response to the inadequacy of traditional regulatory approaches to address a new generation of problems that to varying degrees involved complex and dynamic systems, great uncertainty, tangled political and jurisdictional... understanding environmental and natural resource governance No doubt those who study each of these branches of institutionalism in depth will find fault with some of the specifics of this synthesis However, this should not discredit the utility of the institutional approach as it is applied to this new context of environmental and natural resource governance The better we understand the dynamics of innovation,... boundaries, and a variety of control options.1 Not surprisingly, these innovations raised the necessary question: How well have we fared in this new era of environmental and natural resource policy innovation? Consider the following examples In 1989 the North Carolina Division of Water Quality (NCDWQ) embarked on a bold effort to address nutrient pollution in the Tar-Pamlico River basin Beginning in the... Resistance includes inertial forces that hinder change Innovations are not brought into a world free of existing structures and power dynamics Vested interests often seek to preserve the status quo Historical institutionalism and punctuated equilibrium theory address the power dynamics, interest groups, and policy monopolies within existing structures that can obstruct change Culture entails shocks, framing,... complexity of environmental and natural resource governance creates problems for aligning these structures and processes The federated system of governance rests within international, national, state, regional, and local structures and involves a variety of public, private, and nongovernmental actors all working at different levels The nested structure provides a framework for understanding how the variety . Congress Cataloging -in- Publication Data Steelman, Toddi A. Implementing innovation : fostering enduring change in environmental and natural resource governance. Innovation FOSTERING ENDURING CHANGE IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCE GOVERNANCE Toddi A. Steelman Georgetown University Press/Washington, DC Georgetown