Assignment HDC4-1
This assignment is required for all students for the 6th assignment due date (April 21). The assignment only involves participation in the HDC4-1 Forum you do not need to turn in any written assignments for this module. Please read the instructions carefully.
Step 1: Read selected materials.
(You can use the questions to guide you through the readings.)
Read this article to start:
Getting in Step: Engaging and Involving Stakeholders in Your Watershed
http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/outreach/documents/stakeholderguide.pdf
( Section 2 Getting Started pp 13-16 and Section 4 Building Your Stakeholder Group pp. 20-43 ).
- What are some specific steps you should take and questions you should ask before identifying, inviting, and involving stakeholders in your watershed management effort?
- What is your reaction to the description of outreach offered in this reading? How has it challenged your previous conception of what outreach is?
- What are the major steps to “Building Your Stakeholder Group,” as it is presented in section 4 (pp. 29-43)? Did anything in this section help you in a large or small way? Did anything in this section surprise or challenge you?
And then choose 2 of the following:
Chess C., Hance B.J. and Gibson, G. (2000) Adaptive Participation in Watershed Management. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation; Third Quarter 2000; 55, 3. ( in the Reading Packet )
- What did you learn about "getting the right participation?"
- What did you learn about "getting the participation right?"
- In what ways did this article help you?
- How did it challenge you?
- What questions do you have (or still have) after reading it?
Gregory, R. (2000) Using Stakeholder Values to Make Smarter Environmental Decisions. Environment, 42(5):34-44. ( in the Reading Packet )
- What did this article and the Tillamook Bay case study help you learn about
- Framing decisions?
- Defining key objectives?
- Establishing alternatives?
- Identifying consequences?
- Clarifying tradeoffs?
- What are some of the benefits of this structured decision making approach to integrating stakeholder values with decision making? What are some of the limitations of this approach?
- How did this article challenge or help your thinking in any way?
Webler, T. and Tuler, S. (2001) Public Participation in Watershed Management Planning: Views on Process from People in the Field. Research in Human Ecology, 8(2):29-39. ( in the Reading Packet )
- According to this study, what are the four views of what constitutes a "good" public participation process? What are your thoughts on each of these 4 approaches?
- What are the "Implications for Practice?"
- How did this article challenge or help your thinking in any way?
US EPA. (2005) Build Partnerships. In EPA Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters. ( Chapter 3 Build Partnerships Section 3.1 thru 3.44 (Pp. 3.1 thru 3.20))
- Which of the "Driving Forces" do you think are most important? How do you think considering (or failing to consider) these driving forces contributes to successfully involving stakeholders in watershed efforts?
- What is involved with identifying stakeholders? How does that process occur?
- How does the description offered in this resource help your understanding of who stakeholders are, what they bring, and how to keep them involved? What questions does this reading answer? What questions does it leave or create?
Additional Resources. These are briefer or more technical resources that you may find helpful. Please take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with these :
Ohio EPA. (1997). A Guide to Developing Local Watershed Action Plans in Ohio. (Pp. 7-10). http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dsw/nps/wsguide.pdf (PDF format)
International Association for Public Participation (go to pull down menu item "Practitioner Tools" and read the "Spectrum" and "Toolbox") http://www.iap2.org/
Step 2: General questions concerning stakeholder involvement:
Use your prior knowledge along with the readings you have just completed to answer the following questions [NOTE: You will be posting your responses to these questions on the on-line forum (info below) you will not turn your responses in to OWA instrucutors]:
- What did you learn from the readings? Please share your insights from the two readings you chose. Identify each of the readings and comment on (a) what you found helpful about the reading, (b) what you found confusing about the reading, (c) how the reading has changed your views on stakeholder involvement, and (d) anything additional comments.
- What does planning for stakeholder involvement look like? What are the most important things to consider when planning for involving stakeholders in a watershed effort? What challenges and opportunities exist in this planning stage?
- What keeps stakeholders involved? What can you do to continue to involve stakeholders in your watershed effort? What is your role in keeping them involved? You may think about this in general terms: broadly speaking, how can you encourage continual participation? But also try to think of a specific case (hypothetical situations are welcome): Who is the stakeholder? When have they been more or less involved in the process? What makes it easy for them to "slip away" from the process? What are the potential consequences of their diminishing involvement? What can you do to help keep them involved?
- What does success look like? Describe how you can determine whether or not an effort to involve stakeholders is "successful." What criteria do you use to make that judgment? On what time scales (short-term or long-term)? What outcomes should be seen in a successful effort?
Step 3: Join the online forums in this module.
Post your responses to the questions in Step 2. There is a thread for each question in the HDC4-1 Forum. This is a "Question and Answer" forum, which means that you will only be able to view others’ postings only after you have posted your ideas.
NOTE: Post your responses by replying to the questions.
After posting your ideas, take a look at what others have written and give them some feedback.
To receive credit for this assignment, be sure to respond to at least 2 other postings from your fellow OWA participants. Feedback can be affirmative or constructively critical – think about what will help others develop a better understanding of stakeholder involvement in watershed efforts.