Operationalizing landscape-scale natural resource management through regional collaboratives

The challenge of integrating science and management is magnified at large landscape scales by the abundance and complexity of management jurisdictions and authorities necessarily in play.  Effective integration requires the development and maintenance of effective relationships between scientists and managers, with communications occurring at all points in the adaptive project cycle; but how to manage relationships with literally hundreds of players?  Literature on ecosystem management, collaboration, and public policy provide the concept of a “neutral backbone organization”, or “boundary organization”, which serves to shepherd the needed relationships and translate among cultures.  The USGS Great Lakes Science Center is teaming with the Great Lakes Commission to facilitate a regional collaborative aimed at integrating and empowering science and management of the invasive reed Phragmites.  USGS serves as the science boundary organization and the Commission serves as the complimentary management agency boundary organization.  Together they are: gathering multi-discipline and multi-jurisdiction interested parties; bridging the science-management culture and language divide; and facilitating common agendas for science and management, clarity of complimentary roles, platforms for continuous communication, and a vibrant adaptive management community.  Interest in developing similar, regional-scale “issue-based collaboratives” to drive science-based resource management is growing within the Great Lakes region.  Emerging discussions among the Great Lakes Commission, The Nature Conservancy, the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Landscape Conservation Cooperative, and the USGS envision a suite of regional, issue-based collaboratives operating in support of water resource management.  To date, climate, rivermouth, wind energy, and tributary connectivity colloboratives have been initiated.