Collaborative national forest management in Trinity County, California

Many natural resource conflicts are characterized by intractability and resistance to resolution. The fields of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and collaborative-based resource management (CBRM) prescribe applicable conflict resolution practices to address intractable natural resource conflicts. Decades-long conflicts in the Pacific Northwest over national forest management present a multitude of cases of natural resources-based intractable conflicts and the various attempts that have been made to solve them. This project uses a case study to discuss the ADR practice of frame analysis and CBRM's advisory group approach to address intractable natural resource conflicts in Trinity County. This project investigates how stakeholder identity and stakeholder inclusivity contribute to natural resource conflict intractability. Specifically, this project questions ADR's use of rigid stakeholder identity categorization. Instead, I suggest embracing the breadth of identities that is typical of stakeholders living in rural communities. This project also discusses the importance of stakeholder inclusivity in the CBRM advisory group model, focusing on the positive incorporation of stakeholder groups who promote points of view that are potentially destructive to collaborative processes. The goal of this project is to add to the understanding of conflict resolution processes that seek to resolve intractable natural resource conflicts. This project assists ADR and CRBM practitioners, local stakeholders, and federal land management agencies who are working to resolve intractable national forest management conflicts in forest-dependent communities.