Collaborative Watershed Management in Georgia: Successes and Challenges

In spite of having one of the best developed, most institutionalized systems of court-connected ADR in the country, Georgia has certainly been a late adopter of ECR. Only in the last 3 years has the state’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD) dipped its toe in the pool of stakeholder participation in policy making processes. However, this did not stop a large group of water stakeholders in North Georgia from undertaking a collaborative effort at monitoring and managing water at the watershed level. The Lake Allatoona-Upper Etowah River Partnership began meeting in the fall of 2003 and has accomplished Georgia’s first comprehensive watershed monitoring, assessment and protection plan. This group includes seven counties and three water and sewer districts. It has been partially sponsored by the US Army Corps of Engineers and has included input from stakeholders in numerous government agencies and civic groups (e.g. FWS, EPA, USGS, TNC, and others). This presentation will discuss the key factors that contributed to the creation and continuation of these efforts, in the absence of regulatory mandates to conduct work at the watershed level. This effort represents the first of its kind in Georgia and is novel throughout the Southeastern US in many respects.

Breakout Session Presenter: Susan S. Raines, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University. She has worked with collaborative efforts for almost two decades throughout the U.S. and internationally. She is a mediator and trainer for court-connected disputes and has worked with organizations such as the Army Corps of Engineers, The United Nations, The Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the Environmental Protection Agency, Georgia Environmental Protection Division, the European Union, the Florida Supreme Court, and many local governments and court systems. She designs, facilitates and evaluates public decision making processes, particularly those related to environmental decision making. She is also the Editor-In-Chief of Conflict Resolution Quarterly.