About the Study

A team of nine researchers from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment conducted this study for the State Trust Lands Partnership Project of the Sonoran Institute and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.  The goals of the study were to:

  • Capture on-the-ground experiences of collaborative planning on state trust lands
  • Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of this trust land management approach
  • Distill a set of best practices for managing future collaborative planning processes
  • Provide recommendations for overcoming barriers to collaborative planning involving state trust lands

The research team used a case study approach in which eight case studies were developed through 117 on-site and telephone interviews, each lasting roughly one to three hours.  The cases were identified from a larger pool of situations involving collaboration on state trust lands, and were selected for geographic representation, diversity of issues and participants, and level of completion of the process.  The specific questions framing the research were:

  • What made the process collaborative?
  • What motivated and sustained the collaborative planning process?
  • What were the benefits and costs of the process?
  • How did the following factors influence the process:

    • internal and external legal constraints?
    • agency structure, culture and politics?
    • leadership and facilitation?
    • interpersonal dynamics?

  • How was the collaborative planning process structured to be effective?
  • How did the process incorporate scientific information?