The Conasauga River Alliance

Location:

Tennessee and Georgia

What lessons can be drawn?

The Conasauga River Alliance case demonstrates the tremendous value of simply providing a “place” where citizens and groups who care about a watershed can go to contribute ideas and energy. Without such a forum, this passion and interest will lie untapped. In addition, having such a “place” provides an important identity with the broader watershed for those involved that helps transcend individual and group goals and perspectives, enabling larger issues to be tackled. As Doug Cabe commented, “We’ve still got a lot of growing to do, but we’ve done a great job. We’re pretty well known. We’ve done a good job protecting the watershed and bringing in all the partners…You know, having a local group that can make recommendations about where they live and what they want to see in the watershed [is powerful].”

 

The CRA experience also highlights the importance of a coordinator role and an effective organizational structure. Partnerships require organization and management; the partnership “label” is not sufficient to ensure progress. They need to be managed in a thoughtful and deliberate manner that enables individuals and groups to meaningfully participate, communicate and coordinate their activities. A mechanism is needed to bridge interests and define and pursue overarching goals, to select among project activities, to attract resources and involvement, to coordinate activity, and to enable communication and learning to occur. It is important to find ways to structure the process in a way that enables those involved to easily communicate, share information and plans, and coordinate their activity. A thoughtful structure enables the partnership to more deliberately ensure that different perspectives are being heard and hopefully communicated back across the many groups and communities within the watershed.

 

A successful partnership will inevitably attract an increasing number of stakeholders over time who are interested in contributing to the group’s success. As Doug Cabe explains, the Conasauga River Alliance is facing that situation now: “We do need to move on. We need to broaden the Alliance and bring in the money and partners that want to participate, that want to be here, and that can really help us grow.” Planning for and including mechanisms to evaluate and/or accommodate this growth and change in any partnership over time is necessary.

 

The Conasauga case also illustrates the added-value of adopting a partnership approach for agencies such as the Forest Service. As Cabe noted, being part of the Conasauga River Alliance has “been a good thing for the Forest Service because they are constantly under attack from the environmental groups.” By being involved in community-based efforts and being visible, the Forest Service has earned the trust of local citizens in the watershed.

This site was developed by the Ecosystem Management Initiative through a partnership with the US Forest Service and the US Department of Interior. Read more.