Elkhorn Mountains Cooperative Management Area

Location:

Montana

What is fostering progress?

One reason that success in this situation was possible was that there were people throughout the agencies dedicated to the idea and willing to work towards its realization. The idea of the MOU began with a forest supervisor, but filtered all the way down in the agency. George Weldon, the first Elkhorn District Ranger, said this was important, "You've got to have a communicated direction and mission from the top all the way to the bottom - all the way through the organizational structure." He felt this occurred in the Forest Service. The BLM's Merle Good agreed that the MOU was a result of "a lot of work on a lot of people's part" in all the agencies.

In addition, Weldon felt that getting an effective process in place was the most innovative aspect of the MOU: "The cooperative agreement…formalizes the processes." He said this was important for integrative, ecosystem-oriented management to endure. The success of this process extends beyond just the Elkhorn in that it provides a model for action in other areas. Weldon sees it "as a model in terms of how agencies can look across administrative boundaries and do better on-the-ground management. Those boundaries are just arbitrary." Good concurred: "It's the approach of working together - of not stopping at the boundary - that's most successful. We feel like we're really pioneers in this area."

Canfield suggested that these processes have also been a success because they gave all parties equal ownership in management of the region, which was an important motivation. "There are not as many single personalities playing major roles," she said. She also felt the processes were effective at "rebuilding trust" between groups that had sometimes had adversarial interactions in the past. Many of the same people have been involved in the management of the Elkhorn over the past 10 years, and this continuity has helped build trust. Canfield noted, "The fact that people aren't moving around so much has helped establish trust, credibility and long-term relationships."

 

 

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.