Environmental Policy Commons^™

Power & Planning: A Critical Comparison Of Tribal And Non-Tribal Wildfire Protection Plans, Christian J. Heisler

Student Research Symposium

In 2003, the US government passed the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, which urged wildfire-prone communities to develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs). These plans allow local groups to contextualize risk, practice social learning, and develop social capital while addressing wildfire risk. Within planning realms, however, decision-making power is usually concentrated unequally between social groups which can limit the influence of marginalized communities. Tribal nations, specifically, have been excluded from wildfire planning since European contact, signaling that CWPPs may not reflect Indigenous worldviews and priorities. Given the recent push from the federal government to increase land management collaboration with tribes, it …

The Project‑Partnership Cycle: Managing City‑University Partnerships For Urban Sustainability And Resilience Transformations, Liliana Elizabeth Caughman, Fletcher Beaudoin, Lauren Withycombe Keeler

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Cities across the globe are striving to produce viable solutions to pressing urban sustainability and resilience problems. Despite aspirations, municipal governments often need additional support in terms of knowledge, capacity, or resources to achieve transformations. Partnerships between cities and universities are one mechanism for co-producing knowledge and achieving sustained progress on complex challenges. When properly structured and effectively managed, city-university partnerships (CUPs) are purported to increase transformative capacity in city administrations and support actions which accelerate urban transformations; but these outcomes are not always achieved. As CUPs grow in numbers, there is a pressing need to identify which principles and …

Global Climate Governance: Rising Trend Of Translateral Cooperation, Nataliya Stranadko

Public Affairs and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The transformation from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement has been analyzed by international relations scholars, international law, and transnational governance theory. The international relations literature looks at the climate regime from a perspective of power distribution, state interests, institutions, and multilateral negotiations. International law theory focuses on legal analysis and design of international climate agreements. The transnational governance literature examines the participation of transnational actors at different levels of governance. However, each of these theories overlooks a bilateral trend of cooperation in a multilateral setting that arises as part of the construction or reconstruction of the international regime. …

The Political Economy Equilibrium Of Environmental And Trade Policies In The U.S., Linda Allen

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

The U.S. has incorporated environmental policies into its all free trade agreements since it negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the early 1990s. The inclusion of environmental policies represented a major shift in trade policy but the environmental policies have not drastically changed in subsequent trade agreements over the past 25 years despite the continued involvement of environmental constituencies and policymakers. The punctuated equilibrium model provides the analytical framework for understanding the factors that gave rise to the drastic policy shift under NAFTA as well as the subsequent policy stasis, in order to inform future policymaking efforts. …

Human Confusion: Why There Must Be Justice For Non-Humans, David Johns

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the last twelve millennia—since agriculture first emerged—humans have increased their exploitation and efforts to control other species and to colonize the Earth. Human on human hierarchy and colonization of other humans follows on the colonization of the natural world. The task of conservation is to undo that colonial relationship. We have been causing the extinction of other life-forms, including hominid species, since we left Africa at least 60,000 years ago. In the last 50 years, or just about two human generations, nearly 68% of all vertebrate animals have disappeared due to human activity (WWF 2020). Humans go into an …

Collaboration And Evaluation In Urban Sustainability And Resilience Transformations: The Keys To A Just Transition?, Liliana Elizabeth Caughman

Dissertations and Theses

Climate has changed and will continue changing; city populations are swelling as urbanization continues to accelerate; extreme environmental events like heat waves and floods are becoming more severe and more common; and the climate justice movement is rapidly gaining momentum. It in this context that municipal governments find themselves urgently seeking solutions to transition cities from extractive, vulnerable, and unjust to sustainable, resilient, and equitable. The task is complex and will require systemic transformations across interconnected social, environmental, and economic infrastructures. Emerging theories regarding how to govern such massive changes suggest Transition Management strategies and the values of a just …

Racial Justice Is Climate Justice: Racial Capitalism And The Fossil Economy, Julius Mcgee, Patrick Trent Greiner

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The narrative of oppression moves through dialectical pressures. Capitalism evolved from the feudal order that preceded it, creating new forms of racial oppression that benefited an emerging ruling class [1]. Racial tensions evolve alongside economic oppression that subjugates labor to capital. The preceding racial order molds to emerging mechanisms of expropriation and exploitation by way of force and resistance. Beneath the surface of these tensions lies the interconnected threads of ecological and human expropriation. At the heart of all oppression, lies the manipulation of reproduction. The social processes necessary to reproduce black and brown communities, the ecological processes necessary to …

Community Resilience To Climate Change: Theory, Research And Practice, Dana E. Hellman, Vivek Shandas

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

This reader is an Open Educational Resource, meant to accompany a graduate or higher-level undergraduate university course in climate change resilience, adaptation, and/or planning. While the material is geared toward students in urban and regional planning, it may also be of interest to students of urban studies, public health, geography, political science, sociology, risk management, and others.

Each section of this volume includes (1) an introductory summary, (2) a reading list with full text articles, (3) student exercises meant to enhance understanding and facilitate in-class discussion, and (4) additional discussion prompts or activities for instructors to use in class. The …

Towards An Ecocentric Movement?, David Johns

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

An ecocentric movement is one which mobilizes and organizes people to transform, or abolish and replace, existing anthropocentric societies, which seek to dominate the other-than-human world. The instrumentalities of anthropocentric domination will not simply wither away. They must be forcefully dismantled. That dismantling will be neither quick nor easy, and will be met with enormous resistance from those that benefit from domination, and from those that fear change. Only by keeping one’s eyes on the prize – the recovery of biodiversity and the Earth – and not being diverted by other goals, can the prize be attained.

Economics Of Afforestation: A Global Leadership Opportunity For Efd, Jeffrey R. Vincent

Forest Collaborative Research

Slides from a presentation that examines the economics of afforestation and forest restoration in light of climatic changes, rising CO₂ levels, carbon sequestration and other factors. Provides directions for further research, including retrospective analysis of previous afforestation projects, and targeted analysis of impediments to institutional investment in afforestation.

Forest And Health: China Case, Shilei Liu, Jintao Xu

Forest Collaborative Research

Slides from a presentation that examines the relationship between ecosystem change and human health in China. The authors reviewed data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other sources to search for links between afforestation, forest protection and human health.

Strengthening Your Community By Tackling Challenges Together: Lessons From The High Desert Partnership, Jennifer H. Allen, Connie P. Ozawa, Julia Babcock

National Policy Consensus Center Publications and Reports

The people of Harney County, Oregon, have a story to tell about healing decades of conflict and coming together to ensure their community survives and thrives. Harney County, located in the southeast corner of the state, is the largest and one of the least populated of Oregon’s counties. It is a place of wide open spaces, with sagebrush deserts, rich wetlands, expansive alkali flats, stark mountains, and stately ponderosa pine forests. The economy relies heavily on the land for farming, ranching, and forestry. Yet the majority of Harney’s land is publicly owned. Historically, that was a recipe for heated disagreements …

Federal Forest Working Group: Retrospective Of Accomplishments And Ongoing Considerations 2009–2018, Pete Dalke

National Policy Consensus Center Publications and Reports

The collaborative efforts of the Federal Forest Working Group to address issues, challenges, and opportunities facing the health of Oregon's federal public forests and that of neighboring human communities has spanned three Oregon governors over more than a decade. The engagement and related direct efforts of each of these gubernatorial administrations and the state’s executive branch agencies, federal management agencies, including the US Forest Service, and many diverse partners have been essential to the advancement of this work. This report attempts to capture the underpinnings of the Federal Forest Working Group, the accomplishments over time, and considerations for future focus. …

The Nepal Community Forestry Program And Member Mental Health - June 2019, Randall Bluffstone

Forest Collaborative Research

This presentation asks - Do Community Forestry's (CFs) and better forest quality yield mental health benefits?

Asset, Property Rights And Forest Dependency: Evidence From Machine Learning Analysis - June 2019, Dambala Gelo, Daniela Lamparelli

Forest Collaborative Research

In many poor regions, the poor heavily depend on the income derived from the natural resource base. This presentation tests the forest-dependency-asset poverty hypotheses; looks at the impacts of credit constraint on forest dependency; and using machine learning approach resolves the problems of model selection uncertainty and structural parameters identification.

Aligning Endangered Species Management With Fire-Dependent Ecosystem Restoration: Manager Perspectives On Red-Cockaded Woodpecker And Longleaf Pine Management Actions, Shelby A. Weiss, Eric L. Toman, R. Gregory Corace Iii

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Endangered species management has been criticized as emphasizing a single-species approach to conservation and, in some cases, diverting resources from broad-based, land management objectives important for overall biodiversity maintenance. Herein we examine perceptions on management for an endangered species whose habitat requirements largely depend on frequent fire, the red-cockaded woodpecker (Leuconotopicus borealis Vieillot). In doing so, we consider the alignment between species-specific population recovery actions and broader ecosystem restoration goals. Through semi-structured interviews with natural resource professionals (n = 32) in the Southeast Coastal Plain of the United States, we examined manager perspectives on the evolution of recovery …

Scientists, Uncertainty And Nature, An Analysis Of The Development, Implementation And Unintended Consequences Of The Northwest Forest Plan, Gilbert David Miller

Dissertations and Theses

The conflict in the Pacific Northwest between competing visions of how federal forests should be managed resulted in a political stalemate in the early 1990s. The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) was initiated to resolve the demands for maintaining ecosystem processes and biological diversity with the social and economic needs for timber harvest. The foundation for the plan rested with the development of ecosystem management. The intent of this research is to explore the events which led up to the adoption of the NWFP, how it was implemented by the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management and the subsequent …

Recognizing And Addressing Risk Ambiguity In Sea Level Rise Adaptation Planning: A Case Study Of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Mary Ann Rozance

Dissertations and Theses

As coastal cities around the world identify and implement adaptations to sea level rise, they are faced with competing interests around what should be done and how to prioritize actions. Often, environmental problems--like confronting the challenge of sea level rise--are posed as requiring expert driven, technical solutions to identify and mitigate risks across the landscape. This framing, however, ignores the way in which diverse knowledge can help inform long-term planning horizons that address complex ways that sea level rise affects communities. The failure to integrate diverse knowledge into sea level rise adaptation can result in barriers to implementation and outcomes …

A Green New Deal For Social Work, Rupaleem Bhuyan, Stéphanie Wahab, Yoosun Park

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this editorial, we consider what climate action would mean for the social work profession. The urgency to address climate change compels social work practitioners, educators, and researchers to embrace a vision of social work that is committed to restoring human well-being and the natural world.

Monitoring Annoyance And Stress Effects Of Wind Turbines On Nearby Residents: A Comparison Of U.S. And European Samples, Gundula Hübner, Johannes Pohl, Ben Hoen, Jeremy Firestone, Joseph Rand, Brian Elliott, Ryan Haac

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

As wind turbines and the number of wind projects scale throughout the world, a growing number of individuals might be affected by these structures. For some people, wind turbine sounds and their effects on the landscape can be annoying and could even prompt stress reactions. This comparative study analyzed a combined sample of survey respondents from the U.S., Germany and Switzerland. It utilized a newly developed assessment scale (ASScale) to reliably characterize these stress-impacted individuals living within populations near turbines. Findings indicate low prevalence of annoyance, stress symptoms and coping strategies. Noise annoyance stress (NASScale) was negatively correlated with the …

Nature-Based Designs To Mitigate Urban Heat: The Efficacy Of Green Infrastructure Treatments In Portland, Oregon, Yasuyo Makido, Dana E. Hellman, Vivek Shandas

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urban heat is a growing environmental concern in cities around the world. The urban heat island effect, combined with warming effects of climate change, is likely to cause an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. Alterations to the physical, built environment are a viable option for mitigating urban heat, yet few studies provide systematic guidance to practitioners for adapting diverse land uses. In this study, we examine the use of green infrastructure treatments to evaluate changes in ambient temperatures across diverse land uses in the city of Portland, Oregon. We apply ENVI-met® microclimate modeling at the …

Elliott State Forest: Next Step Considerations For Decoupling From Oregon’S Common School Fund, Peter Harkema, Brett Brownscombe, Amy Delahanty

National Policy Consensus Center Publications and Reports

This report is the product of a series of interviews Oregon Consensus conducted with parties and stakeholders representing key interests related to the Elliott State Forest. The Department of State Lands (DSL) engaged Oregon Consensus to conduct a neutral, third-party assessment for the purpose of gathering perspectives and informing a process and framework for decoupling Elliott State Forest from the State Common School Fund (School Fund) within the framework established by the Oregon State Land Board (Land Board) at its May 9, 2017, meeting. “Decoupling” is generally intended to mean releasing all or a portion of Elliott State Forest from …

Are Government Incentives Effective For Avoided Deforestation In The Tropical Andean Forest?, Pablo Cuenca, Juan Robalino, Rodrigo A. Arriagada, Cristian M. Echeverria

Forest Collaborative Research

In order to ensure the provision of goods and services from forests, many governments have promoted less-traditional conservation initiatives such as programs of payments for ecosystem services called, more broadly, direct payments for conservation. The Socio Bosque Program (SBP) is a governmental program in Ecuador that directly provides economic incentives to rural families and local and indigenous communities who have voluntarily agreed to comply with some conservation activities. An impact evaluation method (matching) was used to assess the impact of the SBP between 2008 and 2014. This study revealed that on average, the SBP reduced deforestation by 1.5% in those …

Between A Rock And A Hot Place: Economic Development And Climate Change Adaptation In Vietnam, Khanh Katherine Pham

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores 1) the ways that three Vietnamese infrastructure development projects undermine their cities' climate change adaptation goals and 2) the political and economic forces driving these developments. In-depth interviews highlight four main perspectives of planners and decision makers, which explain why these infrastructure projects often undermine cities' climate resilience goals. I describe how the mainstream climate change adaptation planning approach, with its emphasis on participatory planning, good governance and green growth, implicitly reinforces the neoliberal growth model, even as it seeks to ameliorate the inequality and ecological destruction that such a growth model creates. My research reveals how …

The Effects Of The Nepal Community Forestry Program On Biodiversity Conservation And Carbon Storage, Harisharan Luintel, Randall Bluffstone, Robert M. Scheller

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Approximately 15.5% of global forest is controlled by ~1 billion local people and the area under community control is increasing. However, there is limited empirical evidence as to whether community control is effective in providing critical global ecosystem services, such as biodiversity conservation and carbon storage. We assess the effectiveness of one example of community-controlled forest, Nepal’s Community Forestry Program (CFP), at providing biodiversity conservation and carbon storage. Using data from 620 randomly selected CFP and non-CFP forest plots, we apply a robust matching method based on covariates to estimate whether CFPs are associated with greater biodiversity conservation or carbon …

Transforming Development And Disaster Risk, Frank Thomalla, Michael Boyland, Karlee Johnson, Jonathan Ensor, Heidi Tuhkanen, Asa Gerger Swartling, Guoyi Han, John Forrester, Darin Wahl

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Abstract:

This article focuses on the complex relationship between development and disaster risk. Development and disaster risk are closely linked as the people and assets exposed to risk, as well as their vulnerability and capacity, are largely determined by development processes. Transformation is key to moving from current development patterns that increase, create or unfairly distribute risks, to forms of development that are equitable, resilient and sustainable. Based on a review of existing literature, we present three opportunities that have the potential to lead to transformation in the development-disaster risk relationship: (i) exposing development-disaster risk trade-offs in development policy and …

Natural Resource Access Rights And Wrongs: Nontimber Forest Products Gathering In Urban Environments, Susan Charnley, Rebecca J. Mclain, Melissa R. Poe

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

This article uses research about non-timber forest products (NTFP) gathering in Seattle, Washington, USA to examine how people gain access to natural resources in urban environments. Our analysis focuses on gathering in three spaces: parks, yards, and public rights of way. We present a framework for conceptualizing access, and highlight cognitive mechanisms of access associated with foragers’ internal moral judgments about harvesting. Key findings are: (1) internal moral calculations about whether it is right or wrong to harvest a particular NTFP in a particular place are an important but previously unacknowledged mechanism governing resource access; and (2) these calculations may …

The Ecosystem Services And Biodiversity Of Novel Ecosystems: A Literature Review, Cody Evers, Chloe Wardropper, Benjamin Branoff, Elise F. Granek, Shana Hirsch, Timothy E. Link, Sofia Olivero-Lora, Codie Wilson

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scientists, policy makers, and managers use ecosystem services and biodiversity metrics to inform management goals of novel ecosystems. Fragmented knowledge of the ecosystem services provided by novel ecosystems contributes to disagreement over these systems and how they should be managed. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of refereed articles to understand how novel ecosystems have changed ecosystem services and biodiversity. Despite anthropogenic drivers of change, we found that the literature on novel ecosystems is focused on ecological rather than social aspects of novel systems. Our review highlights the frequency that novel ecosystems enhance both ecosystem services and …

The Contribution Of Sense Of Place To Social-Ecological Systems Research: A Review And Research Agenda, Vanessa A. Masterson, Richard C. Stedman, Johan Enqvist, Maria Tengö, Matteo Giusti, Darin Wahl, Uno Svedin

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

To develop and apply goals for future sustainability, we must consider what people care about and what motivates them to engage in solving sustainability issues. Sense of place theory and methods provide a rich source of insights that, like the socialecological systems perspective, assume an interconnected social and biophysical reality. However, these fields of research are only recently beginning to converge, and we see great potential for further engagement. Here, we present an approach and conceptual tools for how the sense of place perspective can contribute to social-ecological systems research. A brief review focuses on two areas where relation to …

The Associations Between Environmental Quality And Mortality In The Contiguous United States, 2000-2005, Yun Jian, Lynne C. Messer, Jyotsna S. Jagai, Kristen M. Rappazzo, Christine L. Gray, Shannon C. Grabich, Danelle T. Lobdell

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Assessing cumulative effects of the multiple environmental factors influencing mortality remains a challenging task.

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the associations between cumulative environmental quality and all-cause and leading cause-specific (heart disease, cancer, and stroke) mortality rates.

Methods: We used the overall Environmental Quality Index (EQI) and its five domain indices (air, water, land, built and sociodemographic) to represent environmental exposure. Associations between the EQI and mortality rates (CDC WONDER) for counties in the contiguous United States (n=3109) were investigated using multiple linear regression models, and random intercept, random slope hierarchical models. Urbanicity, climate and their combination were …