Protocols
Operational Protocols for the Collaborative Process (UPDATED!)
Sponsor: Bureau of Land Management, Tucson Field Office
Convener: U. S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution
Scope and focus: The overall goal of this effort is to convene
a balanced representation of affected stakeholders to seek agreement over the key
elements of a comprehensive travel management plan for BLM lands within the Middle
Gila Canyons Travel and Transportation planning area. The travel management plan
will identify designations on BLM lands for motorized and non-motorized travel,
closures and other use restrictions, maintenance and improvements, and the acquisition
of easements for road or trail access. The planning process will take a landscape-scale
approach, and will include specific recommendations on how to deal with key controversial
sites such as Martinez Canyon.
Project area: The Middle Gila Canyons area is located in south-central
Arizona, in the vicinity of Florence and Superior, in Pinal County, Arizona. The
general area that will be the focus of this effort is bounded by Florence-Kelvin
Highway on the south, Highway 79 on the west, Highway 60 on the north, and Highway
177 on the east.
Goal: Recommendations from the collaborative workshops will help
BLM define a proposed action for travel management designations to be analyzed for
compliance with environmental laws and regulations. Input from workshop participants
is viewed as essential to ensuring that the route designations on BLM lands adequately
accommodate access needs and protect resources, and are coordinated among the various
land jurisdictions in the project area.
The collaborative workshops are but one opportunity to provide input to the BLM's
travel management planning process. Interested stakeholders can also provide input
directly to the Tucson Field office.
Time frame: The collaborative workshops will take place between
February 22 and May 1, 2007. Any proposed adjustments to this time frame will be
discussed with and approved by the sponsor.
Costs and expenses: The BLM will cover all costs for planning and
facilitation, as well as costs associated with meeting venues and logistics. Participants
will cover all individual costs associated with their attendance, including travel
expenses.
Participation: Participation in the workshops is voluntary, but
regular participation is requested by invitation of the convener. The US Institute
is committed to achieving balanced and effective representation of all affected
stakeholder interests. Participants are not viewed as formal representatives of
individual organizations or constituencies, and are not expected to sign off on
the workshop recommendations. However, it is expected that participants will work
to provide ongoing communication and exchange throughout the process with people
and groups sharing similar interests.
The meetings are considered open forums, and observers to the process are welcome.
Comment periods will be provided periodically during each workshop session.
Participants' roles and responsibilities: Participants are responsible
for attending all scheduled workshop sessions, for bringing their unique perspective
to the process, and for working constructively with other interests to develop recommendations
for travel and transportation management in the project area. Participants are responsible
for being informed about the issues, reading all relevant background material and
correspondence, contributing useful information to the discussions, and serving
as an accurate and objective information source for others who have similar interests
but are unable to attend the workshops.
Sponsor roles and responsibilities: The BLM will designate appropriate
staff to participate in the workshops. BLM staff will observe and participate in
all discussions, and will serve as resource persons to clarify issues related to
the decision process, relevant federal land use policies, and technical aspects
of travel management. BLM leadership is committed to using the recommendations of
the group in developing the proposed action for travel management in the Middle
Gila Canyons area, and will seek appropriate means to resolve any remaining disagreements
and controversies surfaced during the discussions, if needed.
Convener roles and responsibilities: The U. S. Institute for Environmental
Conflict Resolution will serve as a neutral convener of the collaborative process,
identifying and assembling a group of participants that brings a broad spectrum
of interests to the deliberations. The Institute will work with participants to
organize the workshop sessions, and will provide facilitation and documentation
of all proceedings. Institute staff will maintain regular communication with all
participants throughout the process, including the development and maintenance of
a project website, and will make themselves available for consultation between workshop
sessions. The Institute will also produce a final report of the process. The report
will essentially be the description of the proposed action for the travel management
plan that will be analyzed for compliance with the NEPA. The report will be circulated
to all participants for review and comment; it will be an independent assessment
of the group's discussions, agreements, and remaining points of controversy and
will include proposed next steps for implementation of recommendations, including
steps for resolving remaining areas of disagreement among participants, if there
are any.
Decision rules: The group will seek consensus, whenever possible,
on recommendations for key elements of the BLM's travel management plan for the
Middle Gila Canyons area. Where consensus cannot be reached, points of ongoing disagreement
or controversy will be noted, and either addressed during the workshops, or recorded
for consideration by BLM. There is no quorum requirement for the collaborative process
- participants present and active at a given meeting will seek to work together
to define points of agreement and identify remaining points of controversy.
Legal and policy framework: Input from the workshops must be in
conformance with the existing Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the area, and in
compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Relevant input from
the workshops which is not in conformance with the existing RMP will be considered
in the RMP revision anticipated in the next three years. The BLM will analyze the
environmental impacts of the travel management plan through an Environmental Assessment
(EA). For further information on how the workshops fit into the NEPA and BLM planning
process see this NEPA PowerPoint
Presentation
The collaborative workshops are not subject to the requirements of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act (FACA), because they are not "advisory committees" as defined by FACA.
Any member of the public may participate in the workshops, there is no select participant
group or formal organizational structure, and they are being organized and facilitated
by an independent, third-party neutral(the U. S. Institute).
Information and communications:
- Information: The U. S. Institute will work with BLM and all participants
to provide all necessary information during the collaborative process. This will
include regular e-mail and mail correspondence, the maintenance of a project website
(http://gila.ecr.gov), and occasional survey questionnaires and results.
- Confidentiality: The U. S. Institute will not include confidential
or proprietary information in documentation of the collaborative process. Conversations
or communications held in private with individual participants or groups will be
considered confidential unless otherwise identified by participants.
- Describing the process to others: Participants are encouraged to
share accurate and objective information about the process with non-participants
(i.e., people who cannot attend the workshop, but want to remain informed/involved).
Workshop summaries and other documents will be made available for participants (primarily
through the project website) to use in communicating the process to others.
- Relations with the press and the wider public: Members of the press
will generally not be invited to observe meetings. However, if press arrive at meetings
they will be allowed to remain, but will be asked to report without attribution.
Participants may choose to do interviews with the press outside of workshop sessions,
but are asked to give due consideration to the effect their comments may have on
other participants and the process as a whole. Participants are asked to utilize
workshop documentation accurate and objective information to the press and to other
publicly available forms of information (e.g., websites or listserves). As appropriate,
the U. S. Institute will work with all participants to draft and issue news releases
about the process.
Proposed ground rules:
- Participate actively, both in offering comments, and in listening to those of others.
- Comments should be limited to those that address the issues within the scope of
the Middle Gila Canyons travel management planning process.
- Avoid blaming, personal attacks, or put-downs. Ask questions of one other to seek
clarity and understanding.
- Acknowledge lessons from the past, but focus on creating recommendations for the
future.
- Minimize interruptions and side conversations (this includes cell phones).
- Meetings will start and end on time. If meetings are to be extended beyond the agreed
upon time frame, the facilitators will seek agreement from all participants.
- Avoid using jargon, acronyms, or unfamiliar technical terms; if you have to, offer
a definition or explanation that can be readily understood by all participants.
- Everyone shares responsibility for following the ground rules.
For comments or questions about this website, please contact: usiecr@ecr.gov.
This page was last updated 1/6/2011.