Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement: A Comparative Study of Agency Capture in Stream Restoration

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Organizations ranging from local community groups to the federal government spend hundreds of millions of dollars and countless hours of time each year attempting to restore streams to a more natural condition. Unfortunately, grassroots demand for restoration projects far outstrips contemporary knowledge of how to implement them, raising the stakes for conflicts over what constitutes sound science in river restoration. One of the most important of these conflicts was catalyzed by a relatively simple system for classifying and restoring stream channels developed by a consultant named Dave Rosgen. Despite the opposition of scientists and consultants with advanced degrees in hydrology and geomorphology, the Rosgen Method has become the most influential method of stream restoration in the U.S. Over the last ten years, it has been rapidly and widely adopted by federal agencies, including the EPA, USFWS, and USFS, and by natural resource departments from more than a dozen states, a process known as agency capture. This doctoral dissertation project will explain the Rosgen Method's impressive record of agency capture in the face of stiff scientific opposition and illuminate the socio-political forces at work in stream restoration. Research will take the form of comparative fieldwork in California, Maryland, and Montana, which have adopted the Rosgen Method, and Washington and Oregon, which have not. The doctoral student will draw on political ecology and science and technology studies to answer three key questions. (1) What explains the rapidity with which the Rosgen Method was adopted? (2) How do the forms and dynamics of agency capture vary? (3) Why have some states resisted adoption?In contrast to traditional environmentalist attempts to protect a pure nature from further human damage, ecological restoration claims that people can go beyond conservation and repair the environmental damage already done. The tremendous appeal of this image of humans as a positive contributor to environmental health has rapidly made restoration, particularly stream restoration, a driving force of the environmental movement and an institutionalized commitment at all levels of American government. This research will have a broad impact on stream restoration by providing a better understanding of the social and political forces that limit scientists' role in setting restoration policy. In addition, ecological restoration is transforming American environmentalism and environmental policy, yet is understudied by social scientists. This research will provide a much-needed examination of the social and political forces affecting restoration policy and the environment itself. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.