Oregon Sea Grant

It's not news that environmental topics often spark conflict. When they do, the people who want to improve social and environmental conditions must find a way around the conflict before they can make progress. Collaboration is one tool for resolving these issues. However, successful collaboration takes work. Participants must surmount the fundamental problems of incomplete and inconsistent information and imperfect understanding of complicated human and ecological systems.

In Complex Courses from Conflict to Action, the authors review landowners' responses to ordinance revisions proposed by Tillamook County in 1999. Many of the landowners expressed suspicion of the proposed environmental solutions, feeling unheard by managers and scientists alike. Noting that the conflict over the Tillamook riparian ordinance is ready for a collaborative approach, the authors discuss the lessons learned from the conflict and reflect on the nature of successful collaboration.