Local government participation in adaptive natural resource management: Towns and villages in New York City's Catskill/Delaware Watershed

This study examined the participation of towns and villages in the Catskill/Delaware Watershed in efforts to protect the New York City drinking water supply. Multiple methods were used in an effort to develop a deep understanding of the situations facing local governments and to triangulate the various sources of data. A combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis techniques, including in-person interviews and content analysis or official documents, were used to explore the types of decisions municipalities made in support of watershed protection and the factors that influenced their decisions. In addition, the research explored the extent to which themes of adaptive management, as they relate to local governments, were present in the watershed protection scheme.; Study results suggest that all towns and villages complied with basic regulatory requirements but that they varied in the extent to which they engaged in optional watershed management activities. Town and village watershed management decisions were primarily influenced by town and village attitudes toward and interactions with New York City, the severity of watershed-related problems at the local level, and the experience of local officials in dealing with watershed management issues. A model of the interplay of the factors influencing local government watershed management decisions was developed that may be tested in other settings in which municipalities are asked to participate in natural resource management at an ecosystem scale. The results also indicated that critical elements of an adaptive management approach were missing from watershed management in the Catskill/Delaware Watershed as it included towns and villages.