Addressing the Natural Resource Issues Facing the West

The American West is mired in controversy over natural resource management. Conflicts over water allocation, forest management, habitat for sensitive species and the threat of catastrophic fire all stifle the ability of communities, citizens and local economies to exist in a stable environment and to have a secure future.

Current governmental structures and tools are not designed to bring people together to actually solve problems. They were not designed to operate in an era of limits that create a tension between environmental, economic and community values; nor were they designed to respond to complex problems which cannot be resolved without the participation of many people.

How long would Microsoft last if Bill Gates relied on an operating system that was ten years old, or five, or even two years old? Yet we cling to natural resource operating systems that are over a century old and wonder why we cannot resolve the challenges of today.

We need new structures, new tools and new approaches. We cling tenaciously to the old ones in spite of the overwhelming evidence that they are not doing the job, that they are no longer working, and that they are disenfranchising people that otherwise could and would find a common interest in moving forward together.

The mission of the Kitzhaber Center is to explore, develop, and disseminate new tools and governance structures to supplement and/or replace our current failing natural resource policy making and problem solving structure.