Conditions of Stress: Building Local Capacities via Citizen Councils and Scoping Meetings

• Susan J. Gilbertz, Montana State University-Billings • Damon Hall, Center for Sustainability, St. Louis University • Matt Anderson, Montana State University-Billings • Alyson Rode, Montana State university-Billings

October 2013 For the American Water Resources Association Conference Bozeman, Montana •

Support for the Project

Montana Water Supply Initiative • Convene Basin Advisory Councils (BACs) to help develop water

management strategies and recommendations.

• BAC activities were projected as involving three phases:

• public scoping,

• information transfer, and

• recommendation formulation.

• Yellowstone Basin Advisory Council—Phase I

• March –September 2013

1. A Theoretical Perspective 2. The Yellowstone BAC Members 3. Design for Collecting Public Inputs: Round Table Discussions 4. Outcomes: Public Attendance Public Inputs Rankings Exercises Unifying Theme 5. Next Steps

Image from Yellowstone River Land Use Mapping and Analysis, DTM Consulting, 2013

1. Situating the Research Effort: A Theoretical Perspective

Social-Ecological Systems (SES)

Coupled human-natural systems

Yellowstone Basin: 680,000+ acres of irrigated land

Legacies Last Yellowstone Water Plan 1978

Resilience

The capacity of the system to retain or reassert a similarity of structure and function in spite of a disturbance

Building Capacities (Improving Resilience)

The Yellowstone BAC

2. The Yellowstone BAC Members

• 20 Voting Citizen Members

• Distinct Interests Groups

• Agriculture

• Industry

• Instream Flow

• Tribal

• 8 Ex-officio Members

3. Design: Round Table Discussions GOAL: 35-45 minutes of discussion

TO BEGIN: Ask participants to please introduce themselves: “Please, tell us

who you are, where you are from, and why you are participating today.”

1. What are some issues that the BAC will need to address as immediate or pressing concerns? 2. What are some issues that the BAC will need to address as long-term concerns? (perhaps as a 20-year window) 3. What sort of time horizon should the BAC establish as its focal horizon, immediate concerns, long-range concerns or some intermediate range? 4. Are there any obvious pit-falls that the BAC should avoid?

5. How can the BAC ensure a citizen-based beginning? 6. Are there any suggestions for how the BAC might ensure success?

Other Methods Used

• Demographic Survey

• Q Sort Exercise

• Discourse Coding

4. Outcomes: Public Attendance March-May 2013

Meeting Site and Date Number of Public Attendees

Billings, March 18 8 Glendive, March 27 24 Big Timber, April 12 43 Forsyth, April 24 32 Billings, May 7 30 Billings, May 8 11 TOTAL 148

4. Outcomes: Public Inputs Availability: Do we know how much water is available? Do we know when available water exceeds all needs? Do we know when water runs short?

4. Outcomes: Public Inputs

Availability

Beneficial Uses

Current Allocations

Drought Readiness

Enforcement/Protecting Senior Rights

Exempt Wells/Groundwater

Federal Reserved Rights

Fisheries and Wildlife

4. Outcomes: Public Inputs

Future Allocations/Additional Rights

Gauges/Monitoring

Hydrologic Models to Explore "Full Development“

Hydrologic Models to Explore Variability

Incentives and Support for New Technologies and Conservation Practices

Industrial Uses of Water

Irrigation Technologies and Growth

4. Outcomes: Public Inputs

Instream Flows Invasive Species Montana as Priority

Municipal Uses, Urban Development and Population Growth Planning for Water Demands

Recreational Uses

Stock Water Ponds and Tanks/Fishing Ponds

Tribal (Reserved) Rights

4. Outcomes: Public Inputs

“Use it or Lose it” Principle

Water Market Transfers Water Quality

Water Reservations

Water Storage

4. Outcomes: Rankings Exercise

Yellowstone BAC Preliminary Rankings of Issues Identified by the Public

Calculated

Score*

CONCERN

# with this

as #1

Rank

# who ranked

this as 1-7

1220 Availability 10 13

840 Drought Readiness 1 11

550

Enforcement/Protecting Senior

Rights 1 7

550 Water Quality 1 7

350 Instream Flows 0 6

340

Shifting Practices: Irrigation

Technologies 0 6

310

Future Allocations/Additional

Rights 0 5

Rankings

Conversions 1= 100

2= 90

3= 80

4= 70

5= 60

6= 50

7= 40

4. Outcomes: Rankings Exercise

Yellowstone BAC Ex-Officio Preliminary Rankings of Issues Identified by the Public

Calculated

Score*

CONCERN # with this as

#1 Rank

# who

ranked this

as 1-7

Indicates

General

Agreement w/

BAC Top

Ranks

300 Availability 3 3 X

260

Future

Allocations/Additional Rights 1 3 X

250 Current Allocations 0 3

220

Enforcement/Protecting

Senior Rights 0 3 X

210

Shifting Practices: Irrigation

Technologies 0 3 X

190 Instream Flows 0 3 X

180

Exempt Wells/

Groundwater Wells 0 3

130 Drought Readiness 0 3 X

4. Outcomes: Unifying Theme

The Yellowstone River basin planning process is guided by the following concepts: 1) delivery of information that is sufficient to understand the water resources and the current and prospective demands placed on those resources, and enable sound water use decision-making by water users and prospective users; 2) strengthening the existing water allocation system to optimize present use and establish need for future water availability under the existing doctrines of prior appropriation and beneficial use; and 3) enabling water users to achieve fairness under the law and these same doctrines in water allocation among senior and junior water right owners during times of scarcity (drought).

5. Next Steps—MCA 85-1-203

• An inventory of consumptive and non-consumptive uses;

• An estimate of water needed to satisfy future demand;

• An analysis of the effects of frequent drought and increased depletions on water availability;

• An evaluation of opportunities, including storage, to satisfy existing water rights and new water demands;

• Possible sources of water to meet the needs of the basin; and

• Any legislation necessary to address the water resource concerns in the Yellowstone basin.

Yellowstone Basin Resilience

The efforts of the Yellowstone BAC are the first steps towards increasing the capacity of the communities of the basin to retain or reassert a similarity of structure and function as it is found in all of the sub-systems of the SES (natural and human), especially as will be necessary in situations of water scarcity.