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| Poster presentations at the Raw Deal (Photo taken by Chris Ferguson) |
Trust forms
the backbone of all relationships—between family members, friends and…policy
actors and the community? Over the last few months I have been interviewing and
observing policy actors (practitioners, policy makers, officials, and organization
members) who have influence over the creation, implementation, and enforcement
of environmental regulations in the Red Cedar Watershed. This research is a
part of the research conducted by the Linking Applied Knowledge in
Environmental Sustainability Research Experience for Undergraduates (LAKES REU)
at UW-Stout. My goal was to gain an understanding of the ways that policy
actors view land use and water pollution in the watershed, their opinions on
the effectiveness of current policies, programs, as well as the decision-making
process behind those environmental policies.
I attended
public meetings, such as County Board committee meetings, City Council meetings
and strategic planning sessions so that I could observe the ways that the
people involved in policy and planning communicated to one another and the
community. Nineteen interviews were conducted with policy actors at different
agencies, levels of government, and NGOs, including actors from the Department
of Natural Resources (DNR); Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer
Protection (DATCP); Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRSC); Dunn County
Land Conservation Division (County LCD); Dunn County Board; City of Menomonie;
University of Wisconsin-Extension (UW-Extension); and Tainter/Menomin Lake Improvement
Association (TMLIA) over the span of 8 weeks.
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| Me and Dan Prestebak, my favorite County Conservationist :) |
While some of these interviews
took place at agencies and officials’ offices, most of my interviews took place
while sitting in a booth at Legacy Chocolates over cups of coffee. During these
conversations, it occurred to me how deep-rooted a value trust is in
relationships of any capacity—even with me, an undergraduate student from
Philadelphia, PA. By the end of the interviews, many of my interviewees and I
had moved past awkward first introductions and questions to chatting casually
about Menomonie, politics, our lives, and our families. We bonded, and it showed
in our smiles, handshakes and hugs exchanged every time I saw them again after
our interviews.
This
relationship building, created by spending time and getting to know others also
spilled over into my interviewees’ professional life. Overwhelmingly, the people that I spoke to
told me that one of the most important parts of their jobs—whether it be in an
organization, city office, or state or local agency—is building and maintaining
relationships with the community and the people they work with. And these
relationships are especially important when dealing with the algae blooms
polluting Tainter Lake and Lake Menomin. One state agency official told me, “…we’re
polluting the water, so it’s something that we’re doing that we need to do
differently to stop that from happening. So anytime you want to change human
behavior, the only way you can do that is by getting to know people…building
the trust, building the community, and somehow moving people in that direction
of change.”
Sounds
simple enough, right? However, trust is built over time, and time is money.
Many respondents voiced a concern over a lack of funding for staff positions
and activities to enforce environmental regulations. This is largely caused by
a lack of political support from the federal and state government, which is
demonstrated by a transition of state and local agency staff mostly doing
groundwork talking to homeowners and farmers, to now writing grants and
overseeing programs directed toward changing behavior. This has led to a large
shift away from traditional enforcement mechanisms (such as cost-sharing)
toward agencies providing incentives for voluntary compliance with
environmental regulations (such as grants and programs).
Unfortunately,
relationship and trust-building is still at the crux of any successful
environmental regulation. More funding from the federal and state government
toward staffing positions to do the one-on-one consultations is needed to
spread awareness of the available incentives and convince landowners and farmers
of the economic and environmental benefits afforded from them. “And that’s not
something you can do in a short amount of time with variable resources,” my interviewee
continued. “… So I think if we had more money to spend on those people hours on
working to build trust and working to build relationships, I think we’d be a
lot more successful…The problem is getting people to do that kind of stuff. And
that’s where the money comes in, that’s where you need to have somebody out
there doing the foot work, meeting with those people, building their trust,
building their community and making it happen. More money would help, but more
money properly directed more than anything else.”
Breaking
through the financial and political barriers to more successful environmental
regulation will likely take time, but change is already on the horizon. The
Tainter/Menomin Lake Association, along with Dunn County Board and Dunn County
Environmental Services has been discussing changing the County Land
Conservation Division to the Land and Water Conservation Division with the
inclusion of a Water Conservationist to more directly help landowners and
farmers better protect the watershed. The addition of new staff and more opportunities
for relationship and trust-building is definitely a step in the right
direction.
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