IEN Areas of Focus
Collaborative Approaches to Environmental Management
Community Based Collaboratives Research Consortium CBCRC: IEN coordinated the national CBCRC with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Research Consortium serves as a forum for researchers, agencies, community and environmental groups, tribes, and process facilitators to share research findings concerning collaborative approaches to environmentally management. As part of this project, IEN developed an interactive website and online research database: www.cbcrc.org.
Collaboration: A Guide for Environmental Advocates: Developed a handbook for environmentalists that provides guidelines on when and how to participate effectively in collaborative efforts for environmental management. Partners in the project were The Wilderness Society and the National Audubon Society. Hard copies available from IEN for $8.00
To Download A Free Copy (80 pages, with photos):
Part I Part II
Part III
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Fisheries
Bi-State Blue Crab Advisory Committee: Facilitated outreach and stakeholder involvement for the Chesapeake Bay Commission process over two years to evaluate the decline of the blue crab fishery and to develop a longterm bay-wide strategy to restore the ecological and ecnomic sustainability of the fishery. Developed a rpeort for the Virginia Sea Grant to evaluate stakeholder perceptions and applications for the process.
• Blue Crab Stakeholder Perspectives: Developed an analysis of the complex issues and different stakeholder perspectives involved in blue crab management conflict in the Chesapeake Bay. Published an report called, "The Commons Trap and Fishery Deliberations."
• Menhaden Fishery Analysis: Conducted a conflict assessment for the Virginia Sea Grant to determine whether issues surrounding the Menhaden fishery might be appropriate for a facilitated “round table” process of some kind. Published a report called, "The Menhaden Fishery Controversy: A Convening Analysis."
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Forests and parks
Roundtable on Sustainable Forests: Facilitated the Communications and Outreach work group of the multi-stakeholder, national Roundtable on Sustainable Forests for the Meridian Institute and the USDA Forest Service from 1999 through 2002, leading to the development and publicaiton of the nations first National Report On Sustainable Forests.
Virginia Forest Legacy: Designed and facilitated a series of seven stakeholder involvement meetings for the development of Virginia’s Forest Legacy program.
Virginia Chip Mills: Conducted an assessment of issues and prospective actions concerning chip mills in Virginia, for the legislative Subcommittee on the Impact of Satellite Chip Mills.
Mount Rogers Managment Plan: Designed and facilitated community involvement for the first steps of a new national park management plan in Southwest Virginia. (Mount Rogers National Recreation Area  )
Mount Rogers Recreation Plan: Mediated a multiparty public meeting to resolve conflicts among users of the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail (VHHT) and the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area trails.
Shenandoah National Park Plan: Facilitated multiparty community discussions about controversial proposed uses for a national park’s natural and cultural resources.
Chatahoochee Forest Plan: Mediated a multiparty public interest dispute over a proposed cutting in a sensitive area of a national forest in Georgia.
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Health
Tobacco Communities: Facilitated and convened a multi-year effort to build common ground among tobacco farmers, various tobacco interest groups, and health advocate groups. This led to the successful brokering of 60% of the tobacco settlement funds to assist rural tobacco farming communities to reduce youth smoking. (1994 to 2001)
Mental Health Parity: Mediated a multiparty Task Force to provide recommendations on the contentious legislation for mental health parity in Virginia.
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Heritage
Heritage Tourism Planning: Designed and facilitated a process for engaging citizens in five counties to develop a regional Heritage Tourism map for the Virginia Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission in central Virginia. The map includes historical, cultural and environmental sites, events, and facilitaties that will entice heritage tourists to see and do more in the region.
Venture Heritage Tourism Map
Fluvanna Heritage: Designed and facilitated a community Forum for Fluvanna County, Virginia, to identify important elements of the community cultural, historical and natural heritage and how it can be preserved. Fluvanna Heritage Forum .
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Land use and planning
Facilitated the development of a master plan for Crozet, Virginia.
Mediated a land use/ development dispute in St. Michael’s county, Maryland.
Facilitated a multiparty consensus building effort for rural land use planning in Maryland.
Facilitated citizen involvement in the redevelopment of a brownfields site in Shenandoah, Virginia, which served as a national model for brownfields redevelopment. The visioning workshops were followed by workshops on conflict resolution and consensus building, and were intended to demonstrate how communities can increase skills to facilitate consensus building.
Facilitated a series of three public involvement meetings about the siting and design of a new judicial complex for Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia.
Courthouse siting dialog: Designed and facilitated a series of public conversations about the controversial siting of the new county courthouse in Fluvanna County, Virginia.
Streamlined Permitting: Facilitated an internal government discussion for Henrico County, Virginia, about rationalizing the development review process among departments and agencies. The goal was to streamline the process in a fashion that maintained fairness among development applications and collaboration among agencies.
Airport Siting: Mediated multi-party discussions about the siting of an airport in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act: Facilitated a strategic planning workshop to devise a plan for Phase III implmentation of the Act for the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department.
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Land conservation
Designed and facilitated a statewide conference in Virginia to develop priorities for land conservation. http://www.dof.state.va.us/
Designed and facilitated a community Forum in Fluvanna County, Virginia, to identify important elements of open space, and ways to preserve community open space. Fluvanna Heritage Forum
Conducted research on options for conservation land acquisition, and convened in 1997 to 1998 meetings of Virginia’s environmental group to discuss these options. This led to the now formalized land conservation consortium.
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Power
Facilitated Virginia Department of Environmental Quality technical advisory committees to develop options for addressing the impacts of new power plants and other facilities on the Commonwealth’s air and water resources.
Mediated and facilitated a settlement negotiation about involving the relicensing of two dams on the Roanoke River, at Lake Gaston and Roanoke Rapids in Virginia.
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Transportation
As part of a two-year project for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission to develop a regional integrated land use and transportation plan, IEN developed a handbook for citizens and professionals on developing an integrated land use and transportation plan. Part I describes the Corplan computer model created by the project and the thinking behind its development. Part II describes the process of organizing and conducting a planning process build around the model.
Mediated a two-year consensus building effort for the Virginia Department of Transportation to provide recommendations on how to ensure traffic safety and flow through the congested Bryan Park Interchange area, while preserving Richmond’s much beloved Bryan Park. A copy of the final report is available here.
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Superfund and Brownfields
Facilitated public involvement for the United States Enviromental Protection Agency for Superfund site redevelopment in various states across the nation.
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Sustainable development
Facilitated and convened a multi-year effort to build common ground among tobacco farmers, various tobacco interest groups, and health advocate groups. This led to the successful brokering of 60% of the tobacco settlement funds to assist rural tobacco farming communities to reduce youth smoking. (1994 to 2001)
Designed and facilitated a community Forum in Fluvanna County, Virginia, to identify important elements of the community cultural, historical and natural heritage and how it can be preserved. Fluvanna Heritage Forum
Facilitated the development of a joint city-county vision for Charlottesville and Albermarle, Virginia.
Designed and facilitated the development of a five-county regional vision for the Rappahannock-Rapidan Region, Virginia.
Facilitated public discussions about the controversial prospect of city reversion in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Facilitated technical advisory committees for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to develop options for addressing the impacts of new power plants and other facilities on the Commonwealth’s air and water resources.
Conducted research for the Environmental Law Institute to determine common characteristics of successful grant proposals for U.S. EPA sustainable development grants.
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Toxics
Chesapeake Bay Toxics Strategy: Facilitated a meeting of Chesapeake Bay watershed leaders to develop strategies for reducing toxics throughout the Chesapeake Bay Basin for the Chesapeake Bay Program.
Lead Based Paint Hazards: Facilitated public involvement and agency meetings for the US Environmental Protection Agency on lead-based paint regulations, including the definition of “hazard” levels of lead content in various substances.
Ground Water Protection Planning: Facilitated a year-long task force of agencies and citizens to develop a Virginia state plan for protecting ground water from pesticides.
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Waste
Hog Waste Regulations and Biosolid Land Applications: Designed and facilitated numerous public meetings on issues such as new zoning ordinance provisions for hog waste lagoons in Halifax County Virginia, repermitting a biosolids lagoon in Goochland County, Virginia, and land application of biosolids in Culpepper County, Virginia.
Biosolids Study: Conducted a study on the state biosolids program for the Virginia Department of Health, involving a survey of 23 counties and various stakeholders, and provided recommendations on how the program could be improved. Published a report called Land Application of Biosolids in Virginia in Virginia in 1997.
Septic siting: Facilitated and mediated a regulatory negotiation to develop consensus recommendations for the new onsite septic regulations for the Virginia Department of Health. A copy of the final report is available here.
Waste Tire Trust Fund: Mediated a multiparty consensus building effort to provide recommendations on a policy for the uses of the Waste Tire Trust Fund. This led to the development of the Waste Tire End-User Reimbursement, thereby saving millions of tires from disposal as waste. (1995)
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Water Resources
Developed a Model Wellhead Protection Implementation: Developed a package of model plans, ordinances, and outreach programs for Virginia localities. Contact Mary Ann Massie at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, 804-698-4042
Chespeake Bay Roundtable: Facilitated the Chesapeake Bay Roundtable from 1984 to 1986, which led to the formation of the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department (CBLAD).
Virginia Minimum Instream Flow: Facilitated discussions leading to the development of the Virginia Minimum Instream Flow legislation (1989), which enabled communities to establish minimum inflow stream criteria.
Groundwater Protection Steering Committee: Facilitated Virginia's ongoing inter-agency steering committee on ground water since 1987. The Steering Committee is sponsored by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
Dam Relicensing: Mediated and facilitated a settlement negotiation about involving the relicensing of two dams on the Roanoke River, at Lake Gaston and Roanoke Rapids in Virginia.
Virginia Coastal Program: Facilitated stakeholder involvement in the development of a multi-year strategic plan for the Virginia Coastal Program.
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Watershed planning
Watershed Planning: Designing and facilitating public involvement in the development of watershed plans for Fairfax County, Virginia. These watershed plans will provide an assessment of management and resource needs by defining problems within the watershed and prioritizing appropriate and workable solutions.
Community Watershed Forums: Developed a model forum for communities to develop watershed management plans and a guide for forum implementation funded by the Chesapeake Bay Program. The first forum was the Rockfish River Forum held in Nelson County Virginia and the second form was the Anacostia River Forum was held in Washington, D.C. Two additional forums were held in collaboration with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. These projects produced watershed action plans and published a handbook Community Watershed Forums -- A Planner's Guide to allow others to follow and replicate similar processes in their watersheds.
To download a free copy, right click on the link below and click 'Save As.." (Due to formating, the PDF should be saved first to a local drive and not viewed directly online) Additionally, you may contact us to recieve a hard copy (color, 34 pgs.) for $25.00.
To Download (right-click, Save As...) or View as a PDF, Click Here
A Stream Corridor Protection Strategy for Local Governments (2002)
This practical guide can help Chesapeake Bay states move toward implementing the many facets of the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement such as the goal of 2,010 more miles of forested buffers by 2010 and a goal of locally devised watershed plans to encompass two thirds of the Bay’s drainage basin. Written in collaboration with local governments, the 63-page handbook contains the cumulative wisdom of the many expert reviewers from across the Bay’s watershed and covers stream protection strategies, tools such as stream buffers and zoning overlays and resources for conducting a protection strategy. The handbook was funded by grants from the Land Growth and Stewardship Subcommittee of the Chesapeake Bay Program and the Virginia Environmental Endowment. Printed copies of the handbook are available from our UVA Institute for $8.00 each (shipping included) or $7.00 each for two or more books.
To Download (right-click, Save As...) or View as a PDF, Click Here
Watershed Planning Primer: Writing the Virginia guide to watershed planning for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
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