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Tapping into community wisdom and integrating local knowledge into revitalization efforts
Citation:
Williams, K., T. Angradi, Dave Bolgrien, AND J. Hoffman. Tapping into community wisdom and integrating local knowledge into revitalization efforts. St. Louis River Summit, Superior, WI, February 03 - 04, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
not applicable
Description:
Local decision-making is sometimes considered a puzzle by research ecologists, resource managers, and policy researchers. The eternal hope is to find that model or concept that provides the “right” information to support local environmental decisions. Researchers have hypothesized that ecosystem services could be that concept. The Mid-Continent Ecology Lab is currently investigating that hypothesis through a systematic investigation of local values of ecosystem services, as well as the decision making process. We argue that “local” decisions are multi-dimensional and composed of overlapping and sometimes oppositional processes. Governmental bodies, non-profit organizations, and citizens all have expertise and knowledge to contribute to the process. This particular presentation will focus on one of these dimensions namely the citizen mobilization around the revitalization effort. We present preliminary findings from research on the diverse efforts that citizens have undertaken in response to the revitalization efforts in the St. Louis River Corridor and the ecosystem services values that underlie their activities.The contents of this abstract neither constitute nor necessarily reflect US EPA policy