SEES Fall 2025 Seminar Series: Rebecca McLain & Thien-Kim Bui

This week's presentation given by guest speakers, Rebecca McLain & Thien-Kim Bui; National Policy Consensus Center, Portland State University

Collaborative Governance and Hydrosocial Territorialization: Reaching Consensus on Salmon Restoration Goals in the Columbia River Basin

After over 30 years marked by conflict, litigation, and other attempts at negotiation, the 28- member Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force successfully reached consensus in 2021 on aspirational qualitative and quantitative goals for salmon and steelhead restoration in the Columbia River Basin. In this talk, Dr. McLain identifies how this particular collaborative governance forum deliberately unsettled long-standing territorial claims for better outcomes, including through the pairing of indigenous knowledge and science with western science for decision-making. As government agencies increasingly turn to collaborative governance to navigate environmental conflict, understanding how these forums are designed may lead to better-received and more durable solutions for environmental governance and policy making

Link to full list of speakers