Abstract

This article examines environmental activists' views of place-based collaboration and how they have related to it in the management of U.S. national forests. We first present a brief historical overview of the issues that led to the emergence of place-based collaboration in the U.S. West. We then discuss the main themes in the environmentalist critique of place-based collaboration. Next we present case studies of three prominent examples of place-based collaboration in the West–the Quincy Library Group in California and the Applegate Partnership and Lake County Community Sustainability Initiative in Oregon–to explore the relationship of environmentalists to place-based collaboration. We conclude with a discussion of the possibilities for environmentalists in place-based collaboration.