Adaptive governance in a complex social-ecological context: emergent responses to a native forest insect outbreak

Abstract

In contrast to traditional structures of state-centric bureaucratic administration, hybrid networks of state and non-state actors are believed to possess the advantages of greater adaptability in the face of environmental change as well as greater legitimacy in contested socio-political settings. Between 1998 and 2016, pine forests throughout the western United States experienced the largest and most destructive outbreak of the native mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) on record, with most of the affected forests located on lands owned and managed by the U.S. government as national forests. Socio-political responses to this event in many geographies included the emergence of local to regional hybrid networks that provided direction and resources for responding to the disturbance event. In this study, we analyze the ability of governance networks to adapt in the face of the insect outbreak across four regional geographies: The Black Hills region of South Dakota and Wyoming; northern Colorado; northeastern Washington; and southwestern Montana. Specifically, we ask what factors accounted for divergent governance responses in the four cases and to what extent the emergent governance dynamics in each case facilitated lasting, long-term adaptation. Our results highlight governance trajectories as products of their respective histories and of feedback cycles among socio-political, institutional, and technological variables. By analyzing the origin, characteristics, and persistence of institutional change, this research contributes a comparative perspective on the adaptive potential of networks as functions of influences from multiple spatial and temporal scales.