2012 Volume 63 Issue 4 Pages 197-213
This study analyzed environmental governance in advancing a project to restore part of the ecosystem along the Sacramento River near Hamilton City, California, and the response from residents of that poor local community demanding that the project include construction of a flood-protection levee. The theory and practice of environmental governance was analyzed in terms of scale politics. In Hamilton City, the integration of ecosystem restoration into a levee construction project has been actively pursued by a number of entities, and now includes far more than just the traditional interests from the local to federal scales. The project involves many organizations that take an interest in ecosystem restoration:non-governmental organizationsincluding international onesnumerous governmental agencies traditionally engaged in river managementfrom federal down the power relation all the way to localand local residents. Taking a broader view, non-governmental organizations and governments all along the Sacramento River created environmental governance to boost and participate in the restoration project. This created a rather horizontal relation among the related actors. The residents of Hamilton City accepted and participated in the ecosystem restoration project because they recognized its merit. Furthermore, the governments funding the project could not justify stand-alone levee construction. The Hamilton City residents continue their appeal to governmental and non-governmental agencies for funding to construct a levee. In this regard, resident efforts remain meaningful.
