Theses and Dissertations Collection

The Lapwai Basin, located on the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho, was the focus of two case studies. The first was the Smoke Management Plan, designed to improve air quality during agricultural burn seasons. The second is the Lapwai Basin Ecological Restoration Strategy, which seeks to improve the water quality and related anadromous fish-spawning habitat. This project identified triggers that contributed to the Smoke Management Plan's success and compared them to related circumstances in the watershed restoration. Interviews were collected via a Snowball Sampling Method over a five-month period. Participants were federal, state, local, and tribal agency employees connected to the watershed. While implementation of the Smoke Management Plan demonstrated a trigger point leading to eventual collaboration, the Lapwai Basin does not yet appear to have a trigger. Without it, motivation for collaboration is lower and could impact federal funding opportunities. The entities working to improve the quality of the Lapwai watershed are making positive headway, but will have greater challenges to full implementation.