Browsing by Author "Butler, Megan"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Community Forest Enterprise Governance In The Maya Biosphere Reserve
    (2020-05) Butler, Megan
    This dissertation focuses on the governance of community forest enterprises (CFEs) in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) of Northern Guatemala. CFEs in the MBR receive access to the forest through 25-year concession contracts with the Guatemalan government. The community forest concessions included in this research were established between 1994 and 2000. Research for this dissertation was conducted in 2017 and 2018 in the MBR. This was an important period of time for CFEs in the MBR as their concession contracts were up for renewal. Each chapter of this dissertation builds upon the literature and provides a unique contribution to understanding factors that facilitate or impede effective and equitable CFE governance in the MBR. The first chapter introduces a framework for understanding and evaluating the local context CFEs face working to manage local resources. The chapter then applies the framework to six CFEs in the MBR. The analysis provides insights into how CFE capitals differ between enterprises over time. The chapter shows how CFEs started out with different advantages and disadvantages related to their capitals and how they have invested in their capitals over time. The second chapter identifies how and why governance structures differ between CFEs. Membership policy, decision-making and oversight roles, strategies for investing in business operations, and strategies for providing social benefits all differ between CFEs in the MBR. This chapter discusses how differences in governance structures facilitate or impede community forest management. Chapter three focuses on the evolution of good governance characteristics within CFEs over time and what factors have facilitated or impeded this evolution. Chapter four summarizes the relationship between CFE capitals and governance from the perspective of local actors operating in the MBR. In aggregate, the four essays aim to contribute to theory on factors that facilitate or impede successful community forest management. Some key take-aways from this dissertation related to governance and capitals include: the confirmation that legal access to forests and markets may be necessary but not sufficient conditions for CFE success. In addition, CFEs were able to overcome initial lack of infrastructure, funding, and knowledge and increasingly emphasized the importance of developing social and human capital over time. This study aims to contribute several unique contributions to the literature on community-based resource management. First, this dissertation introduces the CFE capital’s framework. Second, this dissertation focuses on understanding governance at the CFE scale. Finally, this analysis aims to contribute insights, from the perspective of local actors, into factors that enable or constrain individual community members’ ability to participate in organizing and developing communal forest enterprises.
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    (Eco)tourism in Southeast Minnesota
    (University of Minnesota, 2016) Butler, Megan; Gering, Elizabeth; Moua, Chou; Werden, Kristina; Wilsey, Dave
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    Ecotourism Assessment Alignment and Coordination Tool
    (2014) Butler, Megan; Elizabeth, Gering; Moua, Chou; Werden, Kristina
    Tourism can stimulate economies, promote cultural preservation, and incentivize environmental conservation. The tourism assessment and planning process is a tool for facilitating tourism development at the community level by helping entrepreneurs to: • Assess the products and services they currently offer • Align their current tourism products with best practices for improving their business’ sustainability. • Coordinate efforts to harness the full benefits of sustainable nature-based tourism or ecotourism. Extension educators can use this tool to educate, coordinate and encourage tourism entrepreneurs to adopt practices that maximize the cultural, social, economic, and environmental benefits of local tourism by minimizing potential negative impacts.
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    Expanding the Adoption on Private Lands: Blowing-and-Drifting Snow Control Treatments and the Cost Effectiveness of Permanent versus Non-Permanent Treatment Options
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2017-11) Current, Dean; Wyatt, Gary; Zamora, Diomy; Eckman, Karlyn; Butler, Megan; Carroll, Kate; Danielson, Michelle; Gullickson, Dan
    Previous research that estimated the costs and benefits of snow-fences for MnDOT in terms of a reduction in the costs of mitigating blowing-and-drifting snow problem areas (MN/RC 2012-03) demonstrated the ability of snow-fences to significantly lower those costs for MnDOT districts. To address lack of adoption, this project designed and tested an outreach program for MnDOT offices in one district and worked with MnDOT to prepare an outreach plan to promote greater adoption and cost savings in the remaining offices in the state. The overall goal is to reduce blowing, and drifting, snow problems and associated costs in the state through an effective outreach program to MnDOT district offices and through them, to landowners. The objectives of the project were to 1) carry out a pre-promotion KAP (knowledge, attitudes, and practices) survey; 2) implement a snow-fence promotion program; 3) carry out a post-promotion KAP study; 4); based on the KAP study, design an outreach plan to promote installation of snow-fences and the associated cost savings and 5) assess the market and non-market value of different permanent and non-permanent snow-fence designs.
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    Mississippi River Corridor Restoration Site Analysis
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2014) Barnhart, Caitlin; Ellingson, Emily; Ogdahl, Eric; Ponath, Nicole; Anderson, Connor; Barnes, Michael; Shaughnessy, Aidan; Madaus, Cody; Butler, Megan; Singh, Niluja; Unzeitig, Matthew M
    This project was completed as part of a year-long partnership between the City of Rosemount and the University of Minnesota’s Resilient Communities Project (http://www.rcp.umn.edu). The City of Rosemount includes a stretch of land along the Mississippi River—the site of a planned regional bike trail. The area around the proposed bike trail is in a somewhat degraded state today after years of animal grazing and human use, with many nonnative species in need of control. Several different entities, including Flint Hills Resources, CF Industries, and Dakota County, currently own portions of the riverfront property. The goal of this project was to convene relevant stakeholders and land owners, evaluate existing restoration activities in the Mississippi River Critical Area Corridor, and recommend an overall restoration strategy or plan that builds on these efforts and incorporates additional public access opportunities. In collaboration with city project lead Eric Zweber, a planner for the City of Rosemount, four teams of students in HORT 5071: Ecological Restoration assessed the condition of the land and ecosystems and designed a master plan for restoration of approximately 70 acres of the riverfront after the planned bike trail is in place. A group presentation from the project is available highlighting overall restoration goals and an overview of recommendations, in addition to reports for each of the four restoration areas.
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    Soil Health Case Studies, Vol. IV
    (University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, 2021) Butler, Megan
    The Soil Health Case Studies feature farmers who have been successful in practicing sustainable agriculture and soil health, including the use of cover crops, in an effort to encourage a greater number of farmers to adopt soil health practices. The Pomme de Terre Case Studies focus on farmers in the Pomme de Terre River watershed of west central Minnesota. This is one of a series of four sets of soil health case studies, developed to create resources for farmers to learn from each other and forge stronger connections across the landscape to promote wider adoption of effective soil health practices.