The Las Cienegas Adaptive Management Program and collaborative implementation process officially began with the approval of the RMP in 2003, and, according to Lynn Scarlett (2011), “The Las Cienegas NCA is the first major BLM-administered land area to simultaneously engage community-based planning and community-based implementation of the adopted plan through adaptive and outcome-based practices” (8).
The Las Cienegas Adaptive Management Program Program structure The BLM leads the collaborative and adaptive management process associated with RMP implementation and hosts two meetings each year, called biological planning meetings. These events are open to anyone who would like to participate and are largely made up of representatives of the same organizations involved in the initial planning process. Approximately 30 people typically attend. The meetings tend to have an interactive agenda in which monitoring data is shared, field trips are taken to see different parts of the planning area so everyone can “see” what the data looks like, and facilitators lead discussions on the implications of the data and how it can inform future management decisions. Stakeholders attending biological planning meetings are not a formal federal advisory committee or legislatively enacted body. Therefore, the group has the flexibility to structure its decision-making process to meet its needs. The group’s informal status also means it cannot officially make recommendations to the BLM and the BLM is not obligated to use outcomes resulting from group meetings. Instead, the stakeholders give feedback to the BLM who then strongly considers the group’s suggestions in its official decisions.
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