Participating Municipalities
& Organizations

Background to the Great Bay Initiative

This multi phased initiative is a result of a 6-month long assessment process conducted by Jeffery Edelstein, principal at Edelstein Associates and Senior Consultant at the Consensus Building Institute in partnership with PREP. This process was initiated by PREP because it has been following stakeholder activity concerning nutrient loading to the Great Bay and measures to address it, and believes that collaboration among all stakeholders is the most effective way to protect the watershed, its residents and its communities. PREP had informally asked individuals associated with the key parties (regulators, muncipal officials, organizations) whether there was interest in a dialogue-based process to discuss the health of the bay, measures to protect it, and the impacts that such measures might have on the watershed’s communities. Initial indications were that the parties might be interested in exploring the convening of a dialogue on these issues, with the goal of taking a collaborative approach to resolving them.

PREP obtained funding from the Thomas W. Haas Fund through the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to support an initial exploration of this idea and engaged Jeff Edelstein's services in May, 2011. Edestein is the principal of a small firm providing professional neutral facilitation to local governments, state and federal agencies across the U.S. working together on similar issues. Edelstein also has a background as a professional engineer specializing in water resource issues.

In late May Edelstein began conducting phone and in-person interviews with a variety of stakeholders. These interviews were semi-confidential, meaning that general trends and areas of consensus would be reported, but with no attribution of statements to specific interviewees.

Edelstein took the interview data, assessed and analyzed it and determined the following:

• There are 7 areas of consensus among the parties
• There are 6 areas of consensus about the potential benefits of a facilitated dialogue and collaborative approach
• There are immediate areas of concern that must be addressed
• There are 8 areas necessitating further dialogue
• Recommendations for next steps
  
  Those interviewed included:
  City of Dover
  City of Portsmouth
  City of Rochester
  Coastal Conservation Association
  Conservation Law Foundation
  Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
  New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
  NH Coastal Protection Partnership
  Office of Representative Guinta
  Office of Senator Ayotte
  Office of Senator Shaheen
  Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership
  Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests
  Southeast Watershed Alliance
  The Nature Conservancy
  Town of Brentwood
  Town of Durham
  Town of Exeter
  Town of New Durham
  Town of Newmarket
  Trout Unlimited
  US Environmental Protection Agency Region 1

Edelstein's Oct. 11, 2011 Assessment can be found HERE.