Collaboration versus communication: The Department of Energy’s Amchitka Island and the Aleut Community
Increasingly managers and scientists are recognizing that solving environmental problems requires the inclusion of a wide range of disciplines, governmental agencies, Native American tribes, and other stakeholders. Usually such inclusion involves communication at the problem-formulation phase, and a...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4300131 2023-05-15T13:14:26+02:00 Collaboration versus communication: The Department of Energy’s Amchitka Island and the Aleut Community Burger, Joanna Gochfeld, Michael Pletnikoff, Karen 2009-03-04 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4300131 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19264301 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2009.01.002 en eng http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19264301 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2009.01.002 © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Article Text 2009 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2009.01.002 2015-01-25T01:04:45Z Increasingly managers and scientists are recognizing that solving environmental problems requires the inclusion of a wide range of disciplines, governmental agencies, Native American tribes, and other stakeholders. Usually such inclusion involves communication at the problem-formulation phase, and at the end to report findings. This paper examines participatory research, the differences between the traditional stakeholder involvement method of communication (often one-way, at the beginning and the end), compared to full collaboration, where parties are actively involved in the scientific process. Using the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Amchitka Island in the Aleutians as a case study, we demonstrate that the inclusion of Aleut people throughout the process resulted in science that was relevant not only to the agency’s needs and to the interested and affected parties, but that led to a solution. Amchitka Island was the site of three underground nuclear tests from 1965 to 1971, and virtually no testing of radionuclide levels in biota, subsistence foods, or commercial fish was conducted after the 1970s. When DOE announced plans to close Amchitka, terminating its managerial responsibility, without any further testing of radionuclide levels in biota, there was considerable controversy, which resulted in the development of a Science Plan to assess the potential risks to the marine environment from the tests. The Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) was the principle entity that developed and executed the science plan. Unlike traditional science, CRESP embarked on a process to include the Alaskan Natives of the Aleutian Islands (Aleuts), relevant state and federal agencies, and other stakeholders at every phase. Aleuts were included in the problem-formulation, research design refinement, the research, analysis of data, dissemination of research findings, and public communication. This led to agreement with the results, and to developing a path forward (production of a biomonitoring plan ... Text aleut Aleutian Islands PubMed Central (PMC) Amchitka ENVELOPE(178.878,178.878,51.567,51.567) Amchitka Island ENVELOPE(178.983,178.983,51.542,51.542) Environmental Research 109 4 503 510 |
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Article Burger, Joanna Gochfeld, Michael Pletnikoff, Karen Collaboration versus communication: The Department of Energy’s Amchitka Island and the Aleut Community |
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Article |
description |
Increasingly managers and scientists are recognizing that solving environmental problems requires the inclusion of a wide range of disciplines, governmental agencies, Native American tribes, and other stakeholders. Usually such inclusion involves communication at the problem-formulation phase, and at the end to report findings. This paper examines participatory research, the differences between the traditional stakeholder involvement method of communication (often one-way, at the beginning and the end), compared to full collaboration, where parties are actively involved in the scientific process. Using the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Amchitka Island in the Aleutians as a case study, we demonstrate that the inclusion of Aleut people throughout the process resulted in science that was relevant not only to the agency’s needs and to the interested and affected parties, but that led to a solution. Amchitka Island was the site of three underground nuclear tests from 1965 to 1971, and virtually no testing of radionuclide levels in biota, subsistence foods, or commercial fish was conducted after the 1970s. When DOE announced plans to close Amchitka, terminating its managerial responsibility, without any further testing of radionuclide levels in biota, there was considerable controversy, which resulted in the development of a Science Plan to assess the potential risks to the marine environment from the tests. The Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) was the principle entity that developed and executed the science plan. Unlike traditional science, CRESP embarked on a process to include the Alaskan Natives of the Aleutian Islands (Aleuts), relevant state and federal agencies, and other stakeholders at every phase. Aleuts were included in the problem-formulation, research design refinement, the research, analysis of data, dissemination of research findings, and public communication. This led to agreement with the results, and to developing a path forward (production of a biomonitoring plan ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Burger, Joanna Gochfeld, Michael Pletnikoff, Karen |
author_facet |
Burger, Joanna Gochfeld, Michael Pletnikoff, Karen |
author_sort |
Burger, Joanna |
title |
Collaboration versus communication: The Department of Energy’s Amchitka Island and the Aleut Community |
title_short |
Collaboration versus communication: The Department of Energy’s Amchitka Island and the Aleut Community |
title_full |
Collaboration versus communication: The Department of Energy’s Amchitka Island and the Aleut Community |
title_fullStr |
Collaboration versus communication: The Department of Energy’s Amchitka Island and the Aleut Community |
title_full_unstemmed |
Collaboration versus communication: The Department of Energy’s Amchitka Island and the Aleut Community |
title_sort |
collaboration versus communication: the department of energy’s amchitka island and the aleut community |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4300131 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19264301 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2009.01.002 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(178.878,178.878,51.567,51.567) ENVELOPE(178.983,178.983,51.542,51.542) |
geographic |
Amchitka Amchitka Island |
geographic_facet |
Amchitka Amchitka Island |
genre |
aleut Aleutian Islands |
genre_facet |
aleut Aleutian Islands |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19264301 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2009.01.002 |
op_rights |
© 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2009.01.002 |
container_title |
Environmental Research |
container_volume |
109 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
503 |
op_container_end_page |
510 |
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1766263624986263552 |