Abstract
Support for landscape-level planning across the Palouse comes from non-profit organizations working with local policymakers to develop regional conservation ordinances. However, developing landscape-level conservation plans is limited by the lack of consensus on the region's boundaries. To address this issue, we conducted archival research and qualitative interviews with ninety stakeholders to determine their definitions of the Palouse. In this study, we reveal the range of reasons participants have for defining the Palouse and its boundaries. Most study participants perceived that geographic boundaries extend beyond political borders, suggesting a need for a bioregional planning approach.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the interview participants who contributed to this study, the Environmental Science Program, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, and the Social Science Research Unit at the University of Idaho. We are also grateful for suggestions provided by our colleague, Dr. Chris Looney. The work described was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (NSF-IGERT) award #0114304. The authors would also like to thank the University of Alaska, Anchorage for supporting this work.