Abstract
A gap in existing literature exists regarding California conservancies and collaborative decision making. Current literature identifies trends of the devolution of centralized federal and state governmental authority from top-down structures to bottom-up and fusion models. Examples in the literature focus on lessons from collaborative innovations including Councils of Government, Collaborative Regional Initiatives, and Transit Oriented Development incentive programs among others to document the impacts of the trends listed above. This thesis employs six focused interviews to provide a foundation for understanding the place of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy in the constellation of government given recent trends. The interviewees reflect a diverse group of collaborative decision making experts and key conservancy players. The study highlights two main findings from the interviews. First, that the Sierra Nevada Conservancy represents a new model for California Conservancies due to its mission to preserve economies through environmental protection and due to the depth of its mandate for local collaboration. Second, that although it presents a new conservancy model, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy was built over the course of more than a decade based on existing collaborative models from other types of institutions.