Type of Document	Master's Thesis
Author	Trefren, Jennie Lee
URN	etd-05132012-195100
Title	The Emergence of the Wyoming Core Area Strategy: "The Sage Grouse Rebellion"
Degree	Master of Arts
Department	Political Science
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Hult, Karen M. Committee Chair Cook, Brian J. Committee Member Hoon, Parakh Committee Member
Keywords	jurisdictional dynamic environmental federalism greater sage grouse strategy casual mechanism Endangered Species Act advocacy coalition framework Wyoming core area strategy
Date of Defense	2012-05-01
Availability	restricted
Abstract This research sought to explain the emergence of the Wyoming Core Area Strategy (WCAS), a state-based Greater Sage Grouse conservation plan. It presents a theoretical framework that is based on and adds nuance to the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). The hypothesis this study explored was: if a subsystem’s jurisdiction is threatened by a hierarchically superior subsystem’s policy outputs and this jurisdiction is necessary to meet the threatened subsystem’s goals, then policy change may occur as a result of a strategy by the agents in the threatened subsystem. The data used to examine the hypothesis included expert interviews, historical documents, and interviews from media sources (secondary source interviews). The hypothesis was supported; the WCAS emerged because the Endangered Species Act listing outputs within the Species Conservation Policy Subsystem threatened the Wyoming Land Use Policy (WLUP) Subsystem’s jurisdiction, which was necessary to meet the WLUP Subsystem’s economic and lifestyle goals; the Governor of Wyoming drove the development and enactment of the WCAS as a strategy to retain jurisdiction. The research demonstrated that in order to fully account for the WCAS’s emergence, a less mechanistic view of the framework, one that accounts for the ability of agents in a subsystem to act strategically, was needed. The research also demonstrated that the Greater Sage Grouse conservation benefited from the ESA listing process despite its warranted but precluded listing status. The time frame the research explored was 2002 through March 2012.
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