Scale and Subnational Resource Management: Transnational Initiatives in the Salish Sea Region

Transboundary water resources are very challenging to manage, generating numerous unresolved management issues. North America possesses two different spatial contexts in which transboundary water resource management issues exist, the arid U.S.–Mexico border region and the humid U.S.–Canada border region. Past work on the U.S.–Mexico border has explored a range of institutional arrangements by which resources are managed, with a special focus on both existing and new institutions and how the locus of policy formulation may vary across scale. In this article, I explore water resource issues in the U.S.–Canadian transboundary context through a comparative examination of management frameworks in the westernmost section on the U.S.–Canada border. Specifically, I examine the Cascadia Corridor region within which the Salish Sea and smaller nested watersheds lie, exploring how concepts of devolution, regionalization, subnational participation, and spatial scale have unfolded in transboundary management efforts in the region.