Copyright © 2013 by the author(s). Published here under license by the Resilience Alliance. Childs, C., A. M. York, D. White, M. L. Schoon, and G. S. Bodner. 2013. Navigating a murky adaptive comanagement governance network: Agua Fria Watershed, Arizona, USA. Ecology and Society 18(4):11. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-05636-180411 Research, part of a Special Feature on Exploring Opportunities for Advancing Collaborative Adaptive Management (CAM): Integrating Experience and Practice Navigating a Murky Adaptive Comanagement Governance Network: Agua Fria Watershed, Arizona, USA Cameron Childs 1 , Abigail M. York 2 , Dave White 3 , Michael L. Schoon 4 and Gitanjali S. Bodner 5 ABSTRACT. Adaptive comanagement endeavors to increase knowledge and responsiveness in the face of uncertainty and complexity. However, when collaboration between agency and nonagency stakeholders is mandated, rigid institutions may hinder participation and ecological outcomes. In this case study we analyzed qualitative data to understand how participants perceive strengths and challenges within an emerging adaptive comanagement in the Agua Fria Watershed in Arizona, USA that utilizes insight and personnel from a long-enduring comanagement project, Las Cienegas. Our work demonstrates that general lessons and approaches from one project may be transferable, but particular institutions, management structures, or projects must be place-specific. As public agencies establish and expand governance networks throughout the western United States, our case study has shed light on how to maintain a shared vision and momentum within an inherently murky and shared decision-making environment. Key Words: adaptive comanagement; Agua Fria watershed, Arizona; governance network; qualitative research INTRODUCTION Adaptive comanagement approaches address complex social- ecological problems that cross social, environmental, and political boundaries through learning-by-doing and broad stakeholder participation. This approach, when executed effectively, enhances resource management in the face of uncertainty and complexity (Ruitenbeek and Cartier 2001, Gunderson and Holling 2002, Armitage et al. 2009, Stockholm Resilience Centre 2012). When collaboration between agency and nonagency stakeholders is mandated, however, rigid institutions may hinder participation and ecological outcomes (Dietz et al. 2003, Lubell 2004, Ostrom 2005). Social variables such as development of shared motivations, trust, and interpersonal empathy, are known to enhance adaptive comanagement in well-established arrangements (Wondolleck and Yaffee 2000, Ansell and Gash 2007, Armitage et al. 2009, Plummer 2009). But which factors affect adaptive comanagement within a governance network initiated in part through top-down government decision making? Our study empirically contributes to the adaptive comanagement literature by having investigated which variables enhance or erode social relationships within a governance network. The Agua Fria Watershed in Arizona, USA is “one of the most complicated, challenging, natural, and human landscapes you can imagine, and right next door to Phoenix,” said Secretary Bruce Babbitt (Allen 2002). Three government agencies and twenty-three nongovernment stakeholders are developing a coordinated resource management plan for two grazing allotments covering 26,325 ha comprised mainly of semidesert grassland with some interior woody species and riparian areas home to diverse wildlife (Stone 2007). A coordinated resource management plan is created through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service and is specifically intended to coordinate the management actions when a landowner is grazing on public lands. Increasingly, coordinated resource management plans are used to coordinate multi-agency resource management activities (Fernández- Giménez et al. 2004), such as, in our case, those of the Natural Resource Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management. In Agua Fria, special attention by the coordinated resource management plan is placed on restoring habitat for pronghorn antelope, native fishes, and grassland birds. The cultural resources are especially significant because the area is home to Perry Mesa, a largely intact prehistoric landscape (Kruse 2007). Hunters, campers, and other recreation visitors use the allotments, though the area has not been developed for recreational use. This adaptive comanagement was in part a top-down effort by the Bureau of Land Management test out whether the process and approach are scalable across the region. Using results from semistructured interviews, we addressed: (1) What social variables influence emerging institutions in the earliest phase of adaptive comanagement? (2) What actions can be taken to enhance or erode social relationships within a governance network? Interviewees were selected using a maximum variation sampling strategy that included agency representatives, financially vested organizations, advocates and stakeholders who attended meetings, and organizations identified as important but who opted not to participate in the 1 School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, 2 School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, Arizona State University, 3 School of Community Resources and Development, Decision Center for a Desert City, Arizona State University, 4 School of Sustainability, Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, Arizona State University, 5 The Nature Conservancy, Tucson, Arizona