The Nature Conservancy

Collaborating for the Environment

In their combined experience with the Maine Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, ICL Leadership Intensive alumni Bruce Kidman as Director of External Affairs, and Tom Rumpf as Associate State Director, have often tempered confrontational matters with collaborative approaches that enrich understanding and tolerance between stakeholders.

PROBLEM: It was 2009. Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission was in the final stages of a multi-year process to revise its master plan for managing 10 million acres of Unorganized Territory. Public meetings began breaking down into divisive debates. Distrust among diverse stakeholders spread.

SOLUTION: Bruce and Tom quickly assessed the situation. They persuaded the Maine Chapter of TNC to pay for a facilitator to defuse tension, reinstate dialogue and move the process along.  The two stepped up to help with design and represented TNC in the process, which included a series of facilitated meetings that left stakeholders more confident in the process and as a result, the final product – a Comprehensive Land Use Plan approved in the winter of 2010.