Adaptive Governance: Integrating Science, Policy, and Decision Making. Edited by Ronald D. Brunner, Toddi A. Steelman, Lindy Coe-Juell, Christina M. Cromley, Christine M. Edwards, and Donna W. Tucker. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. 368p. $79.50 cloth, $29.50 paper.

Swimming Upstream: Collaborative Approaches to Watershed Management. Edited by Paul A. Sabatier, Will Focht, Mark Lubell, Zev Trachtenberg, Arnold Vedlitz, and Marty Matlock. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. 327p. $65.00 cloth, $26.00 paper.

For almost two decades, alternative or environmental dispute resolution (EDR) has been a hot topic for many scholars and practitioners of environmental and natural resources policy and administration. There are now many books and articles that examine the promises and pitfalls of ERD. For the uninitiated, EDR can include any type of conflict or dispute resolution that falls outside of the normal state or federal judicial or bureaucratic system. This can include everything from negotiation, mediation, and arbitration (commonly used in the legal system—and not typically thought of as EDR) to things with names like collaborative, cooperative, or collective management and adaptive governance. The normally cited perquisites for ERD are that the negotiations be voluntary, that the parties participate in the process directly, that participants may withdraw from the process at any time, that third-party facilitators have no formal authority to impose a decision, and that the parties agree to whatever is decided. If this sounds like getting people together to talk and work things out, that is because this is what it is.