'Enlibra Toolkit' notes successes in solving conflicts

Environmental critics say Enlibra doesn't work. But a new workbook released Tuesday is 137 pages full of examples where former Gov. Mike Leavitt's much-touted environmental policy is used to resolve conflict throughout the United States.

"Principles and Tools for Environmental Management," otherwise known as the "Enlibra Toolkit," highlights success stories where government and citizens are working together to solve environmental conflicts through the principles of Enlibra, a philosophy that encourages a balanced approach.

In Michigan, local governments and citizen groups are working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the Rouge River, a tributary of the Detroit River. In Oregon, local watershed councils are restoring salmon habitat and improving water quality. And in the High Plains, an interstate coalition is in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help ranchers protect the potentially endangered lesser prairie chicken.

Although there are no Utah examples, the Enlibra Toolkit does mention the success of Envision Utah, a group of partners dedicated to quality growth in Utah.

"Envision Utah is a good example of a new democratic tool that has and will continue to emerge as an important way to minimize the cost and maximize the velocity of environmental progress," Leavitt said in the introduction and overview of the Toolkit.

The Enlibra Toolkit is a product of years in the making by the Oquirrh Institute, a think tank founded by Leavitt intended to shape public policy through Enlibra — a Latin-based term that means "to move toward balance."

Oquirrh Institute advisers, which include scholars, federal agency regulators and business leaders, say the Toolkit can help businesses and governments put the Enlibra philosophy into practical use.

"Now, more than ever, business and environmental leaders are looking for tools that provide new and innovative solutions to protect and restore our nation's critical natural resources," said Jim Souby, president and CEO of the Oquirrh Institute based in Salt Lake City.

In addition to distributing the Toolkit, the Oquirrh Institute also will offer workshops and training seminars on how to use Enlibra.

Leavitt, now administrator of EPA, first coined the term Enlibra with the help of former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber five years ago at a Western Governors Association meeting in Phoenix. Among its tenets, the guiding principles of Enlibra are: negotiation rather than litigation, collaboration rather than confrontation, market incentives rather than mandates and decision-making based on science, not emotion.