/ Methods for involving the public in natural resource management are changing as agencies adjust to an increasingly turbulent social and political environment. There is growing interest among managers and scholars in collaborative approaches to public involvement.Collaboration is conceptually defined and elaborated using examples from the natural resource management field. This paper then examines how collaboration theory from the organizational behavior field can help environmental managers to better understand those factors that facilitate and inhibit collaborative solutions to resource problems. A process-oriented model is presented that proposes that collaboration emerges out of an environmental context and then proceeds sequentially through a problem-setting, direction-setting, and structuring phase. Factors constraining collaboration are also specified, including organizational culture and power differentials. Designs for managing collaboration are identified, which include appreciative planning, joint agreements, dialogues, and negotiated settlements. Environmental managers need new skills to manage collaboration within a dynamic social and political environment. Further research is needed to test the propositions outlined here.Methods to involve the public in environmental planning and management are changing rapidly as agencies attempt to pursue management objectives within an increasingly turbulent social and political environment. The traditional role of the environmental manager as a technician, exercising professional judgment on behalf of the public (Baskerville 1988), is being challenged. Increasingly, public interest groups exercise their legal right to delay and at times halt the implementation of land management plans and timber sales through law suits and administrative appeals. Managers face a crisis of control as resource policy and management plan disputes are increasingly resolved by Congress or in the courts (Wondolleck 1988).Among resource management agencies searching for solutions to these problems, there has been a growing interest in collaborative approaches to natural resource decision making. Either voluntarily or induced by public pressure, agencies have improved