This article examines efforts to improve water quality in the Fox-Wolf River basin in northeastern Wisconsin. It places the history of these efforts within the context of sustainability-based environmental policy, including reliance on broadly inclusive stakeholder involvement and collaborative decision making. Water quality in the area has improved significantly over time, but further improvement will require intensive actions focused on nonpoint sources of pollution and remediation of contaminated sediments. The barriers to such actions require consideration of new policy approaches that can complement conventional regulation. A review of the promise and limitations of collaborative decision making indicates what can be done both in this case and in comparable locations around the nation.
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