Sociology

Faculty & Staff

Denise Lach, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331-3703
Phone: 541-737-
Fax: 541-737-5372
E-mail: denise.lach@oregonstate.edu

Areas of Interest:

Environmental Natural Resource Sociology
Applied Sociology including social impact assessment, program evaluation, and organizational development
Organizational Sociology
Water Conflict and Dispute Resolution

Examination of changing roles and expectations for science and scientists in natural resource decision making
Institutional resistance to changes in the water sector
Trasnformation of water resources governance structures 

Brief Vita

Education:

Ph.D. - Sociology, University of Oregon 1992
M.S. - Sociology, University of Oregon 1988
B.S. - English/Education, University of Minnesota 1976

• Larson, Kelli and Denise Lach.  2007.  Participants and non-participants of Place-Based Groups:  An Assessment of Attitudes and Implications for Public Participation in Water Resource Management.  Journal of Environmental Management Available on line at 10.1016/j.jenvman.2007.04.008. (Print version in press.)
• Duncan, Sally and Denise Lach.  2006.  GIS Technology in Natural Resource Management: Process as a Tool of Change.  Cartographica 41(3): 201-215.
• Lackey, Robert, Denise Lach, and Sally Duncan, eds. 2006.  Salmon 2100: The Future of Wild Pacific Salmon.  Bethesda, MD: American Fisheries Society.
• Duncan, Sally and Denise Lach.  2006.  Privileged Knowledge and Social Change: Effects on Different Participants of Using Geographic Information Systems Technology in Natural Resource management.  Environmental Management 38(2): 267-285. 
• Lackey, Robert, Denise Lach, and Sally Duncan.  2006.  Policy Options to Reverse the Decline of Wild Salmon.  Fisheries 31(7): 344-351. 
• Steel, Brent, Denise Lach, and Vijay Satyal.  2006.  “Ideology and Scientific Credibility: Environmental Policy in the Pacific Northwest.”  Public Understanding of Science 14: 1-15.
• Lach, Denise, Helen Ingram, and Steve Rayner.  2006.  “You Never Miss the Water ‘Till the Well Runs Dry: Crisis and Creativity in California.”  Chapter 10 in Verweij, Marco and Michael Thompson (eds), Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
• Lach, Denise, Helen Ingram, and Steve Rayner. 2005.  “Maintaining the Status Quo: How Institutional Norms and Practices Create Conservative Water Organizations.”  Texas Law Review 83(7): 2027-2053. 
• Lach, Denise, Steve Rayner, and Helen Ingram.  2005.  “Taming the Waters: Strategies to Domesticate the Wicked Problems of Water Resource Management.”  The International Journal of Water 3(1): 1-17.
• Steel, Brent, Nicholas Lovrich, Denise Lach, and Valentina Fomenko.  2005.  “Correlates and Consequences of Public Knowledge Concerning Ocean and Coastal Management Issues.”  Coastal Management 33(1):37-51.
• Rayner, Steve, Denise Lach, and Helen Ingram.  2005.  “Weather forecasts are for wimps: Why water resource managers do not use climate forecasts.”  Climatic Change 69(2-3): 197-227. 
• Steel, Brent, Peter List, Denise Lach, and Bruce Shindler. 2004.  “The Role of Scientists in the Environmental Policy Process: A Case Study from the American West.”  Environmental Science and Policy 7(1): 1-13.

• National Science Foundation: "Changing Expectations for Science and Scientists in Natural Resource Decision Making"
• US Department of Energy: "Using a Consensus Conference to Characterize Regulatory Concerns"
• US Environmental Protection Agency: "Oregon Idle Free Corridor"
• National Commission on Science for Sustainability Forestry: "Decision Support for Forest Biodiversity"

2004 James and Mildred Oldfield/E.R. Jackman Team Award (for Water Allocation in the Klamath Reclamation Project, 2001)