I firmly believe that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and other federal agencies have a mission. They have a mandate. They get sued and then everything is stopped by a third party, generally the environmental coalitions because they're watching this very carefully also. In partnerships, it's very important to clearly define what the costs will be, who bears what cost, who gets what benefit. Without an honest discussion about the equity, it's not going to work.
Risk control is another important consideration.
When you get involved in a major water project, you must make early decisions. That may be an overstatement, but it may also be a good analogy. Most importantly, you must be part of the solution, not part of the problem. If you think you can ram something down somebody else's throat, it just won't work, because people tend to be very stubborn. I coined that phrase when I was interviewed by U.S. Water News .