Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the by-products of these treatments to offset costs, saving critical U.S. Forest Service
dollars, providing local economic opportunities, and supplying the needs of small-
scale, renewable energy projects. To date, two small stewardship contracts have been
awarded on the Tongass. Partners are already considering additional opportunities, in-
cluding a stewardship contract near Kake on Central Kupreanof Island, the Staney
Community Forest on Prince of Wales Island, and the Peril Straits project in the Sitka
area.
Community
The other significant gap to advancing restoration and sustainable forestry in the re-
gion is the capacity of local communities and individuals to act on the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice's new policy direction. Currently, partners meet on an ad hoc basis as restoration
projects or other reasons present an opportunity—a lurching process that often leaves
challenges unmet. A collaborative organization designed to coordinate the collective
restoration efforts of the public land management agency, local communities and
workforces, and conservation partners is critical.
To date, the primary collaborative venue to discuss regional forest management is-
sues has been the Tongass Futures Roundtable. Established in 2006, it is a unique at-
tempt in the region to bring together stakeholders from diverse standpoints: the tim-
ber industry, environmentalists, U.S. Forest Service, local communities, businesses,
and tribal representatives, among others. The roundtable has been instrumental in es-
tablishing relationships among stakeholders who might never have met in person or
had incentive to speak with each other. The collaborative process has helped break
down long-standing barriers between stakeholders. The process has also sent a clear
message to the U.S. Forest Service that there is broad interest in transitioning out of
old-growth logging and diversifying sustainable economic opportunities to better sup-
port rural community health.
Collaborative processes offer the opportunity to engage, inform, and empower cit-
izens at an early stage, reducing the distrust of agency actions (Wondolleck and Yaffe
2000). They also provide partners an opportunity to understand and identify shared
values. For example, while roundtable participants generally agree on the need, they
have highly variable perspectives of what restoration means, what the treatments and
prescriptions restoration might include, and, most important, the end goal for the
treated landscape. Attempts to agree on a universal definition have been unsuccessful.
A strong collaborative process focused on restoration would lead to better problem
definition, leverage resources in an era of declining budgets and capacity, encourage
learning across boundaries, and support development of landscape-level decisions
(RVCC 2007).
While the Tongass Futures Roundtable has been groundbreaking, it is not the ap-
propriate place to approach collaborative restoration and stewardship projects. If the
U.S. Forest Service is to truly transition from the unsustainable practice of old-growth
logging to a model that promotes ecological health and local economic resilience, a
durable collaborative entity with a shared vision that demonstrates the social and po-
