Qualitative Interview Guide for the Research Project “Community-Based Organizations, Social Networks, and Conservation: Strategies for Rural Economic Development in the West”

5 pagesThis file contains the semi-structured interview protocols used to guide qualitative interviews associated with the research project “Community-based organizations, social networks, and conservation: strategies for rural economic development in the West.” The project was designed to understand the contributions to economic development made by a particular class of rural non-governmental associations referred to as community-based organizations (CBOs).U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Grant # 23837

Developing socioeconomic performance measures for the Watershed Condition Framework

24 pagesAcross multiple presidential administrations, forest and watershed restoration has become an increasingly important focus of the USDA Forest Service. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, for example, has made restoring watershed and forest health the primary objective of the Forest Service. In FY 2012, Congress initiated an integrated resource restoration (IRR) pilot project to align the Forest Service budget with integrated restoration priorities on a trial basis. To foster watershed restoration, in 2010 the Forest Service introduced the Watershed Condition Framework (WCF) program, a comprehensive approach to planning and implementing integrated projects in priority watersheds. This framework promises to help national forests assess watershed health, prioritize restoration and maintenance activities, and measure their progress towards restoration. Using the WCF, the Forest Service should be able to increase the effectiveness of restoration by being more strategic about where and how it works. The WCF’s focus on outcomes should also help demonstrate the costs and benefits of investments in restoration.This study was made possible with funding from the USDA Forest Service (FS #11-CR-11061800-008)

The benefits of USDA Forest Service agreements with community-based organizations

2 pagesThe federal government is the largest landowner in many western communities. It can contribute to local socioeconomic vitality by providing opportunities for businesses and partners to perform land management activities and process natural resources. However, little is known about how the Forest Service engages nonprofit partners to accomplish this work and produce community benefits. We examined how formal agreements between the Forest Service and community based-organizations under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in 2009-2010 created social and livelihood benefits. We found that different kinds of agreement structures can make these benefits possible.This briefing paper was made possible with funding from the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities, USDA Rural Development, and the USDA Forest Service

Piloting restoration-related social and economic measures on national forests

36 pagesForest and watershed restoration on national forests and grasslands has ecological, social, and economic objectives. Forest Service performance measures have largely focused on outputs associated with land treatments, rather than ecological, social, and economic outcomes, in part because outputs are much more easily measured than outcomes. Over the past several years, the Forest Service has undertaken several initiatives to develop performance measures that are broader in scope and more outcome-oriented. This working paper summarizes key findings from an effort to pilot social and economic performance measures associated with watershed restoration.This research was supported by funding from the USDA Forest Service agreement #14-CS- 11132422-323

The effects of the Integrated Resource Restoration budget pilot on Forest Service restoration programs : third-party review summary findings

2 pagesIn 2012, Congress authorized the Integrated Resource Restoration (IRR) budget line item, which consolidates previously separated budget line items into a single funding stream to support integrated restoration planning and project implementation. With the IRR, the Forest Service created several new performance measures to encourage national forests to focus on priority restoration activities. The goals of the IRR are to support greater integration and prioritization of restoration programs, increase flexibility to focus on priority work, and create budgetary and implementation efficiencies. The Southwestern, Intermountain, and Northern Regions of the Forest Service have been implementing the IRR approach on a pilot basis since 2012. The Forest Service asked us to provide a third-party evaluation of the IRR approach to understand its effects on restoration programs.This research was supported by funding from the USDA Forest Service (13-CS-11132420-254), Colorado State University, and the University of Oregon

The social and livelihood benefits of USDA Forest Service agreements with community-based organizations

12 pagesThe federal government is the largest landowner in many western communities. It contributes to local socioeconomic vitality by providing opportunities for businesses and partners to perform land management activities and process natural resources. How federal agencies produce these benefits depends on the type of mechanism (e.g., timber sales, service contracts, or stewardship contracts and agreements) used to sell goods or procure services. To perform land management work on the ground, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service or U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management typically goes “to the market” by soliciting service contracts or offering timber sales in the private sector. The agency also chooses how to structure the opportunity—for example, setting an amount of timber to be sold or acres to be treated—and selects a business to purchase goods or perform work. In turn, how this business conducts work further determines community benefits such as the number of jobs created or retained and the wages paid.This project was made possible by funding from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and USDA Rural Development

Socioeconomic Impacts of Recovery act Investments on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest

2 p.Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to create immediate job opportunities and stimulate long-term economic growth. The United States Forest Service received approximately $1.15 billion to promote economic recovery through hazardous fuels reduction, biomass utilization development, and infrastructure projects. When ARRA was passed, there was considerable political conversation about whether investments in the ecological infrastructure of public lands could create both short-term jobs and long-term economic development. The purpose of this study was to understand how Forest Service ARRA investments may have impacted local job creation and economic opportunities.This report was made possible by funding from the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station

Eco-labels on the range and in the forests of the interior Northwest

2 pagesFor more than two decades, advocates have been developing programs to certify products as coming from well-managed lands. However, participation in certification programs is fairly low among landowners in at least some western states. Among the 800 landowners we surveyed in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, fewer than 10 percent had participated in a livestock or crop certification program (e.g., Salmon Safe, Certified Organic, Predator Friendly), or a forest management certification program (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, American Tree Farm). In comparison, 10 percent participated in environmental credit markets, and 27 percent in cost-share or grantfunded conservation programs. To better understand the value and potential of certification programs for enhancing ecosystem services, we examined barriers to participation as well as emerging opportunities to make certification programs more accessible for landowners.This fact sheet series is part of a multi-state research collaboration involving Oregon State University, University of Oregon, and Sustainable Northwest, with funding from the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture, Grant #2009-85211-06102-C0405A

Local capacity for integrated forest and wildfire management

28 pagesThe purpose of this document is to examine how some organizations have developed local, cross-trained workforces to address wildfire risks alongside intensifying wildfire management needs. We conducted case studies of four organizations in the western United States that have found ways to successfully navigate the challenges of developing and maintaining local capacity for forest restoration and fuels work.This document is supported by Promoting Ecosystem Resilience and Fire Adapted Communities Together, a cooperative agreement between The Nature Conservancy, USDA Forest Service and agencies of the Department of the Interior—Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service—through a subaward to the Watershed Research and Training Center. This document is also supported by the Joint Fire Science Program through the Northwest Fire Science Consortium

Job Growth and Loss Across Sectors and Time in the Western US: The Impact of Large Wildfires

The link between economic growth and natural hazards has long been studied to better understand the effects of natural hazards on local, regional, and country level growth patterns. However, relatively little generalizable research has focused on wildfires, one of the most common forest disturbances in the western United States (US). We examined the effect of large wildfires on employment growth across sectors and time in the western US.We matched wildfire occurrences from 2004 to 2008 and their duration with monthly employment data to identify the effect of wildfire on employment growth. Wildfires generally tended to exhibit positive effects on employment during the periods that suppression efforts were active. However, the overall positive effect maskswinners and losers across sectors — such as natural resources and mining and leisure and hospitality, respectively. The overall positive effect then transitioned to a negative drag on local employment growth for a period of up to two years following the wildfire. We explore reasons why some sectors win while others lose and explanations for the lingering effects of a large wildfire on the economy as a whole