Stakeholder Participation in Watershed Management: An Evaluation of the Jordan Lake Stakeholder Project

The Jordan Lake Stakeholder Project (JLSP) was convened by the NC Department of Water Quality (DWQ) to gather public input in response to high levels of nutrients found in Jordan Lake, a reservoir in the central piedmont of North Carolina. The DWQ is a frequent convener of such time- and resource-intensive projects, yet lacks methods for evaluating their successes and benefits. By assessing public involvement in terms of substantive and procedural factors and practical outcomes, I evaluated the success of the JLSP. This evaluation template can be used by environmental regulators to guide future collaborative processes in watershed management

Wildfire Risk as a Socioecological Pathology

Wildfire risk in temperate forests has become a nearly intractable problem that can be characterized as a socioecological “pathology”: that is, a set of complex and problematic interactions among social and ecological systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Assessments of wildfire risk could benefit from recognizing and accounting for these interactions in terms of socioecological systems, also known as coupled natural and human systems (CNHS). We characterize the primary social and ecological dimensions of the wildfire risk pathology, paying particular attention to the governance system around wildfire risk, and suggest strategies to mitigate the pathology through innovative planning approaches, analytical tools, and policies. We caution that even with a clear understanding of the problem and possible solutions, the system by which human actors govern fire-prone forests may evolve incrementally in imperfect ways and can be expected to resist change even as we learn better ways to manage CNHS

Living on a flammable planet: interdisciplinary, cross-scalar and varied cultural lessons, prospects and challenges: Table 1.

Living with fire is a challenge for human communities because they are influenced by socio-economic, political, ecological and climatic processes at various spatial and temporal scales. Over the course of 2 days, the authors discussed how communities could live with fire challenges at local, national and transnational scales. Exploiting our diverse, international and interdisciplinary expertise, we outline generalizable properties of fire-adaptive communities in varied settings where cultural knowledge of fire is rich and diverse. At the national scale, we discussed policy and management challenges for countries that have diminishing fire knowledge, but for whom global climate change will bring new fire problems. Finally, we assessed major fire challenges that transcend national political boundaries, including the health burden of smoke plumes and the climate consequences of wildfires. It is clear that to best address the broad range of fire problems, a holistic wildfire scholarship must develop common agreement in working terms and build across disciplines. We must also communicate our understanding of fire and its importance to the media, politicians and the general public. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’

Wildfire risk as a socioecological pathology

Wildfire risk in temperate forests has become a nearly intractable problem that can be characterized as a socioecological “pathology”: that is, a set of complex and problematic interactions among social and ecological systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Assessments of wildfire risk could benefit from recognizing and accounting for these interactions in terms of socioecological systems, also known as coupled natural and human systems (CNHS). We characterize the primary social and ecological dimensions of the wildfire risk pathology, paying particular attention to the governance system around wildfire risk, and suggest strategies to mitigate the pathology through innovative planning approaches, analytical tools, and policies. We caution that even with a clear understanding of the problem and possible solutions, the system by which human actors govern fire-prone forests may evolve incrementally in imperfect ways and can be expected to resist change even as we learn better ways to manage CNHS

Barriers to Utilization of Municipal Biomass Residues for Bioenergy

Municipal biomass residues (MBR) are plentiful in the southeastern U.S. Despite favorable economic and policy contexts, few cities generate bioenergy from MBR. We hypothesized that the perspectives of the actors managing MBR have hindered implementation. We conducted interviews among stakeholders in Wake County, NC to investigate MBR use. Barriers that prevented stakeholders from adopting MBR to energy programs included lack of economic incentives for key practices, lack of credible enforcement for MBR use regulations, and poor communication. We discuss opportunities for Extension specialists to facilitate stakeholder interactions related to MBR utilization and bioenergy

Where is Conservation Science in Local Planning? Collaboration in a Multi­ Institutional and Interdisciplinary Course

Multi‐institutional approaches to graduate education are emerging to better prepare graduate students for future collaborative work. In this presentation we will describe a graduate course designed to integrate inquiry‐guided, collaborative, and computer‐mediated learning across multiple universities. Our collaborative course, “Where is Conservation Science in Local Planning?,” included students from multiple disciplines at three institutions (Iowa State University, North Carolina State University, and University of Washington) who investigated the application of conservation biology principles by local land use planners. We used a wiki for brainstorming and collaborative writing, a virtual classroom for work meetings, and video‐conferencing for building community and making complex decisions. Pre‐ and post‐ course questionnaires were administered to students to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach for improving skills in collaboration, use of collaborative technologies, and subject‐area knowledge. Participants reported that they gained knowledge about collaboration, increased their mastery of communication skills and use of collaborative technologies, and gained knowledge about course subject matter. Participants also gained a fuller understanding of the benefits (collective creativity and enhanced accountability) and drawbacks (time required to build relationships and engage in deliberation) of collaborative research. Faculty and students co‐created several products based on our work in the course: two peer‐ reviewed conference presentations and two peer‐reviewed articles. One of the faculty (Stokes) worked with a new group of students on an extension of the research, which resulted in an additional follow‐on article. We also learned valuable lessons about course administration (e.g. working across time zones and quarters/semesters), the benefits and limitations of teaching technologies, and about definition of course objectives and research methods. Overall, participating students and faculty agreed that in spite of organizational challenges the course was a very worthwhile experience

Insights for Building Community Resilience from Prioritizing Youth in Environmental Change Research

Youths are the next generation to foster community resilience in social–ecological systems. Yet, we have limited evidence on how to engage them effectively in learning about environmental change. One opportunity includes the involvement of youths in research that connects them with older generations who can share their values, experiences, and knowledge related to change. In this community-based study, we designed, assessed, and shared insights from two intergenerational engagement and learning interventions that involved youths in different phases of research in the Saskatchewan River Delta, Canada. For Intervention 1, we involved students as researchers who conducted video and audio recorded interviews with adults, including Elders, during a local festival. For Intervention 2, we involved students as research participants who reflected on audio and video clips that represented data collected in Intervention 1. We found that Intervention 1 was more effective because it connected youths directly with older generations in methods that accommodated creativity for youths and leveraged technology. Engaging the youths as researchers appears to be more effective than involving them as research participants