ForestERA

Scientists studying biology, geography, and the environment at NAU are teaming up with political scientists through NAU’s Forest Ecological Restoration Assessment (ForestERA) Project to develop a science-based “toolbox” to guide forest management priorities in response to the devastating wildfires of recent years. These large wildfires cross the boundaries of any single land management agency or private group, so successful long-term solutions will require cooperation and understanding from a wide variety of people and institutions. ForestERA has brought these diverse interests together to identify common ground and bring fresh perspectives up for discussion. One of the most exciting and unexpected results of their work is that, in spite of the diverse interests represented, there is a lot of common ground.

ForestERA’s approach recognizes that forest management is made up of a complex series of social decisions, and begins with the assumption that scientific knowledge should be a tool for interactive decision-making. Advanced spatial tools, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and interactive computer modeling programs, coupled with the most current scientific understandings about ecosystems, watersheds, and wildlife needs, provide a structured yet flexible system for decision making, and allow users to participate in a process where different skills, experiences, and values can be brought into the process in a complementary way.

Using maps as a way to present scientific data allows many different types of information to be presented, including for example recreation priorities, wildfire risk, critical wildlife habitat, and local or indigenous knowledge about the area. Modeling programs provide a way to explore the ramifications of different land management decisions. In this way, ForestERA users are able to “take ownership” of the science and, supported by experienced scientific and technical experts, use it to address practical issues of forest management.

A series of in-person and virtual workshops, focusing on a 2 million+ acre area on the Western Mogollon Plateau , were developed by a ForestERA planning team. The Western Mogollon Plateau Adaptive Landscape Assessment (WMPALA) brought together over 40 participants in a series of workshops to test ideas of how the science and tools developed by ForestERA informed and influenced the decision-making process. The project was a success, and established that this collaborative science-based approach can identify and prioritize landscape features in critical need of protection. Decision-makers at the regional level, at the scale of individual National Forests, and at counties and communities are drawing on the results of WMPALA to develop wildfire protection plans.

Now entering its fourth year, the project is funded through NAU’s Ecological Research Institute. In December, 2004, with additional funding from the Joint Fire Sciences Program, a new working group was established in New Mexico to explore using the same tools in another southwestern landscape with a somewhat different cultural setting. A kick-off event brought together National Forest Service, Pueblo , state government, county, conservation group, and land grant community representatives. The same tools and approaches will be used in these workshops, but NAU Political Scientist David Schlosberg will be joining the program to incorporate social science tools to measure the effectiveness of the approach.

ForestERA director Dr. Thomas Sisk is excited about the workshops successes, showing that incorporating social needs from the outset has resulted in forest management plans that have a greater potential to succeed over the long term. “What I think is really cool about this is to get a forest supervisor, a mayor, an environmentalist, and a rancher together to brainstorm and explore common ground … to come up with intelligent responses to these challenges.”

www.forestera.nau.edu