Local Community Support Increases Implementation

Participants in units where stewardship contracting has achieved high levels of implementation described how the tool was perceived to be compatible with the local community’s needs and values.

In Excerpt 18.1, an external participant describes her local community’s enthusiasm for stewardship contracting.

Excerpt 18.1

External Participant: The industry and conservation recognize the value in doing stewardship contracting, and we embrace it wholeheartedly and we told the agency to embrace it wholeheartedly and [the supervisor] saw the advantage and um, … um … yknow and – yeah. I think that’s why. That’s why [we] ended up with a high number of stewardship projects going through. [T168]

In Excerpt 18.2, the participant observes that stewardship contracting works for her forest because the agency has built strong relationships with the public.

Excerpt 18.2

It goes all right back to when we were doing the forest plan revision, in the early part of 2xxx. … During the process, the forest embraced a collaborative approach with the public and

stakeholders in and around [the area]. We had no less than 50 meetings… really intensive collaboration. … By time we got to end of that planning process we had established new relationships with the public and our partners and nurtured ones already in existence that were already in place before planning had started. We felt we knew what folks were wanting. [T246]

In Excerpt 18.3, the participant says that the forest conducts its planning processes with the community early on, before starting the NEPA process and, as a result, the public and the agency feel there are “fewer surprises, fewer issues, … less contention.”

Excerpt 18.3

Five things were high priorities … What we wanted to do was replicate the collaborative process we had established in the forest planning process in a site-specific planning process.… We wanted to replicate the collaboration – an up-front approach. A site-specific collaborative approach. Spend more time in the planning phase of project development, working with public in a pretty focused, intense way. By the time we were ready to start NEPA, everybody knew what it was we were planning to do. No surprises. Fewer surprises, fewer issues, less time you need to take to do environmental analysis, less issues to address. Less contention…. [T246]

External participants identified collaboration with local stakeholders – and the lack of appeals and litigation – as critical to the agency’s ability to successfully implement stewardship contracting. In Excerpt 18.4, an external participant describes the importance of collaboration.

Excerpt 18.4

External Participant: [T]he Forest Service can implement things better if they don’t have everybody battling them over it. And so if you’ve already got people battling you over every timber sale, it’s got to be harder for them – to say well let’s try something new! And – and people will go, well that’s just the same old thing… in different clothing. It’s still logging.

Whereas for us… it was like – whatever! We would – we’d approve it, and you could call it a timber sale, or a stewardship contract… but after you – you know, we either approve it or we don’t –approve of it – but… once you kind of get in working with the agency and the timber people, you realize there really are some advantages to stewardship contracting over traditional timber sales. …. Retained receipts… and, you know, things like that. [T99]

Where industry relies on Forest Service timber, the benefits of stewardship contracting are understood. In Excerpt 18.5, the participant describes how both the local environmental community and timber industry liked stewardship contracting. Not only did the use of the tool increase timber sales but also it reduced appeals and litigation by the environmental community. For the timber industry, this increased their confidence that projects could go forward as planned, giving them more security in

managing their human, equipment, and financial resources. In this location, stewardship contracts receive bids because everyone benefits, not just the Forest Service.

Excerpt 18.5

[T]he environmental community liked it from the standpoint that it did allow them to work with us and understand, and it was sold fairly well and understood that hey, this is something we need to do. It also was … a lot of areas [are] dry forest that … we’re way more obvious about what to do there – as far as the treatments go, and as far as industry goes they were behind the idea, and they could see the benefits that – us – being able to work with everybody… on those urban interface areas. That made sense… and… you know it kind of all came together that way. It wasn’t just one thing, that caused it to work, …. [T309]

Industry participants, not surprisingly, would like the agency to increase scales because it often translates into greater profitability. However, many industry participants are able to move beyond dollar figures to consider the health of the land. In Excerpt 18.6, an industry participant says she wants larger scales because more can be accomplished on the land. She identifies the potential of retained receipts but says that institutional policies have limited how retained receipts can be used; thus limiting the amount of restoration that can be accomplished.

Excerpt 18.6

Industry Participant: My dream is… is to expand receipts so that it can self-fund and also use- do these forest health projects, you know, fuels reduction… And then use the receipts to fund further projects and also build an infrastructure for recreation – you know? Uh.. So that – multiple user groups can really enjoy the forest. Use it to pick up trash. You know, make the forest a better healthy – healthier place so that everybody can recreate… For wildlife manage- … You know there’s just a lot – a lot of neat programs that aren’t funded. Weed control. There’s not – there’s not funding for that, and we have this great resource that needs – help and the – the trees are worth something and we can take that money – and take – take care of the forest.

It seems so simple to me.

… [If]ithe scale was larger, and – and – the Forest Service gained the economies of that scale, and also got more efficient, they also – there’d be more retained receipts so they could do more work on the ground. [T131]

This participant Landscape-scale projects are more desirable for many reasons. In Excerpt 18.7, another industry participant said that larger scales created efficiencies for industry. The environmental groups also support larger-scale projects to improve wildlife habitat. In Excerpt 18.8, another industry participant describes efficiency for the Forest Service as a benefit of designing larger-scale projects.

Excerpt 18.7

Industry Participant: The other thing about these large – contracts – is you get – um, you get the guys that are able to move into one area? Focus on their operational efficiencies - not have to move their equipment constantly? That’s a problem with the way the Forest Service likes to do things?

They make these micro-projects? And – you can’t live when you’re moving your equipment around all the time, or walking it a mile down the road to the next unit, when the forest in between the two units needs as much treatment as the- the spots that they’ve got for their units. [T174]

Excerpt 18.8

Industry Participant: [Y]ou know, we don’t have to hit one or … a thousand acres really hard, we can do much more light-touch restoration on 5,000, or 10,000 acres, and uh … you know, you’ve got a beautiful looking forest out there, all the time. You know? It can be done. It can be done.

(Laughing) [T175]