Thanks to Nick Smith for this link to a Sierra Nevada Conservancy page.
“Forest restoration and wildfire risk reduction projects are complex, involving many steps and moving parts that determine whether a project will succeed and how long it will take. In the infographic below, we take a look under the hood of forest restoration projects to understand each of the steps necessary to get a project on the ground and through completion.”
This is an excellent article that emphasizes the need for consistent, long-term investments in forest restoration projects. I work with the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition and we recently published a guidebook that expands on this infographic by explaining the specific steps and processes involved in planning and implementing a Forest Service veg management project. We hope it can be a resource for collaborative groups and other Forest Service partners to better understand how the agency goes about this work and why project timelines end up being what they are. The guidebook, “Forest Service Project Planning to Implementation” is available on our website: https://www.ruralvoicescoalition.org/tools-products-index. Please feel free to share widely!
Emery, I’ve had time only to briefly scan the guidebook, but it looks to a a superb resource. Lots of other interesting stuff on your website. Thanks!
This looks really useful for those who really want to understand what is going on when. It started to answer one question I’ve had, but left me hanging …
“Developing contract or agreement documents involves translating management activities, desired outcomes, and special requirements like project design criteria into specifications that are clearly defined, measurable, and enforceable.195”
The footnote citation is “personal interviews.” This is clearly an important part of the process, but it seems to rely on trust that it will happen. Is there more to it than this? Thanks!
Worth highlighting in relation to why the high priority fuel treatments don’t get done:
“In the current funding model, project leads often need to identify and secure a new funding source at each stage of a project’s life cycle. This approach creates inefficiencies that increase administrative costs and encourages proponents to take a piecemeal approach to landscape-scale projects. Low-hanging fruit gets planned and implemented, but some of the highest-impact projects are harder to advance.”
While there was both a fuels removal contract and a prescribed burn, the results are exactly what we are looking for.
https://forestpolicypub.com/2015/05/17/service-contract-re-visited/