More Info and Opportunity to Ask Questions About the Coconino/National Baptist Convention Project

I’d like to start by giving a shout-out to the Coconino National Forest.  When I called them, a real person answered the phone at the SO.  She put me directly in touch with a public affairs person.   They also volunteered to answer folks’ questions about the project, so please put your questions in the comments.  This is excellent, since my emails and phone calls to the contacts at the Convention itself have gone unanswered.

Anyway, here is the Forest’s original press release:

Due: Oct 3 / released Oct 16

The National Baptist Convention has put its faith in a Forest Service keystone partnership to execute forest management tied to the USDA Wildfire Crisis Strategy (WCS).

The Nashville-based convention signed a participating agreement Aug. 12, 2024, to reduce forest fuels on the 4 Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) landscape as its first venture. The project aims to masticate trees along 20 miles of road edge on the Mogollon Rim Ranger District of the Coconino National Forest. Since the first week of September, trees near Forest Service Road 300 have been pulverized into chips, with slash left on the ground. These areas are treated boundaries allowing firefighters to conduct hundreds of acres worth of prescribed fire ignitions with minimized risk and exposure.

The National Baptist Convention is 7.5 million members strong, comprised of 99% African Americans, of which 49% have a household income of $30,000 or less, 66% live in the top five rural states in the south and 54% have a high school education or less. Opportunities to partner with the Forest Service to complete meaningful work benefits these under-served communities, with increased access to economic benefit and delivery of resources back to their rural communities. The convention has taken on the business of disaster management in the past, requiring cutting down trees and putting down sand bags in harsh conditions. It is now mastering a learning curve to be in the business of forest management.

The convention became a keystone partner aligned with the Department of Agriculture Strategic Plan goal to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in program and service. Through a trickle-down effect, the National Baptist Convention shared its equity spotlight with its hired contractor Kelly Liu of Innovative Consulting Solutions, which is an Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business.  The project aims to be completed in late November 2024 with prescribed fire ignitions planned for next spring.

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I was hoping that the trickle-down mentioned in the press release might involve local folks (or even Arizonans) but it seems like the President of Innovative Consulting Solutions is located in Baton Rouge. It also has the same name as several other businesses. Here’s Ms. Liu’s Linkedin page.

Innovative Consulting Solutions provides strategic business development consulting. We specialize in achieving rapid, exponential growth.

Since 2017, we have helped clients secure $900 million in profitable contracts.  We specialize in business development, marketing, content creation, proposals, and project management. Our sectors of expertise include government services, construction management, disaster recovery, and energy management.

It seems to me that the consulting fees on $900 mill may raise employees of that company, whatever their race or gender, somewhere above “economically disadvantaged.”

I find it mildly fishy that there are so many companies with the same name.

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But it’s all in the name of “equity”, and I can’t get out of my mind that it’s just another abstraction that means “it sounds good, and it is whatever we say it is.” So I went back to the Executive Order.

Here’s the definition of equity in the Executive Order, which President Biden signed on January 20 (inauguration day) 2021.

Definitions. For purposes of this order: (a) The term “equity” means the consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.

(b) The term “underserved communities” refers to populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life, as exemplified by the list in the preceding definition of “equity.”

I’ll have to check with Arizonans, but I would bet that there are Black, Latino, and Native American persons and businesses there.  Both the Native Americans and Latinos have histories of working with these lands, but if not, they too could be funded to develop a “learning curve.”  Also,  some Arizonans are LDS, which qualifies as a religious minority, and there are many “persons who live in rural areas.” So I’m still puzzled as to why the folks getting this funding were chosen.  Perhaps some underserved communities count more than others in the USG equity efforts, either intentionally or accidentally.

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Anyway, please put your questions for the Coconino folks in the comments below, and I will ask them.