Duration: 10/01/2009 to 09/30/2014

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

The West has 233 million acres of forests, approximately 66 % of these forests are in the public domain while 34 % of these are owned by non-governmental entities (source: National Association of State Foresters www.stateforesters.org). These non-governmental stakeholders constitute a primary target for educational programs in woodland and forest management and wildlife habitat enhancement. Communities in and closely adjacent to forests are another important consumer of extension forestry information. There is a need across the wide area of western states extension programs to develop coordinated extension forestry efforts to better utilize expertise on a multi-state basis to achieve both programmatic and administrative efficiency and to help meet the requirements of the Agricultural, Research, Extension and Education Reform Act (AREERA).

This effort will coordinate the wide diversity of resources committed to the Western Extension Forestry Coordinating Committee. Currently, western extension forestry programs vary widely in scope and depth. Most states have only one or a few staff who are predominantly dedicated to forestry, several have 6-11 individuals with forestry assignments, and only two states have 20 or more (Biles, 2001 In Hibbard and Ellefson, 2002, Draft National Report on Sustainable Forests: Criterion 7, Indicator 53).

The group recognizes current issues driving increased public attention to western forests and rangelands include wildfires, forest health, water quality and quantity, and sustainable productivity of forest resources for the benefit of communities and economies.

Additional Linkages:
Proposed partnerships and collaborators would include: 1. Participating western states with extension forestry capacity including CA, HI, NM, NV, WY, AK, UT, OR, AZ, WA, MT, ID, and CO; 2. US Forest Service Cooperative Forestry; 3. Council of Western State Foresters; 4. US Forest Service Regional Foresters (western regions); 5. Western Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Program Leaders; 6. National Association of University Forest Resources Programs (NAUFRP) (western region); 7. National Program Leader for Forestry - USDA-CSREES; 8. US Forest Service Research Stations; 9. Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals (ANREP); 10. USDA National Resources Conservation Service; 11. Society of American Foresters (SAF); 12. State Forestry Agencies/Offices.

Objectives

Procedures and Activities

Educational materials and programs shared across states.

Landowner needs assessments across states including informal extension programs.

Regional grants and contracts acquired.

Participation by partners.

Regional interdisciplinary professional development training.

Improved effectiveness of programs.

Higher level of stewardship on private lands.

Adaptation of research into applications

Expected Outcomes and Impacts

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Educational Plan

Educational Plan: The purpose of the Educational Plan of this WCC would be to continue and extend in a more coordinated manner information (re: opportunities/challenges) directly to western extension faculty that is relevant to their regional/state forestry discussions, to include the ECOP forestry liaison committee efforts and other relevant educational activities and opportunities. (Note: Extension Leadership through the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy established a Forestry Liaison Team in May 2000 specifically to 1) raise the dialogue about forest landowner education and outreach, conservation education, and community economic development; 2) prepare Extension leadership to work with the 2002 Farm Bill; and 3) consider action regarding an updated USDA Interagency Agreement on Forestry.)

Organization/Governance

Operational structure: The chair will be responsible for coordinating meetings, and communicating with participants and with administrative advisors. The vice-chair will be responsible for taking notes at the annual meeting and reporting the necessary information to the NIMSS. The chair and vice-chair will serve for approximately one year with the vice-chair taking over as the chair at the end of the annual meeting; if no annual meeting is held then the vice-chair takes over as chair on October 1. A new vice-chair will be appointed at the annual meeting. The vice-chair will be selected from the participants and should volunteer his- or herself; if a volunteer is not found then the vice-chair will be selected alphabetically by state (i.e. Alaska followed by Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, etc) if a volunteer is found then the state which the vice-chair comes from will be removed from the rotation. (Note: There is no committee secretary.) An e-mail listserve will be set up for committee members. The committee will meet once a year to address the objectives listed above.

Literature Cited

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

AZ, ID, OR, UT, WA

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions