Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

2018 Executive Meeting

• Attendees:  Darren McAvoy; Andrew Perleberg; Jim Johnson.  Flight delays and cancelations resulted in low EB attendance.  Discussion of meeting timing was positive, but suggested that later in the year, perhaps mid-fall, would be OK.  No strong opinion for timing of WCC mtg held by attending.
• Discussion on 2017 meeting encouraged future meetings to invite partner organizations.  USFS participation is needed; USFS S&P Forestery, Cooperative Programs AND Research Labs should be encouraged to best leverage science and resources to end-users through all means of technology transfer and Cooperative Extension delivery and messaging expertise.
• Participation by national program leader Eric Norlan a humongous plus.  His insights to national priorities, plans, and strategic framework is critical for Cooperative Extension/ WCC memebrship to clearly understand.  National Focus Funds gain value with WCC involved planning and project execution.
• Future WCC Leadership:  Darren McAvoy (Utah State University) to be FY19 chair;  Chris Jones (U. Arizon) to be FY 19 vice chair.
• 2019 WCC mtg will be hosted by Chris Jones (U. Arizona) in coordination w/ chair McAvoy. 

 2018 WCC Meeting Agenda (see attached)

2017 WCC Meeting Agenda (below, could not attach) 

WCC1003: Western Coordinating Committee – Forestry.  Ft. Collins, CO.  Aug 7-9, 2017.
Date Time Topic, Speaker(s) Location
Mon. Aug 7 2:30 – 5:30
WCC Board Mtg Lory Student Center,
Tue. Aug 8 8:00 Welcome; Logistics. Tony Cheng
Introductions (All)
Meeting Theme Introduction: Extension’s
role in collaborative programs. Andy Perleberg
8:30 – 9:30
PANEL Presentations: Cross‐boundary forest
health improvement and wildfire hazard
management near Ft. Collins. Tony Cheng et
al. CSU Extension, US Forest Service State &
Private Forestry, Rocky Mtn Research Station,
Colorado State Forest Service, and Wyoming
Division of Forestry, others.
10:00 – 12:00
National program leaders good words, and,
answer to the question “How can the WCC help
to support your regional and national efforts”
(20 min. incl. Q&A)
• Eric Norland, National Program Leader, Forest
Resource Management, USDA ‐ National Institute
of Food and Agriculture
• Andy Ezell, Mississippi State University;
National Association of University Forest
Resources Programs
• Kelsey Delaney, Council for Western State
Foresters/ Western Forestry Leadership Coalition
• Karl Dalla Rosa, Assistant Director, State and
Private Forestry, Forest Service, Pacific
Northwest Region
2:00 – 3:00
Current Projects (20 min. incl. Q&A)
• Co‐Managing Risk or ‘Parallel Play’?
Examining Connectivity Across Wildfire Risk
Mitigation and Fire Response in the
Intermountain West. Emily Davis, Tony
Cheng, Heidi Huber‐Stearns, Darren McAvoy.
Lory Student Center,
Rm 300
Examples of Extension’s valuable role in
collaborative projects (~20 min each incl.
Q&A). 
3:15 – 5:00
Group and/or break‐outs: Idea’s for present
and new collaborative multi‐state Extension
projects.
** bring your ideas to the meeting **
** resource needs and have‐nots. **
** opportunities to update, refine, scale‐up
past and present projects. Penetrating vs.
Skimming**
** Some old technologies that still work.
Upsides and downsides to status quo. Good
buys vs. nice tries.**
Wed. Aug 9 Field Trip 
Call for Presentations (~20 min each incl. Q&A)
Call for two‐three presentations that represent good examples of the unique role and value of
Extension in collaborative forestry projects. Though seemingly obvious and avoidable, we’ve all
gotten into situations where we have become involved in cooperative projects that did not
capitalize on our strengths and was not a particularly valuable use of our time. We are seeking
two or three short presentations that convey front‐lines experiences with successful and
perhaps some less positive views of collaborative endeavors, in order to stimulate dialog,
perhaps help to avoid pitfalls, and offer retrospect of how you would have done things the
same or different. By June 30, please send presentation topic idea to: Andy Perleberg,
andyp@wsu.edu
Field Trip. Wednesday, August 9, 2017
There are a variety of forest stewardship projects just west of Fort Collins. We will tour areas of mixed
ownership where multiple government and non‐governmental entities are working together on forest
management for landscape resilience and community wildfire protection. In other words, the primary
emphasis is fire mitigation and restoration. There are some really interesting participants and
collaborative efforts to explore. We’d be back mid‐afternoon for folks to catch early‐evening flights out
of Denver.
Any WCC participant who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability
should contact Tony Cheng privately to discuss your specific needs. Tony.CHENG@ColoState.EDU

Program Purpose, Collaboration, Products, Outcomes and Examples

The purpose of the WCC is to identify present and emerging forest resource management “issues” of regional and even national significance, and to examine participants’ interest and capacity for addressing problems as a multi-state approach.  Attached (in the PUBLICATIONS) is a presentation delivered at the national Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals (ANREP) conference which described the purpose of the WCC, stakeholders collaborating, products, and future expectations.  In addition, outputs from the WCC meeting are combined into a single file, that demonstrates the multi-agency, cross-boundary, multiple-resource, shared-strategy outputs and outcomes (both in learning and action) from the WCC collaboration.  Comprehensive achievments for social, economic, civil, environemental, or other value-added long-term impacts are still being assessed.

This meeting helped to ground the WCC Cooperative Extension leadership in the reality of what we do best and to help partner members recognize the unique role that Extension represents and executes in facilitating forest science information and technology transfer needs.  The combination of the information revealed through research, conveyed through Extension endeavors, and executed by and for practitioners and end-users is what is referred to as coaction.  Examples of WCC topics included watershed resources; web-based technology transfer; climate change awareness; wildfire hazard abatement; communicating forest health conditions; and intergenerational transfer of family forestlands.  See attached publications dossier.       

Highlighted programs included: Good Neighbor Authority (which allows Forest Service to enter into cooperative contracts allowing the States to perform watershed restoration and forest management services on National Forest System (NFS) lands; Regional Conservation Partnership Program (or RCPP, which promotes coordination between NRCS and its partners to deliver conservation assistance to forest owners); Joint Chief’s Landscape Restoration Partnership (such as the “All Lands, All Hands” approach in NE WA, where Forest Service and NRCS are working in partnership and have improved the health and resiliency of forest ecosystems where public and private lands come together. Landscape Scale Restoration Competitive Grant Process - LSR projects cross boundaries to affect any combination of federal, state, tribal, county, municipal, or private lands.  Renewable Resources Extension Act – For example in WA, we work with the Dept. Natural Resources to leverage RREA funding and receive dedicated stewardship forester assistance for helping landowners personalize classroom-based information for writing their own Forest Stewardship Plans. 

Future activities discussed include Landscape Scale Restoration Competitive Grant featuring a Coulumbia River Gorge community or two, probably Stevenson and Hood River.  Also dicussed, Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team conclusions, for the Eagle Creek Fire specifically and for post-fire education in general, so that Extension Educators can convey learned information to end-users for resource protection and enhancement.  Post-fire response is in progress.

Perleberg, A. B. 2018.  What Everyone Ought to Know About the Western Coordinating Committee - Forestry.  National Conference: Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals, Biloxi, MS.