WCC_OLD1003: Coordination of Western Regional Extension Forestry Activities
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 western states extension programs to develop coordinated extension forestry efforts 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 Forestry Coordinating Committee. Currently, the western states Extension Forestry programs vary widely in scope and depth. Numerous 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 Western Extension Directors (WED) in early 2001, established an ad hoc group to further investigate and make a recommendation regarding establishment of an approach to more effective regional forestry programming. Members included:
Larry Biles, USDA, CSREES Dave Bryant, Montana State University Tony Nakazawa, University of Alaska (Chair) Paul McCawley, University of Idaho Scott Reed, Oregon State University (Co-chair) Milan Rewerts, Colorado State University Jack Payne, Utah State University Mike Harrington, Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors
The group recognized 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, and recommended establishment of key partnerships in the West with the Council of Western State Foresters, Western Governors Association and the new Western Forestry Leadership Coalition based in Lakewood Colorado.
Additional Linkages:
Proposed partnerships and collaborators would include: 1. Participating western states with extension forestry capacity-active interest and Appendix E information anticipated from AK, UT, OR, AZ, WA, MT, ID, and CO. 2. USDA Forest Service Cooperative Forestry 3. Council of Western State Foresters 4. USDA Forest Service Regional Foresters (western region) 5. Western Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Program Ldrs 6. National Association of Professional Forestry Schools and Colleges (NAPFSC) (western region) 7. National Program Leader for Forestry USDA-CSREES 8. USDA Forest Service Research
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