Environmental protection | Higher education » Regionalizing Washingtons Rural Technology Initiative into a Northwest Forest Technology Program

Source: http://www.doksinet Regionalizing Washington’s Rural Technology Initiative into a Northwest Forest Technology Program A response to pressing forest sustainability challenges affecting our economy and environment The Rural Technology Initiative (RTI) is a joint UW/WSU pilot project directed at transferring emerging science and technology to better manage forests for increased product and environmental values in support of rural communities. The program has demonstrated a high degree of success gaining the strong support of rural leaders and winning an award from the National Woodland Owners Association for its pioneering approaches to the development of technologies, training, and education for small family-based landowners. Positive recommendations from a federal review group (USDA-CSREES) urged the universities to seek longer term funding and to regionalize the effort for the benefit of more users. As the pilot project comes to an end, we seek bridge funding for FY 2007 of

$400,000 in order to continue serving deserving communities until more long-term funding sources are secured. State support for Washington’s participation in, and leadership of, the regionalization of RTI into a Northwest Forest Technology Program will help generate more permanent federal support through Farm Bill authorization as well as to maintain the expertise developed by RTI. The need for this effort is coming from rural communities across the region and their enthusiastic support will inevitably play a decisive role in the success of the effort both in terms of outcomes and justification for continued funding. Since the USDA-CSREES review of RTI, there has been a substantial emphasis placed on research grantors to increase the accountability such that research findings are implemented for the benefit of user groups and communities. Both the Government Accounting Office and the USDA Forest Service budget examiners have criticized agencies and institutions for not knowing the

outcomes and impacts of their research activities. The RTI program provides a new model to successfully fulfill this critical implementation requirement through its technology transfer activities and tighter link between scientists/researchers and field applications. CURRENT RTI PROJECTS With federal grant funding declining, the RTI staff has been the primary resource for: • Maintaining the Landscape Management System (LMS) -- a comprehensive software program used to assist in the development of sustainable forest plans. LMS is being used by many constituents across the country: o Coached planning for small landowners 1 o Linking carbon from the forest to end-product use and the displacement of fossil intensive products (this represents the most comprehensive use of life cycle inventory data drawn from the Consortium on Research for Renewable Industrial Materials) o For K-12 education to show the development and functions of forest resources (with Yale University and the NC Cradle of

Forestry) o Customized for use by the WADNR • Completing the Washington Sate timber supply and forest structure study under the Future of Washington’s Forests project which will be completed within the next 9 months including: o Providing timber, forest structure, and habitat projections under alternative scenarios o Analysis of forest health and economic treatments that can reduce fire and insect risk o Analysis of regulatory impacts and more sustainable management alternatives o Biofuel opportunities • FY06 Federal funds (next 18 months) were received to develop a GIS based forest landowner database to characterize the environmental contributions of small forest landowners in Washington State. • RTI technology is planned for use to monitor changing forest structure and the impact on habitat. • Many hundreds of interactive streaming videos for customized education via the Internet 1 Coached Planning is a successful educational curriculum resulting in landowner management

plans. Taught by WSU Extension and the Washington DNR Forest Stewardship Program, it makes extensive use of RTI developed technology. Page 1 Source: http://www.doksinet Background In 1999, a number of rural timber-dependent groups in Washington State requested that if our state institutions had relevant science to manage forests for greater sustainability amid environmental complexity, it was critical to get this science into the hands of rural communities. Concerns over economic viability, land conversions, forest practice rules, and environmental effectiveness were contributing to conflict. While the University of Washington responded that it had science and tools that could help, funding limitations precluded any ability to facilitate technology transfer and problem-solving for the rural forest-dependent communities. In order to develop solutions to these problems, rural leaders successfully sought Congressional funding for the creation of a unique pilot project to speed up the

process of getting science-based research and technology into the field. The University of Washington, College of Forest Resources (UW) enlisted the support of Washington State University Extension (WSU) and a joint pilot program was established in 2000. It was felt that WSU, as the land-grant university in the state, had the expertise, infrastructure, and experience to successfully deliver much of what was developed under the pilot program. This UW/WSU pilot project known as the Rural Technology Initiative (RTI) was very successful, especially in the eyes of statewide rural support groups. New science and technology were packaged into computerized management tools; training sessions were made available; and the user community was rewarded with much new information. Additionally, policy makers and rural constituents learned much about natural resource sustainability and responded with improvements of on the ground forest practices. Key program elements included: (1) joint UW/WSU teams

of scientists and extension personnel dedicated to: i) transferring the best available science for managing forests for forest products and environmental values to the user community and ii) developing analytical tools to address forestry challenges; (2 ) joint UW/WSU faculties and professional staff work in partnership with landowner organizations, tribal organizations, community colleges, and government agencies to deliver training, technical assistance, and information services; and (3) technical advisory boards representing a broad range of user groups work with the universities to identify high priority projects, support implementation, and recommend policy improvements. In its third year, RTI received national recognition from the National Woodland Owners Association for its pioneering approaches to the development of technologies, training, and education for small family-based landowners 2. 2 It is estimated that family landowners own and manage one out of five forested acres

in the state or approximately 3.1 million acres. Page 2