Nils Christoffersen 2013 Quivira Presentation

Wallowa Resources
Stewardship of working lands: the ideas, the practice and the jobs!
Is co-management of the West’s public lands
in our future?
Innovation and Adaptation in the Pacific Northwest
Nils D Christoffersen – Wallowa Resources
Enterprise, Oregon
www.wallowaresources.org
Alienation of Local Communities
Everyone has a duty to the community and the environment
Empowerment and
Benefit Sharing
Conservation by whom? For whom?
Stewardship Culture
• Cultural evolution – ongoing
process of adaptation within
boundaries of defined and
dynamic social-ecological systems
Requires Flexibility and Learning
• Feedback loops – connect
consumers and producers
• Incentives and Adaptive
Leadership critical to align and
adjust culture and behavior to our
landscapes and system dynamics
Adaptive Leadership in a Complex World
Elements of tame problems,
react in simple causal chains
Elements of wicked problems adapt and
change over time due to reciprocal
interactions between elements in complex
causal chains
Solutions are based on
models, prediction,
control and measurable
outcomes
Solutions are based on educated
guesses, are affected by
uncontrollable events, and have
unpredictable outcomes that are
difficult to measure
Wicked Problems
Complexity increases with
scale and hierarchy:
National
Wicked problems become
more wicked!
State
County
Farm
Is small beautiful or is bigger better?
Community-centered Solutions
“Never globalize a problem if
it can possibly be dealt with locally”
Garrett Hardin (1985). Filters Against Folly
“The present practice of handing down from on high
policies and technologies without consideration of the
nature and the long-term needs of the land and the
people has not worked, and it cannot work.”
Wendell Berry
Adaptive Governance
In the coming years the search will be on for the appropriate
scales to match governance with the scale of ecological
processes.
The starting point for many issues will lie in problem
solving and adaptive management by resilient community
institutions
•Authority and responsibility motivate such institutions
•Resilience arises from the freedom to experiment
•Markets and incentives must reward progress
•Regulation provides appropriate sideboards with flexibility
•Partnerships and collaboration leverage needed resources
Applied Learning
• Adaptation to place requires
learning…learning requires
freedom to make some mistakes.
• Complete learning – head, heart
and hands!
• Need site-specific information
and experience – not generalized
analysis.
• Critical for adaptive governance
The Wallowa Story
Images from (Holling 2004)
The Wallowa Story is about reorganization: the attempts to revive a
collapsed system, create new relationships between forest stakeholders and
develop innovative technologies to support a forest stewardship economy
A system that is unable to reorganize will enter a poverty spiral and ultimately
transform to something different – unintended consequences
Wallowa Resources
Stewardship of working lands: the ideas, the practice and the jobs!
Wallowa County Nez Perce Tribe
Salmon Habitat Recovery Plan
• Proactive local action - 1995
• Habitat conservation for
E&T species in County Land
Use Plan
• Federal coordination
– MOU with USFS
Timber dominance in Wallowa County
• 1900s-1998, 80-90% of manufacturing jobs
• 1980s, >85 million board feet per year from public lands
• 2010’s <5 million board feet per year from public lands
Current
projected
“sustainable”
harvest level
Decline in timber harvest from USFS lands in Wallowa county.
Volumes in 1000 bd ft
Source: Christoffersen, 2005
Reduction in Gross Receipts from National Forest
1990: $37 million
2012: $536,000
Social and Economic Impacts
Employment
• Increase in unemployment and greater seasonal variation
• Out-migration of skilled workers
• Reduction in federal (USFS) staff
• Decrease in average annual wage
Social
• Increase in public welfare and health spending
• 50% loss of school enrollment
– Loss of teachers
– Loss of programs (offer only 40% of course options as
Portland)
– Four day-school week
• Increase in absentee ownership of homes and land
Ecological and Management Impacts
Ecological
• Significant increase in wildfires and related expenditure
• Forest mortality exceeds new growth
• Reduction in habitat and stand structure diversity
• Stand stocking impacts on stream flows, temperature and
chemistry
Management
• Reduction in management staff and budgets
• Deterioration of infrastructure:
– roads, trails, recreation facilities, historic structures
• Increase in illegal use – marijuana production, etc.
Public Forest Land in Eastern Oregon
• >60% of the 3 national forests in eastern Oregon are at
risk of catastrophic wildfire
• Average annual wildfire cost exceeds $12 million per
year over last 25 years
• Impact to watershed function, endangered species
recovery, recreational opportunities, and jobs.
• 1.5 million acres targeted in USFS Eastside Restoration
Strategy. Only treating 30-50,000 acres per year.
Wallowa Resources
Stewardship of working lands: the ideas, the practice and the jobs!
Creation of Wallowa Resources
• Established 1996
• Community non-profit
• Respond to profound
change
• Natural resource
innovation
• Access new forms of capital
• Create new models
Wallowa Resources
Stewardship of working lands: the ideas, practice and jobs!
Strategic Approach
 Inclusive place-based collaboration
 Public and Private Lands
 Local and External Stakeholders
 Stewardship of the land
 Long-term ecological health and functioning
 Current goods and services
 Maintain working land values and associated jobs
and businesses
 Invest in research and education
 Build community capacity for innovation, partnerships, R&D
Wallowa Resources
Stewardship of working lands: the ideas, the practice and the jobs!
Extensive Innovation – Complex Systems
Watershed
Stewardship
Education &
Outreach
Business
Development
Community Policy
Wallowa Resources
Stewardship of working lands: the ideas, practice and jobs!
Collaborative Forest Management
74,000 Acres - $6 million local benefit
Fisheries Habitat / Forest, Range and Roads Restoration
Restoration, Utilization, and Wealth Retention
=
Fuel reduction project
Byproduct and log removal
Restored condition
Post and pole
Firewood
Densified fire logs
And fuel to Enterprise
School District
Re-Organization: Partnerships and Scale
Need innovation and
successful pilots in
communities.
Large landscape impact
and desired
transformation
requires
complimentary change
at higher scales.
Otherwise, different
trajectories gain
momentum – time is of
the essence.
Managed and administered
by Sustainable Northwest in
Portland, Oregon.
Steering committee of 10
representing community
groups in 6 states
Participation of 180+ groups
in 22 States
Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition
Giving a voice to rural leaders in national policy discussions.
Legislating collaboration and multiparty monitoring
•
•
•
•
Stewardship contracting
Integrated Resource Restoration Budget
Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program
New Forest Planning Rule
Early Innovators:
• Applegate
Partnership
• Hayfork
Watershed Center
• Wallowa
Resources
Expansion of Community Based Organization and Forest Collaboratives Across PNW
Governor John Kitzhaber – Oct 2013
“Wallowa County and Wallowa Resources were early
innovators helping to spark a movement that has
spread across Eastern Oregon – a new model for
economic and community development and, frankly,
a more positive way to get things done.
It goes by different names – collaboration, placebased decision-making – whatever you call it, the
model is delivering solid results across Oregon.
Solutions are being found for traditionally
contentious issues.”
State of Oregon’s Investment
• Governor’s Federal Forest Health Budget Package
– $2.88 million to assist the USFS in advancing the pace
and scale of restoration across Oregon’s Dry Forests
– Funds to support collaboratives, additional technical
and field capacity to develop projects, and pursue NEPA
efficiencies
Early NEPA Efficiency Pilots include Programmatic NEPA
and Cooperating Agency Status
• Exploring financial mechanisms to fund
management action on federal lands and recover
revenues from such actions
Building Resilience
How to Influence a System
Catalyze
innovation
Restore
degraded
systems
Precipitate
creative
destruction
Critical roles for
co-management!
For community
leadership!
Wallowa Resources
Stewardship of working lands: the ideas, practice and jobs!
Transformation - Trajectories
Prisons,
Call Centers
Data Farms
Marijuana
and shadow
economy
Stewardship Economy
High Quality Food,
Wood, Water, Energy
Vibrant Local
Community
Traditional Natural
Resource
Production
Retirement
Homes
Amenity
Economy and
Absentee
Owners
Wallowa Resources
Stewardship of working lands: the ideas, practice and jobs!
Cultures of Stewardship – Stewardship Economies
• Community level organization and leadership
• Collaboration – shared goals and responsibility. Strong
partnerships at multiple scales across stakeholders.
• Merger of practical skills and knowledge with best
available science
• Adaptive management for place-based solutions.
• Social learning – everyone learns together and transfer
lessons to other groups
• Triple Loop Learning – push learning beyond the site and
project level to question assumptions, values,
institutions and policy