Tracking a Governance Transition: Identifying and Measuring Indicators of Social Forestry on the Willamette National Forest

Abstract

National Forests in the United States have undergone a spatially and temporally uneven governance transition in response to social and economic pressures and contemporary policy changes, with many national forest units moving from a wholly government-led “dominant federal” model to a more collaborative “social forestry” model in which nonfederal actors have greater influence and authority. Here we report on an effort to develop a suite of indicators designed to capture some of the most tangible elements of a transition from dominant federal to social forestry modes of governance. We pilot test these data on the Willamette National Forest using data from a variety of sources internal and external to the USDA Forest Service. We assess the suitability of these indicators for tracking governance transitions and discuss their applicability to other national forest units nationwide.

Keywords:

• Criteria and indicators
• environmental governance
• public lands policy
• forestry management
• public involvement and collaboration

Note

Acknowledgements

We would like to sincerely thank our partners on the Willamette National Forest, Regions 4 and 6 of the USDA Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, and the Southern Willamette Forest Collaborative for their assistance in accessing the data used here. Special thanks to Jennifer Sorensen, Cheryl Friesen, Bruce Andersen, David Seesholtz, Emily Jane Davis, Sarah Altemus-Pope, and Johan Hogervorst.

Notes

1 Data limitations did not allow us to conduct statistical tests of internal consistency on these indices. Future work with larger datasets would create opportunities to do so.

Additional information

Funding

This research supported by the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest research program, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research Program [DEB 1440409], US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, and Oregon State University.