title: Visions of Restoration in Fire-Adapted Forest Landscapes: Lessons from the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program.
abstract: Collaborative approaches to natural resource management are becoming increasingly common on public lands. Negotiating a shared vision for desired conditions is a fundamental task of collaboration and serves as a foundation for developing management objectives and monitoring strategies. We explore the complex socio-ecological processes involved in developing a shared vision for collaborative restoration of fire-adapted forest landscapes. To understand participant perspectives and experiences, we analyzed interviews with 86 respondents from six collaboratives in the western U.S., part of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program established to encourage collaborative, science-based restoration on U.S. Forest Service lands. Although forest landscapes and group characteristics vary considerably, collaboratives faced common challenges to developing a shared vision for desired conditions. Three broad categories of challenges emerged: meeting multiple objectives, collaborative capacity and trust, and integrating ecological science and social values in decision-making. Collaborative groups also used common strategies to address these challenges, including some that addressed multiple challenges. These included use of issue-based recommendations, field visits, and landscape-level analysis; obtaining support from local agency leadership, engaging facilitators, and working in smaller groups (sub-groups); and science engagement. Increased understanding of the challenges to, and strategies for, developing a shared vision of desired conditions is critical if other collaboratives are to learn from these efforts.
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA. lsu@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Lauren S
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7097-5079
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Urgenson
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Clare M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Charles B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Halpern
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Bakker
authors.affiliation: The Wilderness Society, Bozeman, MT, 59715, USA.
authors.forename: R Travis
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Belote
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Jerry F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Franklin
authors.affiliation: The Nature Conservancy, Yakima, WA, 98901, USA.
authors.forename: Ryan D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Haugo
authors.affiliation: College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, 59812, USA.
authors.forename: Cara R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Ecological Restoration Institute, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011-5017, USA.
authors.forename: Amy E M
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Waltz
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D004463:Ecology; D005390:Fires; D016468:Forestry / Q000379:methods*; D065928:Forests; D014197:Trees; D014481:United States
keywords: CFLRP; Collaboration; Desired conditions; Ecological restoration; Fire-prone forests; Public lands management