I. Working in Partnership with the Forest Service
A Note on Collaboration
An integral part of many partnerships is a collaborative process. The term “collaboration,” though, often provokes confusion. In natural resource management, collaboration increasingly refers to a process where groups with different interests come together to address management issues across a large geographic region such as a forest, watershed, or landscape. Through collaboration, groups that may disagree explore their differences, identify common interests, and seek common-ground solutions. The goal of collaborative groups is to build and promote a collective vision for how to manage the land. Such relationships can lead to one or many partnership projects.
A collaborative relationship may be documented through a formal arrangement, but often it is not. This means that a collaborative process is a type of partnership in the broad, rather than the strict, sense.
Seeking Common Ground
In the scenic Henry's Fork Watershed of eastern Idaho and western Wyoming, a diverse group of citizens, agencies, nonprofits, and scientists formed the Henry's Fork Watershed Council to collaboratively address controversial resource management issues. By using a consensus-building process, this partnership has helped formerly adversarial groups work together to coordinate research, conduct restoration, and ensure sustainability of the watershed resource.
Improving Wildlife Management and Habitat
Across the nation, partners are working with the Forest Service to improve the ability of forests to support diverse and healthy wildlife communities.
On the Yakutat Ranger District in Alaska , the Forest Service is working with Alaska Department of Fish and Game, University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs through a Participating Agreement to assess moose populations and habitats in an effort to improve moose management.
In the Scapegoat Wilderness of Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest, the Forest Service and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation worked together under a Challenge Cost Share Agreement to conduct prescribed burns for improving wildlife habitat. The prescribed fires cleared out excessive understory – built up from decades of fire suppression – to prevent large crown fires and rejuvenate the grasses and forage that support elk and other wildlife. The project has helped restore fire, a critical natural process, to the wilderness landscape.