Southern Forest Resource Assessment A lesson in releasing controversial research findings

Southern Forest Resource Assessment

A lesson in releasing controversial research findings

Southern Research Station

National Forest System: land & resource management of national forests

State & Private Forestry: fire & aviation, cooperative forestry, landowner advice, forest health protection

Research & Development: science policy & planning; resource valuation & use; vegetation management & protection; wildlife, fish, watershed

Forest Service Programs

Forest Service Budget Allocations

Research

Assisting States

Managing publicforests



Research Locations

Station Headquarters

Major Field Locations

Experimental Forests

TX

OK AR

LA

MS

KY

TN

AL

FL

VA

NC

SC

GA

Asheville

Nacogdoches

Monticello

Pineville

New Orleans

Saucier

Stoneville

StarkvilleAuburn

Athens

Franklin

Clemson

Charleston

Blacksburg

RTP

Raleigh

$49 million appropriated budget, with an additional $2.7 million in “soft” funding

$13 million to fund cooperative research

135 paneled scientists (Ph.D.), additional 300 technical and administrative employees

26 research units at 18 locations--laboratories, experimental forests, universities

275 refereed-journal articles, 366 other publications


Breadth of active research


Wood Quality

“Sustain Forests and the Values they Provide People.”


Aquatics


Natural Regeneration


Biobased Products


Species at Risk


Biological Productivity


Insects and Diseases


Conservation Education

First understand steps needed to ensure sustainable forests

Second address public concerns about apparent increases in portable chip mills

Why engage in a regional assessment?

• A 2-year effort sponsored by 3 Federal agencies (EPA, F&W, FS) and 13 State agencies

• A 600-page report in 25 chapters, all drafted by different authors

• Accompanying summary report, hypertext Web site, searchable CD, Journal of Forestry issue, custom maps

• Focused on forest health, water quality, harvesting, land use, communities at risk

An Ambitious Project

A Risky Effort

• Partnership of forest management, science, and regulatory agencies--issues of credibility, internal communications, turf & trust

• Spanning a change from Democrat to Republican Administrations

• Indefinite delays likely if new Administration detected “value-laden” statements or bias towards previous Administration’s priorities

• State Foresters vulnerable to criticism that their water quality protection less rigorous than neighboring States

And more risks

• NGOs considered harvesting the biggest threat to forest health and sustainability--unlikely to embrace any other outcome

• Forest industry concerned that assessment would support NGO conclusions

• Media didn’t know what to believe but understood the value of controversy in selling newspapers

The Challenge

Create an assessment process that:

• Ensures public input and buy-in

• Coordinates the work of 25 authors (researchers, managers, regulators) and 100+ reviewers (universities, industry, NGOs)

At the same time avoiding:

• Premature release of unverified data

• “Politicization” of the way scientists criticize and improve each other’s work

• Used questions to frame chapters

• Held public meetings to identify questions; allowed 3-month public comment period on draft report

• Subjected entire 600 pages to blind peer review and guaranteed anonymity of reviewers

• Made sure partner agencies employees understood findings & implications

• Began building key messages by brainstorming the toughest questions that reporters might ask

• Practiced and stuck to key messages

• Resisted requests for advance release of findings

What We Did Right

• Produced a draft for public comment and a final report within projected time frames

• Withstood NGO attempts to promote an 11th hour report, offering no data but presenting a competing assessment of southern forest sustainability

• Engendered enough confidence in our credibility for media to build stories on the findings rather than the validity of the findings

• Following a FOIA request for peer reviews, AJC satisfied with our reasons for withholding reviewer identities and their subjective comments

Measures of Success

The South is using the assessment findings

• to set priorities for research and public land acquisition

• to improve water quality through more effective Best Management Practices

• to formulate landowner and community assistance programs

Finally and most importantly…

Questions?

Southern Forest Resource Assessment

Specific products and services

• COMPASS quarterly catalog with featured publications

• ANNUAL REPORT of research accomplishments

• State-by-State UPDATES for Senators and Representatives

• Web-based BRIEFINGS available for Congressional staffers


State-of-art Internet presence

• Between 20,000 and 40,000 “hits” a day

• Half million publications downloaded a year

• Reduction of hard-copy mailings from 75,000 to 21,000 a year





Concentrating on timely delivery of quality products and services

• Developed a publications evaluation card for feed back on accessibility/quality of science products

• Offered online delivery of publications, data bases, presentations

•Collaborating on One-Stop Shopping to give seamless nationwide access to all online publications


Making research accessible to the general public

• Used Web site to publish scientist profiles and contact information

• Hired a science writer to concentrate on research “stories”

• Met monthly to review article galleys and select the best for news releases

• Helped scientists to incorporate the “so what” into manuscripts, proposals, and briefings


Conservation Education

• Connection to local communities

• Appreciation among youth for forests and forest management

• Interest in careers in forest science



Hypertext encyclopedia--the future

• Synthesizing 75 years of forest research

• Six modules, one complete



Southern Forest Resource Assessment A lesson in releasing controversial research findings

Documents

cooperative research

outcome forest industry

state agencies

cooperative forestry

regulatory agencies

public concerns

public meetings

public input