A Toolbox of Resources

Peer Learning Session Objectives: - Increase understanding of available landscape prioritization and planning tools and approaches for completing work in large landscapes. - Hear from practitioners across CFLR and Wildfire Crisis Strategy landscapes about their experiences using some of these tools and approaches including best practices and lessons learned. - Bring together communities of practice from CFLRP Projects, Wildfire Crisis Strategy Landscapes, and other cross-boundary practitioners. Suggested Audience: The suggested audience for this session includes practitioners from across the CFLRP and WCS Landscapes and other cross-boundary restoration efforts, including USDA Forest Service staff, partners, and collaborators.

The increasing complexity of environmental issues, as well as a growing emphasis on landscape-scale policy tools, has spurred the emergence of “all-lands” partnerships. These partnerships work at large, regional scales to address issues that span land ownerships and encompass multiple watersheds, firesheds, communities, projects, and/or existing collaborative groups. This document profiles three all-lands partnerships in the West, with a focus on their organizational structures, processes for working with multiple local-scale partners and groups, strategies for large landscape coordination, and key governance documents.

The suggested audience for this session includes collaborative groups, Forest Service staff, and partners that are new to CFLRP and beginning their journey, and those that are CFLRP alumni. Please visit the CFLRP website for information about the Program. During this web meeting, attendees will: • Build your network by connecting with CFLRP alumni and other selected projects in the current cohort • Learn about the CFLRP Work Plan intent, requirements, and lessons learned • Enhance your understanding of how CFLRP funding can be used • Hear an overview of reporting and tracking processes • Ask questions and see where you can learn more

During this peer learning session participants will: -Hear from Barnie Gyant, Associate Deputy Chief of the National Forest System, on the vision of partnerships for the agency, and have the opportunity to ask him questions; -Participate in breakout rooms discussions regarding the benefits and challenges of partnerships to help shape the future direction of partnership work in the agency; and -Learn about an upcoming opportunity for partnership support on your unit offered through the Partnerships on Every Forest (PEF) program.

During this session, attendees received updates from the U.S. Forest Service on the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP), learned about an approach for building and maintaining a solid foundation for collaborative efforts using the 4-Ps (Purpose, People, Process, and Products), heard from speakers about how CFLRP changed their collaborative efforts, and were able to ask questions and join in a discussion about the process of building and maintaining a solid foundation for collaboration. Speakers included Lindsay Buchanan, U.S. Forest Service Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program Coordinator; Steve Daniels, Utah State University Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology Professor (ret.); Nils Christoffersen, Wallowa Resources Executive Director; Liz Johnson-Gebhardt, Priest Community Forest Connections Executive Director; and Nick Larson, U.S. Forest Service, National Forests of North Carolina, Grandfather District Ranger. Moderated by Ben Irey, National Forest Foundation Conservation Connect Program Manager.

In both professional and personal situations, people develop expectations about their interactions with others. Whether creating a business partnership, joining a civic organization, or getting married, people anticipate and expect certain behaviors and outcomes. Multi-party collaborative efforts involving public lands management is no different. Finding ways to develop, communicate, and maintain alignment of the participants' expectations in collaborative efforts is critical to a collaborative group's vitality and effectiveness.

Government agencies, nonprofits, and private entities working in our nation’s forests recognize the problems afflicting them, including wildfires, climate change, and insects and disease. Many see Shared Stewardship, where federal, tribal, and state land managers work together to manage our nation’s forest at scale, as an essential tool to address these problems, but how do we get there together? For all entities involved, Shared Stewardship will require an organizational culture shift and strategic alignment with partners at scale.

Land managers have limited resources to apply to land-scape-scale problems, so efficient utilization of those resources is critical. To maximize impact of limited resources in Shared Stewardship, partners must consider the scale of their work and the underlying values they are trying to manage. Once identified, partners should find ways to map their values in order to convey that information to their partners and the public. Early on, partners should develop a strategy for measuring and demonstrating the impact of their work.

The objectives of this web meeting were to: (1) Promote dialogue between those in the USDA Forest Service who work with CFLRPs both locally and nationally and local partners in CFLRPs; (2) Exchange important information between partners and the agency; and (3) Gather initial reflections on lessons learned through CFLRP and implications for collaborative restoration moving forward.

The National Forest Foundation enlisted the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program (HNMCP) to study stakeholder engagement in collaboratives that advise the United States Forest Service in the agency’s stewardship of National Forest System lands. The HNMCP team designed this tool, which conveners, facilitators, and collaborative members can use to identify collaborative design elements (e.g., caucusing) that can aid groups in achieving their work goals or overcoming barriers to stakeholder engagement.