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3 Communicating About Forests and Climate Change: Case Studies
Pages 23-38

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From page 23...
... Speakers described their experiences, discussed their approach to addressing climate change, and identified strategies they had found effective and ineffective. Their remarks focused on regional and community forest management, online extension services, engagement of forestland owners and local governments in forest management, and minimized threats to forest health and sustainability.
From page 24...
... , webinars, and gatherings at the state and local level. In the New York/New England Family Forest Owner Outreach Initiative, one such collaboration facilitated by Highstead, state foresters, university researchers, and conservationists from four states worked together on engaging family forestland owners in stewardship and conservation activities on their own land and in the surrounding landscape.
From page 25...
... Lyman explained that the Community Forest Collaborative, which operates in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, was designed to take advantage of the resources and expertise of partners concerned with healthy forestland to promote community ownership and participation in forest management, to facilitate access to the benefits and value that the forest can bring, and to protect forestland generally.3 The collaborative focuses on the well-being of the community, treating forestland as an asset to civic life and a source of economic opportunity, as well as a resource to be conserved. Though conservation and protection are critical, Lyman noted, the Collaborative found that talking about investments, assets to the community, and the community's capacity for leadership was more effective in engaging communities and individuals than conservation itself.
From page 26...
... She explained that the forest changed hands several times in a few years and the town grew concerned about protecting it. Randolph's citizens were concerned not only about preserving the beauty of the tract located between two segments of the White Mountain National Forest, but also about the possibility that they would have to fund services for new development if the tract were broken up into parcels.
From page 27...
... The programming is focused less on the broad challenges of climate change -- he noted that they rarely use the term -- but rather on improving forest health. Thus, on My Minnesota Woods, adaptation rather than mitigation is addressed, and such goals as keeping forestland forested, increasing productivity, and keeping trees healthy are stressed.
From page 28...
... The phenology observation program is an example of the ways extension educators associated with My Minnesota Woods try to package climate-related content together with content that already has a broader appeal. However, Sagor noted in response to a question, those who are engaged in local observations already report climate-related changes and are willing to engage in discussion of climate change science as a result of their first-hand experiences.
From page 29...
... "We don't use the words ‘climate change,'" Walkingstick noted, but it is very easy to incorporate some of those concepts into programming for "this captive audience." The extension program is using additional methods to broaden their reach. In one example, the Invasive Species Education Project, they train forestland owners to become "first responders" who can identify new invading species that turn up in Arkansas forests.
From page 30...
... The primary goal of the Peer Volunteer Program is to train woodland owners to better manage forestland and to motivate others to be stewards of forestland. The program is similar to the Master Gardener Program that many extension services have: Participants receive training over two weekends in basic forestry principles and in exchange they agree to care for their own forestland and to share what they have learned with others.
From page 31...
... Thus, Muth explained, the extension program conveys to the owners that good forest management means planning for changes that may come after the current owner is gone. Most landowners want to do the right thing, she added, but they do not always know what that is (Jones et al., 1995)
From page 32...
... Sustaining and increasing healthy forests and trees, he noted, is the most cost-effective tool for mitigating the effects of climate change. Baltimore County has identified four priorities for its forests: keep forestland as forest; strategically re-forest stream buffers, areas adjacent to existing forests, and urban areas; restore and maintain forest health; and provide incentives for and training in stewardship to the citizens who own 75 percent of the county's forest cover.
From page 33...
... Baltimore County identified 7,100 acres of excess grass in rural residential lots alone. This is significant not only because wooded land better protects shared resources such as drinking water reservoirs, but also because it reduces pressure on farmers who are actively using their land.
From page 34...
... Historical photographs of the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana and Idaho illustrate the degree of change that has also occurred in Colorado forests (see Figures 3-1 through 3-4)
From page 35...
... Fire suppression in the western United States is costing approximately $11 million per day, he concluded, and "we can do a lot more with that than just to fly a bunch of air tankers around." Fires are an opportunity not only to educate people about mitigating the risks, but also to show people how climate change is having significant impacts on their local areas and their lives. CROSS-CUTTING IDEAS In discussing the examples of communicating about forest management and climate change, several presenters noted the importance of thinking regionally, rather than locally.
From page 36...
... FIGURE 3-2  Bitterroot National Forest, 1948.
From page 37...
... FIGURE 3-4  Bitterroot National Forest, 1989.
From page 38...
... Working across states is difficult, he noted, in part because local concerns are vital for engaging landowners. Lyman explained that a range of factors has helped motivate communities in northern New England and eastern Canada to purchase and manage forestland, and changes in the forest products industry and land ownership have affected people on a personal level.


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