Introduction and Goals

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Issue:

The science, policies, management, and politics of old-growth forests have had a relatively long history in the Pacific Northwest. Policy debates around old-growth forests initially focused on single species (e.g. northern spotted owl) and then evolved to a focus on multiple species and old-growth ecosystems. The social roots of these policy debates lie in a combination of issues including the aesthetics of wild and managed forests and philosophical differences about the value of forests as reservoirs of wild nature and resources for humans. Despite the implementation of old-growth conservation strategies on federal lands, the debates about forest conservation continue and may now be focusing more on the real underlying issue of balancing conservation of naturalness and natural processes with active management for multiple forest objectives -- questions that John Muir and Gifford Pinchot argued more than a century ago.

Despite progress in the conservation of old growth in the region, significant conservation issues remain unresolved as a result of ecological and social complexities. Key problems include: 1) The social arena for old-growth conservation and sustainable forest management is a maze of different agendas perspectives and policies (i.e. "wicked problems"), making it difficult for policy makers, managers and stakeholders to identify problems as well as identify strategies to deal with the problems, 2) Most efforts have focused on federal lands without consideration of management activities on the entire mosaic of public and private lands, 3) Conservation strategies have emphasized goals associated with old growth but other ecologically important components of forest biodiversity may not be provided for where old growth is the primary emphasis, 4) Conservation practices have emphasized passive management of existing stands of old growth, yet in many landscapes in the region, especially fire prone types, active management is needed to reduces losses of old growth to high severity fires and to restore diversity in forest plantations. Furthermore, all forests in the region are subject to climate change, which may alter the capacity of the ecosystems to maintain or produce old growth in the future as we know it today.

Goals and objectives of workshop:

Overall Goals:

Bring together a small group of academics, researchers, managers, policy makers and stakeholders to frame problems associated with the conservation of old-growth forests and identify strategies that could lead to more effective responses to them.

Identify areas where mutual understanding among protagonists may be achievable on the problems of how to conserve nature while providing for multiple values to society.

Identify the underlying social foundation for the conflict over management of native forests (including old growth) and then determine what role research can play in informing the debate, providing the tools, and laying out alternatives to policy makers and the public.

Specific Objectives :

1. To characterize the ecological, social, economic, and policy context for old-growth and associated forest biodiversity problems in the region and identify critical issues and the relevance of science to solutions to conservation and sustainability problems.
   
   
1. Social questions and problems associated with old growth
   1. E.g. what are the social norms?
   2. E.g. How have these changed over time?
2. Ecological science problems/questions
   1. E.g. How do community/ecosystem perspectives of old growth relate to species and ecosystem function perspectives?
   2. E.g. What has been the role of fire/exclusion and climate change in these systems in the past and what are some potential effects in the future?
3. Scientific and social questions/issues that emerge from management
   1. E.g. How should management deal with old-growth goals when ecosystems are dynamic as a result of forces such as fire and climate change?
   2. E.g. how can management and policy deal with multiple definitions of old growth?
4. Where are the social, ecological and management questions clearly distinct and where are they really difficult to separate out?
   1. E.g. How does the question of naturalness manifest itself as an ecological/social/management problem?
   2. E.g. How do management definitions relate to ecological or social definitions?
      
      
2. Identify directions for policy makers, managers and stakeholders that may reduce conflict and lead to more effective policies and practices.
   
   
1. What changes in policies could to more effective conservation and management?
2. How can scientists better communicate complexities and uncertainties?
3. How can all groups engage in joint learning?
4. Can the terms of the debate be reframed to make more effective policies and practices?

General Approach:

The workshop would bring together some of the top academics in the US to brainstorm how we might want to think about old growth and forest biodiversity to ensure its conservation and identify with strategies to make that outcome possible. Toward the end of the workshop the participants would meet with a small group of regional managers and policy maker s r epresent federal, state and NGO land managers to present their findings and engage in dialog about the framing of the problem and potential policy and management strategies to deal with them. See the Agenda for more details.

Updated: 2 May 2005

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