CHAPTER 4: OPPORTUNITIES
   

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How do we define success for the AMA? Success might be increasing the quantity or quality of late-successional habitat. It might be the creation of new opportunities for natural resource-based employment, or expanding the choices for outdoor recreation in the north coast area. Success in the AMA will certainly require active and sustained citizen participation. Perhaps most important, success may be defined by how well AMA management helps us to learn better, more effective ways of managing our forest land.

All of us, as partners in the AMA, can help keep the learning process moving by sharing ideas--that is, ideas to try out on the AMA landscape--that might help us get to our shared vision. This chapter is intended to provide a bank of such ideas that we can draw from, and add to, as AMA management proceeds.
 
 


 
 

Commodity Production, Economic Outputs, and Jobs

The locations of the 10 AMAs were chosen partly with a view to economics. They are generally near communities that lost jobs and income because of the reductions in federal timber harvest. In fact, a basic assumption underlying the AMA concept is that ecological concerns and economic values can be,and should be, not only compatible, but complementary. This section explores ways of generating products and jobs while developing late-successional habitat.
 

Timber harvest

The federal lands now within the AMA have a history of producing a sizable annual harvest of timber, and the AMAs are expected to continue to produce timber--though harvest levels will be less than in past decades. The emphasis of management is to maintain and develop late-successional forest, while also providing social and economic benefits to local communities. Some of the ways in which commercial timber harvest might result from AMA management are as follows:

 

Recreational Development and Tourism

There are many potential opportunities for recreational development in the AMA; but the federal agencies are receiving a much lower level of appropriated funding than in the past. People and money from other sources need to be recruited to help get things done. Following are some ideas for projects that could be pursued in the AMA. Input from AMA stakeholders will have a major influence on which of these or other projects or activities might be implemented, where they would be located, and how they would be constructed or conducted.
 
 

Hunting and fishing

 

Developed recreation sites

 

Dispersed recreation

 

Collaboration with Other Agencies and Organizations

A wide variety of agreements and funding arrangements are now in effect. Local and regional governments, tribes, public and private agencies, and other organizations of all types are currently cooperating with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to accomplish projects of mutual benefit. These existing agreements are listed and described in Appendix E. Some opportunities for increasing our current level of collaboration are described below:

 

Public Participation
 
Many kinds of groups and organizations could contribute ideas and assistance to the AMA. Following are some of the types of organizations that would have the potential to participate:

 

Volunteers

Partnerships and volunteerism can play an important role in training local residents, both adult and youth, to share in the process of maintaining and enhancing forest ecosystems.

 

Education

A key feature of the AMA is the opportunity to increase awareness and understanding of ecosystem processes and ecosystem management options. The knowledge developed by people in local communities, natural resource management agencies, colleges and universities, and research facilities needs to be shared as widely as possible among AMA participants and the local population. Increasing technical and scientific learning, sharing information, and training local workforces are all part of the educational component of AMA programs.

A list of current and ongoing educational programs and information sharing methods is located in Appendix G. The list includes presentations, publications, local community education opportunities, and the Internet.

The AMA management team will continue to search for new and more effective ways of informing and including people from local communities, agencies, and organizations.