The Many Faces of Collaboration: Lessons learned from stewardship contracting in the Northern Rockies

Effective collaboration:  Increases public understanding of federal land management issues  Often builds greater trust between agencies and the public  Can create positive constituencies

Making it work  The earlier collaboration starts, the better  It’s never too late  Some people are good at it; some aren’t  Agency people who are should be trained, supported, rewarded  Changing key players complicates and often sets back the process

Remember that:  Expectations are critical – They need to be put on the table in the beginning, and revisited periodically  Collaboration will not stop appeals and litigation  Trust is built slowly – but can be destroyed instantly

Multiparty monitoring  Is the logical follow-on to collaborative planning and implementation  In the absence of up- front collaboration, a monitoring team is likely to take the lead in ensuring that the next project is done collaboratively

Using monitoring findings and recommendations  Better mechanisms are needed to facilitate and encourage the timely sharing of information and “lessons learned” among agency personnel, contractors, and monitoring teams region-wide and/or nationwide.

Low value materials  Are a significant element of most hazardous fuels reduction projects and many ecosystem restoration projects  Are frequently missed or understated in agency cruises and volume estimates

The volume and salability of fiber required to be removed under a stewardship prescription are critical factors in many projects’ feasibility for both government and contractors. The volume and salability of fiber required to be removed under a stewardship prescription are critical factors in many projects’ feasibility for both government and contractors.

Therefore:  Agencies need to greatly improve inventory and cruise methodologies and the quality of their data.  Contractors need to be better trained and take more responsibility for verifying agency-provided data  Split pricing should be considered for projects including significant amounts of low value material

Multi-activity contracts More training is needed for bidders in: Costing on a per acre basisCosting on a per acre basis Qualifying and using subcontractorsQualifying and using subcontractors Dealing with unfamiliar activitiesDealing with unfamiliar activities

Designation by prescription  Has proven very useful in implementing fuels reduction and forest restoration projects  Makes better use of the skills and experience of forest workers

Delivered log contracting  Ensures that the contractor has no economic interest in the trees being removed as he works to achieve the desired end-result on the ground.  Helps alleviate concerns that some critics of stewardship contracting have with the goods for services authority.

Bonding  If smaller private companies or non-profit corporations are to be able to bid on multiyear, multifunction stewardship contracts, bonding requirements will need to be structured so that those organizations can feasibly meet them.

Collaboration and good stewardship  Can change this  To this