Project results

Coordination and Peer-to-Peer Learning

A key element of Shared Stewardship involves engaging partners in learning from each other throughout the life of a project. Typically, partners secure funding and then rush out to complete project work adjacent to each other and at the same time–while not actually working with each other or communicating that much. COFSF convened partners quarterly to share updates, including successes and challenges. These efforts lead to shared learning, enhanced coordination, and arguably more efficient work on the ground.

Landscape Resiliency Project Outcomes 2021-2023

Before and after fuel reduction work took place at Sunriver Resort.

Before and after thinning work was completed by Shanda Asset Management.

Monitoring on-the-Ground Work

Cross-jurisdictional data collection is notoriously difficult, in part due to differences in terminology as well as methods used to collect and categorize information. The State Parks, for example, use different terminology to describe specific forest restoration treatment types than the Oregon Department of Forestry. Thus translating across agencies is weirdly difficult.

COFSF took this challenge in hand, collecting data regarding the on-the-ground progress of partners’ project implementation and developing a protocol and template for ensuring data was valid and reliable regardless of whether it was collected on Forest Service, Deschutes County, or private lands.

Qualitative Data

There are many questions about how to coordinate shared work across federal, state, municipal, and private lands in areas veined with human-built infrastructure. This includes questions like:

How is Shared Stewardship shaping the way LRP partners work together?
How do LRP partners use the COSSA network to accomplish on-the-ground work and overcome challenges?
How/where is Shared Stewardship influencing the scale and associated risk of projects?
How/does a commitment from agency leadership support effective Shared Stewardship projects.

COFSF collected qualitative data to answer these and other questions with the goal of identifying the best approaches for using the Shared Stewardship network to support innovation and efficiency of accomplishing on-the-ground restoration work. Using the key findings from this research, COFSF has developed a “Guide to Developing a Shared Stewardship Partnership.”

Before and after Sunriver Resort completed ladder fuel reduction work through the Landscape Resiliency Program.

Before and after fuels reduction treatments were completed at Warm Springs Reservation.

Outreach

Increasing public awareness, expanding participation in the Central Oregon Shared Stewardship Alliance, and enhancing public understanding of and support for forest restoration is also an important part of Shared Stewardship. The newsletters published and distributed by COFSF provide a range of stories related to the importance of fuels reduction work, and its economic and ecological benefits.