Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and

Integration

Social Issues Fact Sheet: 12

Keys to Successful Collaboration

United States

Department

of Agriculture

Forest Service

Rocky Mountain

Research Station

Research Note

RMRS-RN-21-12-WWW

September 2006

Synthesizing

Scientific

Information

for Fire and Fuels

Project Managers

Pacific Northwest

Research Station

Rocky Mountain

Research Station

Lessons Learned

Collaborating on fire and fuels management with a host of public and private partners

may seem like an impossible undertaking. Certainly it presents many challenges, and it

may not even be appropriate for some situations. But the barriers are not insurmountable. Lessons learned from successful collaborations can help pave the way. Following

are tips for what to focus on as you embark on a collaborative fuels management project.

Community Context

Understand that community context matters. Contentious, unresolved past conflict in a

community will hinder success. Collective past achievements will better position a community to address a common threat such as wildland fire.

Resource Stewardship

A focus on resource stewardship creates strong common bonds among participants, evoking emotions that can motivate landowners and other interested parties to take an active role

in a partnership. The key is to connect those emotions to facts and data that participants can

agree on. Field trips help link people to the land and to each other, and move them past

ideology to common attachment to place.

Appropriate Scale

It is essential to work at a scale appropriate to the community, a scale that evokes shared

values, collective action, and sense of place. Local, small projects are often a good place

to start. When considering scale, both geographic scale and temporal scale are important.

It can take years to achieve major milestones such as implementing restoration, education,

or monitoring projects.

Building Relationships and Trust

Being inclusive and valuing diversity are cornerstones of building trust and credibility – two

essential ingredients to successful collaboration. Participants may not trust each other at the

beginning of a project, which is why talking about shared goals early on is so important.

Strong Leadership

Strong leadership is key. Success is more likely if participants, including agencies, are seen

as leaders in the community. New leaders will emerge during the process as well.

Structure and Process

Stakeholders should have the opportunity to create a structure they believe is fair and

inclusive. This, rather than the lead agency determining the structure, can help overcome

any fears of bias. Good facilitation and process design also help. Regardless of the framework the group forms, flexibility is a must.

Social Science Team Lead:

Pamela Jakes

USDA Forest Service

North Central Research Station

1992 Folwell Avenue

St. Paul, MN 55108

pjakes@fs.fed.us
Communication

For collaborative fire projects, communication with local residents is essential. Newsletters, multiagency educational workshops, and involvement in the community are important forms

of outreach, especially if they include a clear message that the

project is a joint effort. Communication is useful not only for

informing the public, but also for gathering information and

bringing interested parties on board.

Resources

Adequate time and consistent funding are critical to supporting

collaborative projects. Government agencies can be key players

because they have access to different sources of funding, can

provide critical personnel, and share resources such as meeting

space and equipment. Nonprofit organizations also provide an

important source of funding, facilitation, and leadership.

Linkages

Collaboration needs both internal support from local agencies

and communities, and external support and linkages. This means

everything from ensuring that agency partners are effectively

connecting with each other, to networking with other community-based groups to gain from their expertise.

Adaptive Management

Reflecting on management decisions and actions is essential to

learning from and building on the collaborative process. Participants should monitor and evaluate the extent to which decisions and actions accomplish goals, then adjust management

activities as necessary.

Successes

Celebrating successes—even small ones—maintains group

motivation, involvement, and focus. Early on, successful collaborations find tangible outcomes to rally behind and present

to others as potential models. Some groups remind themselves of the intangible outcomes, such as new relationships

and the satisfaction of having their neighborhoods prepared

for an emergency.

Source

Sturtevant, Victoria; Moote, Margaret Ann; Jakes, Pamela;

Cheng, Antony S. 2005. Social science to improve fuels management: a synthesis of research on collaboration. Gen. Tech.

Rep. NC-257. St. Paul, MN: U.S. Department of Agriculture,

Forest Service, North Central Research Station. 84 p. Available

online at http://ncrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/viewpub.asp?key=3123

[2006, August 25]. For a hard copy, contact Pamela Jakes at

pjakes@fs.fed.us.

Additional Collaboration Fact Sheets

Keys to Successful Collaboration is one of a series of four fact

sheets on the topic of collaboration and fuels management.

See also Benefits of Collaboration, Social Issues Fact Sheet 9 (RMRS

RN-21-9-WWW); Stages of Collaboration, Social Issues Fact Sheet

10 (RMRS RN-21-10-WWW); and Challenges to Collaboration,

Social Issues Fact Sheet 11 (RMRS RN-21-11-WWW). The Bureau of Land Management has supported the Applegate Fire Plan,

in southern Oregon, by providing its Slashbuster for projects on Federal,

county, and private land.

Social Science Team Fact Sheets

Look for fact sheet topics from the Social Science Team including information on developing personal responsibility for fuels

reduction, communicating fire hazard, topics for community

fire plans, guidelines for community education, and the “golden

rule” for communicating fire hazard to people.

Fuels Planning: Synthesis and Integration

This fact sheet is one in a series being produced as part of a

larger project supported by the USDA Forest Service to synthesize new knowledge and information relevant to fire and fuels

management. Fact sheets address topics related to stand structure, environmental impacts, economics, and human responses

to these factors. Information in the fact sheets is targeted for the

dry forests of the Inland West, but is often applicable across

broad regions of the country. For more information, please visit

our Web site at:

www.fs.fed.us/fire/tech_transfer/synthesis/synthesis_index

Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and Integration is an interagency research/management partnership to support the TenYear Fire Plan, led by Russell T. Graham, RMRS, and Sarah M.

McCaffrey, NCRS.