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Project ID: 04-2-1-114

Year: 2004

Date Started: 07/23/2004

Date Completed: 07/21/2006

Title: Integrating Social Values in Vegetation Models via GIS: The Missing Link for the Bitterroot National Forest

Project Proposal Abstract: We propose an eighteen month research and application project to improve methods for presentation of fuzzy data (social values) in GIS format. Such methods are needed to further increase effectiveness of integration of human values into planning fire and fuels treatments. Information on social effects of alternatives is necessary for NEPA documentation, and while there are several possible techniques to accomplish this objective, none that are GIS-based have been tested sufficiently or peer-reviewed, nor are any theoretically based. Proposed research will be conducted in and for the Bitterroot Ecosystem Management Research Project (BEMRP), a partnership of federal land managers, researchers and the public. BEMRP's current priority is on-site hazardous fuels treatments for a landscape-scale green fuel reduction/restoration program. The Bitterroot National Forest values knowledge about how these proposed treatments will affect social values the local public places on forest resources. Since the Forest and BEMRP are using the GIS-based SIMPPLLE (SIMulating Patterns and Processes at Landscape scaLEs) vegetation dynamics simulation program and scheduler (MAGIS) to plan fuels treatments, GIS data representing social values are being created and validated. Integration with SIMPPLLE/MAGIS will allow managers and the public to assess longer-term consequences of alternative fuels, fire and land management activities on both social and ecological values -- a critical step in building public trust in the agency, and ultimately in reducing existing fuel hazards and restoring the natural role of fire to fire-adapted ecosystems. This research proposal addresses Task 1 of JFSP AFP 2004-2, filling an immediate locally important knowledge gap associated with planning and implementation of wildland fire and fuels treatment and providing the specific research expertise to do so. We propose to provide field-verified GIS datasets representing the local public's relationship (special places, meanings, uses and landscape values) with the Bitterroot Front of the Bitterroot National Forest for incorporation into the SIMPPLE/MAGIS simulation model. We will ground this dataset in peer-reviewed theory that describes how different fire and fuels management activities can affect personal and community values. We will use narrative and paper-map data on social values currently being collected by Watson and Gunderson as our primary input. We will develop a coding system based on peer-reviewed socio-ecological models iteratively through workshops and one-on-one interviews with SIMPPLLE/MAGIS program developers and representatives of the Bitterroot National Forest. We will use these codes to create an initial GIS dataset; then hold a series of (2-4) workshops with members of the public. Meetings with model developers and Forest personnel will ensure utility and compatibility with program and planning needs. Meetings with the public will ensure accuracy and completeness of the data and interpretation. In addition to the GIS datasets, our results will include a manuscript submitted for peer-review and a guidebook that managers can use to replicate and update datasets. We will present our data and methods to the BEMRP Executive Committee, Bitterroot National Forest fire and land managers and to the research community. Resulting data will be applicable to the Bitterroot National Forest, specifically BEMRP's landscape-scale green fuel reduction/restoration project. The conceptual model and methods developed in this project will be applicable to other socio-ecological integration efforts.

Principal Investigator: Alan E. Watson

Agency/Organization: Forest Service

Branch or Dept: RMRS-Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Carol L. Miller	Forest Service	RMRS-Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute
Federal Cooperator	Alan E. Watson	Forest Service	RMRS-Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute

Project Locations

Consortium

Northern Rockies

Northwest

There are no project locations identified for this project.

Project Deliverables

Final Report ("Results presented in JFSP Final Reports may not have been peer-reviewed and should be interpreted as tentative until published in a peer-reviewed source.")

There are no deliverables available for this project.

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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