From Minnesota to Maine, and Missouri to West Virginia, the 20 state area of the Eastern Region contains a vital content of the national Forest Service constituency. This area includes nine of the top twenty metropolitan areas of the country, four times more than any other Forest Service region. The 12 million acres of national forests in the Eastern Region are within a day's drive of half of the United States population. The involvement of citizens in close proximity to national forests is of great value to the Forest Service, but reaching non-local urban constituents has been a challenge.
Urban Connections is an effort by the Forest Service Eastern Region to engage and build relationships with our urban neighbors. Our aim is to bridge the gaps between rural communities and city dwellers, and involve underrepresented urban audiences in Forest Service activities. Urban Connections also aims to build on existing urban outreach efforts of Eastern national forests and connect to other urban involvement, education, research and development work in the East, South and throughout the Forest Service and U.S.
In 2000 an "Urban Connections" study was commissioned by the Forest Service in an effort to explore the realm of urban constituent relations. The survey work was conducted by Kearns & West, Inc. and included interviews with over 600 people in each of the cities of Boston, Detroit, and Minneapolis. The Urban Connections report provides the insights and opinions of people who live in the three urban areas. The findings reveal that the national forests are very important to urban dwellers, and the majority express their desire that the resources be protected. However, a large majority of people were unaware that the Forest Service manages the National Forests. Half of the survey population feels informed about the Forest Service and its activities - the other 50% feel they are not informed. Active stakeholders say they want to be more involved on forest issues. This information allowed the Forest Service to develop the Urban Connections program with a better idea of the people and their knowledge of the Forest Service and the National Forests.
Urban Connections achieves results primarily by working in a networking capacity. Leadership is shared among the partners who work together to steer the effort and decisions about where to focus efforts, how many resources to commit, and ways to achieve outcomes is a joint effort among the branches of the Forest Service. The Urban Connections Manager is a source of information about what groups are present in the cities, what they focus on, what their needs are, what they have to offer and what kinds of events they sponsor. Foundations and other sources of funding and grants are included in the network. This information is used to match opportunities and facilitate networking.
Information about the Forest Service, what the agency does, current issues and opportunities are placed at primarily at local neighborhood outlets and city libraries.
Over time, learning about people in cities and relating to them becomes part of the Forest Service culture. To initiate this exchange, the Urban Connections team networks with city contacts to identify opportunities for employees of the national forests to visit urban areas to learn of mutual interests and concerns. Likewise, groups from the cities visit the forests to see and learn more about the forest environment and ecosystems.
