Focused Science Delivery Program
R. James (Jamie) Barbour, Program Manager
Forestry Sciences Laboratory
620 SW Main, Suite 400
P.O. Box 3890
Portland, OR 97208-3890
Phone: (503) 808-2542
In the Focused Science Delivery Program, our mission is to enhance
the usefulness of scientific information. We recognize that high-quality
research already exists, but that locating it among a scattered
array of sources can be time-consuming, expensive, and confusing.
Consequently, we strive to pull together and synthesize information
from a range of disciplines, and deliver it in clear and accessible
formats. By providing interdisciplinary information specific to
clients’ needs, we can strengthen decisionmaking processes
by ensuring that policymakers and managers have access to an integrated
body of thought.
Hoping to reach as wide an audience as possible, we make every
effort to engage a diversity of clients. We pay particular attention
to collaboration—checking back with clients regularly to
create an adaptive feedback loop that guides our product development
process and fosters long-term partnerships. Finally, we actively
encourage cooperation among researchers, political leaders, management
specialists, and the public as they search for solutions to complex
resource management problems.
We organize our efforts around a set of natural resource issues,
or initiatives, each one lasting from two to four years. Currently,
we are addressing issues related to sustainable wood production
in the Pacific Northwest, biodiversity, and reducing fire risk
to people and resources. For more information about our program,
visit the Focused Science Delivery Program
summary.
Feature Story—The
Biodiversity Initiative |
One
example of our efforts is the Biodiversity Initiative, launched
in the summer of 2004. During its scoping phase, the team
asked for individual input from approximately 100 people
whose work involves managing for biodiversity in Oregon and
Washington. This included a variety of stakeholders, from
small woodlot owners to people from state and federal agencies,
private forestry companies, and conservation organizations.
Following that, we held a series of workshops with clients
to determine what major constraints they face in managing
for biodiversity, what information tools would be most useful
to them, and how the Focused Science Delivery program could
deliver those tools within a collaborative framework.
Biodiversity, commonly understood to refer to the variety
of life in all its forms and levels of organization, is a
complex, conceptual entity.
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While many components of it directly
impact natural resource management, it is extremely difficult
to pin down. During the workshops, the difficulty of defining
biodiversity in its entirety frequently left participants
frustrated, leading one participant to joke that “Biodiversity
is just biological diversity without the ‘logical’!”
Nonetheless, the workshops accomplished
a great deal. We listened closely to the individual needs
of our clients, and are now working on developing appropriate
information products to address those needs. One of the main
goals of the initiative is to recognize that while our clients
approach biodiversity with differing or even conflicting
values and perspectives, they have a shared need for information.
By including the viewpoints of diverse clients and emphasizing
collaboration, the Biodiversity Initiative supports informed
natural resource management for the long-term sustainability
of a wide range of resources. |
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RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND
DOCUMENTS |
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Sustainable
production of wood and non-wood forest products: Proceedings
of IUFRO Division 5
Research Groups 5.11 and 5.12, Rotorua, New Zealand, March
11–15, 2003 (PDF: 2.02 MB) |
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Bridging
the worlds of fire managers and researchers: lessons and
opportunities from the Wildland Fire Workshops (PDF:
1.14 MB) |
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Science Update 7: Reducing
fire hazard: balancing costs and outcomes (PDF: 2.35 MB)
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