Shared Stewardship, Shared Outcomes
Summary:
Shared Stewardship, an agreement between the State and Forest Service, is about setting priorities together and combining resources to achieve cross-boundary outcomes using every available tool to improve forest health and target treatments in the highest priority landscapes to protect at-risk communities and watersheds from catastrophic fire.
Full Abstract:
Managers and owners of forested land in Utah face many challenges, among them catastrophic fires, drought, insects and disease, invasive species. Of particular concern are longer fire seasons and the increasing size and severity of wildfires, along with the expanding risk to communities, water sources, wildlife habitat, air quality, and the safety of firefighters. In order to address these concerns at a landscape scale, the State of Utah (State) and the USDA Forest Service (Forest Service) entered into a Shared Stewardship Agreement. On May 22, 2019, Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert and USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue signed the Agreement for Shared Stewardship between the State and the Forest Service Intermountain Region. Under the agreement, the State and Forest Service will focus on landscape-scale forest restoration activities that protect at-risk communities and watersheds.
This agreement establishes six mutual commitments that support the national vision and framework for Shared Stewardship. The State and Forest Service are committed to:
- Existing partnership, programs, and initiatives that have been successful in Utah;
- Working together to identify and map shared priorities for protecting at-risk communities and watersheds across all lands;
- Making joint decisions and sharing resources for immediate and ongoing work in priority areas;
- Engaging local communities in dialogue and learning about active management and desired landscape-scale outcomes, including capacity building and economic development opportunities;
- Shared planning efforts, including the integration of Utah’s Forest Action Plan and the Forest Service’s Five-Year Vegetation Management Plans;
- Co-managing wildfire risks and supporting each other in decisions that we have made together.
The State and Forest Service have worked collaboratively to identify and map priority landscapes that will guide activities across jurisdictional boundaries. Shared Stewardship is about setting priorities together and combining resources to achieve cross-boundary outcomes using every available authority and tool to support partnership efforts to improve forest health and target treatments in the highest priority landscapes, thereby protecting at-risk communities and watersheds from catastrophic fire. The State of Utah and the Forest Service will work in partnership to restore these priority landscapes using all available tools. The State and Forest Service have each contributed $2 million this year for project implementation, economic development and facilitation and training. An additional $16 million is committed to be invested through 2022 for a total of $20 million over 4 years.
Project work funded by Shared Stewardship is currently underway on the Unita-Wasatch- Cache (UWC), the Manti-La Sal and Dixie National Forests. On the UWC, work is getting started on phase four of the Upper Provo River watershed project. The watershed provides water for a significant portion state’s population and the goal of the project is to protect it from the effects of catastrophic wildfire and to restore forest health by reducing hazardous fuels, restoring an ecological balance in the forest and reducing overall tree density.