Shared Stewardship Case Study: Utah
In May of 2019, Utah signed a Shared Stewardship agreement with USDA. Governor Gary Herbert and USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue agreed to focus on protecting at-risk communities and important water resources from the threat of unwanted fire.
Shortly thereafter, the state and Forest Service undertook a joint mapping project using a combination of Forest Service and state data to identify shared priority landscapes. Three criteria were used in the identification of priority landscapes: Drinking water importance, strategic protection areas (i.e., values at risk), and hazardous fuels. The resulting prioritized landscapes will inform future Shared Stewardship decision making and the state’s update of the Utah Forest Action Plan.
By July of 2019, state and the Forest Service had developed a Utah Shared Stewardship Action Plan to guide their future efforts. This plan emphasized accelerated planning, increased pace of forest management work, an economic development initiative, additional training and education efforts, and engagement with stakeholders and partners. They also created a four-year investment plan to support this action plan.
In Utah implementation of Shared Stewardship is in effect. Both the state and the Forest Service are investing financial resources to implement activities connected to the agreement. In 2019, the Utah state legislature appropriated $2 million for work under the agreement, and the Forest Service matched those dollars. A joint decision was made to spend this money on implementation-ready projects that met the goals of shared stewardship (right place and right scale). The State and the Forest Service have committed additional funding toward shared stewardship in 2020. The state’s existing Watershed Restoration Initiative (WRI) was utilized to implement Shared Stewardship projects on the ground.
In January 2020 individual forests and their state counterparts identified approximately 20 potential projects in Shared Stewardship priority landscapes that can be implemented in 2020 and 2021. Many are being funded and implement this year. Although sufficient state and federal funds aren’t available to complete all projects, the state and Forest Service are hopeful that additional funding will be contributed by partner organizations.
The Forest Service and the state are in the process of developing a partner engagement strategy. As part of this strategy they plan to convene a diversity of stakeholders including utilities, water conservancy districts, local governments, and other stakeholders and leverage their interests. The Forest Service and the state are also exploring new methods and opportunities to enhance their cooperation with partners; for example, staff have jointly participated in training to build convening skills that will be used to facilitate crucial dialogue surrounding Shared Stewardship implementation.
The agencies operationalized their new Shared Stewardship work by hiring and/or identifying staff members with dedicated responsibilities. The state hired a Shared Stewardship coordinator, and the Forest Service identified the Utah state liaison as a core Shared Stewardship team member. The Forest Service has also hired a Regional Shared Stewardship Coordinator to assist with coordination efforts. Finally, the State of Utah and Forest Service are jointly funding an inter-agency fire prevention specialist and a wood utilization business coordinator to support Shared Stewardship planning and implementation efforts. Having assigned state and federal staff members quickly progressed the agreement and implementation activities forward.
To implement the projects identified, the Forest Service and the state plan to build upon existing partnerships, programs and initiatives that have already been successful in Utah, including Utah’s Catastrophic Wildfire Reduction Strategy, Watershed Restoration Initiative, and Utah Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal; and the Forest Service Forest Stewardship Program, Landscape Scale Restoration Program, Forest Legacy Program, State Fire Assistance Hazardous Fuels Reduction Program, Joint Chiefs’ projects, the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, and the Good Neighbor Authority. The initial focus will be upon treating Forest Service lands, however, there are plans to work across boundaries in the future.