Lodgepole Pine “Zone of Agreement” Work Group

1. Lodgepole Pine “Zone of Agreement” Work Group Governor’s Forest Health Advisory Council Tony Cheng & Jessica Clement Colorado Forest Restoration Institute & Dept. of Forest, Rangeland & Watershed Stewardship Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

2. Background The “LPP ZOA” work group was chartered by the Governor’s Forest Health Advisory Council in September 2009 to: • Identify the “zone of agreement” among diverse stakeholder for goals, objectives and treatment locations in lodgepole pine forests affected by the mountain pine beetle infestation • Estimate the quantity and characteristics of wood from this ZOA

3. LPP ZOA Work Group Members Rob Davis, Forest Energy Joe Duda, Colorado State Forest Service Don Kennedy, Denver Water Brian Martin, Colorado Mountain Club (alternate for Shoemaker) Brandon McGuire, Vail Resorts Ken Neubecker, Colorado Trout Unlimited Suzanne O’Neill, Colorado Wildlife Federation Gary Severson, NW Colorado Council of Governments Sloan Shoemaker, Wilderness Workshop Barry Smith, Eagle County Emergency Management Jim Thinnes, US Forest Service, Regional Office Tom Troxel, Colorado Timber Industry Association Ron Turley, Western Area Power Administration John Twitchell, Colorado State Forest Service Jeff Witcosky, US Forest Service, Regional Office (alternate for Thinnes) CFRI: Jessica Clement, Tony Cheng, Mica Keralis (GIS) and Amanda Bucknam (notes)

4. Starting Points Many goals and priorities for forest treatments already exist: • National forest plans • Bark Beetle Incident Management Team • BLM area management plans • County and community wildfire protection plans • Private landowner management plans • CWPP2 – Critical Community Watershed Wildfire Protection Planning, led by water providers, USFS, and CSFS • Colorado Bark Beetle Cooperative 2007 mapping Use Summit County as a case study

5. LPP ZOA Deliverables: Philosophical ZOA 1) A process framework that can be replicated in place-based collaborative efforts • Start with values and interests • Assess how these values/interests would fare across three general management options: no action, mechanical treatments, prescribed fire/resource benefit fires • Framework allows for exploring trade-offs and overlaps • Mapping values on the landscape Work group found the framework useful for articulating diverse values & interests, and assessing impacts of alternative treatments within a collaborative, place-based process

6. LPP ZOA Deliverables: Philosophical ZOA 2) Zone of Agreement Statements • For purpose of communicating to policy-makers • Group strived for consensus…but still needs work • Group desires to continue to hammer these out

7. LPP ZOA Deliverables: Operational ZOA The LPP-ZOA work group articulated two parallel processes for operationalizing zones of agreement on the landscape • Process of exclusion: Wilderness, roadless areas, steep slopes, soils • Process of inclusion: identify priority areas thru a place-based examination of values, interests and goals (inclusive of all land classifications, including Wilderness, roadless, steep slopes)

8. Process of exclusion map for Summit Co. Process of exclusion + select Work Group values

9. Next Steps • CFRI’s “Future Range of Variability” conference , April 20-21 in Steamboat Springs • Work group is willing to continue, with CFRI facilitation, to work on LPP ZOA, modeled after Montana Forest Restoration Committee and individual National Forest-based committees • Ongoing conduct, translation and transfer of current research to managers, stakeholders and policy-makers about post-MPB forest conditions and risk factors i.e., post-MPB forest growth (RMRS, CSU); examining past infestations and current fuel models (CSU)

10. THANK YOU! Tony Cheng & Jessica Clement Colorado Forest Restoration Institute & Dept. of Forest, Rangeland & Watershed Stewardship Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO