Forest Stewards Guild

This article proposes a strategic portfolio of forest incentives for Ecuador as a pathway to transform the society–forest relationship and build a sustainable forest culture. The proposal articulates seven categories of incentives—economic, financial, fiscal, regulatory, institutional, technical, and scientific-educational—designed to curb deforestation, promote legality, and strengthen inclusive local economies. Innovative measures include differentiated tax incentives, community-based business models, green technologies, and a National Institute for Forest Research. The integrated implementation of this portfolio can position Ecuador’s forest heritage as a strategic asset for territorial development, collective well-being, and climate resilience

Climate-smart forestry is an increasingly important topic in forest policy and for practices. However, what does and does not constitute climate-smart forestry is subject of debate. At stake are billions of dollars of investment aimed at encouraging climate-smart forestry practices in the United States. As a leading voice for ecologically, economically, and socially responsible forestry, The Forest Stewards Guild (FSG) has produced a position statement based on the organization's vision, mission, and principles to guide conversations around climate-smart forestry for all interested stakeholders. This forest perspective presents and expands on the findings of the FSG position on climate-smart forestry. There are three common aspects in the multiple co-existing definitions of climate-smart forestry: 1) adapting forests to expected future climate conditions, 2) mitigating climate change by leveraging carbon sequestration and storage functions of forests, and 3) improving social outcomes. There are potential trade-offs with other benefits forests provide if climate-smart forestry is pursued without holistic consideration of forest ecosystems. We suggest that such trade-offs can be minimized if the goals of climate-smart forestry projects are communicated transparently, system boundaries are made as comprehensive as possible, potential trade-offs are assessed along with climate benefits, climate-smart practices are tailored to the social-ecological contexts, and uncertainty is recognized.

Abstract This article explores the changing relationships between the USDA Forest Service and 10 small, forest-based communities in the Northwest Forest Plan area in Washington, Oregon, and California. Interviews with 158 community members and agency personnel indicated that community member interviewees were largely dissatisfied with the agency’s current level of community engagement. Interviewees believed that loss of staff was the primary factor contributing to declining engagement, along with increasing turnover and long-distance commuting. Interviewees offered explanations for increasing employee turnover and commuting, including lack of housing, lack of employment for spouses, lack of services for children, social isolation, improving road conditions making long-distance commuting easier, agency incentives and culture, decreasing social cohesion among agency staff, unpaid overtime responsibilities, and agency hiring practices. Community member perceptions regarding long-term changes in community well-being and agency-community relationships were more negative than agency staff’s perceptions.

How do managers reconcile new priorities for responding to ecological change with traditional decision-making processes? We address this question with a focus on the US Forest Service, which is transitioning to managing for resilience, while operating under a mix of both new and decades-old policies. We conducted qualitative case study research on the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona, USA, via interviews and document analysis. In this context, managing for resilience translated into ensuring that forests experienced frequent, low-severity fires. This endeavor required managers to work through the legacy of fire exclusion and develop institutions to accommodate frequent burning in a new land management plan. In this plan, managers also sought to increase their discretion, but not at the expense of accountability. Collaboration with external stakeholders allowed them to strike this balance between flexibility and accountability and make the intentional institutional changes needed to manage for resilience.

Scientists and managers initiated a collaborative process to assist the Rio Grande National Forest (RGNF) with bringing climate change information into its Forest Planning Process. The first objective of the collaborative, 2-day workshop was to present and discuss in a workshop format the salient climate change science for the RGNF landscape, in terms of projections, impacts, and vulnerabilities. The second objective was to facilitate a planning process that would stimulate ideas regarding aspects of current and proposed management that may need modification in light of stressors related to climate change. We used an adaptation decisionmaking framework to structure the workshop. All parties deemed the workshop a success, leading to lessons learned and minimum conditions for replicating similar efforts to effectively meet the 2012 planning rule criteria. As other forests consider undertaking similar collaborative science-management workshops to integrate climate change adaptation into their plan revisions, we recommend: (1) that the workshop take place early in the plan revision process, (2) that there be commitment from the national forest leadership and support for staff to complete a comprehensive look at management actions for climate change adaptation, and (3) that there be clear agreement on expectations of workshop participants - for scientists in their role of providing scientific information and for managers in their role of incorporating that information into the planning process.

Observations of globular clusters in dwarf galaxies can be used to study a variety of topics, including the structure of dark matter halos and the history of vigorous star formation in low-mass galaxies. We report on the properties of the faint globular cluster (M_V ~ -3.4) in the M31 dwarf galaxy Andromeda I. This object adds to the growing population of low-luminosity Local Group galaxies that host single globular clusters.

I was saddened to read the letter from Teresa Burgess (Letters December 8) in which she showed little sympathy for the problems faced by our student colleagues. We must recognise that these issues affect all of us, but the vast majority of student nurses are under the increased burden of an unrealistic bursary.

We present deep HST F555W (V) and F814W (I) observations of a central field in the Local Group dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy Leo I. The resulting color-magnitude diagram (CMD) reaches I \simeq 26 and reveals the oldest ~10-15 Gyr old turnoffs. Nevertheless, a horizontal branch is not obvious in the CMD. Given the low metallicity of the galaxy, this likely indicates that the first substantial star formation in the galaxy may have been somehow delayed in Leo I in comparison with the other dSph satellites of the Milky Way. The subgiant region is well and uniformly populated from the oldest turnoffs up to the 1 Gyr old turnoff, indicating that star formation has proceeded in a continuous way, with possible variations in intensity but no big gaps between successive bursts, over the galaxy's lifetime. The structure of the red-clump of core He-burning stars is consistent with the large amount of intermediate-age population inferred from the main sequence and the subgiant region. In spite of the lack of gas in Leo I, the CMD clearly shows star formation continuing until 1 Gyr ago and possibly until a few hundred Myrs ago in the central part of the galaxy.