A New Approach to Forest Restoration in the American Southwest
The White Mountains Landscape Assessment (WMLA) conducted in 2005-06 was a collaborative, landscape-scale approach to engaging stakeholders in the proecess of identifying and prioritizing areas of land in greatest need of management attention to restore forest ecological health, and creating alternative scenarios for accomplishing restoration goals. The focal area was approximately two million acres of land withing the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in east-central Arizona. This one-year process culminated in a three day wrkshop in Octover 2005 where 43 regional stakeholders were convedned to address these issues using a Spatial Decision Support System designed by the Forest Ecosystem Restoration Analysis (ForestERA) Project at Northern Arizona University (NAU). ForestERA staff along with staff from NAU's Ecological Restoration Institute, provided a forum where stakeholder values, concerns, and aideas could be translated into spatially explicit prioritization and management action scenarios based on teh best available science. The result was a set of collaorative, science-based solutions which met natonal policy priorities while remaiing grounded in the needs of local stakeholders.
Outcomes and products from the White Mountains Landscape Asessment included a variety of spatial and non-spatial information, which have proven valuabel to managers, policymakers, and regional stakeholders for the purposes of planning, monitoring, researc, and reporting in the region. Workshop products represent importatn landscape-scale guidnace based on top-quality science and grounded in the value of local stakeholders.
Products from this effort including the spatial data atlas and final report, or to request relevant spatial data, please go to our products page under the White Mountains section.
