The value of tribal engagement for monitoring the effects of fire and fuels management on culturally significant plants of the Colville National Forest, Northeast Washington

This project is based on a collaboration between NEW CFLRP, USDAFSRMRSALWRI, UL and CCT.

• It takes a research and management approach that draws on the participatory action, systems thinking, geospatial technologies, multimedia data modelling, handling of data quality and uncertainty, and big data analytical methods.
   
• It aims to describe the geography of plant communities within U SDAFSCNF with local cultural significance to CCT, their survival risks as perceived by local communities, and their interactions with the geography of other landscape features such as local fuels treatment programs and fire history.
   
• An online GIS platform will be adapted for USDAFS and CCT to be able to share information in a participatory consultation process targeting key informants of CCT, tribal descendants, NEWFC and USDAFS personnel.
   
• Cartographic questions will focus on the distribution of plant communities that are culturally significant to informants, and on the location of cultural places or regions they perceived are or may be under conservation threats.
   
• Privacy of data and places identified will be secured by both legal and technical means.
   
• Deliverables will consist of an online information system for USDAFS and CCT to communicate geospatial knowledge about USDAFSCNF, a cartography of cultural landscapes and risks in USDAFSCNF, an analysis of possible interactions between cultural landscapes, risk and other phenomena in USDAFSCNF, a USDAFS peer-reviewed publication of results and recommendations to be taken for a better adaptation of USDAFS fuels treatment management to cultural realities of USDAFSCNF, the organization of a seminar and roundtable for the description of results and further discussion, and available NEW CFLRP funding of a post for a CCT intern to take part in future stages of the NEW CFLRP monitoring program.
   
• Long-term change is expected to be brought about into the USDAFS management of USDAFSCNF, by increasing social awareness on values and hot spots to be prioritized in the USDAFS fuels treatment management strategy for USDAFSCNF, by adapting fuels treatment management to the traditional human-environment dynamics of USDAFSCNF, and by facilitating an online GIS interface to inform USDAFS and CCT about cultural values in USDAFSCNF and their interaction with fire and fuels treatment management.
   
• Data contributed by CCT will be jointly used by USDAFS and CCT for the aims and objectives of this project, but only owned by CCT.