SWARS Progress Update: 2009-06-04

SWARS Progress Update for DOFAW Leadership Team

June 4, 2009

by Ron Cannarella

Pacific Islands Committee meeting May 4-8, 2009 was pivotal in providing guidance and to clarify relationship between R5 and States/Territories. Regional Forester Randy Moore attended (his first time to any Pacific Island). To quote him “SWARS is the most important thing you should be doing this year because your future S&P funding is dependent on this document”. At PIC we clarified who at USFS will be reviewing document. Also, because of our efforts there is a much higher involvement of NRCS (Dave Clausnitzer, Larry Yamamoto attended, Dave highly engaged) with USFS and States/Territories. MOU between NASF, USFS, NRCS, NACD being implemented because of this process. This is significant.

This is primarily a data coordination, compilation and presentation exercise. Like this furlough plan, maps tell stories. I am still discovering data: i.e., CWPPs didn’t know they existed until Trudy told me, Wayne provided them, in the can. I didn’t know enough about all of DOFAW’s S&P programs & grants to even ask the right questions. I have made significant contact with Watershed people; CZM, Coral Reef Task Force. Attending Priority Watersheds Summit on Monday.

Good news:

1. Hawaii still way ahead of many other States
   1. outreach to NRCS and public has been significant & demonstrable
   2. we possess GIS expertise in-house
   3. utilizing social media to engage partners, public, region
2. Kelly Hartman cranking, highly engaged producing new analysis with $$$ impact (NIPF, Urban Realm). Please cooperate with her.
3. Have good handle on existing data and relevant plans, especially Fire after working with Trudy Mahoney
4. Getting new “national” data sets in time for our SWARS.
5. Got PO for planner to PCSU, exact function TBD (GIS, planner, writer, graphics/layout).
6. Making good use of technology (hawaiistateassessment.info website, Google docs, Dropbox, Twitter). Mastering these will have lasting benefits for DOFAW.
7. Region 5 holding SWARS workshop in Hawaii in August 10, 11, 12 (inviting Micronesians too)
8. Urban & Community Forestry workgroup is cranking. Hired coordinator for Urban Summit (Urban by far largest component S&P in Pacific)
9. Office of Planning CZM very engaged
10. Hawaii Geographic Information Coordinating Council (HIGICC) very engaged

Bad news:

1. From top to bottom, USFS, DOFAW, WFLC, cannot get resources on line fast enough to effectively meet our deadlines
   1. WFLC still has not hired Regional Coordinator
   2. New Laptops cannot get GIS installed
   3. PO just landed at PCSU yesterday, will take time to hire
   4. Behind in planning SWARS sessions at Hawaii Conservation Conference
2. Still too dependent on me (& Sheri), spread too thin
3. Not tied into Invasives work (i.e. ISC meeting on Molokai . . .?)
4. Furlough will significantly impact progress on SWARS

Bottom Line:

1. Regional staff (Laurie Tippin, Julie Lydick) encourage S&P Program Managers to head their sections of the SWARS (Wayne, Sheri, Rob). I do not know enough details about their programs to effectively address these issues, and SWARS will replace several of the existing program docs such as Forest Legacy AON, Stewardship Plan, others . . . (Katie Friday expert on this).
2. All SWARS will be accepted by Sec of Agriculture (info from WFLC meeting via Michael Constantinides), so we will be eligible BUT OUR COMPETETIVENESS FOR GRANTS WILL DEPEND ON A SOLID SWARS.
3. Hawaii SWARS will be what it will be. If you want it done right, get involved.
4. Hawaii will come out of this as a national leader because we have engaged NRCS, Watershed Partnerships, Urban & Community Forestry, Coral Reef Task Force, CZM/Office of Planning/NOAA. Hawaii and region will realize lasting benefits if we can translate this into successful grant writing and project implementation (GIS people need to work more closely with grant writing people)
5. Hawaii Conservation Conference will be a big milestone; engagement & coordination required now (still not clear on HCC SWARS sessions, since there are two “Statewide Forest Assessments” going on, SWARS and the IPIF initiative which have not been coordinated to date. Will get clarification this week.
6. This is crunch month to coordinate HCC sessions and to write.

~pau~

Tagged as: Coastal Zone, Coral Reefs, Hawaii Conservation Conference, Invasive Species, Local Links, News, NRCS, Policy, State Assessment, SWARS, USDA, USFS