The Hawaii Statewide Assessment of Forest Conditions and Resource Strategy 2010  (SWARS) consists of two main documents, the Assessment & Strategy, and the Appendices. You may download the two documents, or individual sections. The Strategy matrices for each of Hawaii’s 9 Issues are at the end of each Issue Section. If you are unfamiliar with SWARS, we recommend that you look at the Executive Summary, Background and Historical Context sections. These documents are in Adobe PDF format. The largest document is the Entire Document (86 MB), so we recommend that you “right-click” on the link below and “save as” to your local computer.We are pleased to announce that Hawaii’s Statewide Assessment of Forest Conditions (2010) and Resource Strategy is available.

Please visit http://www.hawaiistateassessment.info/SWARS/ to download the entire document or individual chapters.

Thanks to Molly Schmidt who works for the Hawaii Legacy Lands Conservation Commission for compiling this excellent list of Resource land acquisition plans and priorites in the of State plans, county plans, and other projects that indicate priorities or policies for the acquisition of lands for the purpose of resource protection.

Great work Mollie. This will be immensely useful for our SWARS.
-Ron

Look Ma, No Hands!

Well the balmy days of summer are over, and everyone is back to school. The Hawaii SWARS team will be working diligently to complete our project by June 2010 as required by the Farm Bill. We have some new data,  some spatial such as LANDFIRE,  and some historical such as the documents given to me by Bob Miriam when he retired. We have some new partners including Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy, and  we have a new full-time staff person, so please welcome Colleen Carroll.  And we have new technology too, including MacSpeech. For example this entire post has been spoken into a microphone and translated instantly into the written word. Without a spelling error.

So while we may have some catching up to do, we have the data, the plan, the people, and the enthusiasm to produce the country’s best Statewide Assessment of Forest Conditions and Resource Strategy.

All the best, Ron.

Way to go, Northeastern Area Association State Foresters (NAASF)! (Oddly enough, the NAASF doesn’t really seem to have a home page, or I would have included the link here.)

But wow, what a team you have in your NAASF Forest Resource Planning Committee (FRPC). The mission statement of that committee is “to encourage and support forest resource planning and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies; to develop and maintain a working relationship with NAASF, the USDA Forest Service, and other appropriate organizations; and to advise and provide technical support to NAASF”.

If you visit the homepage of the FRPC, there is a treasure trove of information about SWARS planning and project guidelines for their region. Many great presentations, links to data sources, detailed information on exactly what is to be included in their SWARSs.

I just discovered this website because I have set up a “Google Alert” so that I get an email any time the words “forestry assessment” pop up on the internet. This morning’s email lead me to this presentation July 2009 Presentation on State Assess. & Strategies for NAASF.

That most informative presentation is in Powerpoint so you may need that Powerpoint or another program to view the presentation. But it includes a couple of slides that really cought my attention. I quote:

“USFS Funds to Support Assessments & Strategies
NAASF share = $481,525
$45,000 reserved to support travel
likely some will be left over
$143,000—habitat classification project
$293,525—split equally among requesting states
$15,449 available for each
16 states have submitted application
Status report due in Sept.”

What? Hawaii was told that there was no funding specifically earmarked for supporting SWARS. Our regional forestry liaison agency was supposed to hire a coordinator to assist the Western States (and Pacific Islands) but last thing I heard before I left for this vacation is that they were unable to hire anyone. “Sorry bout that”.

Today is August 21, 2009; our SWARS is due on June 18, 2010. We had a scant two years to do these plans. And now, we learn that there were indeed funds to support this planning effort, other regions have established regional committees to provide coordination and support to their member states, they are exchanging information, providing useful input.

But frankly, Hawaii has been left out there to pretty much go it alone. We have stepped up, and made significant progress. Our partnerships are strong and growing, we have great data, lots of institutional planning capacity, we have demonstrated and documented our our stakeholder involvement, and through our own research (reading the Farm Bill and Federal Register Notices) we have fortunately jumped through all of the hoops so far.

But to my colleagues in the Western and Pacific Islands region; take a look at what we should be getting. Take a look at where we should collectively be at this point.

Take a look at http://www.northeasternforests.org/FRPC/

OK Hawaii team. Read up. Pure gold.

Great work, FRPC!

Way to go Leo! Thanks for the new website http://zliu95618.blogspot.com/ to help us islanders coordinate and share information. Great workshop. Two great days of full time GIS collaboration under our belts, and three more to go. Mahalo to Lisa Fischer, you, the good folks back at Region 5 (hi Julie and Laurie) for all your help.

Did you miss the 2009 Hawaii Conservation Conference? Have you heard the latest information on climate change, cultural practices, invasive species, the economic crisis, and where Hawai`i is heading? Do you want to hear from islanders from Hawaii and Micronesia in their own words? Would you like to hear for yourself Dr. Stephen Schneider, Nobel Peace Prize winning climatologist on what can be done to mitigate the effects of climate change and sea level rise. Do you care about these Hawaiian Islands; our people, our biodiversity, our culture, the awesome power of our oceans, volcanoes, coral reefs and traditions?

Then you should check out the HCC presentations. They’re online. And free.

The link for the conference index is http://hawaiiconservation.org/2009hcc_presentations.asp

Or you can get one or all of the podcasts on your itunes. Make sure that you are connected to the internet and that itunes can access the itunes store. In itunes, choose Advanced – then Subscribe to Podcast  and then copy and paste this URL into the dialogue box:

http://hcc09.blip.tv/rss/itunes

The podcast directory will load, and you can download one or more of the presentations complete with abstract (in the lyrics section of the podcast).

Enjoy

People of Hawaii, how are we doing managing our forested lands? What services are provided by the trees in our cities and neighborhoods? How much is our 
water really worth? What do we value most about our environment? What about fire, invasive species, endangered species, our wildlife. What kind of data, 
technology and tools are being used for planning and managing our forests and urban areas? And how will we pay to manage our precious natural resources in 
this time of economic crisis? How can you stay informed and involved in caring for our forests, both public and private?

To learn some of the answers to these questions, or to answer yours, the Hawaii SWARS team will be hosting a session at the Hawaii Conservation Conference that will be open to the public (for free!).  Our five panelists will introduce you to an ongoing planning process called the Hawaii Statewide Assessment of Forest Conditions, and the Statewide Resource 
Strategy (also called the Hawaii SWARS project). Each state in the country is required to produce a SWARS plan, and submit them to the Secretary of 
Agriculture by June of 2010 in order to qualify for a number of Federal programs. But Hawaii is unique, and so is our SWARS project. We will introduce you to the team of State, Federal and nonprofit partners 
working on this exciting project. And we hope that you will share with us your thoughts and feelings about how we as a society should proceed in protecting 
our beloved island home, our forests, our reefs, our communities and our precious resources and sacred places.

For more information please visit the Hawaii Conservation Alliance website, the website for the 2009 Hawaii Conservation Conference, and for our particular session. Please note, this is session is part of their Open House Day, and it is free and open to the public. In order to attend the full conference, please register by visiting their website .

We look forward to seeing you there.

We are thrilled that LANDFIRE wil be coming to this year’s Hawaii Conservation Conference to present their data and to work with us here to help us intergate these rich datasets into Hawaii’s asessment (SWARS). Without exception, everyone who has worked on this project has been nice, really smart, enthusiastic, interesting and committed . Huge mahalos to everyone on the LANDFIRE and TNC teams. Oh yeah, Jim, Dawn and the rest of the gang have been great too. All good.

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~

Welcome to the website for the Hawaii State-wide Assessment of Forest Conditions and State-wide Resource Strategy, otherwise known as SWARS. What is SWARS? you may ask yourself. For a brief write up, please visit the What is This State Assessment page. If you prefer to learn by hearing, we have produced a narrated slide show video as well which provides a snapshot of the progress that we have made on SWARS as of February 23, 2009.

First things first; get your computer up to speed.

In order to view some of the documents, videos and podcasts on this website you must have the following free programs installed on your computer:

• Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to be able to open “pdf” documents and you can download it from the official Adobe Reader website.
• Adobe Flash Player is required to be able to view “flash” videos and you can download it from the official Adobe Flash Player website.
• Apple Quicktime is required to be able to view quicktime videos and you can download it from the official Apple Quicktime Download website
• Java is required to be able to do many things on the web, and you can download it from the official Java Download website.

The web is an ever-changing technology, and for that reason, even if you previously installed these programs on your computer, I recommend that you take a moment and download the latest versions anyway. This will ensure that you have a pleasant, productive and safe experience on this and many other websites.

Done? Great.

Navigating the website and finding the information that you are looking for.

You will find links to our most important documents in the “Links” section at the left side of the page. The most important of these is the “Forest Service Guidelines for Assessments and Strategies“. That document is our “marching orders” from the Forest Service. There are many other links to documents and websites where you can learn everything you want to about the Farm Bill, other agencies, etc.

Above the “links” section, is the “pages” section. The most important of these pages is the blog/news page. That’s where you will find the latest news on what we are doing, documents in progress, links to polls, video clips and podcasts.

Anyone may submit comments or questions to any post by registering, logging in, and posting your comments/questions. We require people to subscribe in order to keep out the automated spam-bots whose only purpose is to read weblogs and fill their comment sections up with junk. Your confidential information will not be given/sold/traded or otherwise passed off to anyone else unless they have a subpoena.

Dialogue is encouraged, differences of opinion are welcomed, and everyone is free to have their say. However, this is a public resource, and so profanity, threats of violence, and intentionally deceptive or false information will be deleted. All comments are moderated, which means that they will not show up until the review committee (right now me) has had a chance to approve them.

You may subscribe to this weblog through a variety of means, either as an RSS feed, via email and bookmarks.

I will update this page as additional functionality is built into the system. Until then,
Ron Cannarella