Item B: Ordinance Concerning Goal 5 Natural Resources Study

Home Browse Search

MAKING CONVERSATION Conversation during. the 4-week process took place at formal and Informal gatherings, individual and group interviews. in person. and over the phone. The conversations served both to provide the knowledge student researchers were seeking and to help them see how they themselves "fit" into the community. Kruger says. "This emphasis on conversation supports the idea that providing opportunlties for dialogue is important because It allows people to increase their awareness of their ability to take action." CMc engagement, votunteerlsm. community pride, all can follow. Conversation as a learning process also trans- forms levels of trust Working together with a focused goal of listening and understanding provides the right setting for learning to value diversity. she says. Youth and adults alike learned that regardless of differences of opin- ion. people can and mUst find ways to work together for the good of the community. THE VALUE OF CIVIC SCIENCE The Forest Service actively partici- pates in "placemaklng" -taking actions that define the values of the forest and allowing uses which In turn affect the meanings people assign to it, Kruger says. "With any of its management activities, the agency can change the meaning of a place. and it thus has a responsibility to engage citi- zens in processes that discover and reassess the meaning of place." Kruger believes the White Pass process demonstrated dtlzens can participate In civic science that produces knowledge of place for social assessment that is important to land managers. "Community self'assessment provides an opportunity for collaboration between Forest Service empf~ and community members and fosters the integration of scientific and community-held knowledge: she says. "Knowledge gained through self-assessment can be integrated with scientific knowledge to provide a deeper understanding of issues and relations for both the agency and the community." The more formal. traditional type of scientific assessment may be necessary in some cases. but it is not suffident for fully understanding the Impacts of forest management on commu- nities. k; Kruger points OUt, many times it Is by the process of "1MJl'klng through" the implica- tions of proposed changes that people begin to comprehend those Implications themselves. This process allows people to make more informed decisions. The process of civic science, however, is me5S): It Is time-consuming. It Is ambiguous. It lets matters jUst play out as they will, without a fixed structure. It takes Inordinate amounts of care and feeding. And, just as traditional social impact assessment doesn't translate well from large-scale to single communities. so the reverse Is true. What Is real for White Pass may be relatively meaningless even for a nearby community. Then there Is the crucial followup question: How can such Information be Incorporated effectively and povverlully into the planning process? "The answer Is just not available yet: says Kruger. "Scale Issues will continue to be a challenge, and yet what we do know is that this participatory process is a tremendous builder of trust In the White Pass community. where the Forest Service was formerly perceived negatively. it is now seen as a neighbor. an Integral part of the community." It is possible that adaptive management- learning how to learn and learning while you manage--could be the conduit for translating the local knowledge gained through civic science methods into larger forest planning. she says. FOR FURTHER READING Kruger, L.E.: Shannon, MA 2000. Getting to know ourselves and our places through partici- pation in civic social assessment. Society and Natural Resources. 13(5): 461-478. Kruger, L.E. 1996. Understand place as a cultural system: implications of theory and method Seattle: University of Washington. Ph.D. dissertation, Schnnekloth, L.H.: Shebley. RG. 1995. Placemaking: the art and practice of building commu- nities. New York: John Wiley and Sons. The results of the White Pass process affected community relations across all kinds of boundarles--generations. business, education, Individual. social, and govern- ment. Kruger notes. "What was perhaps most exciting of all was to see how the so- called 'at-risk' students stepped up to the challenge, and came out of it with the confi- dence to take on new projects afterwards that they normally would not have consid- ered as being within their capabilities." "There is a need to take a critical look at the traditional roles of researcher and manager and the relationship of each to the commu- nity. In a participatory process. they become facilitators, mentors, and guides to learning right beside the participants. Other studies have shown that planning activities and research carried out solely by professionals can result in reduced strength and vitality of communities." The White Pass story is one of community engagement, pride, mutual understandings, and a clearer vision for the future. Students and teachers learned together and increased their personal levels of confidence. Community members felt valued as a resource. Forest Service employees built up trust, and as a result, created a more welcom- Ing workplace. A mechanism was set In place for further self-assessment, and Indeed, the work has continued for five summers. with- out the researchers. Such a story. reveals that the benefits or participation accrue to the community. the indMduals involved, and the agency using the data. Civic science may be messy and time- consuming, Kruger says. but investing time at the front end may save an agency the all-too- familiar and even more expensive routine after- the-fact confrontation. conflict, and the endless delays of litigation. "]'he, ~ reje.cJ;ed,othe,r ~ ~~ d.i.dt1'Wt reject yotAI ~ yowfU' i'Nl< rOW dU:f., I'Wt come.- w[;t'h, p/"el- conceWedt ~ yotAI ca.tt\.eI ~~1Ap your ~(W~ were- elbow to- elbow w[;t'h, 1A4<" Margarette McHugh. Ctspus f>NoA coordinator. committee member EI ~