North American Forest Commission
Meeting of the Bureau of Alternates
March 6, 2008
Arlington, VA
Table of Contents:
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Participants ……………………………………………………………………………….. 1
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Summaries
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Summary of Commitment from Commissioners …………………………... 2
Summary of Responses from BOA to “Conversations with BOA” ………... 2
Summary of Action Items …………………………………………………….... 3
Minutes of the Meeting ……………………………………………………………….….. 5
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Welcome, Introduction, and Organizational Updates
Reflection on Integrated Working Group Meeting
Responses from BOA to “Conversations with BOA”
Working Group Business
Preparation for Puerto Rico Meeting
FAO and Other Business
Next Meeting
Participants
 Val Mezainis, US Forest Service (chair, Alternate)
 Carlos Gonzalez, CONAFOR (Alternate)
 Peter Besseau, Canadian Forest Service and International Model Forest Network
(Alternate)
 Sylvia Boucher, Canadian Forest Service
 Liz Mayhew, US Forest Service
 Margee Haines, US Forest Service
 Rick Scott, NAFC liaison
 Liza Paqueo, NAFC webmaster
Summary of Commitment from Commissioners
The evaluation that was conducted 2 years ago noted the need to improve communication
across NAFC. In addition, there was a mandate from the Commissioners to have an
Integrated Working Group meeting to look at ways for Working Groups to collaborate and to
improve communication.
Summary of Responses to “Conversation with BOA”
a. Relevance of NAFC to Its Audience: The BOA will analyze the relevancy of NAFC
to its audience; however, the discussion on how to proceed will continue until the
next meeting of the BOA and is open to suggestions.
b. Thematic Groups, Next Steps: Groups should provide information to BOA that
includes concrete action plans, specific requests for tasks or funds (not including
travel or meeting planning), and contact information for the groups’ lead. Leads or an
alternate should attend the Commission meeting in June in order to present on behalf
of the group and to continue the dialogue about their groups with the Commissioners.
BOA felt an Integrated Working group meeting should be held again, at least every 5
years.
c. Elevating NAFC Profile: BOA will:
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Promote NAFC inside country’s forestry organization.
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Develop a suite of outreach materials (brochure) for NAFC.

Highlight NAFC Awards.

Send out press releases.

Raise NAFC profile at International Events.
d. Bilingual NAFC: Each Working Group would be responsible for translation of the
content of its own site as well as offer the executive summaries of reports in Spanish
and English. Mexico offered help on translation of the general website pages.
e. Knowledge Management: BOA believes that knowledge management is key to
NAFC’s success, but would like to know more about the mechanisms (techniques
and/or tools) for managing the information.
Summary of Action Items
1) USA will invite leads of thematic groups to participate in a conference call in mid-April.
2) Each country will be responsible for alerting the management responsible for the various
members about NAFC, upcoming meetings and ongoing work.
3) Liza will post the action plan templates as well as the Working Group presentations, handouts
and other outcomes from the Integrated Working Group meeting on the website.
4) The US will begin work on a NAFC brochure and circulate to the BOA.
5) Liza will highlight the award winners on the NAFC website, US Forest Service website, and in
Forest Service Today (the online newsletter).
6) The US will circulate a press release regarding the meeting and the award winners. Each
country will then circulate the release through its own communication lines. Liza will post the
action plan templates for thematic groups on the website. Canada has template for action
planning with timelines and objectives that they will send to the BOA.
7) Carlos will look into getting NAFC a booth at the next Expo Forestal held in Mexico in
September, 2008.
8) Peter offers to have more direct contact with Canadian co-chairs of the Working Groups
9) Liza will contact Carlos and Alejandro Jacques about translation of the website.
10) Liza will contact Simon Bridge for a 2-page terms of reference on knowledge management
and the techniques/tools that NAFC can employ.
11) Liza will circulate the responses to the meeting evaluation to the BOA.
12) Liza will send an email to NAFC membership about BOA conference call so that working
groups have an opportunity to raise any issues. We will also invite thematic chairs to
participate in part of the call to discuss the preparations required for their participation in the
June Commissioners meeting.
13) Atmospheric Change and Forests Working Group
a) Canada will add 2 more members to Atmospheric Change
b) US will add one more member
c) Steve McNulty will provide a new terms of reference to include the expanded mandate:
Effects of Air Pollution and Effects of Climate Change.
14) Silviculture Working Group:
a) Canada will talk to the Chair, Al Mitchell, to discuss the Working Group and have the
Chair put forward a proposal for projects, budget, and other requests.
15) Watershed Management Working Group:
a) US will provide additional, bilingual member to the group.
b) Canada will also provide additional members.
c) US will contact Working Group to provide new terms of reference to the BOA.
16) Invasive Plants Working Group:
a) BOA will recommend to the Commissioners to merge the Invasive Plants and the Insects
and Diseases Working Groups.
17) Forest Products Working Group:
a) BOA will recommend to the Commissioners to disband the Forest Products working
group, but will consider forming ad hoc working group based on interest.
18) Funding Requests:
a) BOA will revise the funding request’s terms of reference.
b) BOA will look at external funding sources for Working Groups and encourages Working
Groups to be entrepreneurial, persistent, and concrete offer scopes of work, with well
defined products and outcomes, when asking for project money.
19) Preparations for Puerto Rico Meeting:
a) US will rearrange the agenda and timetable and circulate to the BOA.
b) US will invite thematic group leads to present to the Commissioners.
c) Carlos will provide name of World Bank technical specialist to BOA.
d) Doug will discuss presentation of North American outlook paper to the Commissioners
with Marco Boscolo.
e) US will invite chairs of Near East Forestry Commission (Egypt) and Latin America and
Caribbean Forestry Commission (COFLAC, chair - Ecuador) to attend and/or present at
the Puerto Rico meeting.
20) BOA Alternates will request Commissioners to promote the joint meeting between NAFC and
COFLAC in 2010 in Mexico.
A. Welcome, Introduction and Organizational Changes
Val Mezainis, US Forest Service and current Chair of the Bureau of Alternates (BOA),
opened the meeting and welcomed his fellow alternates to the meeting of the Bureau of
Alternates.
The only organizational update that was reported was the replacement of Bill Singleton with
Peter Besseau, as Canada’s member to the Bureau of Alternates
B. Reflections on Integrated Working Group Meeting (IWGM)
The evaluation that was conducted 2 years ago noted the need to improve communication
across NAFC. In addition, there was a mandate from the Commissioners to have this
meeting to look at ways to collaborate and to improve communication. The BOA noted the
strong commitment from the Working Groups and that the meeting was helpful, inspiring and
optimized of the objectives.
The outcomes of the meeting beg the question: How do you take the three themes that
emerged from the concept stage to the realistic stage? What are the implications?
The facilitator, Patricia Garcia of the Training Resources Group, has collected the responses
to the evaluation of the IWGM, and will analyze and synthesize them.
Action Item:
 Liza will circulate the responses to the IWGM evaluation to the BOA.
Carlos (Mexico) compared this meeting to the International Tropical Timber Organization
process, but found that this meeting fell short of its mark. He felt the proposals that came out
of the thematic group action plans are unclear. In addition, he wondered why climate change
was not the first and foremost theme, as it is clearly the main priorities with all three
countries.
He would like to see more defined mandates with each of the Working Groups as well as the
thematic groups, as this will help define Mexico’s budget for these activities in the year(s)
ahead.
Peter (Canada) concurred about the specificity of the projects from the various groups,
especially the thematic groups, in order to bring this to the attention of the Commissioners
and subsequently allocate the appropriate amount of resources. Commissioners will also
want to be advised on what NAFC’s role will be with respect to progress on these themes.
Peter and Carlos suggested that each group – Working and Thematic – be given guidelines
or a form to fill out that would focus the scope of its work and help the BOA and
Commissioners. The powerpoint presentations of the various groups (except for Invasive
Plants and Silviculture who did not use a powerpoint) should suffice as meeting the
guidelines for now.
Action Item:
 Canada will send proposed guidelines for action planning to the BOA.
C. Responses to “Conversation with BOA”
The BOA also responded to the items that emerged in the Integrated Working Group
Meeting’s “Conversation with BOA”:
a. Relevance of NAFC to Its Audience: During the Integrated Working Group
meeting, the participants identified the following as the target audience for NAFC:
policy makers at the highest level, mid-level policy makers, the scientific community,
and FAO.
The BOA will analyze the relevancy of NAFC to its audience; however, the discussion
on how to proceed will continue until the next meeting of the BOA and is open to
suggestions.
b. Thematic Groups, Next Steps: In order to focus the work of the newly-formed
thematic groups as well as open a two-way dialogue with BOA, the groups should
provide a template to BOA that includes concrete action plans, specific requests for
tasks or funds (that does not include travel or meeting planning), and contact
information for the groups’ lead.
It was suggested that the leads or an alternate be present at the Commission
meeting in June in order to continue the dialogue about their groups. Prior to June,
the leads will be invited to participate in the mid-April BOA conference call.
The leads for the thematic groups are:
i. Ecosystem Resiliency Steve McNulty, US Forest Service
ii. Forest Sector Competitiveness  Al Mitchell, Canadian Forest Service
iii. Database of Information  Fred Beall, acting lead, Canadian Forest
Service
In addition, BOA felt Integrated Working Group meetings should be held again at
least every 5 years.
Action Item:
1. USA will invite leads of thematic groups to participate in a conference
call in mid-April.
2. Liza will post the action plan templates for thematic groups on the
website.
c. Elevating NAFC Profile: Many of the participants feel that support for their work can
increase if their supervisors as well as target audience are aware of the mandate of
NAFC and its trilateral activities. In response BOA will:
i. Promote NAFC inside country’s forestry organization. Each country will
be responsible for alerting the management responsible for the various
members about NAFC, upcoming meetings, and ongoing work.
ii. Develop a suite of outreach materials for NAFC. This will include a
NAFC brochure.
iii. Highlight NAFC Awards. Each country will be responsible for
showcasing the recipients of the NAFC awards. The webmaster will post
the awards and the winners on the NAFC website, the US Forest Service
website and will send out a press release.
iv. Send out press releases. Each country will be responsible for managing
its own press releases and disseminating NAFC news.
v. Raise NAFC profile at International Events. Mexico suggests opening a
NAFC booth at the next Expo Forestal in Mexico and having Rick Scott
or another BOA representative there. In addition, Mexico also suggests
raising the NAFC profile at the next Committee on Forestry (COFO).
vi. More direct contact with country chairs. Peter offers to have more direct
contact with Canadian co-chairs of the Working Groups.
Action Items:
 Each country will be responsible for alerting the management
responsible for the various members about NAFC, upcoming
meetings and ongoing work.
 Liza will post the action plan templates as well as the Working
Group presentations, handouts and other outcomes from the
Integrated Working Group meeting on the website.
 The US will begin work on a NAFC brochure.
 Liza will highlight the award winners on the NAFC website, US
Forest Service website, and in Forest Service today (the online
newsletter)
 The US will circulate a press release regarding the meeting and
the award winners. Each country will then circulate the release
through its own communication lines.
 Carlos will look into getting a NAFC booth at the next Expo
Forestal held in Mexico.
 Peter offers to have more direct contact with Canadian co-chairs
of the Working Groups.
d. Bilingual NAFC: Participants would like to see the website and other NAFC
materials translated into Spanish.
Each Working Group would be responsible for translation of the content of its
own site as well as offer the executive summaries of reports in Spanish and
English.
On behalf of CONAFOR, Carlos offered help on translation of the general pages
of the website.
Action Item:
 Liza will contact Carlos and Alejandro Jacques about translation of the
website.
e. Knowledge Management: It was suggested at the Integrated Working Group
Meeting that NAFC’s best asset is in its array of knowledge and that knowledge
management ensured the sustainability of the organization. Some of the
suggested tools that should be made available to the Working Groups include:
succession planning, action items, and Rick Scott. There should also be some
way to interact and transmit information electronically.
BOA believes that knowledge management is important to NAFC’s success, but
acknowledges that neither knowledge management nor knowledge generation is
the end of the production line. The next step is the uptake of that info and its use
and how it is relevant to decision-making (i.e., take the knowledge we generate
and market it so the resources can be committed) More information on the
mechanisms/ techniques and/or tools for managing the information is needed.
Action Item:
i. Liza will contact Simon Bridge for a 2-page terms of reference on
knowledge management and the techniques/tools that NAFC can
employ.
D. Working Group Business
a. Atmospheric Change and Forests: The mandate of this Working Group began
with studying the effects of air pollution. This Working Group would like to
expand its mandate to include new priorities, specifically the Mitigation and
Adaptation of the Effects of Climate Change.
The current Chair, Steve McNulty, would also like help on invigorating the
membership.
Action Items:
i. Canada will add 2 more members.
ii. US will add one more member
iii. Steve McNulty will provide a new terms of reference to include the
expanded mandate: Effects of Air Pollution and Effects of Climate
Change.
b. Silviculture: This Working Group began with a mandate that looked at tropical
silviculture. In 2002, in Hawaii, the Commissioners decided to expand its
mandate to focus on temperate forests, planted forests, and forest plantations.
At the Integrated Working Group Meeting, this group found renewed energy with
the Forest Sector competitiveness theme and also wants to explore bio-energy. .
BOA feels that this group has not really been very active and will consider the
group’s request for invigorated activities. .
Action Item:
i. Canada will talk to the Chair, Al Mitchell, to discuss the Working Group
and have the Chair put forward a proposal for projects, budget, and other
requests.
c. Watershed Management: This Working Group, the newest one, requires more
members, who are bilingual. During the Integrated Working Group meeting, the
Chair of the group, Fred Beall, indicated he would pass the chairmanship to Chris
Knopp of the US Forest Service at he Commissioners’ meeting in June.
Because the original mandate of the Working Group was complicated—due to
the different perspectives on watershed from the three countries—the Working
Group was able to focus priority areas.
Action Item:
i. US will provide additional, bilingual member to the group.
ii. Canada will also provide additional members.
iii. US will contact Working Group to provide new terms of reference to the
BOA.
d. Invasive Plants: Invasive Plants Working Group would like to recommend to the
BOA that the group be merged with the Insects & Diseases Working Group.
Action Item:
i. BOA will recommend to the Commissioners to merge the Invasive Plants
and the Insects and Diseases Working Groups.
e. Forest Products: BOA is open to the possibility of forming ad hoc working
groups around sub-themes of the Forest Products working group, but only as
interest arises.
Action Item:
i. BOA will recommend to the Commissioners to disband the Forest
Products working group, but will consider forming ad hoc working group
based on interest.
f.
Funding Issues: US funds projects at an estimated cost of about $30 - $50K
yearly. This does not include travel costs or meeting planning. Before Canada
or Mexico can commit portions of their operating budget, both countries need
detailed scopes of work from the Working Groups and from the BOA. Mexico
can put money towards publications, websites, and other specific activities.
Mexico also indicates that Working Groups can apply to CONACYT/CONAFOR
funds, but that the decision is by committee. The fund is matched by Mexico’s
National Foundation for Science and Technology.
US encourages BOA to look at external funding sources for Working Groups.
But Working Groups should also be entrepreneurial, persistent, and offer scopes
of work when asking for project money.
Action Items:
i. BOA will revise the funding request’s terms of reference.
ii. BOA will look at external funding sources for Working Groups and
encourages Working Groups should also be entrepreneurial, persistent,
and offer scopes of work when asking for project money.
E. Preparation for Puerto Rico Meeting
a. Agenda and Timetable:
i. Canada and FAO are requesting that discussion about thematic groups,
country reports and technical papers be scheduled for Wednesday, June
11, 2008. Jim Farrell, Commissioner from Canada, will be arriving on
Tuesday night.
ii. Mexico proposed the possibility of a World Bank technical specialist to
present a talk on global forest trends.
iii. FAO suggests that one of the talks be given on the North American
outlook paper that is being conducted by the three countries and FAO.
iv. Thematic group leads will present their groups’ action plans to the
Commissioners.
v. Bureau of Alternates meeting will take place Monday, June 9.
vi. Bureau of Alternates will invite chairs of Near East Forestry Commission
(Egypt) and Latin America and Caribbean Forestry Commission
(Ecuador) to attend and/or present at the Puerto Rico meeting
Action Items:
 US will rearrange the agenda and timetable and circulate to the BOA.
 US will invite thematic group leads to present to the Commissioners.
 Carlos will provide name of World Bank technical specialist to BOA.
 Doug will discuss presentation of North American outlook paper to the
Commissioners with Marco Boscolo.
b. Invitation to other Regional Forestry Chairs
Action Item:
 US will invite chairs of Near East Forestry Commission (Egypt) and Latin
America and Caribbean Forestry Commission (Ecuador) to attend and/or
present at the Puerto Rico meeting.
F. FAO and Other Business
a. Joint Meeting of NAFC and COFLAC – 2010: Mexico has reaffirmed its
commitment to hosting the joint meeting of the NAFC and the Latin America and
Caribbean Forestry Commission (COFLAC) in 2010. The timing coincides with
Mexico’s Centennial and the Centennial of the Mexican Revolution. The
suggested venue is Michoacán.
Action Item:
 BOA Alternates will request Commissioners to promote the joint meeting.
G. Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Bureau of Alternates will be held via conference call in mid-April.
An email will be sent to the entire Commission to notify members of the meeting and
allow Working Groups to bring issues to the attention of the BOA. In addition, BOA is
encouraging the chairs of the thematic groups to participate in the conference call.
Action Item:
 Liza will send an email to NAFC membership about BOA conference call and
invite thematic chairs to participate.