Today’s TEAMS Enterprise Unit is about Talent, Experience, Agility, Mobility and Simplicity
National Recognition for Adaptive Management Project
Sue Wingate, Scott Reitz, Ellen Borgardus-Symaniak, and contractor Randy Hall worked on a fire/fuels project (West Sterns) on Daniel Boone
National Forest (DBNF). With the help of David Taylor (botanist) and Alison Coons (fire/fuel) on the DBNF, they developed an adaptive
management approach using biophysical settings and trigger points developed by David and Flam-Map. This strategy provided the ability to
implement subsequent prescribed burning at predictable intervals until a maintenance burning regime of the native fire-adapted communities
is reached. The project was not appealed.
The Forest submitted the project to the National Study team for the adaptive management section. We were accepted and are now waiting to be
interviewed for the progression from the East Sterns conventional approach through to the Redbird Adaptive Management/Focused EA approach. We
also got kudos from the R9 NEAp coordinator/NEPA Adaptive Management Study group.
Kudos from Chief Tidwell on Landscape Management Project
Since 2010, TEAMS employees Greg Robertson, Katherine Malengo, and Anthony Olegario have worked on the 5-Mile Landscape Management
Project in Oregon, one of two such projects in the country. This project will be part of a pilot program that is set to modernize and streamline
environmental analysis under the National Environmental Protection Act.
"These two projects demonstrate that by involving partners early in the NEPA process we can cut costs and operate more efficiently while still
maintaining strong environmental safeguards at the ground level," said U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. "We look forward to replicating
what we are doing in Arizona and Oregon to other parts of the country where we are engaged in critical restoration work."
Cooperative Effort Managing New York City's Watersheds
Read about TEAMS partnership with New York City's Department of Environmental Protection. TEAMS spent more than two years working closely
with the DEP to create a first ever forest management plan for the water supply to the city.
Agriculture Research Station Sheep Grazing Analysis
An article in High Country News recently talked about TEAMS work with the Agriculture Research Station with sheep grazing NEPA analysis,
and TEAMS own Sue Wingate is quoted in this article about the effects of sheep grazing practices on the grizzly bear! http://working/blogs/goat/
sheep-versus-bear-agency-versus-agency.