Socio-Economics and
Technology Transfer:
Summary
SRS-4158 TAV Synthesis
September 11, 2012 - Atlanta
Topics Defined
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Socio-economics
◦ The societal and economic aspects of
managing and restoring longleaf pine
ecosystems
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Technology transfer
◦ Dispersing information to a wide range of
clients
Social Issues: what to address
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Fire and smoke
◦ Educate the public about LLP advantages
◦ Emphasize differences between wildfire and prescribed fire

Selling the message
◦ Create defined strategies for landowners to address societal
issues. Products that:
 Promote forest management and sustainability
 Aid visual acceptance of management activities
 Validate the use of herbicides
 Address landowner issues with ETS
 Nullify LLP myths
 Promote the value of risk reduction: arson, poor sites,
insects
 Involve the skeptics – citizen monitoring of active
management sites
Economic Issues
Addressing small and large landowner needs

Cost/benefit analyses of:
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Groundlayer restoration – will it be shaded out?
Site preparation choices
Fire vs fire surrogates (herbicides)
Restoring a diverse system
Multiple revenue streams
 Wildlife, pine straw, tourism, carbon market
◦ Proper planting procedures and use of
container stock
◦ Stand conversion vs clearcutting
Economic Issues cont.

Developing markets and new outlets
o LLP economics and products compared to loblolly
o Markets for
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High-value niche products –flooring, paneling
Green building products, points for local production
Secondary products – wildlife, water, etc.
Invasives on LLP sites – like sand pine
• Separate grade instead of “southern pine”
o Reward for wood quality
• The landowner’s perspective
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Incentives
Taxes
Trust fund issues
REITs, TIMOs
Technology Transfer

Publications
o Ranged from refereed journals to pamphlets
o A strong call for synthesis papers
 Joining the 21st century
oWebsites with links to publications
oLinks to Wikipedia and Google
oFacebook, Twitter, mobile apps, blogs
oAlerts when new articles are posted
oMake old keystone publications electronically
available
oLink referenced research/study sites to geographical
locations so relevant info can be easily accessed
Technology Transfer cont.

Close the loop between research and partners

Demo sites
◦ Workshops, tours, seminars, field days, meeting
presentations
◦ Meet with landowners, organizations at public meetings
◦ Team with university extension, CFEOR, etc. on outreach
efforts
◦ Tailor outreach to specific demographics
◦ Catalog existing federal and state sites
• Tie them in to Garmin GPS
• Mark with informative signs
• Use visually different approaches
o
o
Thermal images of wildfires when they reach a managed
stand
YouTube 360º views of managed stands
Technology Transfer cont.

Management tools
◦ Decision Support System (expert system)
◦ Habitat Assessment tool for RCW
◦ Information network to meet diverse objectives
of private landowners
◦ Region-wide database network
◦ Make RLGS model user-friendly
General comments/problems
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6.
Unit does too much basic research – leave
that to the universities
No incentives for scientists to perform
practical research and tech transfer
All RWU research must link to NFS or
cooperator work
DoD can’t access our website and research on
bases doesn’t make it back to field people
Need an interpreter for the public – a
scientist and/or tech transfer specialist
Hard to search our websites for publications
Pearls of Wisdom
Economics comes down to what people
value: if they understand the benefits,
they can assign a value
 Research is less appreciated if you
can’t relate it to the public in an
understandable manner
 We are not advocates: rather, we
factually inform the public
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