Shared Stewardship

Overview

The USDA Forest Service (Forest Service) released “Toward Shared Stewardship Across Landscapes: An Outcome-Based Investment Strategy” (Strategy) in August 2018. In the Strategy, the Forest Service calls for a new way of doing business, and notes particular concerns around longer wildfire seasons, increasing wildfire risk and severity, invasive species, insect and disease epidemics, and growing risks to local communities.

The Forest Service suggests that the past approach of uncoordinated treatments and lack of projects at the right size cannot meet the scale needed to improve forest health conditions across landscapes. To implement the Strategy, the Forest Service envisions partnering with states, tribes, and other stakeholders to define mutual goals, share decisions, and identify collective priority landscapes for targeted treatments. The Forest Service proposes this new framework as a way to mobilize the right work in the right place and at the right scale to address these urgent natural resource concerns.

The resources on this website provide an in-depth look at examples of how shared stewardship is taking shape in various western states.

Western Agreements

Following the release of the Strategy, several western states and Forest Service regions have developed shared stewardship agreements, memorandums of understanding, or leaders intent letters that formalize their commitment to advancing mutual priorities.

To learn more about various approaches to shared stewardship in the western United States, please click on the state names below: