Abstract:
Over the past two decades, numerous federal forest collaboratives have emerged in the state of Oregon. Although
they generally do not possess any formal decision-making authority, their efforts are considered important in
building social agreement for programs of work on federal forestlands. This study analyzed the use and outcomes
of the State of Oregon’s investments in these forest collaborative groups through Collaborative Capacity Grants
made by the Federal Forest Restoration Program from state fiscal years 2014-2019. Investments were made with
the expectation that collaborative groups would increase the pace, scale, and quality of federal forest restoration;
and there is a need to understand results from supporting these groups. We examined several types of outcomes
from these grants, including collaborative capacity to foster accelerated restoration, acreages and types of activities
planned and implemented with collaborative input, economic impacts, and effects of grants on organizational capacity.