Issue Papers

Federal Restoration Funding

The RVCC believes there are three core principles that should guide the investment of federal dollars in the restoration of public lands and economic development of adjacent rural communities. These include:

• Improved forest and watershed conditions
• Financial, managerial, and technical support to ensure collaboration between diverse stakeholders and land management agencies
• Increased physical, human, social and cultural, and financial capital to support rural businesses and workers that perform work on public lands

To learn more read our key recommendations for 2008 and our FY 2009 Appropriations Issue Paper.

Performance Measures

Federal land management agencies are beginning to use performance measures as a way to gauge agency progress toward goals, as a basis for funding allocations, and to provide accountability to the Administration, Congress, and the public. The RVCC is concerned that current measures are insufficient to assess federal agency progress towards inclusive and integrated land management priorities; specifically related to collaboration and capacity building in public lands communities.

To learn more read our Performance Measures issue paper and recent update.

Multiparty Monitoring

Multiparty monitoring helps policy makers, land managers and citizens understand the impacts of federal land management activities.  RVCC has developed a number of recommendations on how to support and implement successful monitoring efforts which can be found in our Multiparty Monitoring Issue Paper.

Working Group

The Legislative Strategies and Appropriations and Accountability Working Group promotes an integrated approach to forest management that directs investments to rural communities to stimulate local economies and builds capacity for long-term public lands stewardship. The Working Group also provides insight and ideas regarding how federal agencies can include measurements relevant to rural forest dependent communities and workers in their performance measures, which they use to monitor agency effectiveness. 

The Working Group functions as a resource for all of the RVCC working groups, providing support with legislative comments and research, media strategy, and sign-on letters. Specifically, the group focuses on increasing investment and new authorities needed to promote restoration, rural conservation-based economic development, farm bill, access to work and supply on public lands, collaborative partnerships, wildfire policy, and related legislative and appropriations proposals.

Each year, the group responds to the Administration's budget proposal by producing a comprehensive Community-based Restoration Funding Package. The group clarifies and emphasizes the importance of monitoring at several different levels (local, regional, national) in agency activities, and the ways in which monitoring can and should feed into decision-making processes. Specific tasks include developing and disseminating issue papers on collaboration and performance measures that reflect RVCC's perspectives and recommendations for related policies and programs. Chairs: Maia Enzer, Sustainable Northwest, Wendy Gerlitz, Sustainable Northwest, Kathy Lynn, Resource Innovations.