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Policy, enforcement measures, and practices affecting restoration and stewardship workers

To learn about the conditions and practices affecting the wellbeing of workers and how their treatment affects the quality of land stewardship.

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Thursday, 2:00pm

To learn about the conditions and practices affecting the wellbeing of workers and how their treatment affects the quality of land stewardship.
There have been news stories covering the treatment of contract forest workers on federal lands for many years. In this session you will hear about the policies and procedures that affect forest workers and how current practices interfere with the development of high quality jobs and economic opportunities for public land communities. You will hear from long-time experts and have an opportunity to discuss ways to remedy these challenges. Anyone interested in creating quality forest-based jobs and economic opportunity for rural communities should attend this session.

Speakers

Cassandra Moseley, Director, Ecosystem Workforce Program, University of Oregon
Understanding how policies and practices affect contract forest workers
Denise Smith, Executive Director, Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters
Experiences of forest workers on federal and private lands, issues and challenges

Moderator

Maia Enzer, Policy Program Director, Sustainable Northwest

Cassandra Moseley

Dr. Cassandra Moseley is the Director of the Ecosystem Workforce Program in the Institute for a Sustainable Environment at the University of Oregon. At the EWP, she developed applied research and policy education programs, focused on community-based forestry, federal forest management, and the restoration workforce. She is co-editor of People, Fire, and Forests: A Synthesis of Wildfire Social Science and is co-author of Collaborative Environmental Management: What Roles for Government? Prior to joining EWP in 2001, she was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida and Program Development Director at the Rogue Institute for Ecology and Economy in Ashland, Oregon. She a former board member of the Flintridge Foundation and the Applegate Partnership. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University, where she studied collaborative natural resource management and American political development, and her B.A. from Cornell University.

Denise Smith

Denise has been working as the Executive Director of Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters since 2003 focusing on outreach and organizing with multicultural forest workers and harvesters, education of labor laws and worker rights, environmental sustainability and monitoring, supporting social and economic justice for the people on the ground in the woods. The AFWH is a multicultural, grassroots organization promoting social, environmental, and economic justice in the Pacific West. Our membership includes contract workers who implement land management goals on the ground through reforestation, restoration, fuels reduction, timber stand improvement, fire fighting, and other forestry service activities, and Non Timber Forest Products harvesters. Many of our members have been working on public lands for many years, if not decades, and bring a wealth of experience and insight. Denise started working in natural resources in 1979 and has enjoyed her work in the forests/watersheds as an environmental educator, forest worker, fire fighter, NTFP harvester of food and medicine, bird watcher/bander and licensed wildlife rehabilitator. She and her family have lived in the rural town of Willow Creek for 18 years.

Maia Enzer

Maia Enzer is the Director for the Policy Program at Sustainable Northwest. In that capacity she works on issues related to forest restoration and community economic development, with a focus on federal lands policy. She has more than 13 years experience in bringing diverse stakeholders together to identify common ground around federal lands management issues. Previously, she served as Sustainable Northwest's Director of the Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities Partnership (HFHC), a regional collaborative working to market the byproducts of forest restoration. Prior to joining Sustainable Northwest, Maia was the Director of Forest Policy at American Forests in Washington, D.C. (1993-2000). She has also worked as an organizer for MASSPIRG and NYPIRG on state and local environmental issues. Maia has a Masters degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (1993) and a BA in Political Science from Union College (1989). She currently is serving on the Western Governors' Association Forest Health Advisory Council. She served on the board of the Communities Committee of the Seventh American Forest Congress and was the Co-Chair of the Policy Task Group for the (1997-2002); she served on the board of the National Network of Forest Practitioners (2000-2005). She is one of the editors on the book entitled, Understanding Community Based Forest Ecosystem Management, published by the Journal of Sustainable Forestry.

Sustainable Northwest

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