State-owned forestland in P.R. China has long been an important source of natural resources for communities. The Chinese government has undertaken several conservation initiatives with the intent to restore degraded landscapes and conserve biodiversity, while simultaneously improving the quality of life for rural people. Using Yaze Village, Pingwu County, Sichuan...
Cooperation across ownership boundaries is critical to most conservation efforts in mixed ownership landscapes. Where owner objectives vary widely, as at public-private landownership boundaries, cooperation can be especially challenging. This research explores the opportunities and challenges for cooperative fire management among public and private forest managers in the John Day...
We use qualitative and quantitative methods to explore social and spatial relationships between land ownership and forest cover in the Oregon Coast Range. Using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and regression analysis, we tested for spatial relationships between the structure of land ownership and forest cover across 66 watersheds in...
Collaborative management of subsistence fisheries in the Philippines requires policies that devolve authority to the local level. This involves creating mechanisms to hold managers accountable for creating opportunities for active participation by fisher folk communities. The Philippines has created a comprehensive national framework for the co-management of coastal resources at...
This research analyzes how family forest owners conceptualize biodiversity in one high-conservation value area of oak woodland in the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon. Oregon white oak (Quercus garyanna) woodland, one of the most biologically diverse ecotypes in the state of Oregon, is in decline. Much of the oak ecotype...
Oregon has been moving forward with biomass energy development. Large-scale biomass power and cogeneration (producing heat and electricity) have been the focus of the last twenty-five years, while small-scale thermal bioenergy installations (producing heat) have dramatically increased during the last decade. In eastern Oregon, bioenergy is closely linked to restoration...
International development programs are often implemented with the goal of building community resilience, but without a clear articulation of how this goal will be met, or any consideration of if or why the effort was successful after it has concluded. This thesis considers three different activities implemented by the U....
The protection of sensitive resources is an integral part of forest practices regulations in many states, affecting non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners. In Oregon, forest operations on private lands which will conflict with sensitive areas designated "specified resource sites" must meet spatial and temporal requirements to protect those sites. These...
Both policy makers and private landowners have come to recognize the importance of streamside areas in the maintenance of water quality and fish habitat. Because non-industrial landowners own 42% of the streamside area in the Coast Range, their management is a significant factor in the streamside health of Western Oregon....
Forests of the Inland West have been experiencing forest health problems arising from over a hundred years of fire suppression, logging, grazing, and mismanagement. Rural communities, meanwhile, have seen escalating unemployment, an exodus of young families, and a dearth of middle-income jobs. The objectives of this thesis are to: 1)...