United States
Department of
Agriculture 		Forest
Service		 Washington
Office		 14th & Independence SW
P.O. Box 96090
Washington, DC 20090-6090

Date: March 13, 1996

Subject: Update on Due Dates and the Review Process

A Cheery March to all! This is the second update that all authors should have received. There have been several developments in the review process that are worth sharing. Remember, Lead Authors please get this information out to your groups as soon as possible. We have had a couple of calls from people who have not yet received the first letter. If your lead author isn't getting the information to other team members - sack'em!

WHO'S MANAGEING THE REVIEW PROCESS

The World Resources Institute (WRI) will be the organization that structures and manages the reveiw process. For those of you that are not familiar with WRI, they are an extremely well respected resource organization both nationally and globally. [See WRI's Home Page (being revamped), and some of their publications (and more).] They have worked with projects similar in nature to the Ecological Stewardship project. Most recently, they served as coordinators for a major section of the United Nations' Global Biodiversity Assessment for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). WRI's mission statement is the following:

WRI's mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect the Earth's environment and it's capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. Because people are inspired by ideas, empowered by knowledge, and moved to change by greater understanding, WRI provides-and helps other institutions provide-objective information and practical proposals for policy and institutional change that will foster environmentally sound, socially equitable development. In all of it's work WRI tries to build bridges between ideas and action, meshing the insights of scientific research, economic and institutional analyses, and practical experience with the need for open and participatory decision making.
WRI's work is carried out by a 120-member interdisciplanary staff and an extensive network of advisors, collaborators, international fellows, and partner institutions in more than 50 countries. WRI is an independent, not for profit organization that works for and in conjunction with private foundations, government institutions, private corporations and interested individuals. WRI's current areas of work include economics, forests, biodiversity, climate chanage, energy, sustainable agriculture, resource and environmental information, trade, technology, national strategies for environmental and resource management, and human health. WRI is currently involved in a variety of partnership projects to provide the best scientific information and methods to resource managers around the world. We are extremely pleased that WRI has decided to enter into a participating agreement to manage the review process.

(We are currently working on the 2nd draft of a formal Participating Agreement to formalize this partnership. We expect this to proceed smoothly, based on comments and reviews of the 1st draft, and to have final signatures in about 3 weeks.)

THE STRUCTURE AND TIMELINE FOR THE REVIEW PROCESS

The review process will entail several separate review stages. Because WRI is still in the process of developing specific steps and actions, the details of the formal process will be sent out in a future update. For now here are the important things to note:

*** first drafts of each paper are now due to WRI by MAY 1, 1996. It will simply take until May 1st to finalize the agreement with WRI and organize the 1st stage of the review process. This is the final, firm, last, non-negotiable date. We are sorry for the adjustments but rest assured there will be no further changes.

*** do not plan to send in documents a few days late. The first stage of the review must have ALL of the drafts available. Send in whatever version or edition you have by the due date. First stage reviewers will need to work with what is available on May 1st. Sending in information late will not be useful for the review. This first phase of the review will not be a detailed technical review. Rather, it will be a broad look at overlaps, gaps, and inadequate topical treatment. WRI hopes to have 1st stage review recommendations back to all author teams by early July. Second stage reviews will be much more detailed and technical in nature.

*** WRI will be working on the structure, timing and related actions for the overall review process over the coming weeks. For now, the first stage is agreed to and set, and will be conducted as planned. To some degree, experience during the first stage may be used to re-fine plans for later review stages.

*** send your draft papers to:

Send 3 hard copies and an electronic copy - either a diskette (Wordperfect 6.1) or e-mail.

WHAT ABOUT CONSOLIDATING PAPERS AND INAPPROPRIATE PLACEMENT OF AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS?

We continue to get requests and questions about consolidating the science and management papers on a topic and consolidating topics. We have also had numerous questions from lead authors about how to deal with individual team member contributions that seem misplaced; i.e. looks more like management section than science piece and vice versa. Team leaders have the overall responsibility for each paper. If the leader feels that a contribution better belongs in another section please make that recommendation when submitting your draft. Similarly, if your team and several others feel that your papers need to be consolidated please make that recommendation. WRI will probably also make similar recommenations.

For now, the response is about the same as at Tucson, forge ahead with your individual papers. We would like to go through at least the first review stage, and perhaps the second before we tackle those issues. Until the review is able to look at all of the 64 papers involved and determine where and how topics were addressed, and therefore how to package the final information product, each paper should remain independent. Do not be surprised if the review recommends not only consolidations but also mixing and matching sections within and between papers. Rest assured that all authors will receive credit for their contributions.

Correction and Update on the Workshop Web

There appears to be increased comment traffic on the workshop web site. Some members of each team should be checking your topic regularly. We are getting an increase in interest, comments and questions since the Interim Report was handed out at the 7th American Forest Congress in Washington DC. Lead authors names and addresses were listed in report, as was the web site address, and some of you have said you've had contacts because of the report. There were 1000 handed out at the Congress. There is a copy of the Interim Report on the Web site.

LEAD AUTHOR UPDATE:

New leader for Management Paper for topic 17 - Ecological Classification is now:
Connie Capenter
USDA Forest Service
Louis C. Wyman Forestry Sciences Lab.
P.O. Box 640
271 Mast Road
Durham, NH, 03824
Phone: 603-868-7698; Fax 603-868-7604
E-mail: /s=c.carpenter/ou=S24L06a@mhs-fswa.attmail.com

MISC.

Bill / Bob