Blue Mountains Natural Resources Institute

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About BMNRI (1990-2000)

Message From The Manager

State of the Institute
Larry Hartmann, March 5, 1999

We are now at a crossroads. The Blue Mountains Natural Resources Institute was chartered for 10 years: we are in our 9^th year. Much has happened in the last decade to change the complexion of resource issues in the Blue Mountains. Since the institute was chartered, we now have Resource Advisory Councils, the Oregon Plan, the Washington salmon recovery plan, Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project, and watershed councils in various stages of development. In light of these and other developments, there may be a new role the Institute can play.

It is appropriate at this time to review our progress and especially to determine our future course if the institute is to be re-chartered and continue in some fashion. A team of Board members and some from outside of the Board met for 1 1/2 days in late January 1999, to discuss possible options for the future of the Institute. The range of options they developed were diverse, and covered a spectrum from disbanding the Institute to moving in bold new directions.

The Blue Mountains Natural Resources Institute has been successful in meeting it's mission. Our outreach program has been successful in providing a variety of activities and products to our broad audience—everything from grade-school curriculum to seminars and workshops for professional land managers. Our conferences and newsletter receive high praise from attendees and readers. We have initiated sophisticated communications methods to cost-effectively reach a very large and geographically diverse audience. Our research program has begun to really bear fruit in the last 2 to 3 years of effort. We have been successful in working with scientists and land managers on fuel reduction/harvesting techniques in cycles of adaptive management—an endeavor that takes lots of energy, but has valuable payoff. We have also worked hard in not only developing this new technology, but also in handing off the technology to land managers who can put this science to work.

The board and staff and partners can be proud of our accomplishments as a neutral forum for discussion of natural resource issues. We have contributed in a positive way to the natural resource management dialog in the Blue Mountains area. We have helped to keep the discussions positive, to defuse polarization, and to contribute accurate, timely, and unbiased information that can be used by decisionmakers in resolving difficult natural resource questions.

We also provide the report from our independent review group, and an interesting proposal by Dr. Tom Quigley for a possible future of the Institute—a Resource Emphasis and Action Priorities (REAP) proposal.

US Forest Service - Pacific Northwest Research Station, Blue Mountains National Resources Institute
Last Modified: Wednesday, 16 July 2008 at 16:56:15 EDT