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Research Framework

Implementation Strategy

All research elements identified by the research framework team are important to achieving the BMNRI mission and are the result of a screening process that looked at many other research possibilities. Because this is a comprehensive framework, accomplishing all of the work outlined will be a large undertaking. The recommendation to the board is to direct the BMNRI staff to pursue the research framework elements aggressively. The BMNRI would encourage, at a minimum, efforts to address all research elements. However, because constraints exist and because of short-term needs to reduce immediate risk both in a social and biological view, an implementation strategy was developed.

Arranging the research elements into an implementation strategy was dependent on how the research elements related to the following criteria:

• An immediate need to reduce risk;
• The need to address complex ownership, resources, and sociological concerns;
• A need to develop an interdisciplinary research effort to evaluate interactions, tradeoffs and risks;
• The need to improve/promote good management practices;
• A need to obtain basic knowledge.

The BMNRI staff developed a prioritized listing of the research elements by applying the implementation criteria (table 2). The listing essentially represents the research elements considered most vital to resolving our critical resource issues and filling our gaps in knowledge. Those considered most important to address immediately are at the top while those recommended for action in less immediate time frames are near the bottom. The headings shown in table 2 have been greatly abbreviated for ease of display. To fully understand the content of any given element requires reference to table 1. Most of the elements comprise several objectives and are not necessarily implied in the brief title assigned.

The prioritized list was presented to the technical committee members as well as the research framework team of scientists. Several comments were received relative to the position of individual elements within the list, but a high degree of acceptance was shown for the specific research elements identified. Some suggestions were to shift specific elements to a higher position on the list, but these were countered by suggestions to move the same elements lower on the list. A process of evaluating the ranking by our framework team resulted in basic agreement on two-thirds of the element ranking. The one-third disagreement was generally movement on the list by less than 9 relative positions. This suggests that the list is a reflection of a subjective process that is supported by the BMNRI staff, research framework team, and technical committee members (at least those who chose to reply) for the majority of the rankings and essentially all of the research elements. Any specific group gathered to prioritize would likely make minor adjustments. We feel this listing is representative of the majority of our staff, team, and committees.

Funding for any specific research element through direct BMNRI sources will be primarily dependent on three factors:

• Implementation stage (early studies will address the highest priority elements)
• BMNRI funding constraints (a larger budget will result in more priority elements being studied)
• Resources being applied to the research element by others (opportunities may arise to address specific priority elements that requires small investment from BMNRI)

US Forest Service - Pacific Northwest Research Station, Blue Mountains National Resources Institute
Last Modified: Wednesday, 16 July 2008 at 17:05:08 EDT