All right, well, welcome.
Thank you for making the time.
We got the joyous after lunch spot,
but this is our inaugural Northeastern States
Research Cooperative session.
So thank you, Jen, for organizing and having us.
I'll get to a slide of why we might be here,
but primarily the purpose is to talk
about the Northeastern States Research Cooperative,
the potential connections
to the Forest EcoSystem Monitoring Cooperative.
And then most importantly, I'll sit down
and let the scientists actually talk
about the science that they're doing
with Northeastern States Research Cooperative.
Tony, Matt, and Steve will carry the day,
but I did also want to acknowledge Dan Dey
for being here from the US Forest Service.
I think what makes NSRC work,
just like the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative,
is it's a joint venture between universities,
as well as the US Forest Service.
I'd like to also acknowledge UVM is the lead site,
so Anne Jefferson, Anthea Lavallee
at Hubbard Brook Foundation,
Mark Ducey at University of New Hampshire,
and Rene Germain, and then myself and Dan.
So really, NSRC'S Mission aligns very well closely
with the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative.
It's really to talk about the great resource
that we have in the Northern Forest
and address the many uses
and issues that face the Northern Forest.
It is part of the US public law,
so it is been around for a while.
I'm not bringing anything new here,
but we have had a strategic reboot in the recent past,
and that's what we wanted to highlight today
in some of the ongoing research.
We do have a website that many of you know.
NSRC Forest, so many of the things that I'll refer to there,
you can retrieve there.
Around 2019, we had a reboot
of Northeastern States Research Cooperative.
I'll talk about the history of it a little bit,
but really this was in 2018,
our first comprehensive assessment of the program,
its accomplishments, and kind of the future direction
of where it was going.
Since then, we've had annual reports
that kind of highlight the research portfolio
that we maintain and the connections across the region
that we hope to support.
All of this, again, is through the NSRC website.
Again, as I highlighted at the get go,
this is really a multi-state,
multi-organization cooperative,
and it's really about having these people come together
to run, I won't say a low frills,
but it's definitely we put most of our money
towards the research that happens
and really try to run a low and mean,
kind of a lean and mean organization.
So again, I highlighted the Executive Committee,
Anne Jefferson, Mark Ducey, Rene Germain,
myself, Anthea, and Dan.
And then we have the people that really do the work,
which is the Management Committee,
Anna, who I think is here, Meg Fergusson,
my counterpart at University of Maine,
Ben Fraser, Mary Beth Mahlsheimer,
and Mike Snyder, former Vermont state forester,
and Dan has great support staff with the US Forest Service.
So I think it's really about this public private
academic partnership that makes us work,
and it's regional as well.
It's meant to really help all our partners
in the states that are involved.
I won't cover this, but, again, it's a long history,
and I think we've evolved over time,
which I think is critical for any organizations.
Things change, people change, priorities change,
the issues themselves change,
and I think NSRC has been responsive to that.
So 1980s, we were fully designated.
The public law passed in 1998,
which really created the basis
of the Northeastern States Research Cooperative.
We handed out our first funding in 2001.
We took assessment of where we were in 2012.
We kept adding research themes
to address stakeholder priorities.
The business plan, that I already highlighted in 2018.
2019, we took kind of where we are.
We're 30 years into this.
What have we accomplished?
What have we kind of missed the mark on?
And we took a critical look at ourselves
and I will say all the feedback wasn't positive,
and we tried to make adjustments.
And 2020, we rebooted right in time with COVID.
And I think one of the highlights of our reboot,
and this is a lot of credit to Anthea Lavallee,
we created an Indigenous Forest Knowledge Program
that I think has been highly successful,
and we're starting to see that kind of come to fruition
with some of that science that's being conducted.
Overall, I just want to highlight
about some of the outcomes.
We've awarded nearly $28 million.
Again, this is Forest Service federal dollars
that comes to the four states,
and then we try to reallocate that
through a competitive request for proposals.
I would say remarkably and some by design,
but some not by design,
we've maintained equity across the four states.
So even though the four states differ in their size,
their research interest, their priorities,
we've maintained balance across those four states.
I think most importantly is also the projects.
The funding is what gets those projects doing,
but we maintain a very diverse and broad portfolio
all the way from stream quality research
to looking at the recreational impacts,
to looking at the forest itself and forest products.
So over 350 research projects.
It's grown over time, obviously,
as the program has kind of hit its stride,
but I would say that right now we're at our largest funding,
as well as project sizes than we have in recent past.
So I feel positive about the momentum that we have
and the level of engagement
that we've had with both stakeholders,
as well as scientists across the region.
Again, cross-regional, lots of outcomes,
lots of different institutions involved.
I feel we have not only strong support
from the academic side of things,
but also the NGOs that are important part of this region.
Most importantly, and this is what interests me,
is really the students that are involved.
We've had several and highly engaged,
highly productive students that have been part
of the Northeastern States Research Cooperative.
The funding, we're not talking
like NSF level federal funding, but it's just enough
to usually support a graduate study and some field work.
And to me, that's really where the bulk
of the work happens on the ground.
Again, I highlighted this.
This was an important part of the relaunch in 2020.
This is Anthea Lavallee, working closely
with our tribal partner across the region,
creating a fund dedicated to Indigenous Forest Knowledge,
which I think is a real highlight of our region.
Some of you might have seen the New York Times article
about a month ago talking about the Wabanaki
and just the land exchanges that are happening,
I think building off
of this traditional ecological knowledge.
We've had this RFP twice now.
I think we've had growing interest,
and what is reassuring for us
is we're seeing the interaction
between the academic organizations
and the tribal partners that really carry this forward.
So we currently have a portfolio of five projects,
really prioritized and selected by Indigenous partners,
which I (indistinct) and good engagement
from the tribal partners as well.
A little bit about the mysterious,
one of the reasons we're here today
is also that yesterday we met
to kind of review the 51 proposals
that we did receive and kind of rank them
and send them to an external advisory board.
This has been a big shift in our reboot
is we're letting the stakeholders,
which is scary enough as it is
as we talk about scientists,
but it's really about letting stakeholders
set the priorities,
requesting a broad level of organizations
that can participate in this.
Right now we're kind of
in the full proposal evaluation stage.
We've gotten technical evaluations
of all the 51 proposals that we received.
A handful of those will now go
to an external advisory committee
to get assessed and prioritized,
and then I'll come back and we'll rank
and prioritize funding,
but well over $5.5 million of funding available this RFP,
and we tend to dedicate 90% of that
out to the scientists to get the work going.
So I feel good about the stakeholder engagement
and letting them set the priorities
and keeping them engaged throughout the entire process.
Now, where does the connection with FEMC stand?
I think we've had multiple conversations
with Jen and many of the other FEMC staff.
I think our missions are compatible.
We're part of two different sides of the Forest Service
with state and private.
We're through the R and D branch
of the Northern Research Stations.
I think we both care about and value what this region has
to offer in terms of the forest.
And so, what I see and what we've kind of discussed,
and I think we've formalized
that this our first year working directly with FEMC
is that we support the stakeholder science,
stakeholder-led, and the scientific efforts,
build the research, do the science, collect the data,
and then what FEMC is really about is housing that data
and also developing decision support tools
that allow access to that data.
So I'm very excited about this partnership.
It makes sense.
I don't think this is where we can leverage
and bring that value add at both organizations.
I do wanna leave time for Dan.
So, Dan, if you wanna cover the Forest Service aspects.
So I'm Dan Dey, research forester
with the Northern Research Station.
Currently, I serve in a role
as assistant director of research.
There's a counterpart, (indistinct), if you know her,
and we share the direct supervision
of all of our research work units
and then serve on different programmatic type efforts
like this Northeastern States Co-op.
And so I'm representing the Forest Service RD,
Northern Research Station.
And that, by serving on the Executive Committee,
you know, we really value this collaboration,
this partnership, and as Aaron has said,
it's really unique in the sense
that it involves so much of the science users
and the scientists from universities and NGOs
and Forest Service, you know, to solve real problems.
You know, that's something science often gets beat up on
is, you know, you're irrelevant or ivory tower or whatever,
but I think the structure of this co-op is really good
to keep us relevant and doing priority projects.
And in the reboot of this thing,
we renewed the memorandum of agreement,
and in its strategic goals
and objectives embody all the strategic goals
and objectives of the Forest Service.
And we got a lot of 'em, you know?
So we have, you know, an agency-strategic plan,
you know, we've got, you know, a tribal action plan
and we have a climate adaptation plan
and we have a wildfire crisis strategy
and implementation plan.
And we even have a new Northern Research Station
strategic framework, and then each
of our research work units have their own plans
that get even more specific about the work
they're gonna do over the next five or 10 years.
So all this stuff is in alignment
because we've worked together so well.
So I'm gonna leave it at that.
I just wanna let you know that if the NRS is a mystery
to you or R and D, Forest Service R and D,
you can contact me anytime,
whether you're looking for a job
or you're looking for somebody to collaborate with.
In the Northern Research Station,
we have 130 or more scientist scattered over 20 states,
working in all kinds of lines of science.
And so there's certainly somebody there
who shares common interest with you
who would love to collaborate with you,
and a lot of times you just don't know each other exists.
So you can use me as a conduit
to tap into the Northern Research Station.
-Thank you. -Thank you, Dan.
I'll just finally say
that I think this has been a vital program
with a long and productive history.
I think we'll see evidence of that today
with the three projects that are part of the portfolio.
Obviously, I think given the transitions
that are happening in our region
that are gonna continue to happen in our region,
whether it be climate change, changing markets,
different pressures on the forest,
the demand for recreational opportunities,
wildlife habitat, the issues continue to grow.
I think we should feel proud about our history
and our future direction,
but I think having applied research,
having the connections to Forest Service partners,
and really having the connections with our stakeholders,
I think is critical.
I think the future of the organization remains strong.
We do need DC to kind of do its part of the job,
but that's another matter.
But I think with engagement, with your support,
with people serving on the external Advisory Committee,
with having people like Dan represent what we do
and try to communicate that through the Forest Service,
I think that that remains strong.
I will ask Jen, but I think the partnership
with FEMC is logical.
I think we started to begin that,
and I think it really strengthens the purpose
and function of both organizations.
So I'm excited to see that grow.
So just like Dan, I think all of us,
what we pride ourselves of being responsive
and really trying to help you,
so whether it's a student, whether you're an NGO,
whether you're a university professor,
we really wanna facilitate the connections
across the region and also to the Forest Service.
We wanna maintain this RFP process
to support the research that's happening.
So if you have an idea, we want a connection.
I think all of us are happy to answer those questions.
So please, hopefully this is one session of many
that we can come back and talk about the research
that we're doing, but I'll leave it there.
I think we have a few minutes for questions,
and Tony will follow me after this.
So thank you for having us.
Questions, or we got transition time as well?
[Staff] They have a few minutes for questions.
-Okay. -Yep.
-Or service priorities? -I know.
I'll ask a question. (laughs)
I'll ask a question.
-Go ahead. -I think I'm really excited
that NSRC has come back stronger than ever.
I think that it really does fill a gap
for research focused on our region.
And so I think this is really great.
And I also feel like the sort of collaboration
between FEMC and NSRC is really sort of similar
to the Forest Service structure,
state and private forestry, and NRSC.
Like I feel like it's kind of like a nice extension.
It makes sense as a structure,
but I'm thinking back to the plenary this morning,
which was just fascinating to me,
and thinking about the need to be able to get resources
to people beyond those who are at an institution,
or I noticed there was one, it looked like one grant
that went to someone in the Penobscot Nation,
and I'm just wondering if you're a able to set up
or if you're willing to outreach to groups beyond those
who are traditionally applying through academia.
[Aaron] Yeah, no, I think that's a good question, Jen.
I'm glad you feel good about the connection
with FEMC and NSRC as well.
I mean, my personal bias was when I got here in 2008,
it really helped form my career
and helped me get started in the region.
And I want to return the favor,
and that's one of the reasons I push hard for NSRC.
Yeah, I think one of the things that we heard
during the stakeholder was that traditionally,
most of the money has gone
to traditional university researchers,
and there's this disconnect
that we heard from our stakeholders that,
how do you translate research into actual practice?
And that that's always a hard thing.
I am confident in the two RFPs we've had since reboot.
There are a greater diversity of organizations
that are involved.
We've made a very concentrated effort to engage people
that have traditionally not been directly involved.
We'll see what happens with the third RFP,
but I do think there's a greater diversity,
and I think that's a very positive thing.
I think also it's about this intersection
about where universities can tie in
with both the Forest Service and the NGOs in the region.
I think the translational piece
is always gonna be difficult.
Science just moves at a different pace
than what stakeholders are expecting.
I do feel that we've seen much more projects
that wanna directly engage with stakeholders,
develop decision support tools,
or do synthesis analyses
that develop kind of management guides or policy briefs.
So, I think I'm feeling more positive it's not this...
I think one of the issues that we saw
in the first iteration of NSRC
was the money went directly to the four states,
and then they kind of allocated as they saw fit,
and it wasn't this broad portfolio
about the synergies across the region.
And I think that that's how...
Dan is brand new.
So you're coming at it from first impressions.
I don't know what your thought's on it
from a federal (indistinct) perspective.
[Dan] No, I mean, so I don't know the history.
I can only imagine, you know, institutions looking out
for themselves, and it kind of, you know, goes
against the grain of implication and working together.
But what I've witnessed on this executive team here
is a great amount of collegiality
and looking at what are the problems
and paying much less attention
about who's getting the money,
and is it sound science,
and is it likely to succeed in these kind of criteria?
And so I think the door is pretty wide open
for people to put proposals in.
You know, please correct me if I'm wrong,
but there's not too many real constraints
other than the research needs to occur in a co-op area
or be relevant to the co-op area.
And other than that, you know, it's a competitive process
with lots of checks and balances.
There's technical reviews,
you know, external advisory input, you know?
(attendees chatter)
The door is opening.
Their welcome mat's out for people
to bring forward their good ideas.