1. Socio-Economics and Technology Transfer: Summary SRS-4158 TAV Synthesis September 11, 2012 - Atlanta

2. Topics Defined Socio-economics ◦The societal and economic aspects of managing and restoring longleaf pine ecosystems Technology transfer ◦Dispersing information to a wide range of clients

3. Social Issues: what to address Fire and smoke ◦Educate the public about LLP advantages ◦Emphasize differences between wildfire and prescribed fire Selling the message ◦Create defined strategies for landowners to address societal issues. Products that:  Promote forest management and sustainability  Aid visual acceptance of management activities  Validate the use of herbicides  Address landowner issues with ETS  Nullify LLP myths  Promote the value of risk reduction: arson, poor sites, insects  Involve the skeptics – citizen monitoring of active management sites

4. Economic Issues Addressing small and large landowner needs Cost/benefit analyses of: ◦Groundlayer restoration – will it be shaded out? ◦Site preparation choices ◦Fire vs fire surrogates (herbicides) ◦Restoring a diverse system ◦Multiple revenue streams  Wildlife, pine straw, tourism, carbon market ◦Proper planting procedures and use of container stock ◦Stand conversion vs clearcutting

5. Economic Issues cont. Developing markets and new outlets o LLP economics and products compared to loblolly o Markets for High-value niche products –flooring, paneling Green building products, points for local production Secondary products – wildlife, water, etc. Invasives on LLP sites – like sand pine Separate grade instead of “southern pine” o Reward for wood quality The landowner’s perspective o Incentives o Taxes o Trust fund issues o REITs, TIMOs

6. Technology Transfer Publications o Ranged from refereed journals to pamphlets o A strong call for synthesis papers Joining the 21 st century o Websites with links to publications o Links to Wikipedia and Google o Facebook, Twitter, mobile apps, blogs o Alerts when new articles are posted o Make old keystone publications electronically available o Link referenced research/study sites to geographical locations so relevant info can be easily accessed

7. Technology Transfer cont. Close the loop between research and partners ◦Workshops, tours, seminars, field days, meeting presentations ◦Meet with landowners, organizations at public meetings ◦Team with university extension, CFEOR, etc. on outreach efforts ◦Tailor outreach to specific demographics Demo sites ◦Catalog existing federal and state sites Tie them in to Garmin GPS Mark with informative signs Use visually different approaches o Thermal images of wildfires when they reach a managed stand o YouTube 360º views of managed stands

8. Technology Transfer cont. Management tools ◦Decision Support System (expert system) ◦Habitat Assessment tool for RCW ◦Information network to meet diverse objectives of private landowners ◦Region-wide database network ◦Make RLGS model user-friendly

9. General comments/problems 1. Unit does too much basic research – leave that to the universities 2. No incentives for scientists to perform practical research and tech transfer 3. All RWU research must link to NFS or cooperator work 4. DoD can’t access our website and research on bases doesn’t make it back to field people 5. Need an interpreter for the public – a scientist and/or tech transfer specialist 6. Hard to search our websites for publications

10. Pearls of Wisdom Economics comes down to what people value: if they understand the benefits, they can assign a value Research is less appreciated if you can’t relate it to the public in an understandable manner We are not advocates: rather, we factually inform the public