Sample Implementation Plan

Plan requirements may vary by US Forest Service Region. For federally funded projects, approval by your Program Manager is required.

Purpose:

• Inspiration and examples for developing an implementation plan to reach landowners in emerging communities

Implementation Plan for Reaching Landowners in Emerging Communities

State Agency: 

Introduction

• Summarize contents of the document. (Ex: In this plan, we describe priority audiences in emerging communities, the challenges connecting with them, and the methods we will use to effectively reach out to them and offer technical assistance for the management of their forestland.)
  

• Explain alignment with the state forestry agency’s mission. Tie to State Forest Action Plan Goals. (Ex: Connecting with all landowners, public and private.)

Stakeholders/partners

• Identify stakeholders/partners and how they are engaged 
  

• Explain the plan for engagement of audience(s) in emerging communities and/or intermediary groups who represent them in a meaningful way, focusing on partners with a proven track record with landowners in these communities. (Ex: Farmer Veterans Coalition of [Example State] is a new partner to the [Example State Forestry Agency]’s efforts to engage audiences in emerging communities but is experienced in working with military veteran landowners. The veteran partners will assist with our educational outreach and direct technical assistance by providing communication channels to reach their members.)
  

• Explain engagement with the Forest Stewardship Coordinating Committee and other relevant state/territory advisory committees. (Ex: The Interagency Forestry Team provides key structure to working with partners on all aspects of forest management in the state. Key partners already aligned to coordinate delivery of government services participate in the Interagency Forestry Team and will provide assistance with program development and delivery to reach landowners in evolving communities.)

Data, tools, and methods for identifying landowners in emerging communities

• Characterize land ownership patterns. (Ex: According to the National Woodland Owner Survey (USFS), 84% of the state’s family forest landowners own 20 acres of woods or less. This accounts for nearly 1.5 million acres of the 6.8 million acres of privately-owned forestland in the state).
  

• Identify landowners in growing communities. (Ex: Our GIS Specialist has access and can evaluate tax records in a way to identify property changes in each county in the state. We will use that expertise to develop lists of new landowners and will organize these lists in a way that our service foresters can use to connect with them in a systematic way).

Barriers to access for landowners in emerging communities 

• Include data gaps, knowledge gaps, and supporting efforts. These will vary widely by location and situation.  (Ex: There is a lack of contact information for landowners in emerging communities. Until recently, there has been minimal access to lists of landowners that contain descriptions of them other than location and size of their properties.)

Supporting landowner participation in carbon and other private emerging markets

• Explain how the plan supports landowners in this endeavor.  (Ex: Outreach education in face-to-face seminars and workshops, direct technical assistance in forest stewardship planning, and professional development for state forestry agency foresters will help to improve and maintain landowners' expertise with emerging forestry markets and issues.)

Outreach education

• Describe methods, strategies, and partnerships used to effectively engage landowners less connected to forestry.
  

• Explain how outreach targets will be prioritized. (Ex: Outreach will connect with forestland owners in high-potential communities through direct, face-to-face activities like "Meet Your Forester" events, "Walks in the Woods,” and large-scale workshops.)
  

• Explain how partnerships will be used. (Ex: the Association of Consulting Foresters will assist with identifying landowner groups in emerging communities and barriers to receiving technical assistance.)
  

• Explain how direct technical assistance will be offered to landowners less connected to forestry. (Ex: The state’s ability to effectively engage landowners in evolving communities in forest stewardship must be promoted and achieved through its private sector forest practitioners. The NRCS TSP R2 workforce development program is being executed to prepare the state’s private sector foresters to offer technical assistance to landowners in evolving communities.)

Monitoring effectiveness of outreach to landowners in emerging communities

• Outline baseline data elements. (Ex: Number of landowners engaged, Forest Stewardship Plans developed, and acres managed under new plans.)
  

• Describe the state’s approach to project monitoring and program evaluation to ensure accountability, measure success, and inform future program development. (Ex: Service foresters and their line of supervisors will track outreach and service to landowners in high-potential communities. The GIS Specialist will coordinate the input of these outreach and service records in the SMART system. By developing descriptive attribute columns, the GIS Specialist will be able to easily provide accomplishment reports of the state’s effort to reach landowners in emerging communities. Each year we can include in our accomplishments the number and type of landowners receiving direct technical assistance. This information will be collected into a database that the GIS Specialist develops. The database will be smoothly connected with all the other monitoring systems used (including SMARTar). These methods of tracking the outputs of this implementation plan for reaching landowners in evolving communities each year will help guide future programming. For example, over the course of a year we might find a new group of landowners less connected to forestry and be able to work with them to delineate it, explore if there are any unique barriers to their participation in our forestry services, and provide direct support to them.)

 Participation in a Community of Practice 

• Identify how your state will engage with others in continued learning for these efforts. (Ex: Some of these new groups and new or potentially unrecognized barriers and their solutions may be discovered in our interactions among our own colleagues in our community of practice. In this way, our annual reporting, and those reports from other states, will allow us a big-picture view of efforts to reach both established and evolving communities.)