About the Dry Forest Zone
The Dry Forest Zone (DFZ) project fosters sustainable forest stewardship at a regional scale across 15 counties in central and eastern Oregon and Northern California. This area has challenging market conditions, high levels of poverty and unemployment, and dry forest with fire regimes departed from historical range of variability. Project goals are to:
- Create multiple value streams from land management and incentives for forest restoration and stewardship;
- Develop integrated biomass utilization and renewable energy;
- Build strong local nonprofit organizations and collaborative processes to achieve forest and economic resilience;
- Create the policy conditions to support sustainable forest stewardship on public and private lands; and
- Document and communicate lessons locally, regionally, and nationally.
Project Partners
Sustainable Northwest (Project Leaders)
Watershed Research and Training Center
DFZ Supported Projects
EWP faculty responsibility on this project includes assessment, monitoring, and capacity and policy-related work.
Final Monitoring Report and Map Packet of DFZ Condition
Stewarding Forests and Communities: The Final Report of the Dry Forest Zone Project
Midterm Monitoring Report
Economic Development and Sustainable Forest Stewardship in the Dry Forest Zone: A Mid-Term Report
Community-Based Natural Resource Management and Capacity
EWP Working Paper #39: Community-Based Natural Resources Management in Oregon: A Profile of Organizational Capacity
Read the associated briefing paper.
EWP Working Paper #38: The Social and Livelihood Benefits of USDA Forest Service Agreements with Community-Based Organizations
Read the associated briefing paper.
EWP Working Paper #28: Economic Development Capacity in Public Lands Communities
Read associated briefing paper.
EWP Working Paper #27: Community-Based Natural Resource Management int he Western United States: A Pilot Study of Capacity.
Read the associated briefing paper.
Federal Investment in natural resource management and economic development
EWP Working Paper #40: Federal Investments in Natural Resource-Based Economic Development in Oregon
Read the associated briefing paper.
Biomass utilization and community benefits
EWP Working Paper #29: Forest Restoration and Biomass Utilization for Mutliple Benefits: A Case Study from Wallowa County, Oregon
Read the associated briefing paper.
Assessment
EWP used its monitoring information to develop a mid-term report on the DFZ project. This report reviews trends, learning, and challenges associated with implementing DFZ strategies from 2009-2012.
To better understand conditions at the start of the project and create a baseline for future monitoring, EWP led a team assessment between October 2009-Janaury 2010.
Read The State of the Dry Forest Zone briefing paper and full report.