Great Information from Ron

Our wonderful workshop host and great friend Mr. Ron Cannarella has posted an excellent comment here. It was such a good comment that I must move it into a new post. So, here it is. Also, please do visit the Hawaii SWARS site for more valuable information.

************ Original Comment from Ron *******************

Aloha All; Ron from Hawaii sending my regards. I'm sorry that missed you guys for the end of the workshop. I got the flu on Wednesday and was sick for a week. But I am fine now and on vacation in New York (and working on SWARS at the same time).

Yesterday I discovered these incredible resources created by the Northeastern Foresters Association (the equivalent of our WFLC, but for the northeastern states). They have compiled an impressive set of guidelines for producing SWARS.

Their main website is http://www.northeasternforests.org/FRPC/.

Two of the most valuable documents on that site are 1) a guide for producing your SWARS

http://www.northeasternforests.org/FRPC/files/1248201969NAASF_NA_Guide_State_Strategy_7_21_09.pdf

and 2) a checklist of important tasks that must be completed when producing your SWARS

http://www.northeasternforests.org/FRPC/files/1242272787DRAFTApproval_Checklist_4_State_Assess_Strategy_5-1-09.doc

Even though these documents are under the section called "Regional Documents" they are exactly what every one of us working on our SWARS needs to help us organize our projects.

I urge you to print out these two documents and read them very carefully before you go any further.

In particular, the first document gives three excellent examples of different ways of organizing your project; one example focusing on priority issues such as "agroforestry" (issue-driven, not spatial), and two examples focusing on specific places such as an important river (spatially driven). The examples of the analysis tables will be very useful to help to organize your issues. Our SWARS can be a combination of these two ways of organizing our thoughts; by issue and/or by place.

If you spend one hour reading and discussing these documents today, it may save you many hours in the months to come. I know that in Hawaii we have spent hours and hours discussing how to organize our project. In some ways, it feels like we have been lost in the forest, going in circles. This document is like being given a compass and a map; we can use it to find our way home before June 18, 2010.

I have just begun to go through all of the other documents on this website, and will report back on any of the other gems found there.

All the best, Ron Cannarella, Honolulu, Hawaii