Socioeconomic Monitoring and Assessment

PROJECT AREAS:

Socioeconomic Monitoring and Assessment

Environmental Justice

Ecosystem Workforce—
Mobile and Local

Traditional Ecological Knowledge

RECENT PROJECTS:

Community-based Projects

Staff Research

How We Select Projects

The Pacific West Center and its partners engage in primary, applied, and participatory research to help develop important lessons about community well-being and natural resource-related jobs and use.

Examples of projects with partners include an assessment of the Northwest Economic Adjustment Initiative (the social and economic companion plan to President Clinton's Pacific Northwest Forest Plan), an assessment of the fire restoration industry on the Coast, and All-Party Wild Mushroom Monitoring.

All-Party Wild Mushroom Monitoring Projects

The Pacific West Center and its partners support all-party monitoring in three areas of the wild mushroom harvesting circuit: Crescent Lake, Brookings, and Cave Junction, Oregon.

All-party monitoring aims to:

• Ease tensions among harvester groups in the woods
• Increase dialogue and cooperative action among stakeholderséharvesters, local community residents, the Forest Service, law enforcement, and scientists.
• Integrate the knowledge of local residents, harvesters, scientists, and resource managers toward adaptive management of wild mushroom species and their habitats.

In Focus: Crescent Lake Mushroom Monitoring Project

The Crescent Lake Mushroom Monitoring Project is a collaborative effort among harvesters, harvester-monitors, local community residents, and partner organizations such as The Jefferson Center and The Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters. The Pacific West Center provides coordination, fiscal oversight, and on-the-ground staffing. Long-term harvesters serve as monitors who walk the woods and speak the harvesters' languages (Hmong, Cambodian, Lao, Mien, English, and Spanish). Monitors listen to harvester concerns, provide peer education on sustainable harvest practices, and document relevant social and ecological issues. Through keeping monitor logs, campground meetings, and regular conversations among all partners, project participants reflect on lessons being learned in both practice and process, and respond in adaptive ways.

The project empowers mushroom harvesters to:

• Make mushroom harvesting more ecologically sound and sustainable
• Monitor social and ecological conditions in the woods
• Participate in campground meetings to express, identify, and address harvester concerns
• Engage in public process with the Forest Service to address issues that impact their lives and livelihoods