The Oregon Natural Resources Institute

APPLICATION FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT

of the

INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL RESOURCES

An Institute within

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

Proposing Colleges and Units

College of Forestry

College of Agricultural Sciences

College of Science

College of Liberal Arts

College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences

College of Business

Valley Library

Agricultural Experiment Station

Extension Service

Forest Research Laboratory

Sea Grant Program

Center for Water and Environmental Sustainability at Oregon State University

CIP#: 030201

I certify that the proposal has been reviewed and approved by the appropriate College and Program committees.

______

George R. (Rich) Holdren, Interim Vice Provost for Research Date

Oregon State University

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1. Title:

The Institute for Natural Resources (The Institute)

1.a. Need and Functions:

What are the problems that need to be solved?

1.  Environmental and natural resource issues cause significant public debate and controversy because of their emotional and economic significance. Much of this debate and controversy arises because data and information are not organized to address the actual questions being asked by people, or because the relevant information is not available or can not be found. There is a need for one place where Oregon citizens can obtain environmental and natural resource data and information that (a) is organized in ways to best answer questions, and (b) includes estimates of confidence that should be placed in the information.

2.  Responsibilities for environmental and natural resource research, regulation and policy-making are spread throughout approximately two-dozen state and federal agencies, and frequently there is confusion about the respective responsibilities and actions of these agencies. Also, numerous citizen groups and jurisdictions now play significant roles in managing natural resources and the environment. Local, state, tribal, and federal government agencies, and the citizens of Oregon need one place, outside the policy and regulatory domain, where environmental and natural resource issues can be independently evaluated and options for solving problems can be formulated.

3.  No governmental agency has overall responsibility for managing or protecting the State’s overall natural resource conditions or environmental quality, nor even describing it. Moreover, no agency or organization has the responsibility for attempting to reconcile conflicts among environmental, economic and social interests. As a result, (a) federal agencies step into this vacuum, (b) the State Legislature attempts to balance these issues but is hamstrung because it only has fragmentary information, or (c) citizens are asked to try to decide on an issue-by-issue basis using ballot initiatives. There is a need for one place where lawmakers, policy makers and the public can obtain integrated, question-driven information on the status of Oregon’s environment and natural resources, and on the relationships among environmental, economic and community or social considerations.

4.  Oregonians are inherently interested in environmental and natural resource issues, and thus there are many people who wish to participate in environmental decisions. For informed participation, the issues must be clearly defined, information and assessment tools must be widely available throughout the State, and there must be a network for sharing information. There is a need a for trustworthy network for sharing information and for listening to advice and opinions about these issues.

What is required in a solution?

Oregon would have a dramatically improved situation for addressing environmental and natural resource issues if lawmakers, policy-makers, business leaders, and the public could easily find information about the state’s environment and natural resource conditions and trends, such that:

(a)  information was organized to answer specific questions;

(b)  environmental, economic and social considerations were balanced;

(c)  there was professional judgment provided about the certainty of the data and conclusions drawn from the data;

(d)  information was available throughout the state, and there was two-way communication about this information; and

(e)  the most advanced data management and assessment tools were available to make the information readily available and useful for many audiences.

No state has successfully met these challenges for the production and management of environmental and natural resource information. However, Oregon now has the opportunity to implement a system that will meet all these needs. Built on the assets of Oregon State University, and the credibility of the OSU statewide public service programs, the novel solution consists of combining proven entities in new ways, and focusing on the needs of multiple users.

Described below is a new organization that will make the best environmental and natural resource information available throughout the State. This new Institute will organize data and information, provide independent analyses of policy and management options, and ensure that measurements of environmental quality and natural resources are made and the resulting information is readily available to citizens and evaluated for all decision makers.

The Institute for Natural Resources – The Institute

Research Office Policy Office Information Office

The Institute

The Institute will provide a single, independent “office window” where customers can ask questions, request information, propose studies, provide opinions and advice, and learn about the natural resources and environmental conditions throughout the State of Oregon. The purpose of the Institute will be to provide reliable, objective, relevant, and science-based interdisciplinary natural resource expertise, information, research and assistance to facilitate long-term stewardship of Oregon’s environments and natural resources.

The Institute will serve as a communication post and coordinate the products and activities of the three offices in the Institute: the Research Office, Policy Office and the Information Office (all three are described below). The Institute’s work will result from partnerships with collaborating centers and institutes at other Oregon universities, with partnering agnecies of state and federal government, and will be completely linked with Extension Service offices in all 36 counties, and with the Agricultural Experiment Station and with the Forest Research Laboratory of Oregon State University.

This Institute will be staffed by a Director and a small number of experts, all knowledgeable in technical areas but also highly qualified in communication and information management. The Institute will act like a “portal” on the Internet, organizing information or designing studies to meet the needs of the user. Most staffing would come from throughout existing University programs.

Research Office

The Research Office (RO) will conduct research on the environment and natural resources of Oregon. The RO research program will be designed to complement the research done by various governmental agencies, universities and private businesses. This research will be of two types: (a) describing and quantifying the status of the environment and natural resources of the state, and (b) studies on key environmental management questions and issues not addressed by other organizations.

The RO will organize and conduct a range of research activities. For example, there have been numerous calls for greater coordination of monitoring the State’s natural resources. Currently the Oregon Department of Agriculture measures soil erosion and crop productivity, the Oregon Department of Forestry measures forest productivity, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife measures fish populations, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality measures water quality, the Oregon Department of State Lands manages the Oregon Natural Heritage Program, and the Department of Administrative Services stipulates the framework for data storage and retrieval. The Research Office will not impinge on the responsibilities of these agencies, but it will collect needed data that is not being collected or that will serve many agencies. Thus, the Ecosystem Research Consortium, ERC, could institute an Environmental Observation Network consisting of a suite of measurements made by agencies and the RO itself. Together, this network would provide a common dataset to be used by all parties interested in Oregon’s environment.

The RO could assist Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, OWEB, in providing technical assistance that can help lead to the implementation of the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, and for the implementation of the Willamette Restoration Initiative. The RO would be the most logical home for Oregon’s Natural Heritage Program. In addition, the RO could facilitate the continuation of the work of the Pacific Northwest Ecosystem Research Consortium, making recommendations about managing natural resources from spatially explicit models that include simultaneous environmental, economic and social considerations.

Policy Office

The Policy Office (PO) is patterned to some degree after the highly respected National Research Council which is the working arm of the National Academy of Science in Washington DC. This Policy Office will be an entirely new organization designed to offer independent analyses of environmental and natural resource issues. Studies conducted by the PO will be based on expert evaluation of existing data. However, analyses by the PO will benefit from the studies of the Research Office (described above) and the Information Office (described below).

Studies by the PO will be conducted on a project-by-project basis on topics selected by users. Panels of experts selected from throughout Oregon (and beyond as appropriate), based on rigorous criteria for defining the project and selecting the panel members. A unique aspect of these studies will be citizen participation. That is, instead of the panel conducting a study in secret and then releasing the results, studies will include planned interactions with users, consistently refining issues and justifying analyses. As possible, the Extension Service network will be used to encourage citizen participation. This process will be similar to that used in the recent State of the Oregon Environment Report.

There are several examples of the types of projects that could be undertaken by the PO, for example, the most effective use of incentives for biodiversity stewardship programs, the definition of site-specific buffer-zones for riparian areas throughout Oregon, or the genetic management of salmon and steelhead runs. These studies would focus on a specific question, draw together the best data and information, and then provide documented interpretations and conclusions.

Information Office

The Information Office (IO) will provide a distributed network of integrated statewide and regional environmental and natural resource databases, maps and models. The reasons why Oregon needs a location where natural resource and environmental data can be made readily available have been described above. The Information Office is particularly now for several reasons. New data management tools are now available because of more powerful computers and networking capability. Decision makers and scientists must integrate many different kinds of information designed to make decisions and recommendations, and the public is clamoring for access to similar information. New analytical and modeling tools are now available through which data can be used to answer questions based on alternative options or scenarios.

The Information Office will not collect data itself, nor will it seek to move all data into a single common data depository or bank. Instead, the Information Office will house some data, but in addition, it will construct networks linking existing databases. These networks will then allow users access to multiple data sets through one access point.

The Information Office will use a unique dual technique to meet the needs of users. In the first technique, existing data will be networked and described and made available upon request. The added values from this service will allow a user to come to one location, obtain data from many sources, and acquire detailed descriptions of the data. The second technique will be question driven, and the data will be organized to answer specific questions. These questions, to be designed both by the Information Office and by users, will be relatively well defined and the interpretation will be the responsibility of the user. This question-driven data service might involve, for example, answers to questions such as, what is the timber harvest level in various counties over the past 20 years or what was the angler success rate in the Siletz River this past year? More complicated analyses or projections would require studies by the Policy Office (data analysis and interpretation) or the Research Office (data collection and analysis).

Summary

The three offices of the Institute for Natural Resources will enable Oregonians to have a much better understanding of their natural resources and environment. The Research Office will assist in collecting data, the Information Office will organize data and information for multiple users and uses, and the Policy Council will provide extensive analyses and interpretations. The Institute will provide ready access to all of these services. Of particular importance is that delivery of these services will be enhanced through use of the OSU statewide public service programs, which are embedded in virtually every community in Oregon. As a result, the questions, analyses and interpretations of natural resources and environmental information will be connected to the multiple values held by Oregonians.

2. Organization and Location:

The Institute for Natural Resources will have a Director, an Executive Board of Directors, an Interdisciplinary Scientific and Scholarly Advisory Board, a Stakeholder Advisory Board and, as needed, ad hoc working groups. The administrative offices for the Institute will be housed on the Oregon State University Corvallis campus in facilities that already exist. The University of Oregon and Portland State University are charter members of the Institute, and other colleges and universities within Oregon and the Pacific Northwest region can become member institutions through procedures to be established by the Executive Board of Directors.

Director

The Director will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Institute, for strategic planning and for implementing strategic plans, programs, missions, and functions of the Institute as directed by the Executive Board of Directors, and for serving as the spokesperson for the multi-institutional issues directly related to the mission of the Institute. The Director shall oversee a small administrative staff to assist with the execution of these functions. The Director will report to the Vice Provost for Research at Oregon State University. An external peer review panel shall formally review the activities and performance of the Director at least once every five (5) years, or, if needed, more frequently as determined by the Executive Board of Directors. With the advice and consent of the Executive Board of Directors, the Oregon State University Vice Provost for Research will select the external peer review panel.

The Director will prepare a biennial program of work for approval by the Executive Board. The program of work will be prepared and submitted in a manner and of such timing to allow State Agencies and State academic institutions sufficient time to negotiate the scope and costs of proposed programs. This time horizon is required to reasonably allow these state executive branch units time to incorporate programmatic requests into their biennial budget requests. The program of work would reflect requests and sufficient funding from state agencies as well as other agencies and groups. The Director will also prepare an annual report of accomplishments of the work of the Institute.