Sponsored Projects for Undergraduate Research

The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) is a landscape-scale management plan serving 24.5 million acres in Washington, Oregon and Northern California to prioritize threatened and endangered species while promoting social and economic stability in the region. In 2023, the US Forest Service (USFS) began a process to amend the original 1994 NWFP to account for climatic changes and socioeconomic shifts, and to incorporate the best available science. The least-discussed subject matter within this amendment process is the lack of Indigenous and Tribal inclusion in the original plan. 

This project will dive into how power and white colonial constructs influenced meaningful Tribal inclusion, collaboration, and representation in the past and present and how that might change in the future. Students will seek to understand this correlation by conducting document analysis of comments received during public comment periods, tribal engagement summaries by the USFS, and formal consultation processes throughout both the original NWFP and current amendment process. Additionally, undergraduate students will conduct qualitative analysis and coding of interviews of individuals who have significant involvement and influence in the current amendment. This project has the intention to: better understand how power dynamics, settler colonial perspectives, and management processes influence Indigenous management practices; elevate examples of Indigenous resiliency within contemporary land management; and create recommendations to help support more inclusive and comprehensive processes into the future.