Abstract
The US Forest Service’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) was a major policy innovation for supporting collaborative, landscape-scale forest restoration. Twenty-three CFLRP projects were funded following requests for proposals in fiscal years (FY) 2010 and 2011. Congress appropriated the fully authorized amount of $40 million to the program in FY 2012. In 2018, Congress reauthorized the CFLRP, and soon thereafter the Forest Service issued a request for new CFLRP proposals. In this article, we provide background on the reauthorization of the CFLRP and the updated proposal process. We present findings from a document analysis of the final 22 CFLRP proposals submitted in FY 2020 to characterize current demand for CFLRP and the nature of the proposed projects. We discuss our findings in the context of the CFLRP Advisory Committee’s recommendations, funding uncertainty, and broader efforts to support cross-boundary, collaborative wildfire mitigation and forest restoration.
Study Implications: Reviewing the broader context of the CFLRP and the FY 2020 proposals highlights the importance of the program in pursuing collaborative, cross-boundary wildfire mitigation and restoration across the US. There is high demand for the program, as illustrated by more than $600 million requested over 10 years and more than $400 million in planned partner contributions for projects across diverse ecosystems involving locally driven partnerships. Ensuring consistent funding and leadership commitment, aligning policies across scales, supporting collaboration, encouraging innovation to support restoration and local economies, and using adaptive monitoring approaches are needed to facilitate the success of programs like CFLRP.
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