Community Field Reports in Support of

Upcoming Land Use Planning For the

Spokane District Office of the Bureau of Land Management:

Submitted to

Scott Pavey, BLM Planning Lead

BLM Spokane District Office

Submitted by

Kevin Preister, Ph.D.

Trish Malone, M.A.

Eric Darsow

April 2, 2010

PO Box 1267 Basalt, CO 81621 970/ 927-4424 FAX 970/ 927-4607 abpeus@r.postjobfree.com

PO Box 3493 Ashland, OR 97520 541/ 601-4797 FAX 541/ 552-9683 abpeus@r.postjobfree.com

P.O. Box 1214 Kailua-Kona, HI 96740 808/443-9445 FAX 808/324-4543 abpeus@r.postjobfree.com

www.jkagroup.com

Enhancing Productive Harmony between Human and Natural Environments

Community Field Reports in Support of

Upcoming Land Use Planning For the

Spokane District Office of the Bureau of Land Management:

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 1

Chapter One: Toward a Strategy of Community-Based Collaborative Land Use Planning 2

Chapter Two: Background and Approach 11

Chapter Three: The San Juans Human Resource Unit 19

Chapter Four: The Okanogan Human Resource Unit 37

Chapter Five: The Chelan-Douglas Human Resource Unit 57

Chapter Six: The Kittitas and Yakima Human Resource Units 76

Chapter Seven: The Tri-Cities Human Resource Unit 86

Chapter Eight: The Upper Crab Creek Human Resource Unit 108

Chapter Nine: The Colville Human Resource Unit 128

Appendix A: Background of JKA History with the Bureau of Land Management 138

Appendix B: Seven Cultural Descriptors Used in Human Geographic Mapping 144

Tables and Figures

Table 1: Research Days and Types of Citizen Contact in Each Geographic Area 14

Table 2: Number of Farms and Acres in Production in Lincoln County, 1982, 2007 110

Table 3: Population and Population Change in Stevens, Ferry and Pend Oreille Counties 130

Figure One: Human Geographic Units of the BLM Spokane District Planning Area, 2010 15

Figure Two: The San Juan Human Resource Unit 20

Figure Three: The Okanogan Human Resource Unit 38

Figure Four: The Chelan-Douglas Human Resource Unit 58

Figure Five: Photo of South Entrance to Douglas Creek 65

Figure Six: The Kittitas and Yakima Human Resource Units 77

Figure Seven: Interpretive Sign Developed by BLM for Cowiche Canyon 82

Figure Eight: The Informal Rankville ORV Site North of Zillah 84

Figure Nine: The Tri-Cities Human Resource Unit 87

Figure Ten: Photo Showing a No Trespassing Sign at the Entrance to Juniper Dunes 92

Figure 11: Proposed Trail Connecting Juniper Dunes to the Snake River 95

Figure 12: An Irrigation District Outbuilding in Willamette Heights 98

Figure 13: Lots 56, 57, 66 on BLM Land, City of West Richland 98

Figure 14: Conceptual McBee Grade Trail 99

Figure 15: BLM Land between the Yakima River and the Chandler Canal 101

Figure 16: Proposed Ridges to Rivers Loop Trail 102

Figure 17: The Upper Crab Creek Human Resource Unit 105

Figure 18: The Stumpjumpers Event in Odessa 119

Figure 19: The Colville Human Resource Unit 129

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A JKA Report

Community Field Reports in Support of

Upcoming Land Use Planning For the

Spokane District Office of the Bureau of Land Management:

Executive Summary

The State of Washington is undergoing a profound shift towards an emphasis on conservation,

natural resource education, and outdoor recreation, which in some areas is wedded to economic

development strategies.

This shift is accompanied by two widespread trends, one toward citizen based stewardship and the

second toward multi-interest, multi-jurisdictional collaboration that appears to be transforming local

communities.

This report, therefore, encourages a de-centralized planning effort whose objectives should include

using the planning process to broaden and deepen BLM partnerships throughout the state and

increasing BLM s capacity for responding and sustaining partnership efforts.

The overall reputation of BLM in the state is one of non-presence and non-management. Most

people, especially those met casually in gathering places, simply do not know of BLM, its land, or its

programs. The people who do know frequently stated that they do not have contact with BLM.

BLM has had notable successes in the State and has many supporters, particularly for individual

BLM staff. Its acquisition of critical habitat areas, its recreation sites, and its partnership role in many

endeavors are particularly appreciated.

The more dominant theme of BLM management is one of frustration that BLM does not

communicate well or often enough, the BLM does not respond in a timely way to requests for

information or consultation, and that management direction often ignores local input.

Many opportunities for citizen-based collaboration and inter-governmental cooperation appear to

languish for lack of a timely BLM response.

There are a few management situations in the State that could become disruptive unless there is

planning and management attention applied soon.

Each of the human geographic areas described in this report contain one to three management

challenges that would lend themselves to a community-based collaborative effort that would in

effect be a planning element in the revised RMP.

The critical element for the future is to understand that BLM, because of its recent history in the

State of Washington, has a relative blank slate with which to operate, not being associated with the

deep-seated or long-lasting animosity and anti-government sentiment that has characterized other

areas. Opportunities and risks accompany this finding.

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Chapter One:

Toward a Strategy of Community-Based Collaborative Land Use Planning

Introduction

In this chapter, a strategy is outlined to foster community-based, collaborative land use planning.

The subsequent chapters describe the background of this work and the approach used by JKA as

well as the findings in each geographic area.

The approach to community-based collaborative planning described here has two strong advantages.

It has evolved entirely out of the community fieldwork of this project and so it is broadly grounded

in the experiences and guidance of citizens across the state. It is also fully consistent with policy

guidelines on conducting revisions to Resource Management Plans.

The BLM H-1601-1 Land Use Planning Handbook places high importance on land use planning

that incorporates a community-based and collaborative approach. Appendix A offers a Guide to

Collaborative Planning, and Appendix D is Social Science Considerations in Land Use Planning

Decisions. There are a number of process guidelines in the Handbook which are useful to review.

One appropriate statement is:

While the ultimate responsibility regarding land use plan decisions on BLM-administered

lands rests with BLM officials, managers have discovered that individuals, communities, and

governments working together toward commonly understood objectives yield a significant

improvement in the stewardship of public lands. (Planning Handbook: page I-4)

The sections in this chapter are devoted to:

1. Trends Affecting Future BLM Management

2. State-wide Citizen Guidance for BLM

3. Opportunities by Geographic Area for Utilizing Citizen Initiatives in the Planning Process

4. JKA Recommendations for the Planning Process

5. Rules of Engagement

Trends Affecting Future BLM Management

A trend is defined as a general movement or line of development over a sufficiently long period of

time that creates progressive change. Trends cannot be stopped in any literal sense because they

represent converging behaviors from multiple sources. However, trends can be assessed and steps

can be made to minimize the negative effects and to optimize the positive effects, particularly with

regard to organizations.

Trends affect an organization one way or another. Prudent management calls for anticipating and

analyzing trends and then working with them to accomplish the agency mission. If trends are not

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correctly anticipated and incorporated into management, they can cause disruption in the

management of an organization.

Two distinct and related trends were discovered by JKA in the course of this project, first, the trend

to integrate the four pillars of conservation, education, recreation and economic development, and,

second, the trend of citizen-based ecological stewardship.

There is a widespread perception of an economic trend from extraction resources to recreation

resources throughout the state. Extraction resources are cattle grazing, mining, and timber

production. The term recreation resources was heard many times during fieldwork and indicates

that recreation is more than an add-on in many parts of the state but, as a true resource, is becoming

an economic sector in its own right. The EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) to be developed by

BLM should include an economic assessment to more fully document this trend and offer planning

guidance to BLM.

On the front page of a recent Sunday paper, the Yakima Herald Republic featured the following

headline: Trails a Tangible Part of Quality of Life (March 21, 2010). The article related the

growing public interest in trail systems and interconnected trail systems which unite three pillars of

recreation, conservation and education, and further, how such development is an attraction of

settlement for newcomers and businesses to an area and a contribution to quality of life experiences.

The additional pillar of economic development is explicit in some areas as well, such as Chelan and

Okanogan. This trend of widespread public attention to the four pillars of recreation, conservation,

education and economic development is a major theme of this report. This trend is pronounced

throughout the state and has a bearing on how BLM develops and implements its plan. In some

areas of the state, like Okanogan, the trend is seen as a transition away from traditional economic

sectors like agriculture and mining, and toward a developing, valued economic base. In other areas,

like Tri-Cities, the trend seems to be a response to a growing lack of open space in an urbanizing

area.

The second pronounced and related trend noted in this research, is citizen-based stewardship.

Everywhere our team visited, we saw evidence of citizens being active in caring for their

environment. From school projects, to clean up days, trail building, stream restoration and many

others, it is apparent that citizen-based stewardship is pervasive and widespread throughout the

state. To call the trend citizen-based is to acknowledge that much of the impetus for stewardship

work is coming directly from individual citizens and is not always institutionally driven. It seems like,

instead, that initiatives are most often citizen-based and then institutions come on board later.

People are conscious of this trend and see it as a community value they want to embrace.

The Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) has identified a number of

emerging park and recreation trends at the national level which will affect BLM planning:

1. Increasing population, especially in the urban areas;

2. An aging population who are likely to stay active and demand additional recreation services;

3. Growing ethnic diversity, especially Hispanic, who recreate in different ways;

4. Changing lifestyles because changing work patterns are creating off peak demand on

facilities and less structure for activities;

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5. Physical activity is valued to combat rising levels of obesity in youngsters and adults;

6. Infill development is fostering increased demand for urban facilities and connectivity to rural

opportunities;

7. Convenient recreation as lives are busier and travel costs rise;

8. Recreation choices are desired as people seek diverse recreational outlets.

At the statewide level, the RCO in 2003 projected demand for recreation opportunities in ten and

twenty-year segments, and found that hunting and fishing are the only activities expected to

continue to decline. The activities expected to increase in popularity, in order of priority, were

snowmobile riding, walking, nature activities, cross-country skiing, visiting a beach,

canoeing/kayaking/downhill skiing, picnicking, bicycle riding, and non-pool swimming.1

State-wide Citizen Guidance for BLM

Most citizen guidance to BLM regarding its planning effort relates to specific pieces of ground or

specific activities. This can be referenced in individual chapters. However, a number of general

statements are possible about how residents wish for BLM land to be managed:

1. Continue to consolidate lands for ecological reasons and to promote more effective

management.

2. BLM should not divest itself of more land except in relation to consolidation. BLM parcels

generally are highly valued in every region of the state.

3. The shift to a recreation emphasis with public lands is pronounced and widespread. The

emerging public perception relates four central elements into a vision of public land

management: conservation, education, recreation and economic development. The planning

process should determine BLM s proper role in supporting the numerous coalitions

emerging to further this mission.

4. Communicate more often and more effectively. The perception of a non-answer leads to

deteriorating community relations and erodes confidence in public officials.

Opportunities by Geographic Area for

Utilizing Citizen Initiatives in the Planning Process

The subsequent chapters describe in some detail what residents in each geographic area are

concerned about regarding BLM management, and some of the opportunities they see for

improving management during the next generation of work. By way of summary, this section

highlights the issue areas in each Human Resource Unit (HRU) which lend themselves to creating

community-based planning elements.

It is important to note that successful collaboration requires matching citizen energy and not the

other way around. These nominations for action listed below reflect current citizen energy in natural

resource management. An agency cannot defer responding to this energy without risk that the

1

Benton County, Comprehensive Parks Plan, August, 2008, Chelan County Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Plan,

October, 2007.

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energy will go away. Although there are many internal reasons for delay, if it is too long, people will

simply have moved onto other interests.

Citizen-based initiatives represent an opportunity for BLM to ride the waves of collaboration and

citizen energy to accomplish its own mission and to contribute to community health.

The San Juan HRU

1. Conduct a more thorough assessment of existing organizations, their missions, and their

accomplishments, and work with residents to develop a comprehensive vision for all BLM

lands in the islands.

2. Assist citizens and BLM specialists to determine the proper course of action, and the proper

land use decisions, to address the goal of better protection, particularly on Lopez Island.

The Okanogan HRU

1. Develop a recreation resource strategy for the RMP consistent with emerging recreation

development in the Okanogan area. Determine the partnership role for BLM given the size

and location of its land base. Much guidance for this strategy is available in the County draft

comprehensive plan which includes a detailed chapter on recreation development.

Coordinate with the many emerging organizations involved in this effort. The explicit link, as

in other areas of the state, is: conservation, education, outdoor recreation embedded in an

economic development framework.

2. Explore the prospects for planning with the Forest Service. Local residents would be so

grateful!

The Chelan HRU

1. Convene a working group to create a long-term management solution for the Douglas Creek

area. BLM staff will serve as technical support. Explore available information and develop

strategies for each of the outstanding issues, particularly road improvement and

maintenance, law enforcement, and organizational development of partnership groups.

2. As part of the planning process, undertake an assessment of regional coalitions involved

with conservation, education, recreation and economic development and determine through

consultation with citizens, organizations, and internal BLM dialogue, the proper role for

BLM in these efforts and what realistically BLM can contribute to these endeavors.

The Kittitas/Yakima HRUs

1. Conduct a review of the Yakima River Canyon Recreation Site through dialogue with user

groups, conservation organizations, local governments, law enforcement agencies, and state

and federal agencies to identify issues and concerns that affect the long-term viability of

recreation development.

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2. Determine planning elements required to support the conservation and recreation programs

in Cowiche Creek and Naches River drainage.

3. Develop a long-term management strategy for the Rankville ORV area north of Zillah.

The Tri-Cities/Moses Lake HRUs

1. Juniper Dunes would lend itself to management progress through a community-based

process. Although some major issues, such as road access and law enforcement, depend on

effective BLM and sister agency support, many of the issues can be managed by citizens,

groups and organizations. This area has shown that it has the capacity to assist BLM with its

ecological and recreation mission.

2. Horse Heaven Rim Trail is a regional concept involving several organizations and local

governments. It is the logical next phase in the development of regional outdoor recreation

amenities in Tri-Cities to which BLM can be an important partner. The BLM planning

process can be used to trigger a local management strategy.

3. Use the planning process to explore and develop BLM s role in an emerging, multi-

jurisdictional, regional approach to recreation development and conservation being

undertaken in the Tri-Cities area.

The Upper Crab Creek HRU

1. Go the next step to build upon fire management partnerships by addressing existing

unresolved issues in a collaborative framework with relevant fire districts and other

organizations.

2. Develop citizen-based strategies to deal with hunter impacts in three specific geographic

areas, primarily focused on education and coordination with sister agencies.

3. Help the Odessa area develop a top-notch management plan for the operation of an OHV

facility on BLM land. Insist on accountability and turn over as much as possible to citizen

organizations and local government.

The Colville HRU

1. As in Okanogan, use the recent emergence of regional recreation planning to determine

BLM s proper policy role as a partner in terms of its goals of conservation, education,

outdoor recreation and economic development. Convene a short-term working group to

determine what has been done so far, to identify the gaps and the opportunities, and to

develop partnership relationships in the area through which to implement the planning

vision.

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JKA Recommendations for the Planning Process

Process Considerations

1. Accept as a working principle that an important goal of the planning process is to deepen

and broaden BLM and community capacity for shared management and decision-making

through community-based collaborative relationships.

2. De-centralize the planning process. This is an appropriate strategy because BLM lands are

scattered and management capacity in each area is not always strong. Given the strong

movement toward multi-interest and multi-jurisdictional collaboration, to work through

others to accomplish the BLM mission makes sense.

3. Make use of a community liaison in each geographic area. The goals of the liaison are three:

a) broaden BLM s relationships in each geographic area and access the social diversity

present in these communities in order to make the plan more effective and to prevent the

domination of the planning process by the few; b) Facilitate and expedite the development

of citizen-based planning elements for each geographic area, as summarized above; and, c)

Work to properly align BLM and citizen interests.

The criteria by which to judge whether citizen issues lend themselves to a community-based

collaborative planning element include these:

The citizen issues are widespread in the community;

Their solutions lend themselves to a multi-interest, multi-jurisdictional approach;

Residents have expressed widespread, consistent desire to be part of the solution;

BLM has the capacity to see it through and to match community timelines.

4. The Community Liaison can either be a separate position or it could be shared among BLM

staff in each geographic area whose knowledge of the community is good and whose

personality suits citizen contact work. Either strategy has pitfalls. If the Liaison is a single

position, the tendency of BLM staff may be to become complacent about fostering ongoing

collaboration as everyday management practice and instead become dependent on a

temporary position. If the Liaison is shared among existing staff, they may wrongly believe

that their existing contacts are sufficient for the task at hand. They should be trained in

community development techniques that JKA specializes in. The training will instruct on

methods to extend the reach of citizen contacts through informal networks and gathering

places and include strategies on working with existing organizations for mutual benefit.

Training would also ensure that the input staff members are getting is useful for the planning

process.

A third option is to have the community liaison work handled by a third party. This option

should be selected if it is determined that BLM does not have the internal staff skills and

capacity to operate in this fashion.

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5. Make use of Working Groups to empower citizens to make beneficial contributions to the

planning effort. The section above listed the candidates in each geographic area for citizen-

initiated action items that become mini-planning elements in the larger plan. The features of

Working Groups are these:

They are short-lived, two to four months in length;

They are staffed and facilitated by the Community Liaison;

BLM specialists are called at timely moments for information and technical expertise;

They are not meeting driven but use a variety of methods to explore planning options,

including field trips, visits to other organizations, and other means;

They must be evidence-based and transparent, open to all, and must include

accountability in any recommended direction;

Their operation could be staggered at different times throughout the planning area to

allow easier staffing;

They will require BLM to be innovative in addressing its own requirements to minimize

the perception of delay, control and authority.

Substantive Considerations

1. Use the Human Geographic Units as the base planning units, not counties or towns or

communities. BLM Spokane already has a history of using Human Geographic principles.

When it was decided to create the Wenatchee office, the dividing line went right down the

state, just west of the Colville. That worked until the Tri Cities area. If the line had kept

going, it would have put Juniper Dunes with Spokane and Saddle Mountain with Wenatchee.

Managers understood that both areas relate to Tri-Cities, so they bent the line to the west of

the crescent in Benton County and all this went to Spokane. In addition, the recently-

acquired lands in Walla Walla and Asotin Counties are being managed from Oregon because

these geographic areas, with their associated watersheds, are tied strongly to northeast

Oregon.

2. Use the planning process to devise a web-based portal for accessing up-to-date maps

showing BLM ownership patterns, along with the rules and procedures for responsible use

of BLM lands. Create a technical means online so people can know whose land they are on

and what the rules are using downloadable maps. The Yakima and Okanogan County GIS

systems lend themselves to this approach.

3. Use the RAC to promote communication in their relevant communities. RACs should be

organized not just by representative interest but by geographic area, using the Human

Resource Units. Offer JKA s three-day training, Community Based Ecosystems and

Stewardship: Ensuring a Healthy Environment, so that RAC members can be more

thorough and intentional about their public contact.

4. Create a digital newsletter using the mailing list which JKA has submitted. The newsletter

should have sections for each HRU so that people can scroll for information about planning

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progress on key issues in their geographic area. For hard copy, mailed newsletters, tailor

them to the geographic area receiving them. Any public releases should be issue-centered

so the reader understands that BLM has heard their issue and is responding to it.

5. Use BLM staff that have frequent contact with the public, like fire program officers, law

enforcement rangers, and others, undertake some amount of outreach work. Also, use staff

people who have personalities suited to public contact work. If staff people are allowed to

self-select for this work, we have found that they have ample enthusiasm and skills.

Training in community description should accompany this strategy.

6. There is a strong trend throughout the state of increased outdoor recreation that is

promoted in a multi-interest and multi-jurisdictional manner which is integrated with

conservation, education and economic development. Nevertheless, the awareness of the

economic benefits of such development is low. Not a single person in these local areas could

point to a definitive study that documented the economic benefits of a recreation event, site,

or program. JKA recommends that BLM use the planning process to complete such a study.

The study could cover all BLM programs in the state, or it could assess a few recreation sites

or all recreation sites in one area, as a means to educate the broader population and elected

officials regarding recreation development. Citizens could be coached to do research on

behalf of BLM, for example, to measure the economic benefit of a single recreation event,

from which generalizing statements could be made. Such information would be highly

valued by county commissioners, recreation planners, and non-governmental organizations.

7. Use the planning process to develop a socially-responsive wind energy policy for the BLM

Spokane Office.

Rules of Engagement

There were Rules of Engagement discovered during the field work that provide an umbrella under

which BLM opportunities can be framed for facilitating citizen initiatives for community based

solutions and increasing local capacity for emerging issue management.

The Rules of Engagement, created from the citizen contact by JKA team members, are:

1. Understand that the management of BLM lands must contribute to the sustainability,

livability and resilience of citizens and communities that it serves.

2. Using a collaborative approach integrates the physical, biological, social, cultural and

economic environments to produce healthy communities and landscapes.

3. Be conscious as to what types of local individual and family businesses can be expanded or

created as a result of BLM activity.

4. Recognize that people want to be as self-sufficient as possible in their communities and

BLM has a part in assisting citizens to gain that self-sufficiency.

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5. Strive to enhance diversity in order that BLM activities assist in creating choices that are not

available to citizens today.

6. People are strengthened when they have beginnings and endings to their engagement.

Therefore:

a. Start only what can be finished.

b. Have a deadline that people can work towards to finish a project or engagement.

c. Some citizen initiatives will begin and end independent of the NEPA-based planning

process. BLM should integrate these initiatives into the planning process as much as

possible, but recognize that the timeline for community process may go beyond the

bounds of NEPA. Citizen initiatives must be respected from the beginnings to the

celebration of endings.

d. Take the time to broaden BLM relationships in the community to make citizen

initiatives as broad-based and diverse as possible. In the meetings, guard against

domination by the few, especially those that push agendas or narrow outcomes.

Instead, seek out the caretakers and communicators who are present in every

network and encourage their participation. Action born out of the involvement of

caretakers and communicators will be grounded, supported and implementable.

e. There is a saying, To get power, give up control which BLM must practice in

facilitating citizen initiatives. BLM cannot drive the process but participates in it. The

government role is shifting from command and control to expedite and

facilitate.

f. Citizens must take responsibility that comes along with participation. Like parenting

a teenager, if BLM is doing all the work, something is wrong. Continually look for

opportunities to enhance ongoing citizen action or to turn over responsibility and

action to citizens.

g. Responsibility is accompanied by measurable accountability by which all interests can

review progress toward common goals.

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Chapter Two:

Background and Approach

Background

The Spokane District of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will undertake a revision of its

Resource Management Plan (RMP) beginning in 2010. Required by the Federal Land Policy and

Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976, the plan will address BLM land uses within its multiple use

mandate of FLMPA and must reflect the priorities of local communities and the nation.

In the State of Washington, BLM currently manages approximately 445,000 acres, primarily in

eastern Washington with outlying parcels in San Juan, Whatcom and Skagit Counties. BLM also

manages about 23.4 million acres of federal subsurface minerals. When the Eastern Washington and

San Juan Resource Management Plan is completed in 3-5 years, it will serve as the legal basis for

BLM management in Washington until the plan is revised or amended, generally about twenty years

out.

The BLM Spokane District Vision has two goals for future planning and management that were

addressed in the course of this project:

Goal 1: Transform the District from one that reacts to public requests to one that proactively

facilitates sustainable use of public lands and resources.

Goal 2: Transform the current concept of Federal Land Management, become a leader in

partnership based management of natural landscapes.

BLM asked James Kent Associates (JKA) to assist it in determining citizen interests related to the

planning effort and the vision goals and to suggest communication strategies that would foster the

greatest awareness of and participation in the planning process.

The objectives of this project were to:

1. Engage in community fieldwork to describe local geographic areas from social, economic,

and cultural perspectives as they relate to land use planning, including the social and

economic trends identified by residents.

2. Identify the range of citizen issues and opportunities identified by residents related to public

land use planning.

3. Develop preliminary communication strategies based on human geographic mapping,

informal communication patterns and methods existing in local communities, and the

accepted formal meeting places.

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4. Recommend strategies for using the planning process to extend and deepen BLM

partnerships in local communities so as to enhance stewardship and land use opportunities

that lend themselves to collaborative, citizen-based efforts.

These objectives set the stage for BLM Spokane District to fulfill the goals stated in its vision. The

process to accomplish this is to first find out what people care about and how they communicate by

geographic area. This sets the context for BLM to be a in a strategic position to manage the

planning process in a proactive manner, demonstrating responsiveness to the issues and supportive

of citizen-based stewardship and collaboration opportunities.

Approach

JKA is well-known among land use agencies for its 40 years of effort in implementing citizen-

oriented approaches to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), land use planning, and

management programs. It has assisted BLM through a variety of means, including a thirty-year map

licensing agreement for human geographic mapping services, an assistance agreement and various

direct service and training contracts through the BLM National Training Center and through a GSA

contract. The interested reader is referred to the JKA website at: www.jkagroup.com. Appendix A

contains a background of JKA s history with BLM.

JKA takes a cultural approach to land use policy. We have found that when the culture of an area is

understood through its informal networks of communication and caretaking, greater opportunities

for responsive and mutual management of public lands are achieved. It is in the everyday routines of

residents in a place-based community, with their highly-valued communicators and caretakers, which

contain the heart and soul of a community. An early understanding of local culture identifies

informal networks and their issues that are crucial to include in planning and management activities.

When the planning process fosters proper alignment between informal community systems and the

formal institutional interests represented by BLM and other organizations, citizen ownership of the

plan is an outcome as well as the ability to implement on the ground. In addition, citizen ownership

presents many opportunities to leverage resources and thereby expand the management capacity of

BLM. As this report makes clear, citizen-based stewardship is a growing social trend in the State of

Washington which has led to numerous coalitions and partnerships, many of which BLM has been a

part.

The JKA Discovery Process is a qualitative research methodology by which fieldworkers enter the

routines of the community to identify communication patterns, major citizen issues and

opportunities, in order to see the world as residents do, to get the inside point of view. The

method requires widespread contact in the area so that all geographic areas are represented, as well

as all interest areas. There are three action areas that JKA employs: (1) the SCAN (which is what we

have delivered in this contract); (2) the Situational Assessment and (3) Strategy Development and

Implementation. Activities (2) and (3) are for later consideration in the planning process.

For this SCAN, we contacted farmers, ranchers, elected officials, business owners, recreation users,

young and old people, always asking, Who else should we talk to about this? in order to identify

informal networks and other avenues of inquiry. In addition, JKA talked with County

Commissioners, Mayors, Conservation Districts, Watershed Groups, Fire Districts, the Farm

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Bureau, the Cattlemen s Association, Backcountry Horsemen, and numerous other recreation and

environmental organizations.

In practical terms, our strategies were two:

1. Identify people close to the action, that are, involved in BLM lands in some way. These

people were identified as key contacts by BLM and then we networked other contacts once

we were in the communities.

2. Focus on gathering places which presented opportunities for random conversations with

residents, offering an unfiltered glimpse of the attitudes of the person on the street. This

action led to expanded networking from these contacts to others to gain deeper insights into

the communities.

Generally speaking, we focused on four topics in discussions with local residents:

1. What is working, and not working, about current BLM management of lands you care

about?

2. What issues do you think the plan should address?

3. What opportunities do you see for making things better?

4. How could BLM conduct planning that would make a positive difference for you and your

community?

We also followed topics of interest to the speaker. In our work, there is a saying that People hate to

be interviewed but they love to talk. We tried to find people in settings in which they were

comfortable so that we could hear the stories of the land, of settlement, of kinship, and of economic

livelihood.

Limited time and resource precluded a professional community assessment in each area of the state.

The JKA team spent several days in each area, as reported below, but not enough to develop a true

assessment. For that reason, we have called these Community Field Reports to signify that

they are preliminary assessments only. As the plan proceeds, ideally more effort in the Discovery

Process can widen BLM s understanding of local communities with their informal networks,

gathering places, respected individuals, citizen issues and communication strategies.

In total, JKA worked 77 days on this contract. Sixty-four days were spent doing community

fieldwork in the geographic areas around the state as reported in the individual chapters. Five days

were spent traveling and staging a team from place to place, eight days were spent writing, and two

days were spent developing maps. The personnel from James Kent Associates who worked on this

project are the following:

Kevin Preister, Project Manager

James Kent, Senior Strategist

Trish Malone, Senior Associate

Eric Darsow, JKA Associate

Susan Jessie, JKA Associate

Gustavo Monteverde, JKA GIS specialist

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Table One below shows the field time spent and the kinds of contact attained in each geographic

area.

Table One:

Research Days and Types of Citizen Contact in Each Geographic Area

Geographic Research Types of Citizen Contact

Area by HRU Days Individuals People in Group Individuals With Total

Settings/Org Meetings Agencies/ Org

San Juan 5 27 7 19 53

Okanogan 9 29 10 29 68

Chelan 12 36 34 19 89

Kittitas/Yakima 5 9 6 15 30

Tri-Cities (& Moses Lake) 13 18 19 36 73

Upper Crab Creek 12 56 19 8 83

Colville 8 30 30 24 84

TOTALS 64-205-***-***-***

JKA is committed to people having a voice in the planning process. For this reason, we have used

quotes amply throughout this report. Hence, the report is longer than would otherwise be the case,

and the hurried reader can skip some of the detail. At the same time, the detail alerts BLM to the

many nuances present with each issue and captures the range of what people talked about in their

conversations. The community reports are properly considered Field Guides since they

include much detail about local issues and communication patterns useful for planning

activities in each geographic area. JKA put editorial comments in brackets to explain

unclear phrasing or acronym uses.

People were open to talking about BLM and keenly interested in participating in the land use

planning process. Almost everyone wanted to be on the BLM mailing list to be informed of

planning activities.

As part of the Discovery Process, JKA conducts human geographic mapping in order to capture the

ways people actually relate to their landscapes. Figure One below shows the human geographic units

in eastern Washington and the San Juan Islands. JKA maps at six scales of human geography, from

neighborhood to global units. Figure One shows two scales, the Human Resource Unit (HRU, in

blue) and the Social Resource Unit (SRU, in red)

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Figure One

Human Geographic Units of the BLM Spokane District Planning Area, 2010, Showing Two Scales,

The Social Resource Units (SRUs) and the Human Resource Units (HRUs)

2010 James Kent Associates

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A JKA Report

Human Resource Units are roughly equivalent in size to a county but seldom correspond to county

boundaries. HRU boundaries are derived from the seven cultural descriptors and by self-reporting

of residents living in these areas. The Cultural Descriptors (Appendix B) are Settlement Patterns,

Publics, Networks, Support Services, Work Routines, Recreation Activities and Natural and Human-

caused Features of the Landscape. HRUs are characterized by frequent and customary interaction.

They reveal face-to-face human society where people could be expected to have personal knowledge

of each other and strong informal caretaking systems.

People's daily activities occur primarily within their HRU including work, school, shopping, social

activities and recreation. Health, education, welfare and other public service activities are highly

organized at this level with a town or community almost always as its focal point.

A sense of place, a sense of identity with the land and the people, a sense of a common

understanding of how the resources of their Unit should be managed, and a common understanding

of how things are normally done characterize this territorial level.

The regularity of interaction within an HRU reinforces a recognition and identification by the

residents of natural and man-made features as home. Because of this familiarity, boundaries

between Human Resource Units are clearly defined in the minds of those living within them.

Social Resource Units are the aggregation of HRUs on the basis of geographic features of the

landscape, often a river basin, for example, or a geologic province, and on the basis of shared

history, lifestyle, livelihood, and outlook. At this level, face-to-face knowledge is much reduced.

Rather, social ties are created by action around issues that transcend the smaller HRUs and by

invoking common values ( We are ranching country around here. ).

SRUs are best characterized by a sense of belonging. These are rather large areas and one's intensity

of perception as to the Unit's boundary is much more general than at the Human Resource Unit

level. Those hold a general feeling of oneness who are a part of this regional Unit, and a general

understanding and agreement on values and the attributes of being a part of the Unit.

The physical and biological environments play a large role in the development of the cultural pattern

at this level of human geography. To a large degree, these environments determine the kinds of basic

industries available for people to develop their culture around, and how the industries function in

the most effective manner to preserve and strengthen the cultural pattern of the Unit.2

In eastern Washington, the Columbia River is a natural boundary between the arid, shrub steppe

plateau of Eastern Washington and the wet, dense forests of the Cascade Mountains. As with any

significant natural feature, the Columbia separates populations and defines HRUs based on daily

routines of local people. A look at the map, however, shows that in the Chelan-Douglas HRU, the

river is no longer a barrier socially and culturally, Chelan and Douglas are the same unit, in part fed

by daily interactions across the river.

2

James A. Kent and Kevin Preister, Methods for the Development of Human Geographic Boundaries and Their Uses,

in partial completion of Cooperative Agreement No. 1422-P850-A8-0015 between James Kent Associates and the U.S.

Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Task Order No. 001.

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The HRUs along the Cascade Mountains are similar in shape. They are watershed areas, stretching

from the crest of the mountains to the Columbia River in the case of the Kittitas and Yakima HRUs.

These two units share the common Yakima River Canyon. While daily routines are different and

occur within the units, they have been tied in a regional sense from early settlement and warrant

inclusion in the Yakama SRU.

Okanogan and Colville share a history of timber production, cattle grazing and mining but their

isolation precludes their treatment as a single HRU. One older rancher in Okanogan said that they

are more like cousins to Colville people, with similarities in outlook and lifestyle. Instead,

Okanogan has more in common with Chelan-Douglas and they are grouped together in the Two

River SRU. This unit is reflected in history hundreds of years old in which the Columbia and the

Okanogan Rivers formed a north-south corridor for trade, social relations, and in recent years,

recreation.

Similarly, the map reveals the large landscape that claims Spokane as its urban center in the Inland

Empire SRU. Note how the SRU stretches across the Idaho Panhandle into western Montana, in

essence, capturing the catchment area of Spokane. The Inland Empire SRU has its own distinctive

history and culture.

Finally, the Tri-Cities HRU is part of the Columbia SRU which includes Moses Lake, Walla Walla

and extends into Gilliam, Morrow and Umatilla Counties in northern Oregon. This region has

similarities in its desert environment, lower elevation lands, distinctive agriculture, and a love for

motorized recreation activities.

Organization of This Report

The chapters in this report are devoted to each of the geographic areas of the state containing BLM

lands, organized by Human Resource Units (HRUs). The HRUs, in order of the chapters, proceeds

from the northwest part of the state to the north central, central, eastern and northeaster, as follows:

San Juan Tri-Cities

Okanogan Upper Crab Creek

Chelan-Douglas Colville

Kittitas/Yakima

Each chapter has the following sections:

1. Key Learning Points for This Chapter

2. Introduction

3. Community Description

4. Community Themes

5. Citizen Issues, Management Concerns and Opportunities Regarding Natural Resource

Management

6. Planning Process Considerations

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Community Description refers to information gathered from citizens, officials, or printed sources

that depict the salient features of a local area its population, its economy, its social and economic

trends, and its daily routines.

Community Themes are attitudes, perceptions and values that are shared widely in the community,

repeated and reinforced in everyday conversations. In and of themselves, they are not actionable, but

with probing, themes may have citizen issues attached to them that require attention. In other cases,

themes are used for political purposes to generate interest in a policy question. Generally, theme

language intensifies and can dominate the public discourse about a policy matter if citizen issues are

not being addressed. Theme language becomes muted if there is alignment between institutional and

citizen interests.

Citizen Issues are defined as a subject of public interest that an individual or group has decided to

act upon in order to maintain control, predictability and participation in changes in their

environment. Issues can be distinguished from themes in that they are actionable. Citizen issues

reveal likely partners in collaborative efforts to improve management situations, while themes do not

provide the same predictability.

Management Concerns are concerns residing in the formal bodies of society, including federal, state

and local units of government, environmental groups, recreation groups, non-governmental

organizations, and corporations. Management concerns are important to integrate into the planning

process along with citizen issues and legal directives, in order to find appropriate courses of action

for all parties. It is helpful to keep citizen issues and management concerns distinct so that neither is

lost.

Opportunities are ideas that local residents or agency people have for improving the planning

process or particular management situations. When an issue was expressed, JKA team members

often asked, What would you do about it if you could? thereby getting people to problem-solve

about workable solutions.

Planning Process Considerations are ideas provided by residents or officials that they believe would

improve the planning process. The considerations involve the best ways to communicate, the best

time and place to have public meetings, how the meetings are structured, and the means devised to

foster ongoing citizen participation in the plan as the process proceeds.

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Chapter Three:

The San Juan Human Resource Unit

Key Learning Points for This Chapter

1. San Juan citizens highly value good land management and conservation and are very active around

these interests.

2. Island people show high social capital with much practice in working together and many informal

and formal means to take care of each other.

3. Island people are active land stewards.

4. People understand and accept an economy based on visitation and retirement, but they want the

level of impacts managed and they want the economy shaped to take care of cost of living squeeze

created by that economy, such as affordable housing and adequate social services.

5. BLM has been highly valued as a community partner, especially since assigning a staff person to

live in the community and provide a human face for the agency.

6. BLM is not always seen as a good partner and creates citizen issues through delays, inaction, and

shifting priorities.

7. Opportunities for Community-Based Planning Elements are two:

a. Conduct a more thorough assessment of existing organizations, their missions, and their

accomplishments, and work with residents to develop a comprehensive vision for all BLM

lands in the islands.

b. Assist citizens and BLM specialists to determine the proper course of action, and the proper

land use decisions, to address the goal of better protection, particularly on Lopez Island.

Introduction

JKA conducted 5 professional days of community fieldwork in the San Juan Islands and made the

following types of citizen contacts:

Individuals 27

People in group settings (organizational meeting, outlet stores) 7

Individuals representing agencies, organizations 19

Total contacts 53

The San Juan HRU is shown in Figure Two and is comprised of San Juan County. Local residents

described little interaction between San Juan Islanders and Canada, but a few people pointed to

some level of interaction with other islands outside the San Juan archipelago, for example, Lummi

lands and other islands that we consider part of the San Juans. Historically and currently,

indigenous people have family and social interaction across this line. However, in terms of daily and

weekly routines and other cultural descriptors outlined in Appendix B, it is appropriate to treat San

Juan County as its own Human Resource Unit.

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Figure Two

The San Juan Human Resource Unit

Community Description

San Juan County population was estimated at 15,294 in 2008, an increase of 8.6% since 2000. The

2025 projected population of San Juan County is 22,513. Of the county population, 75% live outside

its three urban village areas. The population break down by island and by community is shown

below.

San Juan Island (unincorporated): 5,214 Friday Harbor: 2,220

Orcas Island: 4,894 Eastsound: 980

Lopez Island: 2,396 Lopez Village 190

(Source: Washington State Office of Financial Management)

Orcas Island contains the Eastsound Village and the hamlets of Deer Harbor, Doe Bay, Olga, Orcas

Landing and West Sound. It is known as the mountainous island with varied terrain. It basaltic, hard

rock soils permit houses to be at the edge of cliffs, but preclude beaches. The lack of beaches often

surprises visitors, locals say. A couple residents believe the island gets the most visitors and is the

wealthiest island, but this was not confirmed. Orcas was the fruit basket for the northwest for many

decades. Orcas apples were a valued brand name in New York City in the 1920s. This robust

agriculture did not survive the Depression.

Residents described loving their island and their community, and the values of knowing neighbors,

taking care of each other, and a sense of fun living because we re all in it together. A gentleman in

his early 40s was telling JKA about earlier life on Orcas, pointing out where the pier used to be, how

ferries used to come up the Eastsound, and other details that seemed very precise. When we asked

him how long he had lived here, he told us ten years! His wife is from the islands and they decided

to move back. This kind of story illustrates how newcomers become incorporated in the social fabric

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of the community, repeating the stories as if they are their own, and becoming over time the history

of the future.

This same gentleman then went on to relate a recent house fire that displaced a family. He began to

list all the ways in which the community supported the family the grocery gave vouchers,

emergency housing was provided, and so on.

The Mayor is a Great Dane. Dogs ran for mayor as a fundraiser and the Dane won.

Despite the many positive aspects of local life, residents and officials are concerned about the cost

of living impacts affecting the middle and lower classes on the island. The sense is that the

community is not working any longer, the community is becoming more stratified and that, even

though taxes are not going up, the quality of life is going down. A storm water system was planned

in 1990s, but never implemented. The rich and retired do not use or support the schools. The

economic viability of families is declining. Housing costs are high, wages are low, and health care is a

major issue. Housing is very limited in the summe

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