FoxHershockMappingCommunities

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DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL COMMUNITY CAPACITY THROUGH SPATIAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: THE CASE OF TRINITY COMMUNITY GIS In 2004, many Trinity County residents have access to and use e-mail and the Internet. TC GIS has trained upwards of one hundred fifty people and about one hundred use SIT products (mainly maps) directly (75 percent), while about twenty to thirty develop GIS data layers on their own and can be considered “users” (more than one-third of responses). Hundreds of community members and regional partners are familiar with GIS and GPS. There is some awareness in the schools (K-12), but there are no formal classes locally. Shasta Community College (shared by three counties) has an SIT department, staff, and curriculum. SIT has also broadened thinking beyond individual property lines to neighborhoods, watersheds, and regions. SIT has helped many people to understand, become more sophisticated about, and participate in planning processes, especially natural resource and fire management planning on both public and private lands. Some people have the confidence to be more involved now (97 percent), 84 percent because of TC GIS. Maps have been used to familiarize and organize community members around such things as airport and highway construction; public and private timber harvesting; fire prevention and protection; pesticide spraying; and recreation opportunities. In the authors' personal experiences, people have been moved by maps to get involved through greater awareness of location or proximity of proposed projects and/or better understanding of potential impacts. Other changes due at least in part to SIT include providing products for use in instruction, education, and schools, and identifying research ideas, issues and opportunities. 3. Financial Capacity (locally accessible money and credit) Increasing community financial capacity was not a direct goal of TC GIS. However, in 1993, any SIT projects in Trinity County involved money flowing out of the community to purchase SIT products and services. In addition, the area was in dire economic straights due to drastic reductions in timber harvests on public lands. By 2004, community mapping has helped to develop funding for various projects, especially those concerning fire prevention, safety, and suppression (Everett 2004). Increased SIT capacity has brought research funding, grants, and some SIT development contracts and has facilitated funding programs and research studies. Implementing SIT has broadened local capacities to procure funding for natural resource development, restoration, and jobs. Funded projects include contracts to map and inventory areas to identify problems and opportunities; mapping projects; and projects involving the monitoring of progress, results, and changes. SIT use has also facilitated public agency resource management work, leading to increased natural resource utilization, products, and jobs. One example is the development of locally available capacity to bid for contracts to conduct the preproject analysis required of federal land managers by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for which use of SIT is a critical component. 4. Cultural Capacity influenced by SIT Cultural capacity includes myths, beliefs, and norms that organize groups. While some people have difficulty relating to the abstract symbols called “maps,” many people at least understand what maps are. In 1993, other than a few natural resources managers, the community was largely unaware of SIT. However, many people did use maps for tourism, recreation, hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping. Maps can create a “birds-eye-view” of surroundings, vividly demonstrating interconnectedness and possible land use impacts that residents had not been aware of before. With SIT, local maps began to provide information beyond topography, streams, and roads, to illustrate land-use practices and to provide current and historical photos of the landscape indicating rates of change in the past and potential future impacts. In 2004, a greater awareness of spatial relationships in the landscape has led to a more sophisticated connectedness to natural resources, with increased and more effective participation in various 79
planning processes, especially with public agencies with an eye towards sustainable development. SIT therefore influenced changes in perception and practice with regard to, for example, land use planning and practices (increased likelihood of participation); site-specific fire dangers and prevention (increased awareness and sensitivity to conditions and dangers); and recreation and tourism opportunities (greater focus on the outdoors). Research using SIT has also led to changes in approaches to non-timber forest products (NTFP) including increased interest and utilization as well as developing agency management strategies (Everett 2001; Lonner 2002; Clifford 2004). There is increased interest in watershed analysis based attempts at integrated resource management and rehabilitation that rely on SIT and that involve the community or that are contracted out to the community (USDA, Forest Service 1994a, 1998). One local Native American tribe is using TC GIS support to develop maps illustrating their historical uses of territory to obtain federal tribal status. The county is using SIT to establish an Emergency 911 system with caller ID and spatial locations and has already provided hard copy maps to benefit other operations such as volunteer fire departments, emergency search and rescue, and medical evacuation teams. There has been some resistance to mapping, common in remote areas. People with libertarian values or concerns about “government interference” are generally opposed to mapping and identifying residences and land parcels. Some people are concerned that mapping will lead to rezoning, enforcement of building codes, and increased property taxes. Others opposed are people involved in illicit activities such as drug cultivation or manufacturing; fish and wildlife poaching; and theft of resources such as timber, firewood, minerals, or water. 5. Social Capacity built through SIT Social capacity includes relationships built in the community, and the ability of its members to organize and work together to address community concerns that might range from civic engagement in general to capturing access to otherwise unavailable resources. In 1993, SIT had little impact on the community other than maps being used for recreation and for natural resource project management. By 2004, many people in the community had developed more of a sense of place. There is also an increased emphasis on understanding the concept of “place,” including such factors as proximity, connectedness, and duration, which has helped people concerned about the same issue find each other and work together. This has led to greater sophistication in public discussions and debates among communities and with public and private resource managers. For example, the Trinity County Fire-Safe Council (TCFSC) used community mapping to produce extensive collaboration between the public, fire managers, and resource managers (TCFSC 1999), which is leading in turn to better public policy (a county fire management plan) and funding for fire preparation and suppression projects (Everett 2004). Better understanding of land-use planning and its potential impacts led to extensive public involvement in a highway relocation project and a community airport expansion. Better understanding of resource problems and opportunities has led to the development of NTFP utilization and a nascent small diameter timber utilization industry, which in turn helps with fire fuel reduction. Most public and many private land or natural resource planning processes now include at a minimum SIT generated maps of proposed project areas and sometimes use SIT analyses to assess possible impacts. Locally generated SIT is being used by groups working on, for example, a public/private land exchange community forest project on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) near Weaverville (the county seat); a water quality monitoring plan, that will include identifying recently sprayed watersheds; the proposed airport and highway projects; Trinity River water allocation; public resource management and access to the resources; and recreation opportunities. The Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa 80
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MAPPINGCOMMUNITIES ETHICS, VALUES,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS vi vii viii 1 11
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ACRONYMS AMA: adaptive management a
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INTRODUCTION MAPPING POWER: IRONIC
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COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PARTICIPATORY
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APPENDIX I: FORMAL INTERVIEWS AND G
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APPENDIX II: RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND
Page 37 and 38: land-use plans in various stages of
Page 39 and 40: egan to argue that these areas were
Page 41 and 42: conflicts. The NTFP also assists vi
Page 43 and 44: illegal logging activities and to s
Page 45 and 46: property is defined according to th
Page 47 and 48: the real outside pressure has not y
Page 49 and 50: 7. How well do NTFP staff members u
Page 51 and 52: further and further away from areas
Page 53 and 54: Methods Projecting aerial photograp
Page 55 and 56: RESEARCH QUESTIONS The underlying q
Page 57 and 58: In Samout Krom Village, villagers h
Page 59 and 60: who have not attended the sketch ma
Page 61 and 62: concrete sensorial experiences much
Page 63 and 64: CONCLUSION Based on mapping researc
Page 65 and 66: BACKGROUND According to the MIGIS p
Page 67 and 68: many schools, resulting in the clos
Page 69 and 70: members, the Beima, and villagers'
Page 71 and 72: tree cutting and animal grazing in
Page 73 and 74: the bio-gas project that was implem
Page 75 and 76: During the evaluation process we al
Page 77 and 78: 1 Mr. Zhao Yaqiao, Ms. Wu Chengrui,
Page 79 and 80: Events / Dates Bio-gas systems cons
Page 81 and 82: communities to take advantage of SI
Page 83 and 84: Hayfork based NGO focused on commun
Page 85: likely to be more knowledgeable abo
Page 89 and 90: and implement projects. Some NGOs a
Page 91 and 92: CONCLUSIONS SIT training provides p
Page 93 and 94: REFERENCES California Fire Safe Cou
Page 95 and 96: map strengthened the community's cl
Page 97 and 98: 1994 and 1995 with community mapper
Page 99 and 100: to the mapping. These disagreements
Page 101 and 102: CONCLUSIONS For too long now, the D
Page 103 and 104: APPENDIX B The table below lists th
Page 105 and 106: uncritically or simply misused. As
Page 107 and 108: However, the equipment acquired for
Page 109 and 110: degrees in social sciences, agricul
Page 111 and 112: photo: Martin Hardiono photo: Marti
Page 113 and 114: REFERENCES Herlihy, P. H., and G. K
Page 115 and 116: eserve boundaries, develop a common
Page 117 and 118: NGO that focused on facilitating co
Page 119 and 120: left their organizations within a y
Page 121 and 122: eadily use the available computer a
Page 123 and 124: local capacity both in terms of ski
Page 125: Nusa Tenggara Community Development
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