NSF Award
2305683
This Regional Innovation Engines Development Award is focused on precision forestry and rangeland management. It will be a new economic driver in the Northern Rockies/Northern Plains region by applying technology, tools, and data to the emerging field of precision forestry and rangeland management. This project, led by the University of Montana, brings together researchers and partners from the Plains University Innovation Alliance, the Montana Wood Products Association, the Nature Conservancy, the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium in addition to state Climate Offices, economic and workforce offices in the Montana Governor's Office, and venture capital firms. Through this innovative partnership between public institutions, Tribal Community Universities, and private industry, the team will create a dynamic economic development ecosystem and an expert knowledge base that will address critical issues related to land management with national and global relevance. As a key aspect of the effort, the Development Award will demonstrate the application of recent and emerging technologies to manage the land to maximize the economic benefit of federal, Tribal, and private forests and rangelands while minimizing ecological impacts such as fire, drought, and flood. Technologies such as lidar, autonomous aerial systems, satellite imagery, sensor arrays, and predictive modeling can increase forest and rangeland production by improving the available data for use by land managers. This will enable more precise policy and decision-making and improve environmental risk mitigation. <br/><br/>A critical goal of the Development Award is to partner with tribal communities and Tribal Community Universities, relying upon their knowledge and expertise in Indigenous ways of knowing. The partners are committed to incorporating Western and tribal scientific traditions and methodologies into our work, shifting the research paradigm to include the land management practices of historically excluded Indigenous communities, which will bring new insight into land management practices. Working with our industrial and federal partners, researchers from public universities and TCUs will develop new technologies translated into commercial use, creating economic development and workforce opportunities needed to support this vital regional asset. Our workforce development partners will identify current and projected workforce needs in this sector and adapt, design, implement and expand new or existing pathways to training. This Development Award will enable the team to engage in a regional, collaborative planning process to prepare a future Engine to meet these goals.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
