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Reorganization is Underway at our Station

Realignment Science Areas
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Organizing Science at the
Southern Research Station

Desired Outcomes

To guide our design and discussion of alternative organizations we started with a set of desired outcomes. Any change to a complex organization can have multiple impacts. In addition, desired outcomes are not always complementary and therefore imply tradeoffs. For example, attempts to increase research coordination may lead to better integration but may impinge on the innovation supported by more independent RWUs. As a result it is difficult to objectively “score” any alternative against another. Our approach is to provide the following set of desired outcomes as guiding principles for our design and discussion of alternatives. This set defines the criteria not only for evaluating the desirability of any new organizational model but also for guiding the decisions involved in implementing the details of a selected organizational model.

We seek an organizational model that can:

  1. Maintain and enhance the strengths of Forest Service research relative to other research institutions:
    long term, place based, and interdisciplinary studies
  2. Maintain and enhance broad networks of cooperators
  3. Communicate a coherent research mission and organization to the interested public
  4. Support a research planning process that effectively engages the interested public
  5. Enhance accountability to Congress and the public
  6. Deploy resources to address the most important questions in a timely fashion
  7. Work across disciplinary boundaries to define and address the complex questions central to sustainability
  8. Direct the maximum level of resources to research efforts
  9. Retain, draw, and develop a diverse complement of highly talented employees and cooperators
  10. Interact effectively with Washington, other Stations, and other research institutions to increase the value of research efforts
  11. Deliver timely and effective research products to the people who need them
  12. Continue the long tradition of excellent forest science at the Southern Research Station


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