SEVENTH AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS

Many Voices - A Common Vision

Local Roundtables, Collaborative Meetings, and Individual Input

Fifty-one local roundtables and forty-three collaborative meetings were held between June 1995 and January 1996 as a means of gathering input to the Seventh American Forest Congress. In addition, over 500 individuals contributed their visions for America's forests. The synthesized results of these pre-Forest Congress meetings and individual responses formed the starting point for the discussions held at the Seventh American Forest Congress in February 1996.

One or more local roundtables were conducted in each of the following states. The vision statements developed at these roundtables can be accessed by clicking here.

Please contact the Forest Congress Information Center at 205 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, phone 203-432-5117, fax 203-432-3809, e-mail New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

WHAT WERE THE ROUNDTABLES?

The roundtables that preceeded the Seventh American Forest Congress typically were organized when a local individual or organization took the lead and formed a steering committee. Most steering committees were composed of 9 to 15 members from across the range of industrial, environmental, tourism, community development, and public agency interests common to forested areas. The committees then invited the participants from the same breadth of interests from across the local area.

In some cases, the participants wrote a vision statement before the roundtable which they shared early in the day-long process. The question was, What is your vision of Americas forests a generation hence?

Much of each roundtable consisted of small groups of 8-10 people discussing the second question What principles should guide us toward our vision of Americas forests. A touching base session or two during the day allowed the groups to share their progress and ideas. Toward the end of the day, the roundtable as a whole combined the principles from each small group. Those upon which there was general agreement were the principles submitted by the local roundtables. The roundtable common vision was written as well.

The results of all of the local roundtables were synthesized and presented as the starting point of deliberations at the Seventh American Forest Congress in February 1996.

Last updated on 11/22/96

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