Costello

While Jeff Costello might be better known to county residents as the director of the Wallowa Festival of the Arts, what puts food on the table is his position as a forest collaborative facilitator at Wallowa Resources.

The Joseph resident worksfor both the Wallowa-Whitman and Umatilla national forests.

The collaboratives are a collection of stakeholders –– individuals or groups that have a vested interest in the federal forests.

“This should be all of us,” Costello said. “We should all be collaborative members when it comes to creating proposals and setting some direction to how these large forest restoration projects should be implemented and how we want these lands taken care of.”

Costello said that the spirit of the collaborative is to pull people with divergent interests in the forests closer together.

Costello noted that the word facilitate is derived from the Latin verb, facilis, which means “easy.”

“My job is to facilitate, to make that project a little smoother for people,” he said. “At the end of the day, they’re the ones who put in all the work, and they’re the ones putting the investment into it, and I’m just helping that along.”

Costello said he has his own vested interests but leaves them at the door. Collaborative members agree to the operating principles and code of conduct and are the ones who get to vote on forest stewardship.

Costello said the collaborative groups are composed of people with broad and varied backgrounds and experiences, which can include various industries and sectors of the communities that make up the area.

“They all have one thing in common: They all want what is best for the land and for the generations to come,” he said.

Another goal of the collaborative is to keep matters out of the courts.

“If we can limit the litigation, we’re saving a lot of money and time and increasing the space and the scale and maybe fast-tracking some of these projects that need to take place,” Costello said. “Even with the collaborative it can be a long and arduous process, but they’re committed to it because they know this is a better alternative.”

Costello has a background in experiential education and organizational development plus environmental science with a biology focus. Where he says he brings the most to the table is his work with both corporate, nonprofit and academic groups in northern California in team and leadership development.

“I’m trying to utilize and tap into it as much as I can. It can still prove to be a challenge, though,” he said with a laugh.

While differences exist between the two forest collaboratives he shepherds, there is also commonality. Several stakeholders serve on both groups.

Costello said that keeping that in mind, both forests offer different challenges as the geography, forest types and climate vary.

“They’re looking at things from a very unique perspective,” he said. “There’s no cookie-cutter or broad approach to any one of the issues or problems they may have to face. One of the things we do is try to learn from each other –– if there’s lessons to be transferred from one forest to the other, because it’s a more efficient use of time, energy and resources.

“A lot of these people are giving of their own time to volunteer because they think it’s an important enough of a process to do that. If we can find efficient ways to leverage experiences and share information and best practices and learn from other forests, we are open to doing that. The cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work.”

Costello is nearly a year into the position. He works closely with Wallowa Resources director Nils Christoffersen and members of each collaborative.

“As I try to help them with their process, they’re helping me learn, so I can catch up with the bus,” he said.

Currently, Costello is working on three projects each with the two collaboratives with several of the projects having moved to the implementation stage. He said that the total acres in prospective treatment between the two forests amounts to several hundred thousand acres. Not all the land within the projects gets treated, but the total is the sum of the study areas to determine what will receive treatment.

The 36,000-acre Sheep Creek Project on the Wallowa-Whitman forest offers opportunities to interact with private landowners, something Costello relishes.

“There are private lands, about 6,000 acres, that interface with the public lands. As good neighbors, how can we approach this project in a way that positively impacts the private owners adjacent to us? Also, what they might be able to implement that would benefit the forest service land on the other side of the border, so to speak,” he said.

The mission statements of both collaboratives talk about the importance of ecological, social and economic resiliency for the forests.

“Resiliency is an interesting word of debate,” he said. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s controversial, but it has different definitions for different people. However, both collaboratives feel it’s important to keep those three legs of the stool, ecological, social and economic, intact. You can’t neglect one.”

Costello is well aware of the importance of his position.

“I feel like I’m a sponge and just learning as much as I can,” he said. “I know I’m a facilitator, not an active member of the collaborative. I can’t insert my own opinions, but I can help move the process along, which has its challenges, but I love it.”

Costello also said he appreciated all the collaborative members and efforts to find consensus.

“It does give me hope in the process. They’re all solid organizations and good people who are committed to what they’re doing.”

The most interesting part of the job for Costello is being out in the field, noting that many of the concepts discussed and seen on paper become much clearer on site visits.

“Being out in the forest and seeing everything in its natural setting and seeing it unfold in reality is an amazing process — I love being a part of that” he said.

The job does come with its own set of difficulties, according to Costello. He said that not having quick solutions of his own to help solve problems between collaborative groups or members can be frustrating.

“What I see are people wrestling with truly difficult issues,” he said. “It would be so easy for them to say, ‘I’m not going to deal with this; I’m going to walk away.’ But they’re committed to the process. They struggle, and I wish I could come in and say, ‘I have the silver bullet; I have the answer.’ But I don’t have the answers. That’s the difficult part.”

The most rewarding aspect of Costello’s job is seeing projects going into the implementation stage and knowing that the collaboratives played a huge part.

“Regardless of where we’re coming from, I see a positive impact whether its removing excess ground fuels or closing a road. It makes me feel like I’m part of a process that I can be proud of. This is my home, and I want to see it cared for. ”