The Power and Potential of Collaboration for Real-World Results

“I’ve always been interested in forest management—how can we use science to understand what’s going on physiologically with trees and help them do better when the climate is wreaking havoc on them?”

In the summer of 2021, Indra Boving found herself deep in the dense forest carefully taking a core sample from a western hemlock tree in the hope of learning more about its growth response. As a field crew leader, she was surrounded by old-growth Sitka spruce and western red cedar for weeks at a time, helping onboard students and volunteers to fieldwork in Ellsworth Creek Preserve in southwestern Washington.

Out in the field, Boving led a team with students, scientists, and community members from Reed College, University of Washington and Washington State University—all offering different expertise levels, ages, and skill sets—in pursuit of collecting measurements like tree size data and core samples. Boving remarked, “Fieldwork is the glue that keeps me in this kind of science; it feels meaningful and intellectually exciting.”

Considered a living laboratory for science and forest management, Ellsworth Creek Preserve is a hub where research institutions and people can come together to understand the effects of forest management as well as foster learning between students and researchers. Boving recalls people getting comfortable, collaborating, and learning from each other in a different way out in the field. “It’s a more expansive experience when there’s an open environment where any question is a good question and we build on each other’s knowledge. Because we’re all here to make the project happen, but we also want to understand why.”

360 Video [Click and drag to move around]: Walk into the forest at Ellsworth Creek Preserve while researchers install wildlife cameras. Credit: Erica Sloniker/TNC

Restoring the watershed at Ellsworth Creek Preserve has been a decades-long project. Over time, restoration efforts have started to deliver on our long-term goals, including understanding the effects of drought stress and how different types of forest-thinning practices could help make trees more resilient to future climate change.

“Climate change poses massive impacts to nature and people and it is touching down at Ellsworth,” says Michael Case, Forest Ecologist at The Nature Conservancy and a leader in coordinating the ongoing collaborations at the preserve. “There is an urgency to build climate change resilience and our work would not be possible without collaborations and partners.”

Driven by the passion of scientists and researchers like Boving and Case, the research continues to evolve and inform forest management decisions today with additional partners like Portland State University, Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, Washington DNR, Oregon State University, Seattle Audubon, The Evergreen State College, UW Arboretum, and the Burke Museum. For Phil Levin, Lead Scientist at The Nature Conservancy and Professor of Practice at the University of Washington, this collaborative approach is the foundation of how long-term, actionable knowledge is gained. Levin’s dual roles are part of a scientific partnership between The Nature Conservancy and the University of Washington that infuses the former’s scientific capacity with flexibility and vigor by University of Washington students and researchers.

“Conservation science is, and must be, interconnected and intertwined with stakeholders, students, partners, community members, and entities that all work together in real-world settings to achieve lasting, on-the-ground results,” says Levin.

The power of this approach is clear when looking at the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, which links with Ellsworth Creek Reserve along more than five miles of Willapa Bay shoreline. The physical connection naturally led to a long-term partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy as they’ve shared resources and strategies over the past 20 years.

Willapa National Wildlife Refuge Manager Jackie Ferrier describes the relationship as driven by a shared purpose. “We work together on a landscape scale—it’s less about whose boundaries are where, and more about forest management goals and how we can make decisions together for the benefits of the ecosystems as a whole.”

Sharing resources and expertise is a way to bring in interdisciplinary skill sets and achieve tangible results. For instance, Willapa National Wildlife Refuge doesn’t have a forester on staff, but can go to Kyle Smith, Forest Manager at The Nature Conservancy, for assistance. “Being able to call on someone with forestry expertise provides incredibly valuable information to inform our management, whether it’s commercial thinning or working on roads and culverts,” says Ferrier. “We’ve also been able to offer expertise in return, like technical assistance decommissioning roads with the skilled equipment operators and necessary heavy equipment.”

Being able to rely on each other’s strengths, skills, and resources over the past decades has been a key to ongoing restoration. This partnership is one of many ways the teamwork at Ellsworth Creek Preserve continues to advance research and create real-world outcomes—restoring thousands of acres of forest and miles of vital streams.

Collaboration in Action

The connection between research and real-world outcomes is only as strong as the connection of the partners involved. Nives Dolšak, director of the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington, collaborates closely with Levin and sees firsthand the interdisciplinary nature of turning knowledge into action every day.

“Successful environmental leadership, which ensures sustainable and equitable use of natural resources and protects our communities from pollution, is built on three pillars: an in-depth, disciplinary knowledge of physical, biological, and social systems; an understanding of multidisciplinary frameworks that allow us to examine how these systems interact; and an ability to work collaboratively to understand the problems, identify solutions, and implement them here. Dolšak says. “These projects provide our students with opportunities to develop these skills while providing our communities with actionable knowledge.”

Blending academics and scientific theory with collaboration and action helps showcase what conservation science looks like in practice on the ground.

“At Ellsworth it has been a really rewarding space to see collaborations and projects happen, especially seeing opportunities and science coming out of there that wouldn’t be possible without partnerships,” adds Levin.

This model of science collaboration isn’t limited to Ellsworth Creek Preserve. Other projects, such as the Floodplains by Design Program and Stormwater Heatmap, are also bringing this approach to life.

Interested in learning more? See how The Nature Conservancy and many of its partners are leveraging cutting-edge natural and cutting-edge science to tackle conservation issues here.