Forest Service: Evolution and Reform
How Forest Service staff use discretion and agency to build collaborative governance institutions, and whether collaboration is changing the pace and scale of national forest management.
Natural resources policy, administration & governance
Chelsea S. Pennick (McIver), PhD
Research Assistant Professor & Associate Director, Policy Analysis Group
College of Natural Resources, University of Idaho
I study public lands policy, how it is put into practice, and how it affects local communities. My work explores evolution and innovation in federal and state policy, collaboration and other democratic innovations in governance, creative approaches to implementation, and the economic opportunities and fiscal burdens public lands bring to rural places and their local governments. I take my research questions from the communities, practitioners and policymakers I work with, and I share answers in forms they can put to use.
8
Journal articles
35
Reports & policy briefs
$480K
Research funding across 8 grants & contracts
2
Research awards, incl. PMRA Best Dissertation
Research areas
Projects & funding →Public lands & public finance
County payment programs (PILT, SRS), the fiscal burden of wildfire on state budgets, and what public lands mean for local government fiscal policies.
The changing governance of national forests
Documents and evaluates governance change across the West, how the "tools of government" are being used, the role of partners, and impacts for rural communities
Federal contracting & local benefit
Stewardship contracting, procurement and restoration programs (CFLRP) as levers for rural economies, including the “A to Z” model on the Colville National Forest.
Recent publications
All publications →Bureaucrats as agents of stability and change in the governance of national forests: A case study of the US Forest Service in Idaho, USA
Research Note: Understanding the short-term effect of differential park pricing policy
Characterizing the movement and utilization of federal timber at the sub-state level: Method and applications
Revisiting Sustained Yield Units
News
- 2026Awarded an NSF EPSCoR Research Fellowship (2026–2028) to build data science capacity for evidence-based policymaking for public lands counties.
- 2026New project with Wallowa Resources on capacity-building resources and tools for Shared Stewardship.
- 2026New article on bureaucrats as agents of stability and change, in Socio-Ecological Practice Research. Read
- Apr 2026The Montana Free Press cited the policy brief on sustained yield units in its coverage of Forest Service timber policy.
- Nov 2025Spoke on A to Z stewardship contracting at the Montana Forest Collaboration Network Conference. Talks
All Things Public
Shorter writing on public lands policy, legislation and implementation, from county payments to permitting reform.
Get in touch
I work with agencies, collaboratives, counties and nonprofits on applied policy research. If you have a question about public lands policy, I'd like to hear it.