A social assessment prepared for the Supervisors Office, Kootenai National Forest in Libby, Montana. The report was prepared as part of the process of revising the existing Forest Plan for the Kootenai National Forest. A major objective of the report is to describe public perceptions regarding forest management issues and the social, cultural, and economic factors that influence these perceptions. The study for this report used multiple data collection methods, including archival and ethnographic techniques. The report describes the socioeconomic characteristics of communities surrounding the Kootenai National Forest, past studies relevant to the assessment of current conditions, public assessments of natural resources in the region, and concerns about specific forest management issues, including ecosystems management. The report concludes that stakeholders in the region share many values about natural resources, but they also have important differences in their perceptions about the use of these resource. These shared and common values in combination with changed socioeconomic conditions from the recent past result in diverse views about forest management practices.

This report summarizes key findings from two PFRP projects that were designed to
examine change in Hawai‘i’s small-boat commercial handline fisheries. The first study
examined historical aspects of handline fishing in the islands, and diminishing
participation and production in the ika-shibi fishery, a long-standing and once-lucrative
yellowfin and bigeye tuna fishery specific to Hawai‘i Island. The second study examined
the history and contemporary status pelagic handline operations at Cross Seamount and at
private fish-aggregating devices (PFADs) around the islands. Data sources included
catch and effort data, seafood dealer data, direct observation of handline operations,
review of pertinent literature, analysis of regional employment information and other
relevant data, and numerous in-depth interviews with participants in the harvest and
distribution sectors. Research findings counter the working hypothesis of a widespread
shift from ika-shibi fishing to fishing at PFADs. Convergence between a variety of
social, demographic, and economic factors amidst a period of diminishing availability of
tuna better explains the current status of the ika-shibi fishery and ongoing challenges in
the PFAD fishery. While the availability of tuna is obviously pivotal to the status of the
fisheries in question, tuna populations are subject to a complex array of biological,
oceanographic, and human interactions. This report furthers understanding of the human
context of small-scale pelagic fisheries in the Hawaiian Islands, with implications for the
management of pelagic fisheries elsewhere in the Pacific Basin.