PhD in Forestry (Forest Policy) from Oregon State University, 2000
MS in Forestry (Forest Policy) from University of Minnesota, 1993
BA in Political Science from Whitman College, 1990

My interests are in forest policy and planning, specifically participatory strategies that attempt to sustain both resilient forest ecosystems and the well-being of forest-reliant communities. As director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, I oversee programs and projects that synthesize and apply current scientific research and field-based evidence to assist land managers, communities, and policy-makers achieve forest health and resilience goals.  For more information, go to http://cfri.colostate.edu.

Recent submissions and publications:

Cheng, A.S., C. Danks, and S. Allred.  In review.  The role of learning in changing forest governance: an examination of community-based forestry initiatives in the US. Submitted to Forest Policy and Economics 

Danks, C., A.S. Cheng, and S. Allred.  In review.  Social entrepreneurs in the woods: creating social and environmental value through community-based forestry enterprises.  Submitted to Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice  

Cheng, A.S. and V. Sturtevant.  In review.  Expanding the scope of public lands collaboration: lessons learned about collaborative capacities from the field.  Submitted to Environmental Management 

Dale, L., A.K. Gerlack, and A.S. Cheng.  In review.  Institutions and barriers to effective collaborative governance.  Submitted to Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 

Seidl, A. E. Myrick, and A.S. Cheng.  In review.  Toward an economic understanding of community forestry.  Submitted to Forest Policy and Economics 

Cheng, A.S. and K.M. Mattor. Place-based planning as a platform for social learning: insights from a national forest landscape assessment process in Western Colorado. Society & Natural Resources.  Accepted, inpress 

Cheng, A.S., K. Bond, C. Lockwood, and S. Hansen.  2008.  Calibrating collaboration: monitoring and adaptive management of the Landscape Working Group process on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests in Western Colorado.  In Partnerships for empowerment: participatory research for community-based natural resource management, C. Wilmsen, W. Elmendorf, L. Fisher, J. Ross, B. Sarathy, and G. Wells, eds.  London: EarthScan. 

Cheng, A.S.  2008.  Natural resource agencies: the necessity for change.  In Conservation for a new generation: redefining natural resources management, R.L. Knight and C. White, eds.  pp. 33-60.  Covelo, CA and Washington, DC: Island Press.

Cheng, A.S.  2007.  Build it and they will come? Mandating collaboration in public lands policy and management.  Natural Resources Journal 46:841-858 

Burns, M. and A.S. Cheng.  2007. Framing the need for active wildfire mitigation and forest restoration.  Society & Natural Resources 20(3):245-259 

Cheng, A.S. and K.M. Mattor.  2006.  Why won’t they come? Stakeholder perspectives on collaborative national forest planning by participation level. Environmental Management 38:545-561 

Lord, J.K. and A.S. Cheng. 2006. Public involvement in state fish and wildlife agencies in the U.S.: a thumbnail sketch of techniques and barriers. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 11:55-69 

Walker, G.B., S.E. Daniels, and A.S. Cheng.  2006.  Facilitating dialogue and deliberation in environmental conflict: the use of groups in collaborative learning.  In L.R. Frey (ed.),  Facilitating group communication in context: Innovations and applications with natural groups, pp. 205-238.  Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Cheng, A.S. and S.E. Daniels. 2005. Getting to ‘We’: examining the relationship between geographic scale and ingroup emergence in collaborative watershed planning.  Human Ecology Review 12(1):28-41.

Cheng, A.S. and J.D. Fiero. 2005. Collaborative learning and the public’s stewardship of its forests.  In: J. Gastil and P. Levine (eds.), The deliberative democracy handbook: strategies for effective civic engagement in the twenty-first century, pp. 164-173.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.