2019 Forest Plan

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2019 Plan Banner

El Yunque National Forest Land Management Plan (2019)

The El Yunque National Forest Revised Land and Resources Management plan (referred to as the revised forest plan) is now in effect after being approved in May 2019. The revised plan will provide strategic direction to guide management of forest resources and be a framework for decision making for forest specific projects and activities using the 2012 forest planning rule for the National Forest system. 

This section provides more information on these documents and the planning process.

Final Forest Plan and FEIS Documents

All documents are in PDF format. The size of the documents can be very large and may take some time to download. 

Collaboration, Communication and Conversations

This page provides information on the collaboration and public involvement efforts that have occurred throughout the Plan Revision process began in 2012.

Collaboration and public involvement are key to revising the Forest Plan and are being used throughout the revision process to help ensure that the Plan meets the needs of the wide variety of stakeholders who enjoy the El Yunque National Forest.

Timeline/Schedule

The El Yunque National Forest began revising its Forest Plan in 2012 using a collaborative approach and the use of the best available science under the new planning guidelines.  The plan updates the 1997 Forest Land and Management Plan for El Yunque.

The following table outlines the planning phases, process and activities and provides links to key documents or information for each phase of the planning process and provides links to key documents or information for each phase of the planning process.

Process/Product

Activity

Proposed Date

Assessment
  • Evaluate existing and relevant data and information
  • Assess sustainability of social, economic and ecological resources within the plan area and a broader landscape
  • Begin collaboration and communication processes

January 2014

Proposed Action
  • Utilizes information gathered from the assessment, review of key findings and identifies proposed actions to be used to develop the Forest Plan

September 2014

Notice of Intent
  • Notification to Revise the land management Plan in Federal Register with a 45 scoping period for public comment on the Proposed Action

September 2014

Need for Change
  • Highlights those areas of the 1997 Plan to be updated in the revised Plan

September 2014

Draft Plan
 
  • Address potential desired conditions, management objectives, and other plan components based on identified need for change
  • Develop alternatives for issues with differing options

 September 2016

Draft EIS
 
  • Develop a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that analyzes the effects upon the environment of each of the Plan alternatives

September 2016

Public comment on Draft Plan and EIS
  • Obtain public feedback on proposed plan and draft EIS during a 90 day public comment period
  • Comments are used to prepare a final EIS

September 2016 - December  2016

Objection Process
  • Prior to approving the preferred alternative, the public may raise issues related to the Plan revision and suggest ways to improve the plan decision as per 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 219.53(a)

August 2018

Final Decision
  • Made by El Yunque National Forest Supervisor

May 2019

Implementation and Monitoring
  • Forest Service implements the Plan and begins on-going monitoring

June 2019

Biennial Monitoring Evaluation Report for El Yunque National Forest 2020 - 2022

Each national forest has a land management plan (forest plan) that seeks to balance recreation, water, wilderness, wildlife habitat, and other uses. The plan describes a set of desired conditions – a science-based vision for what forest conditions should be once the goals of the plan are met. The forest plan also includes a monitoring program, organized around a set of monitoring questions and indicators that are designed to track progress toward achieving the desired conditions in the plan. Therefore, robust, transparent, and meaningful monitoring of forest plan implementation can provide information on whether we are meeting our management objectives or not.

Monitoring of certain resources is required by law, regulation, or directive (there are nine required monitoring topics), although other monitoring occurs depending on specific needs of the national forest. El Yunque National Forest, for example, has twenty monitoring topics. Every 2 years, each forest compiles and evaluates the monitoring results and drafts a report like this one. Decision makers, such as forest supervisors, use these biennial monitoring evaluation reports (BMERs) to update their knowledge and assess progress toward the desired conditions in the forest plan. The public use these BMERs to understand what’s happening on the land that they depend upon and enjoy.

If the report reveals that we are not quite meeting the mark, then there’s a need to change management in some way; this is adaptive management. Monitoring also helps us be accountable and transparent to interested and affected parties and the general public.

BMERs, like this one, are critical to adaptive management because they tell us and the public whether the land management plan is working. We don’t make any decisions in BMERs; instead, we simply document and share monitoring results.