Blue Mountains Plan Revision

This page is for archive purposes only. To get the most up-to-date documents and information about the Blue Mountains planning process please click on our Final Blue Mountains Planning page. 

 

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Current Steps Toward Future Forest Plans

The Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests (the Blue Mountains National Forests) have combined efforts to revise their land and resource management plans (Forest Plans). Forest Plans describe the social, economic, and ecological goals of National Forests and provide frameworks for future management decisions. The National Forest Management Act of 1976 requires each National Forest to prepare a Plan and revise it every 15 years to address new economic and social conditions, new resource conditions, and new scientific information. The current Forest Plans for each of the Blue Mountains National Forests are from 1990, and significant changes have occurred since that time. 

In 2014, the Forest Service released a draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and Proposed Revised Land Management Plan. The final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is expected in 2018. 

What's New?

Public Engagement

Following the release of the 2014 draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and Proposed Revised Land Management Plan there was a public comment period. Community members and other stakeholders responded with over a thousand comment letters. Based in part on that feedback, the three Blue Mountains National Forests worked with communities and stakeholders to identify these topics for further discussion: Pace and Scale of Restoration (including these Timber Topics), Livestock Grazing, and Access and Wilderness. In 2015 and early 2016, the Forest Service scheduled a series of public workshops, which were facilitated to ensure that every participant had time to speak, listen to others, and propose solutions. You can find the notes from those meetings here.

This photograph shows members of the public sitting in a circle at a Forest Plan Public Meeting

Working Together in the Blue Mountains

A group stands in a circle under pine trees discussing the management of the Blue Mountains Forests