UTAH – The Ashley National Forest has implemented and refined novel approaches to evaluate ecosystem services in a pilot project with Forest Service Research and Development, the Washington Office, Duke University and Environmental Management and Planning Solutions, Inc. as part of the forest plan revision process.

The project team was led by Ashley National Forest plan revision team leader Cathleen Neelan, Rocky Mountain Research Station research economist Travis Warziniack, Zoe Ghali with EMPSi, Lydia Olander and Katie Warnell with Duke University, and National Forest System-WO economist Chris Miller. The team collaborated using workshops and ecosystem service conceptual models to identify and link social and economic outcomes to land management decisions, such as those tied to recreation and traditional cultural practices. Their efforts resulted in a graphic model that displays these connections.

The toolkit developed for the Ashley National Forest provides a useful model for discussion of ecosystem services. Templates can be used by other forest plan revision teams to identify key ecosystem services, and jump-start related discussions. This provides a method to facilitate discussion of ecosystem services provided by National Forest lands with collaborators, including cooperating agencies and the public.

As an example of the toolkit’s versatility, the Duke University, Forest Service and EMPSi team recently led the Bridger-Teton National Forest, currently in the pre-planning phase, through two workshops related to ecosystem services. The workshops guided the planning team through preliminary identification of key services and introduced tools in the ecosystem services toolkit for consideration as they begin plan-revision.

Details of this pilot project have been published in a recent edition of the journal Forests: Exploring the Use of Ecosystem Services Conceptual Models to Account for the Benefits of Public Lands: An Example from National Forest Planning in the United States. An overview of the Ecosystem Services Conceptual Model and applications for the U.S. Forest Service is available at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute website, Ecosystem Services Toolkit, as an evolving resource portal. These resources are specifically tailored for forest systems.

This project was funded in part by a grant from the USDA Forest Service, National Center for Natural Resource Economics.