Planning
A national forest land management plan, also called a forest plan, is the principal document that guides decisions made by Forest Service managers.
The plans are developed through extensive analysis using a collaborative and science-based approach and with public input. The Forest Service is required by law to manage the national forests and grasslands for the multiple use and sustained yield of products and services, including outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, wildlife and fish, and wilderness.
The Forest Service may revise forest plans to address a variety of changes on the landscape, such as:
- increasing demand for recreation opportunities and their importance in supporting local economies
- focusing fire and fuels management direction to emphasizes active vegetation management near communities
- new analyses for timber production opportunities
- conservation of wildlife and aquatic habitat
- new policy and public interest in identifying areas for recommended wilderness and wild and scenic rivers.
Learn more about these planning activities and outcomes by visiting the websites for each national forest in the Pacific Southwest Region. Find the "Planning" section under the "Topics" menu.
A Broader-Scale Monitoring Strategy is an overarching strategy to help a national forest’s plan monitoring program answer questions at a geographic scale broader than one plan area. The results of this strategy, coupled with a national forest’s plan monitoring program, meet the requirements of the 2012 Planning Rule (36 CFR 219.12).
The Pacific Southwest Region released our Broader-Scale Monitoring Strategy in June 2020. This strategy offers regular reports on social, economic, and ecological trends for land managers to use in their planning and plan monitoring.
Explore monitoring results at our Broader-Scale Monitoring Interactive Website
Or download reports of the results: 2024 Broader-Scale Monitoring Results
For more information on the Region 5 Broader-Scale Monitoring Strategy, please email Stephanie Coppeto, Regional Monitoring Planner, at stephanie.coppeto@usda.gov.
June 2024 - The Pacific Southwest Region has developed project-specific plan amendment components for projects in Sierra Nevada forests that may impact California spotted owl habitat.
The new amendment components incorporate updated scientific information based on the 2019 California Spotted Owl Conservation Strategy and the need to adapt our management approaches due to wildfire threats to spotted owl habitat. The amendment components were developed collaboratively based on forest plan content in the 2023 Sierra and Sequoia Forest Plans and input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The components were modified based on lessons learned from recent project-specific forest plan amendments, along with feedback from internal and external engagement.
The June 2024 document entitled “Project-specific Plan Amendments for California Spotted Owl Habitat” provides regional guidance created for internal agency management and is not intended to establish fixed legal direction enforceable by third parties. The plan amendment components set forth in the document are expected to be “living” components that will evolve based on feedback from forest managers and evolving scientific understandings.
Additional information is available in the project specific amendment fact sheet.
Conservation Strategy for the California Spotted Owl in the Sierra Nevada. Version 1.0, April 2019.
The Sequoia and Sierra Forests were two of eight “early adopter” forests across the country, meaning they were the first to revise their land management plans using the 2012 Planning Rule. The forests have released their final environmental impact statement, final forest plans, and signed records of decision. These are available on the Forest Plan Revision Documents page.
The Forest Service published ArcGIS Online (AGOL) interactive web maps to provide a dynamic viewing experience for geospatial information pertaining to the final revised forest plans for the Sequoia and Sierra National Forests.
Sequoia National Forest Land Management Plan 2023 Data Viewer
Sierra National Forest Land Management Plan 2023 Data Viewer
Species of Conservation Concern
As part of the forest plan revision process, we compile a list of Species of Conservation Concern (SCC) for each forest. Developing a SCC list is required by the 2012 Planning Rule and helps us determine if there is a concern about a particular species' capability to persist within the forest. If there is a concern, we design elements of the forest plan to provide the habitat conditions that will enable the species to persist on the forest.
The Northwest Forest Plan covers 24.5 million acres of federally managed lands in California, Oregon, and Washington. It was established in 1994 to address threats to threatened and endangered species while also contributing to social and economic sustainability in the region. After nearly 30 years, the Northwest Forest Plan needs to be updated to accommodate changed ecological and social conditions. Learn more and get involved.
Infographic description
- People raising hands icon:
Pre-Assessment*
Public Involvement Plan, Science Synthesis, Bio-regional Assessment - Check-box document icon:
Forest Assessment*
Define Forest roles and contributions; identify wild and scenic rivers candidates; construct wilderness inventory, determine potential species of conservation concern - Edit document & bringing skills icon:
Proposed Plan Development*
Need to Change, wild and scenic rivers analysis, wilderness inventory and evaluation, proposed species of conservation concern lists, desired conditions - Notice of Intent document icon:
Notice of Intent, Proposed Actions, Draft Forest Plan* - Draft EIS publication icon:
Develop Draft Environmental Impact Statement*
wild and scenic rivers analysis, wilderness analysis, monitoring program development, suitability of lands determination - Completed Draft EIS and Draft Forest Plan icon:
Complete Draft Environmental Impact Statement & Draft Forest Plan*
Public comment review, rewriting and analyzing EIS - Draft Final EIS and completed Forest Plan icon:
Develop Final Environmental Impact Statement & Final Forest Plan - Stop hand sign and Draft FEIS icon:
Objections Phase*
Objection/Resolution - Record of Decision document icon:
Record of Decision & Forest Plan implementation - Two-gear icon:
Forest Plan implementation and monitoring
* (Asterisk disclaimer) Indicates stages in which public input is gathered.
Infographic description
A stack of publications (lying flat on their back cover and whose spines have icons and descriptions; see below) serves as the staircase to complete a Forest Plan, while the human element holds onto handrail with text: Wilderness Inventory, Wild and Scenic Rivers Inventory, Proposed Species of Conservation Concern, Monitoring Program, Suitability of Lands*
- A pair of leaves icon: Bio-regional Assessment and Science Synthesis
- People raising hands icon: Public Involvement Plan
- Forest Service Expertise Check icon: Unique Roles and Contributions
- Check-box document icon: Forest Assessments
- Edit document icon: Need to Change
- Notice of Intent document icon: Proposed Action (Scoping)
- Draft FP & EIS publication icon: Draft Forest Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement
- Final EIS publication icon: Final Environmental Impact Statement & Draft Environmental Impact Statement
- Objections (hand stop) icon: Response to Objections
- Record of Decision publication icon: Record of Decision
- Forest Plan publication icon: Final Forest Plan
* (Asterisk disclaimer) Indicates that these documents can be developed here or at higher levels of the document pyramid.