Planning
The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. To fulfill our mission, agency resource specialists develop proposals that will enhance or maintain resource values on public lands, as well as generate products.
Forest planning helps us chart a long-term path for healthy, resilient landscapes—and shapes the on-the-ground projects that bring these plans to life. Whether we're restoring wildlife habitat or reducing wildfire risk through a local project, or updating a forest plan to reflect today's conditions, planning and using the National Environmental Policy Act as our framework, is how we make thoughtful, informed decisions for the future of our national forests.
Forest Planning and Assessments
Each national forest and grassland are governed by a management plan in accordance with the National Forest Management Act of 1976. These plans set management, protection and use goals and guidelines. The Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest Plan) guides all natural resource management activities and establishes management guidance for each national forest in the Southern Region. Broad scale and landscape scale assessments are conducted for the purposes of examining ecosystem conditions and evaluating ecosystem needs to support forest planning and on the ground management.
During the forest plan revision process, the Forest Service is directed to identify “species of conservation concern.” This is a type of special designation given to organisms for which there is substantial concern about their capability to persist over the long-term in a national forest.
The Regional Forester identifies SCC for forest plans developed under the 2012 planning rule. To be identified as a SCC, the species must be native and known to occur in the national forest, cannot already be a federally endangered, threatened, or candidate species, and must have sufficient scientific information available about it to conclude that there is a substantial concern for its capability to persist in the national forest over the long term. If there is insufficient scientific information available to conclude that, or if the species is secure in the national forest, then that species will not be identified as a potential species of conservation concern.
Click on the following link to see the Southern Region's List of Species of Conservation Concern.
Environmental Analysis & Management Decisions
All forest plans and projects affecting the environment are the subject of both public and agency analysis. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 governs how we administer that process. The Planning Unit in the Regional Office oversees that process. You can find lists of proposed projects for any national forest by visiting their internet web site and finding their Schedule of Proposed Actions (SOPA) or through the national index of SOPAs.
Monitoring
A Broad-scale Monitoring Strategy is an overarching strategy to help national forests plan monitoring programs and answer questions at a geographic scale broader than one plan area. Together, the results of this Forest Service strategy, coupled with a national forest’s plan monitoring program, meet the requirements of the 2012 Planning Rule (36 CFR 219.12).
Legal and Regulatory Requirements
The planning unit oversees Region 8 compliance with:
- National Forest Management Act (NFMA) and NFMA implementation regulations (36 CFR 219)
- National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the NEPA implementation regulations (Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Regulations)
- Forest Service Appeal Regulations