The White Mountain National Forest serves many uses: it provides clean air and water; it is home to fish, wildlife, and plants; it offers opportunities for recreation and for solitude; it supplies vital timber products.

To manage such diversity, ensuring that the needs of the whole ecosystem are met, the Forest Service develops a Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest Plan). Foresters, wildlife and fish biologists, landscape architects, archaeologists and historians, botanists, soil and water scientists, hikers, rock climbers, skiers, engineers, and many others contribute to the Plan, determining what areas of the Forest are suitable for the many uses sought by the public.