The United States Forest Service promulgated new planning regulations under the National Forest Management Act in 2012 (i.e., the Planning Rule). These new regulations include the first requirements in U.S. public land management history for National Forests to evaluate, protect, and/or restore ecological connectivity as they revise their land management plans. Data and resource limitations make single‐species, functional connectivity analyses for the myriad species that occur within the 78 million ha the Forest Service manages implausible. We describe an approach that relies on freely available data and generic species, virtual species whose profile consists of ecological requirements designed to reflect the needs of a group of real species, to address the new Planning Rule requirements. We present high‐resolution connectivity estimates for 10 different generic species across a 379,000 ha study area centered on the Custer Gallatin National Forest (CGNF) in Montana and South Dakota under two different movement models. We identify locations important for connectivity for multiple species and characterize the role of the CGNF for regional connectivity. Our results informed the Plan Revision process on the CGNF and could be readily exported to other National Forests currently or planning to revise their land management plans under the new Planning Rule.
In this article, we respond to a critique of our earlier work examining the USDA Forest Service’s (USFS’s) planning processes. We appreciate that our critics introduce new data to the discussion of USFS planning. Further data integration is a promising path to developing a deeper understanding of agency activities. Our critics’ analysis largely supports our original claims. Our most important difference is in our conceptualization of the planning process’s relationship to agency goals. Although our critics conceive of the USFS’s legally prescribed planning processes as a barrier to land management activities, we believe that public comment periods, scientific analysis, and land management activities are tools the agency uses to achieve its goals of managing land in the public interest.
Study Implications: The USDA Forest Service’s current planning process has been critiqued as a barrier to accomplishing land management activities, but it is also an important tool for insuring science-based management and understanding public values and interests that the agency is legally bound to uphold.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 1829255
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10368194
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Forestry
- Volume:
- 120
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0022-1201
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 392-394
- Size(s):
- ["p. 392-394"]
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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