Agency releases directives for nationwide planning rule
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
E&E PM: Friday, February 15, 2013
The Forest Service today released draft directives to guide implementation of its 2012 planning rule, which governs the management of 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands.
The directives offer detailed guidelines for how the agency develops, revises and amends land management plans, which dictate where and how activities including recreation, energy development, logging and grazing may take place.
Finalized nearly a year ago, the agency's new planning rule pledged to restore national forests by emphasizing resilient ecosystems, clean drinking water, multiple use and enhanced recreation opportunities (E&ENews PM, March 23, 2012).
The rule followed more than two and a half years of public meetings; consultation with federal, state and tribal officials; and more than 300,000 public comments.
Today's draft directives [
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/planningrule/home/?cid=stelprdb5403924] address resource assessment, management plans and monitoring; forest vegetation resource planning; wilderness and wild and scenic river assessments; and methods of public objections to pending decisions, among other topics.
"The agency's intent is to ensure an adaptive land management planning process that is inclusive, efficient, collaborative and science-based to promote healthy, resilient, diverse and productive national forests and grasslands," the agency said in a statement today.
The proposed directives will be subject to a 60-day comment period.
Peter Nelson, a senior policy adviser for Defenders of Wildlife who serves on a 21-member advisory committee on the planning rule, said the directives offer critical guidance on how the rule is administered.
"The regulations do a good job of presenting a framework for managing the national forests to sustain habitat for at-risk wildlife species, yet leave much open to interpretation for how to do that," he said. "The directive is a how-to. It presents the road map for interpretation."
Many environmental groups last year hailed the rule's commitment to science, wildlife and public collaboration, though some complained that it gives line officers too much discretion to decide which plants and animals are "species of conservation concern."
But Republicans, ranchers, loggers and motorized recreation groups argued that the rule is too process-intensive, increases the risk of lawsuits and could restrict multiple use. More than a dozen logging, ranching and off-highway vehicle groups last August challenged the rule in federal court, claiming the Forest Service overstepped its authority by requiring that new forest plans provide "ecological sustainability" and "ecosystem services" and use best available science in decisionmaking, among other charges (Greenwire, Aug. 14, 2012).
That lawsuit is still pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Bill Imbergamo, executive director of the Federal Forest Resource Coalition, one of the 13 plaintiffs in the case, said today that he will be reviewing the new directives carefully. They could add flexibility to the rule but could also make the process more rigid, he said.
"It definitely can have an impact," he said.
