{: adopting, and revising land and reMA source management plans for the Na923: tional Forest System as required by E the Forest and Rangeland Renewable

NING

(b) Plans guide all natural resource management activities and establish management standards and guidelines for the National Forest System. They determine resource management practices, levels of resource production and management, and the availability and suitability of lands for resource management. Regional and forest planning will be based on the following principles:

(1) Establishment of goals and objectives for multiple-use and sustainedyield management of renewable resources without impairment of the productivity of the land;

(2) Consideration of the relative values of all renewable resources, including the relationship of nonrenewable resources, such as minerals, to renewable resources;

(3) Recognition that the National Forests are ecosystems and their management for goods and services requires an awareness and consideration of the interrelationships among plants, animals, soil, water, air, and other environmental factors within such ecosystems;

(4) Protection and, where appropriate, improvement of the quality of renewable resources;

(5) Preservation of important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national heritage;

(6) Protection and preservation of the inherent right of freedom of American Indians to believe, express, and exercise their traditional religions;

(7) Provision for the safe use and enjoyment of the forest resources by the public;

(8) Protection, through ecologically compatible means, of all forest and rangeland resources from depredations by forest and rangeland pests;

(9) Coordination with the land and resource planning efforts of other Federal agencies, State and local governments, and Indian tribes;

(10) Use of a systematic, interdisciplinary approach to ensure coordination and integration of planning activities for multiple-use management;

(11) Early and frequent public participation;

(12) Establishment of quantitative and qualitative standards and guidelines for land and resource planning and management;

(13) Management of National Forest System lands in a manner that is sensitive to economic efficiency; and

(14) Responsiveness to changing conditions of land and other resources and to changing social and economic demands of the American people.

§ 219.2 Scope and applicability.

The regulations in this subpart apply to the National Forest System, which includes special areas, such as wilderness, wild and scenic rivers, national recreation areas, and national trails. Whenever the special area authorities require additional planning, the planning process under this subpart shall be subject to those authorities.

(a) Unless inconsistent with special area authorities, requirements for additional planning for special areas shall be met through plans required under this subpart.

(b) If, in a particular case, special area authorities require the preparation of a separate special area plan, the direction in any such plan may be incorporated without modification in plans prepared under this subpart.

§ 219.3 Definitions and terminology.

For purposes of this subpart the following terms, respectively, shall mean:

Allowable sale quantity: The quantity of timber that may be sold from the area of suitable land covered by the forest plan for a time period specified by the plan. This quantity is usually expressed on an annual basis as the

"average annual allowable sale quantity."

Base sale schedule: A timber sale schedule formulated on the basis that the quantity of timber planned for sale and harvest for any future decade is equal to or greater than the planned sale and harvest for the preceding decade, and this planned sale and harvest for any decade is not greater than the long-term sustained yield capacity.

Biological growth potential: The average net growth attainable in a fully stocked natural forest stand.

Capability: The potential of an area of land to produce resources, supply goods and services, and allow resource uses under an assumed set of management practices and at a given level of management intensity. Capability depends upon current conditions and site conditions such as climate, slope, landform, soils, and geology, as well as the application of management practices, such as silviculture or protection from fire, insects, and disease.

Corridor: A linear strip of land identified for the present or future location of transportation or utility rightsof-way within its boundaries.

Cost efficiency: The usefulness of specified inputs (costs) to produce specified outputs (benefits). In measuring cost efficiency, some outputs, including environmental, economic, or social impacts, are not assigned monetary values but are achieved at specified levels in the least cost manner. Cost efficiency is usually measured using present net value, although use of benefit-cost ratios and rates-ofreturn may be appropriate.

and

Diversity: The distribution abundance of different plant and animal communities and species within the area covered by a land and resource management plan.

Even-aged management: The application of a combination of actions that results in the creation of stands in which trees of essentially the same age grow together. Managed even-aged forests are characterized by a distribution of stands of varying ages (and, therefore, tree sizes) throughout the forest area. The difference in age between trees forming the main canopy level of a stand usually does not exceed 20 percent of the age of the

stand at harvest rotation age. Regeneration in a particular stand is obtained during a short period at or near the time that a stand has reached the desired age or size for regeneration and is harvested. Clearcut, shelterwood, or seed tree cutting methods produce even-aged stands.

Forest land: Land at least 10 percent occupied by forest trees of any size or formerly having had such tree cover and not currently developed for nonforest use. Lands developed for nonforest use include areas for crops, improved pasture, residential, or administrative areas, improved roads of any width, and adjoining road clearing and powerline clearing of any width.

Goal: A concise statement that describes a desired condition to be achieved sometime in the future. It is normally expressed in broad, general terms and is timeless in that it has no specific date by which it is to be completed. Goal statements form the principal basis from which objectives are developed.

Goods and services: The various outputs, including on-site uses, produced from forest and rangeland resources.

Integrated pest management: A process for selecting strategies to regulate forest pests in which all aspects of a pest-host system are studied and weighed. The information considered in selecting appropriate strategies includes the impact of the unregulated pest population on various resources values, alternative regulatory tactics and strategies, and benefit/cost estimates for these alternative strategies. Regulatory strategies are based on sound silvicultural practices and ecology of the pest-host system and consist of a combination of tactics such as timber stand improvement plus selective use of pesticides. A basic principle in the choice of strategy is that it be ecologically compatible or acceptable.

Long-term sustained-yield timber capacity: The highest uniform wood yield from lands being managed for timber production that may be sustained under a specified management intensity consistent with multiple-use objectives.

tices identified by the Forest Service Sin the planning process.

Management direction: A statement 6 of multiple-use and other goals and objectives, the associated management prescriptions, and standards and guidelines for attaining them.

Management intensity: A management practice or combination of management practices and associated costs designed to obtain different levels of goods and services.

Management practice: A specific activity, measure, course of action, or treatment.

Management prescription: Management practices and intensity selected and scheduled for application on a specific area to attain multiple-use and other goals and objectives.

Multiple use: The management of all the various renewable surface resources of the National Forest System so that they are utilized in the combination that will best meet the needs of the American people; making the most judicious use of the land for some or all of these resources or related services over areas large enough to provide sufficient latitude for periodic adjustments in use to conform to changing needs and conditions; that some lands will be used for less than all of the resources; and harmonious and coordinated management of the various resources, each with the other, without impairment of the productivity of the land, with consideration being given to the relative values of the various resources, and not necessarily the combination of uses that will give the greatest dollar return or the greatest unit output.

Net public benefits: An expression used to signify the overall long-term value to the nation of all outputs and positive effects (benefits) less all associated inputs and negative effects (costs) whether they can be quantitatively valued or not. Net public benefits are measured by both quantitative and qualitative criteria rather than a single measure or index. The maximization of net public benefits to be derived from management of units of the National Forest System is consistent with the principles of multiple use and sustained yield.

Objective: A concise, time-specific statement of measurable planned results that respond to pre-established goals. An objective forms the basis for further planning to define the precise steps to be taken and the resources to be used in achieving identified goals.

Planning area: The area of the National Forest System covered by a regional guide or forest plan.

Planning period: One decade. The time interval within the planning horizon that is used to show incremental changes in yields, costs, effects, and benefits.

Planning horizon: The overall time period considered in the planning process that spans all activities covered in the analysis or plan and all future conditions and effects of proposed actions which would influence the planning decisions.

Present net value: The difference between the discounted value (benefits) of all outputs to which monetary values or established market prices are assigned and the total discounted costs of managing the planning area.

Public issue: A subject or question of widespread public interest relating to management of the National Forest System.

Real dollar value: A monetary value which compensates for the effects of inflation.

Receipt shares: The portion of receipts derived from Forest Service resource management that is distributed to State and county governments, such as the Forest Service 25 percent fund payments.

Responsible line officer: The Forest Service employee who has the authority to select and/or carry out a specific planning action.

Sale schedule: The quantity of timber planned for sale by time period from an area of suitable land covered by a forest plan. The first period, usually a decade, of the selected sale schedule provides the allowable sale quantity. Future periods are shown to establish that long-term sustained yield will be achieved and maintained.

Silvicultural system: A management process whereby forests are tended, harvested, and replaced, resulting in a forest of distinctive form. Systems are classified according to the method of

carrying out the fellings that remove the mature crop and provide for regeneration and according to the type of forest thereby produced.

Suitability: The appropriateness of applying certain resource management practices to a particular area of land, as determined by an analysis of the economic and environmental consequences and the alternative uses foregone. A unit of land may be suitable for a variety of individual or combined management practices.

Sustained-yield of products and services: The achievement and maintenance in perpetuity of a high-level annual or regular periodic output of the various renewable resources of the National Forest System without impairment of the productivity of the land.

Timber production: The purposeful growing, tending, harvesting, and regeneration of regulated crops of trees to be cut into logs, bolts, or other round sections for industrial or consumer use. For purposes of this subpart, the term timber production does not include production of fuelwood.

Uneven-aged management: The application of a combination of actions needed to simultaneously maintain continuous high-forest cover, recurring regeneration of desirable species, and the orderly growth and development of trees through a range of diameter or age classes to provide a sustained yield of forest products. Cutting is usually regulated by specifying the number or proportion of trees of particular sizes to retain within each area, thereby maintaining a planned distribution of size classes. Cutting methods that develop and maintain uneven-aged stands are single-tree selection and group selection.

§ 219.4 Planning levels.

(a) General guideline. Planning requires a continuous flow of information and management direction among the three Forest Service administrative levels: national, regional, and forest. Management direction shall:

(1) Include requirements for analysis to determine programs that maximize net public benefits, consistent with locally derived information about production capabilities;

(2) Reflect production capabilities, conditions and circumstances observed at all levels; and

(3) Become increasingly specific as planning progresses from the national to the forest level. In this structure, regional planning is a principal process for conveying management direction from the national level to the forest level and for conveying information from forest level to the national level The planning process is essentially iterative in that the information from the forest level flows up to the national level where in turn information in the RPA Program flows back to the forest level.

(b) Planning levels and relation ships-(1) National. The Chief of the Forest Service shall develop the Re newable Resources Assessment and Program (hereafter, "RPA Assessment and RPA Program") according to sections 3 and 4 of the RPA.

(i) RPA Assessment. The RPA Assessment shall include analysis of present and anticipated uses, demand for, and supply of the renewable re sources of forest, range, and other as sociated lands with consideration of, and an emphasis on, pertinent supply, demand, and price relationship trends; an inventory of present and potential renewable resources and an evaluation of opportunities for improving their yield of tangible and intangible goods and services, together with estimates of investment costs and direct and indirect returns to the Federal Government; a description of Forest Service programs and responsibilities in re search, cooperative programs, and management of the National Forest System; and analysis of important policy issues and consideration of laws, regulations, and other factors expected to influence and affect significantly the use, ownership, and management of forest, range, and other associated lands. The RPA Assessment shall be based on the future capabilities of forest and rangelands and shall include information generated during the regional, forest, and other planning processes.

(ii) RPA Program. The RPA Program shall consider the costs of supply and the relative values of both market and nonmarket outputs. The alterna

tives considered shall include national renewable resource goals and quantified objectives for resource outputs and other benefits and shall be designed to represent a range of expenditure levels sufficient to demonstrate full opportunities for management. A portion of each national objective developed in the RPA Program shall be distributed to each region and be incorporated into each regional guide. Resource objectives shall be tentatively selected for each forest planning area. In formulating the objectives for each region and forest planning area, local supply capabilities and market conditions will be considered.

(2) Regional. Each Regional Forester shall develop a regional guide. Regional guides shall establish regional standards and guidelines as required by § 219.9(a). Consistent with resource capabilities, regional guides shall reflect goals and objectives of the RPA Program. For planning purposes, the regional guides shall display tentative resource objectives for each Forest from the RPA Program. Regional guides shall also provide for general coordination of National Forest System, State and Private Forestry (S&PF), and Research programs. The Chief shall approve the regional guide. The Regional Forester may request adjustment of assigned regional objectives. Any adjustment shall require the approval of the Chief, Forest Service.

(3) Forest. Each Forest Supervisor shall develop a forest plan for administrative units of the National Forest System. One forest plan may be prepared for all lands for which a Forest Supervisor has responsibility; or separate forest plans may be prepared for each National Forest, or combination of National Forests, within the jurisdiction of a single Forest Supervisor. A single forest plan may be prepared for the entire Tongass National Forest. These forest plans shall constitute the land and resource management plans as required under sections 6 and 13 of the RPA. A range of resource objectives shall be formulated as alternatives and evaluated, including at least one alternative which responds to and incorporates the tentative RPA Program resource objectives displayed in

the regional guide. Based on this evaluation, the Forest Supervisor shall recommend objectives for incorporation into the forest plan to the Regional Forester. The Regional Forester shall approve the forest plan. This approval may incorporate adjustment of the tentative RPA Program resource objectives displayed in the regional guide.

§ 219.5 Interdisciplinary approach.

(a) A team representing several disciplines shall be used for regional and forest planning to insure coordinated planning of the various resources. Through interactions among its members, the team shall integrate knowledge of the physical, biological, economic and social sciences, and the environmental design arts in the planning process. The team shall consider problems collectively, rather than separating them along disciplinary lines. Team functions include, but are not limited to

(1) Assessing the problems and resource use and development opportunities associated with providing goods and services;

(2) Obtaining the public's views about possible decisions;

(3) Implementing the planning coordination activities within the Forest Service and with local, State and other Federal agencies;

(4) Developing a broad range of alternatives which identify the benefits and costs of land and resource management according to the planning process described in this subpart.

(5) Developing the land and resource management plan and associated environmental impact statement required pursuant to the planning process;

(6) Presenting to the responsible line officer an integrated perspective on land and resource management planning; and

(7) Establishing the standards and requirements by which planning and management activities will be monitored and evaluated.

(b) In appointing team members, the responsible line officer shall determine and consider the qualifications of each team member on the basis of the complexity of the issues and con