Management Assessments and Plans

A management assessment will be prepared for each large Late-Successional Reserve (or group of smaller Late-Successional Reserves) before habitat manipulation activities are designed and implemented. These assessments may be developed as part of province level planning or as stand alone assessments. If developed to stand alone, the assessments will be closely coordinated with subsequent watershed analysis and province level planning. SEIS ROD standards and guidelines should be refined at the province level prior to development of Late-Successional Reserve assessments. Late-Successional Reserve assessments will generally include:

A history and inventory of overall vegetative conditions within the reserve.
A list of identified late-successional associated species known to exist within the Late-Successional Reserve and information on their locations.
A history and description of current land uses within the reserve.
A fire management plan.
Criteria for developing appropriate treatments.
Identification of specific areas that could be treated under those criteria.
A proposed implementation schedule tiered to higher order (i.e., larger scale) plans.
Proposed monitoring and evaluation components to help evaluate if future activities are carried out as intended and achieve desired results.

Only in unusual circumstances will silvicultural treatments, including prescribed fire, precede preparation of this management assessment. Late-Successional Reserve assessments are subject to review by the Regional Ecosystem Office. Until Late-Successional Reserve assessments are completed, fire suppression activities should be guided by land allocation objectives in coordination with local resource management specialists.

Projects and activities within Late-Successional Reserves (including restoration, recreation, projects for public safety, thinning, and salvage) may proceed in fiscal years 1995-96 using initial Late-Successional Reserve assessments done at a level of detail sufficient to assess whether the activities are consistent with the objectives of the Late-Successional Reserves.

The Adaptive Management Area will have a plan. An individual public, interagency approach to planning will be developed for the Adaptive Management Area. The plan should address or provide:

A shared vision of the Adaptive Management Area, (e.g., the kind of knowledge the participants hope to gain). Identification of the desired future conditions may be developed in collaboration with communities, depending on the area.
Learning which includes social and political knowledge, not just biological and physical information.
A strategy to guide implementation, restoration, monitoring, and experimental activities.
A short-term (three to five year) timber sale plan and long-term yield projections.
Education of participants.
A list of community strategies, resources, and partners being used.
Coordination with overall activities within the province.
A funding strategy.
Integration of the community strategies and technical objectives.