The Resource Management Plan

Introduction

The purpose of this section is to describe the Roseburg District Resource Management Plan The Resource Management Plan was developed partially in response to public comments related to the Bureau of Land Management's August 1992 draft Resource Management Plans for western Oregon. In addition, the plan incorporates the land use allocations and management direction from the SEIS ROD. Finally, the plan was slightly modified in response to public comments and protests on the October 1994 Proposed Resource Management Plans for western Oregon.

The approved Resource Management Plan (RMP) incorporates the following nonsubstantive changes from the Proposed RMP.

Language revisions intended to clarify some management direction.
Language revisions intended to tighten the link between the approved RMP and the 1994 Record of Decision for Amendments to Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Planning Documents Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl and Standards and Guidelines for Management of Habitat for Late-Successional and Old-Growth Forest Related Species Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl.
Revisions that incorporate guidelines issued by the Regional Ecosystem Office since the issuance of the 1994 Record of Decision named above. Such guidelines may clarify or interpret the 1994 Record of Decision.
The Bushnell-Irwin Rocks Area of Critical Environmental Concern was designated an Area of Critical Environmental Concern/Research Natural Area.
The land tenure designation of 240 acres was changed from Zone 3 to Zone 2 (T.24S.,R.6W., W.M., Sec. 11, N1/2NW1/4, S1/2SE1/4; Sec 15, E1/2NW1/4)

Vision

The Bureau of Land Management will manage the natural resources under its jurisdiction in western Oregon to help enhance and maintain the ecological health of the environment and the social well being of the human population.

There are several basic principles supporting this vision:

Natural resources can be managed to provide for human use and a healthy environment.
Resource management must be focused on ecological principles to reduce the need for single resource or single species management.
Stewardship, the involvement of people working with natural processes, is essential for successful implementation.
The Bureau of Land Management cannot achieve this vision alone but can, by its management processes and through cooperation with others, be a significant contributor to its achievement.
A carefully designed program of monitoring, research, and adaptation will be the change mechanism for achieving this vision.

Strategy

Lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management will be managed to maintain or restore healthy, functioning ecosystems while providing a sustainable production of natural resources. This management strategy, titled ecosystem management, involves the use of ecological, economic, social, and managerial principles to ensure the sustained condition of the whole. Ecosystem management emphasizes the complete ecosystem instead of individual components and looks at sustainable systems and products that people want and need. It seeks a balance between maintenance and restoration of natural systems and sustainable yield of resources.

The building blocks for this strategy are comprised of several major land use allocations - Riparian Reserves, Late-Successional Reserves, Adaptive Management Areas, Matrix which includes General Forest Management Areas and Connectivity/Diversity Blocks, and a variety of special purpose management areas such as recreation sites, wild and scenic rivers, and visual resource management areas. These land use allocations are located and configured in the landscape to support overall ecosystem function and to meet the vision for management of federal lands in western Oregon.

Each land use allocation will be managed according to specific objectives and management actions/direction. During initial implementation of the plan, the stated objectives and management actions/direction will provide the rules and limits governing actions and the principles specifying the environmental conditions or levels to be achieved and maintained. As BLM gains experience in implementing the plan and applying the concepts of adaptive management, the stated objectives and management actions/direction will be refined for specific geographic areas.

There are two major management concepts underlying the objectives and management actions/direction - Ecological Principles for Management of Late-Successional Forests and the Aquatic Conservation Strategy. These concepts are summarized below.

Ecological Principles for Management of Late-Successional Forests

One goal of this plan is to maintain late-successional and old-growth species habitat and ecosystems on federal lands. A second goal is to maintain biological diversity associated with native species and ecosystems in accordance with laws and regulations.

All land use allocations described in this plan will contribute to these two goals. For instance, Late-Successional and many special management areas (e.g., Areas of Critical Environmental Concern) will be managed to enhance and/or maintain late-successional forest conditions. The General Forest Management Area and Connectivity/Diversity Blocks will be managed to retain late-successional forest legacies (e.g., coarse woody debris, green trees, snags, and late-successional forest patches). These and other land use allocations and resource programs are described in detail below.

See the Attachment A of the SEIS ROD for additional information about ecological principles for management of late-successional forests.