Salem Record of Decision and Resource Management Plan

Salem Record of Decision

Salem District Resource Management Plan Table of Contents:

- Tables

- Maps

- Appendices

The Resource Management Plan

The purpose of this section is to describe the Salem District resource management plan. This section includes descriptions of:

• concepts underlying the plan (vision, strategy and major principles);
  
• land use allocations and resource programs in the plan; and
  
• miscellaneous guidance such as coordination and consultation, use of the completed plan, and monitoring.

The resource management plan was developed partially in response to public comments related to BLM'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 record of decision. Finally, the plan was slightly modified in response to public comments and protests on the September 1994 proposed resource management plans for western Oregon.

The resource management plan incorporates the following nonsubstantive changes from the proposed resource management plan:

• Language revisions intended to clarify some management direction;
  
• Language revisions intended to tighten the link between the resource management plan 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;
  
• Deletion of some material, such as Issues and Concerns, considered unnecessary for this document;
  
• Modification of some tables, maps, figures, appendices, and text to make this a stand-alone document; and
  
• Addition of the Little Sandy River Watershed as a Tier 2 Key Watershed (inadvertently omitted in the proposed resource management plan.

Vision

The BLM will manage land and natural resources under its jurisdiction in western Oregon to maintain healthy, diverse, and productive ecosystems so that present and future generations may continue to benefit from the public lands.

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 BLM cannot achieve this vision alone but can, by its management processes and through cooperation with others, be a significant contributor to its achievement; and
  
• a carefully designed program of monitoring, research and adaptation will be the change mechanism for achieving this vision.

Strategy

Lands administered by the BLM will be managed to maintain healthy, functioning ecosystems from which a sustainable production of natural resources can be provided. This management strategy, called ecosystem management, involves the use of ecological, economic, social, and managerial principles to achieve healthy and sustainable natural systems. Ecosystem management emphasizes the complete ecosystem instead of individual components and looks at sustainable systems and products that people want and need.

The building blocks for this strategy are comprised of several major land use allocations— Riparian Reserves, Late-Successional Reserves, Adaptive Management Areas, and Matrix which includes General Forest Management Areas and Connectivity/Diversity Blocks. These land use allocations have differing management direction and 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. Additional allocations include a variety of special purpose management areas such as recreation sites, wild and scenic rivers, and visual resource management areas.

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 direction and limits governing actions and the principles specifying the environmental conditions or levels to be achieved and maintained. As the BLM gains experience in implementing the plan and applying the concepts of adaptive management, the stated objectives and management actions/direction may be refined for specific geographic areas.

The major land use allocations of the resource management plan are as follows:

A summary of all land allocations and management actions/direction is presented in appendix A-1.

Maps of resource management plan land use allocations are located in the accompanying map packet. (Riparian Reserves are not mapped.)

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