Update November 28, 2005
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Hi Folks. Just wanted to drop a quick note to wish you a Happy
Holidays. In this time of reflection, we want to express appreciation for your involvement with us. We hope that the New Year will bring continued meaningful relationships.
Now for a quick update:
PROGRESS TOWARDS REVISED DRAFT PLANS: The planning team is still plugging away and hopes to have a draft plan for public review sometime in early 2006. We will be looking for your feedback on this draft. It will contain a section on vision (desired conditions, setting), strategy (program area direction, special areas, suitable uses, and geographic area direction) and design criteria (guidelines and other direction). We anticipate that much of this draft will look similar to the Management Direction Package (MDP) that was presented to the public last spring/early summer. We also anticipate some significant changes. Most of our collaborative process has focused on developing desired conditions. We hope to do additional collaboration on other parts of the plan. If you see opportunities for us to be more collaborative with you, then please contact us so that we can try to improve our collaboration.
In addition to the draft plan the planning team is working on a number of additional planning documents. Some of these documents may be available for review when we release the draft plans for a 90-day comment period.
In the last several months we have done significant review and collaboration with employees across both forests. This has helped us to refine our products that will make up the draft plan. Additionally, we have learned a great deal during a round of field
trips.
EMS: Finally, the Dixie and Fishlake National Forests have formed a team to develop an Environmental Management System (EMS) for each forest. The team working on the EMS is mostly made up of people outside of our planning team (so that the planning team can focus on completing the draft plans).
Most importantly, we continue to believe in collaboration. Our success depends on your thoughtful participation! Our doors are always open.