Dixie-Fishlake NF Weblog
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Please feel free to post discussion ideas, question, or comments here.

Please feel free to post discussion ideas, question, or comments here.

Please feel free to post discussion ideas, question, or comments here.

Please feel free to post discussion ideas, question, or comments here.

Please feel free to post discussion ideas, question, or comments here.

Almost two years ago the Forest Service convened some working groups to discuss in more detail several forest planning topics. The groups were called Topical Working Groups (TWiGs). We feel that the TWiGs were a really meaningful endeavor.

In an effort to keep TWiG participants (and other people interested in those topics involved and talking to one another) I am created a more or less blank page that people can use to comment and continue discussions about the topics that the TWiGs explored (for more information refer to our forest plan website and more particularly to the TWiG closeout reports on the website). In addition to continued discussions and relationships, this venue may engender new ideas and discussion. We are eager to see the results of your conversations.

There were TWiGs convened for: Range Suitability, Timber Suitability, Roadless and Wilderness, Dispersed Camping, and Off-Highway Vehicles.

If there are other topics you would like to see a similar discussion forum set up for, please let me know.

As part of the New Planning Regulations that were released last January, our planning team is preparing a Comprehensive Evaluation Report that highlights key conditions and trends for the social, economic, and ecological resources of the forest. These conditions and trends were gleaned from a large universe of possible conditions and trends. Conditions and trends are based on a long list of assessments, inventories, reports, and other data sources.

At this point we intend to have a Comprehensive Evaluation Report highlights document that will detail the most important conditions and trends that are guiding our planning effort (development of a draft Revised Plan including sections on vision, strategy, and design criteria). In addition to a highlights document, we will have a series of longer, more inclusive (than the highlights document but not all-inclusive of possible conditions and trends) series of specialist condition and trend documents, and finally, a compilation of the many assessments, inventories, reports, and other data sources we consulted for our planning effort.

We know that many folks have an interest in the social and economic conditions and trends. Here is what we have written for these first two documents:

Excerpt from draft Highlights Comprehensive Evaluation Report – Social and Economic Conditions and Trends

More Inclusive Conditions and Trends for Social and Economic Resources

We’d love your thoughts about these documents. Please post them here to the blog.

Since the beginning of our planning process, we have spent a great deal of time, money, and effort to collaborate with the public to identify a common vision and strategy for managing the forests. This collaboration has strengthened the quality of our work. We hope that quality shines through when we release draft Revised Forest Plans in spring 2006.

In an effort to help you stay involved with our planning effort in the coming year, we have revised our original Collaboration Plan that was developed jointly between the Forest Service and its many planning partners in the public.

The 2006 Public Invovlement and Collaboration Plan is attached to this email as a pdf document. We hope you will take the time to read it and become familiar with the many opportunities we intend to provide for public engagement in the coming year.
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In the Strategy section of our draft Revised Forest Plans (set for release sometime between March and May 2006), we have a section on special areas. This section is split between congressionally designated special areas and administratively designated areas. Backcountry is one of the administrative designations we are contemplating using.

We would like your thoughts on the language we are working on for this designation. Please feel free to comment to the blog about this section, to ask questions or clarifications, we’d like to stimulate a discussion about this topic. If you have any trouble figuring out how to comment, please call me at (435) 865-3730 or email me at ckcall@fs.fed.us.
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