What is forest planning?


I’m trying to work up yet-another forest planning post tracing the evolution of Forest Service decision-making from the rational planning era to the adaptive governance era. So I decided to solicit opinion in advance. What do you think forest-level planning is? Here are some possibilities. Feel free to add more, and I’ll update this post.

What best describes “forest-level planning”?

  • Anachronism – an artifact of a bygone era
  • Distraction – a relatively safe place for environmentalists and other “forests service malcontents” to wage war against the forest service, distracting them from larger arenas where they might prove more damaging to forest service agendas
  • Nuisance – nonsense that keeps foresters and “ologists” out of the woods
  • Abomination – a “pox on all our houses,” a legal/administrative nightmare
  • Communitarian Decision Container – a place for people to gather together to build community and resolve problems about a national forest they love
  • Rational Decision Container – a place for professionals and scientists to help managers make rational decisions about best use of a national forest

[Updated: 3/28/2011]

2 thoughts on “What is forest planning?”

  1. What it is, anachronism..
    What it should be communitarian decision container IMHO.

    But “planning” should be a subset of all the decisions in the container.. “which ones?” is the question.

    Reply
  2. I think I’ll add a couple to “What is forest-level planing?”:

    Nuisance – nonsense that keeps foresters and “ologists” out of the woods
    Abomination – a “pox on all our houses,” a legal/administrative nightmare

    Post updated to reflect additions.

    Reply

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