Tongass National Forest

Concern has been expressed that the current list of wildlife Management Indicator Species (MIS) may not be representative of Forest Plan needs, or that all species are capable of being monitored to meet NFMA requirements.

The Forest Plan identified 13 wildlife MIS species as required by NFMA. NFMA also requires monitoring of MIS to track population trends and other key information for future Forest Planning needs. NFMA also indicates the Forest should use annual population information generated by a variety of sources, including that generated by other State and federal agencies. Part of this concern is that some are concerned the annual data gathered from the various sources may not be of a high enough statistical rigor to be useful. Another concern is that there may be insufficient funds available to monitor 13 species, especially if the protocols are more statistically rigorous.

The Forest Service has undertaken an assessment of the Forest Plan MIS list. This assessment with recommendations will be reviewed internally and by the Forest Plan interagency partners and PNW. If the Forest Supervisor agrees with recommendations that would propose to change the Forest Plan list of MIS, a proposed action with appropriate NEPA will follow. The MIS assessment will also be available for public review at the appropriate time in the process, most likely associated with scoping for a NEPA proposed action.

(Work is ongoing for the MIS assessment.)

The assessment of MIS for the Forest Plan needs to be completed with appropriate recommendations.

• Forest Wildlife Biologist
• Forest Planner
• Interagency Biologists
• PNW Biologist
• ID Team

• Assessment of the MIS species with recommendations
• A NEPA decision document that would include an amendment to the Forest Plan.

Assigned