Program Overview
A primary objective of the Forest Plan Maintenance Program is to help keep the Forest Plan as up to date as is reasonable through time in response to changing conditions, information, and knowledge regarding the Tongass National Forest. The potential concerns that have been identified and included in the current list of concerns represent a fairly comprehensive look at the Forest Plan today. However, because the Tongass National Forest is a dynamic evolving entity, management of the Tongass also has to be dynamic through time. Change is constant, and it is reasonable to expect new concerns or Forest Plan-related opportunities to be identified by the Forest Service or members of the public.
The 1982 Forest Planning Regulations, as well as subsequent efforts to revise the Planning Regulations intend Forest Plans to be amended or revised to keep them current. This has often been done periodically (every 5 years, etc.) rather than on an ongoing basis. The Forest Plan 5 Year Review completed in 2004 identified a number of potential concerns and subsequent opportunities to improve how the Plan is being implemented, or how the Plan itself could be updated to better reflect current conditions.
The Forest Plan Maintenance Program is designed to strategically guide the overall management of the Forest Planning program on the Tongass. This website is one tool designed to identify and track potential concerns on an ongoing basis. The formats of the worksheets, the guides used to complete and analyze the potential concerns, and the template available to help the public identify new potential concerns are all designed to facilitate consistency of the program through time. Storing and tracking potential concerns, including new potential concerns, in one place is anticipated to greatly contribute to a more up-to-date Forest Plan.
When a potential concern is validated, a worksheet will be prepared and it will be added to the list of potential concerns with a unique tracking number. The worksheets provide information important to help the Forest Supervisor make assignment decisions for individual potential concerns. It is anticipated the highest priority concerns will be assigned first. However, sometimes a lower priority concern may be strategically assigned because a related project may be able to incorporate the Forest Plan-related work without jeopardizing the success of the project itself. All assignments are subject to funding, available personnel or skills to address the concern, and the overall priority of the anticipated work.