National forest planners in the Southern Appalachians drew directly
from the assessment findings to conduct the initial stages of national forest
planning. These stages, collectively termed “the analysis of the management
situation,” are designed to set the context of the planning exercise by
placing each national forest in its physical, biological, and social settings and
to define the broad issues to be addressed by each plan. For planning
conducted prior to the SAA, each of the seven national forests within
the region had completed independent “analyses of the management situation.”The SAA provided the first coordinated ecosystem-level view of these
national forests that was clearly linked to their impacts on ecosystems in
the Southern Appalachians.
The results also provided a mechanism for coordinating subsequent
phases of planning across the forests and represented a substantial broadening of scope in forest planning. By taking a regional and ecosystem
approach, the assessment allowed managers to develop a perspective on the
comparative advantage of the national forests for influencing both ecological and economic systems. For example, the assessment showed that private
lands were generally providing adequate amounts of early-successional
wildlife habitat, while a scarcity of late-successional habitat was evident
(SAMAB 1996e, p. 27). A comparison of age-class distributions between
ownerships indicated that national forests had a comparative advantage for
producing the latter type of habitat. Likewise, analysis of timber markets
indicated that national forests had a relatively minor role to play in total
fiber production, but controlled a disproportionately large share of the
inventory of the highest-quality timber (SAMAB 1996d, p 117). This observation suggested a strong position of national forests in an important
segment of the local timber economy, and conversely it identified segments
where national forests did not have a strong position.
This coordinated approach to analysis both avoided the costs of duplicate data and information gathering and improved the quality of data
brought to bear on that planning. It therefore seems probable that the
SAA provided a more cost-effective approach to this information gathering. More importantly, the SAA provided a means for considering national
forests within the context of the entire ecosystems and social systems within
which they reside, a critical first step in the design of effective ecosystem
management strategies (Christensen and Franklin 1997). It also provided
for the first time an integrated social/ecological knowledge base and
database for use by forest managers and analysts.
Another important outcome of the SAA was that it established what
Wondolleck and Yaffee (2000) have termed a “community of interest”
focused on Southern Appalachian ecosystems. Prior to the SAA, scientists,
planners, and the public at large had all addressed various, sometimes
common, issues regarding the Southern Appalachians but in separate and
generally nonintersecting spheres. The assessment, through its public
involvement process, brought these groups together to form a new broad
4. Large-Scale Regional Assessments
79
from the assessment findings to conduct the initial stages of national forest
planning. These stages, collectively termed “the analysis of the management
situation,” are designed to set the context of the planning exercise by
placing each national forest in its physical, biological, and social settings and
to define the broad issues to be addressed by each plan. For planning
conducted prior to the SAA, each of the seven national forests within
the region had completed independent “analyses of the management situation.”The SAA provided the first coordinated ecosystem-level view of these
national forests that was clearly linked to their impacts on ecosystems in
the Southern Appalachians.
The results also provided a mechanism for coordinating subsequent
phases of planning across the forests and represented a substantial broadening of scope in forest planning. By taking a regional and ecosystem
approach, the assessment allowed managers to develop a perspective on the
comparative advantage of the national forests for influencing both ecological and economic systems. For example, the assessment showed that private
lands were generally providing adequate amounts of early-successional
wildlife habitat, while a scarcity of late-successional habitat was evident
(SAMAB 1996e, p. 27). A comparison of age-class distributions between
ownerships indicated that national forests had a comparative advantage for
producing the latter type of habitat. Likewise, analysis of timber markets
indicated that national forests had a relatively minor role to play in total
fiber production, but controlled a disproportionately large share of the
inventory of the highest-quality timber (SAMAB 1996d, p 117). This observation suggested a strong position of national forests in an important
segment of the local timber economy, and conversely it identified segments
where national forests did not have a strong position.
This coordinated approach to analysis both avoided the costs of duplicate data and information gathering and improved the quality of data
brought to bear on that planning. It therefore seems probable that the
SAA provided a more cost-effective approach to this information gathering. More importantly, the SAA provided a means for considering national
forests within the context of the entire ecosystems and social systems within
which they reside, a critical first step in the design of effective ecosystem
management strategies (Christensen and Franklin 1997). It also provided
for the first time an integrated social/ecological knowledge base and
database for use by forest managers and analysts.
Another important outcome of the SAA was that it established what
Wondolleck and Yaffee (2000) have termed a “community of interest”
focused on Southern Appalachian ecosystems. Prior to the SAA, scientists,
planners, and the public at large had all addressed various, sometimes
common, issues regarding the Southern Appalachians but in separate and
generally nonintersecting spheres. The assessment, through its public
involvement process, brought these groups together to form a new broad
4. Large-Scale Regional Assessments
79