Improving Participation by Rural Communities 

in Local Land Use Planning

By Rick Alexander and Mike Chapel, USDA Forest Service, and

Erin Klaesius, California Biodiversity Council

Projects throughout California reveal the efforts of federal, state, and local government representatives working in conjunction with private interests that range from land developers to environmentalists. One such example lies in the the Sierra Nevada. In recent years, the Sierra Nevada Framework for Conservation and Collaboration has aimed to better integrate the latest science and collaborative approaches into conservation planning in the Sierra Nevada Range. This large project professes many new ideas and theories about how people can work together to solve common problems. Much of this involves the development of an environmental impact statement (EIS) to amend land management plans on the 11 National Forests in the Sierra Nevada. The Forest Service intends to use the final EIS and Record of Decision as the starting point for other projects that foster closer cooperation and collaboration.

The Draft EIS addresses five urgent problem areas for Sierra Nevada National Forests: old forest ecosystems; aquatic, riparian and meadow ecosystems; fire and fuel management; noxious weeds; and lower Westside hardwood ecosystems.

For the past two years, the Forest Service has worked with citizens, elected officials, tribal representatives, land managers, scientists, resource specialists, academia, and interest groups to clarify these problem areas and craft alternative methods for resolving them on the National Forests. It is just this type of collaboration that is changing the management of public land use planning projects.

The Forest Service has approached the Sierra Nevada Framework with a new commitment to make current thinking and analyses available for integrated discussion with other agencies and the public. An interagency team has met regularly since February 1998. Other venues for interagency coordination include one-on-one discussions between Forest Service leadership and their counterparts in other agencies and small group meetings on specific resource issues with affected agencies. The Framework Interagency Team provides valuable advice to the Forest Service and has been influential in helping shape the analyses and content of the draft EIS.

From the inception of the Sierra Nevada Framework, the Forest Service has held informational meetings and workshops throughout California and western Nevada to help citizens and others in government understand the purpose of the project. In addition, the agency has developed a website to keep interested people informed (www.r5.fs.fed.us/sncf). These are both very useful tools to increase involvement of these types of projects.

The Sierra Nevada Framework is just one example of current efforts to improve the interactions between the public and private interest. Collaboration is a valuable tool, and there are many lessons to be learned from the Sierra Nevada Framework process. The CBC Meeting in Rohnert Park will bring together a panel of county supervisors to discuss ways of improving participation of local government in public land use planning. The Sierra Nevada Framework will be one of several projects discussed by the panel.