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Understanding the Forest Plan

In the first part, you learned how the Forest Service organized the Forest Plan, and how they used computers to come up with all those numbers and alternatives. Now let's talk about how the Plan relates to the forest itself.

How does the Forest Plan determine how the government manages the land?

The Forest Service uses many different designations for the land pertaining to wildlife, forest ecology, and land use. These designations decide where they allow logging, restoration, and recreation, and they put them onto maps. There are three layers of boundaries in the forest plan that determine what they do on the ground: 

  • Zone (1-3)
  • Landscape Ecosystem (such as Jack Pine-Black Spruce)
  • Management Area (such as General Forest or Semi-Primitive)
Zones decide the goals for protecting large patches of unfragmented habitat. They are identified in the forest plan, page 2-25. Zones 1 and 2 have standards that set a maximum amount of wildlife habitat that can be lost. Zone 3, around the Boundary Waters, lacks these standards.   See zone map and definitions
Why are large patches of unfragmented habitat important?
 Court rules timber sale doesn't protect Zone 3
Landscape Ecosystems (LE) are named after the naturally dominant tree species in an area, determined primarily by soil conditions. They are identified in the forest plan, page 2-57. The Jack Pine/Black Spruce LE is the main one in Tomahawk and Echo Trail projects. 

LE is different from forest type and forest cover, which describe what is growing on a stand of forest now (after a century of management). The forest plans try to move the forest type/cover towards what would naturally grow in a specific landscape ecosystem (how much they move toward natural conditions is our concern). This natural growth is described as range of natural variation (RNV). Each landscape ecosystem has a different range of natural variation.

 See LE map and categories
Why manage the forest toward natural conditions?
How does RNV work?
Management Areas (MA) are how the US Forest Service different uses in areas of the forest.  Each MA has different rules for logging, restoration, and recreation, and emphasizes some uses over others. It is important to remember that even in areas that emphasize nature study or quiet recreation, motors and logging are allowed.

See MA map and designations
 What MAs did Sierra Club propose?

 

Next lesson: how these areas in the forest-wide plan determine timber offered for sale

1Timber is also measured in cubic feet and cords. For purposes of protecting the environment, it is best to think about how many acres of forest are affected.

 

Zone map from Superior National Forest Management Plan, page 2-25

Large Mature and Older Upland Patches

>100 ac

>300 ac

 

>1000 ac

>10,000 ac

Zone 1

 

Preserve at least 44,700 ac

Preserve at least 8 patches

 

Zone 2

 

Preserve at least 54,400 ac

Preserve at least 14 patches

Preserve at least 1 patch of 11,700 ac

Zone 3

 

“strive to minimize decrease”

 

 

Forest-wide

Preserve at least 88 patches and 17,300 acres of older red and white pine

Preserve at least 8 patches and 4700 acres of older red and white pine

 

 

"In Spatial Zones 1 and 2, in mature and older upland forest types managed to maintain patch sizes of >300 acres, vegetation management treatments are allowable where they maintain a 50% (60% for red and white pine) minimum canopy closure at time of treatment and favor retention of larger and older trees characteristic of the patch."

In Spatial Zone 3, "when determining which large upland mature patches will be retained, take into consideration the contribution of BWCAW acres and other unmanaged lands within the same ecological setting and proximity."

The plan does not commit to specific goals for lowland forest patches.

 

Landscape Ecosystem map from Superior National Forest Management Plan, page 2-58

Landscape Ecosystems in the Northern Superior Uplands (colored areas above):

  • Jack pine-black spruce
  • Jack pine-aspen-oak
  • Dry-mesic red/white pine
  • Mesic red/white pine
  • Mesic aspen-birch-spruce-fir
  • Sugar maple
  • Lowland conifer
  • Rich swamp

Management Area map from Superior National Forest Management Plan

Management Areas in Superior National Forest:

  • General Forest

  • General Forest - Longer Rotation

  • Recreation Use in a Scenic Landscape

  • Eligible Wild, Scenic, and Recreational Rivers

  • Semi-primitive Non-motorized Recreation

  • Semi-primitive Motorized Recreation

  • Unique Biological Areas

  • Riparian Emphasis Areas

  • Research Natural Areas

  • Candidate Research Natural Areas