| A unit of Lasting Forests
evolving since March 30, 1999 |
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A Total Forest Management Plan
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The lands and waters of the area can be designed and managed to achieve objectives. We assume this is necessary because only by chance might natural processes and conditions achieve an optimum condition in one year or over an extended period. Nature is dynamic, even more than human objectives, so a perfect match between conditions and needs, extremely rare, is likely to be for only a short time.
" Goals" and " objectives" are discussed. Within the diverse fields of the environment, professional groups use these word differently. For that reason we suggest using " objectives" and recognizing 6 types.
Type 1 - General - Very broad; typical of preambles and opening paragraphs of constitutions, bylaws, and formation legislation.
Type 2 - Fundamental - Also large in scope, these express major needs of food, water, recreation, quiet, etc.
Type 3 - Success Criterion - The means of measuring success; e.g., to minimize risks; to maximize a B/C ratio.
Type 4 - Policy/Constraints - The major statements such as " all the while maximizing safety" ; " subject to laws" , etc.
Type 5 - Primary - Specific achievements needed in a set such as to minimize erosion, to maximize sightings of eagles, to maximize profit from wood sale.
Type 6 - Actions - Called " goals" in some groups, these can be viewed as means to achieve primary objectives e.g., to construct 20 wood duck boxes; to build 1 mile of nature trail.
The essence of Type 1 objectives is in the authority provided by 16 U.S.C. 670, "Conservation Programs on Military Installations", Reference (b).
The 15 objectives listed in DoD 4715.DD-R can be grouped within the suggested types.
1.1(8) To use and care for natural resources so as to best serve our Nation's present and future needs.
1.2(11) To manage lands capable of producing wildlife, food, fiber, forest products and outdoor recreation opportunities consistent with the assigned military mission.
2.1(2) Support the military mission.
2.2(1) Guarantee continued access to our land, air, and water resources for realistic military training and testing.
2.4(6) To encourage a conservation ethic throughout DoD.
4.1(1) [To ensure that the resources entrusted to DoD care remain healthy and available for multiple uses by future generations.]
4.2(2) To avoid any net loss to the operational carrying capacity of installation lands.
4.3(2) To achieve flexibility in ability to accommodate increased military mission requirements for using these lands.
4.3(3) To comply with all applicable Executive orders and Federal, State, and local statutory and regulatory requirements, both substantive and procedural.
4.4(5) To ensure that other current and planned installation activities (e.g., military training plans, master plans, construction requests, site approval requests, host-tenant agreements, and outleases) are effectively coordinated with and consistent with activities described in the integrated natural resources management plan (INRMP).
5.1(4) To identify, protect, conserve, and manage sensitive and significant natural resources and ecosystems.
5.2(4) To promote the conservation of biodiversity on DoD lands and waters whenever practicable.
5.2(6) To provide an understanding of the need to protect and conserve natural resources through good stewardship.
5.3(7) To assess the environmental consequences of each proposed action that could affect the natural environment.
5.4(7) To address the significant impacts of each action through analysis, planning, mitigation, and prevention.
5.4(10) To restore and rehabilitate adversely altered or degraded habitats and resources.
5.5(12) To provide for sustained public access and use of natural resources for educational or recreational purposes when such access is compatible with mission activities, and with other considerations such as security, safety, or resource sensitivity.
5.6(13) To encourage partnerships and volunteers to enhance conservation programs whenever practicable.
5.7(14) To strengthen the scientific basis for natural resources management by integrating research and management.
5.8(15) To provide for enforcing natural resource laws and regulations by professionally trained personnel.
6.1(9) To develop criteria and procedures for monitoring the effectiveness of natural resources management on lands under DoD stewardship and control and impacted by DoD activities.
The objective-formulation process is usually long and difficult. There are typically about 100 primary objectives. When these are well stated, then landowners or decision-making boards can assign weights to them (relative importance or value), estimate the number of units of each resource they believe will satisfy them, estimate the probability of achieving each objective every year, and state which objectives might be achieved in another way (substitutions). The process is difficult but it can be done and, once done, a score can be computed. Where R* is the stated best score for an area, then the condition of the area can be estimated. This condition is Rt. Thus, a simple score can be obtained.
Rt+1 = R* - S(R*-Rt) (1)
The concept is that a perfect score of 100 can be imagined (perhaps never achieved, as perfect engine performance cannot be achieved). An actual score of Rt can estimated. This is the condition of the station at some time, t, relative to the prefect R*. Whatever the actual score for the land is, in the next period, t+1, we want the score to stay the same or to improve. S is the tendency of the system to stay the same, to be stable [sustainable or "sustained"]. It has a value of 1.0 when no changes are being made; the system is stable. It can be changed as in:
S = 1.0 - C (2) where C is managerial control or managerial influence of any type. By various managerial action (ideas, skill, projects completed, actions taken, investments in projects) C can influence the typical condition -- fast, slow, or no change. C can be viewed as the modifier of the difference between Rt and R*. A value of C, for example 0.3, results in S being 0.7 and in an example of conventional system performance, when an overall system score of 70 exists then, under the influence of a constant level of control, C, the 0.3 scores over the next few years will be as follows:
| Year - Score Rt |
|---|
| 1-79 2-85 3-89 4-92 5-95 6-96 7-98 8-98 9-98 10-99 11-99 : : 18-100 |
Under constant influence of C being 0.3 or reducing the difference by about a third, it will take 18 years to move from a score of 70 to 100. With improvement (a progressively greater value of C due to experience, i.e., with C changing with g, then
C = C (1.0 + g) (3)
This is a simple linear rate increase limited to 1.0. Where g is an annual improvement based on learning and experience and is about 0.05, then the time required to get a score in the above situation is reduced to 12 years. If a score of greater than 95 is acceptable, then only 4 to 6 years is required.
Alternative investments in securing or achieving any of the objectives may be evaluated for Rt+1 as a function of C. Conventional break-even analyses can be done as C may be increased.
The equation or expression of Rt may be very simple or complex. Over time, the more refined, precise statements will assure greater accountability and clarity of ways to invest limited budgets. Rt is an expression of resource benefits and these may be estimated, i.e., given an expert's estimated value for each ith objective, thus
Rt = 
zi (4)
or an average (dividing by n) can be used.
This procedure is easily biased but it is most easily, quickly, and cost-effectively developed.
More refined and described in Giles (1978) Wildlife Management is the objective weighing procedure. This is
Rt = xivi (5)
This computation is the product of the estimate of how well each objective is achieved (say on a scale of 0 to 10) and the weight or relative importance to the public or area leaders of each objective, vi.
No matter what the units of measure used, they are converted on a relative scale to proportions of a likely maximum or most-likely feasible state.
An improved alternative is
Rt = Dpit Vpit Epit (6)
where
In subsequent work, part of an extended plan, we propose to add Spi to the formulation. It is the concept of substitution. An objective may be stated but it might be achieved, even surpassed by another occurrence. A bird watcher may want to see many species but may see only a few birds but one that has never been seen before. Rarity may well substitute for abundance.
That demands and values change over time seems evident but we are unaware of anywhere these changes are used (as described above) in developing estimates of the condition of a natural resource area and then using this value in adaptive management.
Part of this plan is to attempt to develop conversation and discussions with citizens so that a well-developed set of objectives may be formulated. Once done, then the power of the computer can be used to achieve long-term optimization. Sample objectives follow.
To "optimize means to maximize, subject to constraints. In the recommended formulation, we believe that linear programming may be used as a good approximation procedure given the estimates and uncertainties of the environment and the changes in people's objectives (all dimensions). An alternative procedure, using succession concepts, needs to be explored. Computer aids to both are being developed. Optimization, using linear programming is demonstrated in the "Forest Resource Management" chapter.
Sample Primary Objectives:
Land Use
1. To so use land as to maximize alternatives for future decisions on its use.
2. To minimize water table losses.
3. To maximize land use diversity.
4. To maximize profits from the mineral resources of the property.
5. To maximize percolation and ground water recharge.
6. To minimize runoff.
7. To minimize erosion.
8. To minimize developments in flood plains, near geological faults, or in or near sink holes.
9. To minimize dust, air, water, and ground water pollution.
10. To report a land use inventory at least every 10 years.
11. To maximize the use of agricultural land for agricultural production.
12. To maximize recreational areas and open or green space within reasonable walking distance of every resident.
13. To minimize heat loss effects on winds in winter and unpleasant or damaging dustiness in all seasons.
14. To minimize the introduction of exotic or non-native plants and animals.
1. To minimize the number of wild fires.
2. To minimize the injury and damage caused by fires within the community.
3. To maximize the ease of fire suppression in buildings.
4. To minimize the mean time between fire and emergency reports and arrival of needed assistance.
5. To minimize injury and death of people fire fighting.
6. To minimize the costs of fire prevention and suppression.
Recreation and Leisure
1. To provide education, publicity, and counseling about leisure-time activities.
2. To provide diverse recreational opportunities throughout the community.
3. To provide recreational opportunities for large-group and competitive activities.
4. To provide recreational opportunities for individuals and small group activities
5. To provide recreational opportunities that are used to within 5 percent of their capacity.
6. To provide a sufficient basic set of free recreational opportunities in each urban neighborhood and in each rural community.
7. To provide recreational facilities uniquely designed for and largely used only by citizens of the age classes of the very young, youth, middle aged, and elderly.
8. To provide temporary and experimental recreational opportunities.
9. To minimize public costs per unit of quality-ranked use of the recreational opportunities of the community.
10. To provide space and opportunities for citizens of the community to display their creative works, talents, and activities.
11. To provide recreational areas for the very young with maximum ease of access and safety.
12. To provide adequate, healthful, year-round indoor recreational opportunities for 90 percent of the youth living within the community.
13. To provide high-risk and adventurous recreational and leisure-time opportunities.
14. To minimize hazards to guests and the public.
Landscaping and Vegetation
1. To minimize the time that any soil area remains not vegetated.
2. To provide landscaping leadership on corporation lands for citizens.
3. To maximize the opportunities for all citizens to garden.
4. To maximize the sum of the quality weights or landscapes within the community over 10 years, each year being weighted by the number of actual or potential viewers.
5. To maximize the number and acreage of parcels of land in the community (region) judged by a trained committee to exceed a minimum landscape quality index.
6. To minimize change in desirable landscape features publicly recognized as special or unique.
7. To maximize the acres of green or open space of the community calculated as needed for such purposes.
8. To develop as public resources an appropriate number of spots that are uniquely landscaped.
9. To maximize the numbers of species and the number of large landscape trees within the community.
Open Space
1. To utilize public and private facilities, parks, schools, and existing open space within the community jointly to avoid unnecessary duplication of costs and services.
2. To acquire high quality open space to fulfill present needs and be adaptable to future demands.
3. To minimize duplication of open spaces preserved and the undesirable location of open space between contiguous communities.
4. To preserve resources such as water, forests, or prime agricultural land uniquely suited for open space purposes.
5. To protect areas which have significant recreational, scenic, cultural, scientific and natural resource potential from encroachment by urban uses.
6. To preserve and restore sites which have particular historic or architectural significance.
7. To maximize the linkage of the scenic resources of the community.
8. To provide, by roads and trails, open space recreational facilities that are appropriately distributed and readily accessible for all groups of citizens.
9. To maximize the amount of land in open space around standing or running water, in flood plains, near geological fault zones, on soils highly erosive, and in areas having steep slopes.
10. To protect existing noise screens, visual screens, and green belts.
Esthetics and Beautification
1. To maximize the visual quality of lands adjacent to corporate recreational lands.
2. To provide opportunity for architectural diversity within the community.
3. To minimize the conspicuousness of utilities to residents and travelers in the community.
4. To implement an effective system of street graphics and sign control.
5. To minimize the number of existing structures judged by a citizen's committee to be in disrepair, ugly, or having graffiti.
6. To minimize the number of structures constructed which would likely be judged by a representative citizen's committee to be ugly or incompatible with the esthetic evolution of the community.
Waste- Related Objectives
1. To minimize solid waste generated per unit time.
2. To minimize litter.
3. To maximize recycling of solid waste.
4. To minimize secondary undesirable effects of solid waste disposal.
5. To maximize public returns from solid waste recycling or use.
6. To minimize the area required for solid waste disposal.
7. To maximize solid waste separation at the source.
8. To maximize use of sewer plant and liquid chemical wastes.
9. To minimize storm sewer runoff.
10. To maximize the amount of sewer water from the community undergoing tertiary treatment.
As with many natural resource areas, objectives have not been well developed. Part of the plan is attempts to develop a procedure for use on the area as well as within nearby communities. Until then, and its development depends on available resources, type - 1 objectives suffice.
These are perceived to be:
A general Action-related objective is To create information systems, decision support systems, optimization procedures, and models that are explanatory, descriptive, and predictive and that allow improved analyses and management decisions.
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Last revision January 17, 2000.