Abstract
Ecosystem services are recognized as a way of framing and describing the broad suite of benefits that people receive from forests. The USDA Forest Service has been exploring use of an ecosystem services framework to describe forest values provided by public lands and to attract and build partnerships with stakeholders to implement projects. In addition to describing ecosystem services provided by forest landscapes, this framework examines the potential tradeoffs among services associated with proposed management activities, while attracting and building partnerships with stakeholders who benefit from particular services these forests provide. Projects that describe objectives and outcomes using an ecosystem services framework could provide an important forest management tool. So, the Forest Service has recently sought place-based applications of the ecosystem services framework to national forest management to better illustrate the concept for policymakers, managers, and forest stakeholders. This paper describes how project scale guidelines can be designed to address commonly recognized products such as timber and water, as well as critical regulating, supporting, and cultural services. We present results from national programs to forest plan assessments to project-scale applications that enhance the provision of ecosystem services and sustainable forest management at broad to local scales.
Parent Publication
Keywords
collaborative,
co-production,
stewardship,
implementation,
relationship building
Citation
Deal, Robert L. 2020. Integrating ecosystem services into sustainable forest management of public lands. In: Pile, Lauren S.; Deal, Robert L.; Dey, Daniel C.; Gwaze, David; Kabrick, John M.; Palik, Brian J.; Schuler, Thomas M., comps. The 2019 National Silviculture Workshop: a focus on forest management-research partnerships. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-193. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 83-93. https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-P-193-paper12.
