Maps are planning’s most ubiquitous and useful tool. Maps put place in the center of the planning conversation. It’s no surprise that all of the place-based collaborative processes use maps as their exclusive planning tool. No linear programming optimizing models; no ecological forecasting models; in fact, no complex models at all are used in collaborative, place-based planning (in a future post I will discuss why complex models create more trouble than they are worth).
In the days before GIS, maps and transparent overlays were used to avoid placing clearcuts next to campgrounds. Conventional NFMA plans use maps to zone land, showing where uses are permitted or prohibited.
The proposed K.I.S.S. planning rule eliminates this discretionary zoning function from NFMA plans. Without zoning, what information would K.I.S.S. maps illustrate?
A map of the 3-year vegetation management and timber harvest program would be useful. This map would show the metes and bounds of lands slated for vegetation treatments. Using Google Earth as a base, the vegetation treatment map would show where the land to be treated is located in relation to towns, homes, or natural resource features and what the current vegetation looks like from a bird’s eye view. During the forest planning process, Google Earth could be used interactively with the public allowing anyone to build a kml file to recommend treatment sites to the planning team or illustrate why a proposed treatment is unwise.
Google Earth maps can display inventory information used in the planning process, such as the location of endangered species critical habitat. Planners and the public can use Google Earth to overlay vegetation management maps onto resource inventory maps to see the intersection of vegetation actions with the places and things they care about.
So what happens to zoning? NFMA does not require that forest plans zone national forests by use or prescription. Of course, where zones have been imposed by law, e.g., wilderness, the Forest Service must conform its management to the zone’s requirements. But there is no compelling reason for the Forest Service to zone uses in the NFMA planning process. People want to know what the Forest Service will do and where, on-the-ground, in the immediate future. Speculative zoning does not serve that purpose.