Region 7: An Innovative Approach to Planning on or near Public Lands

Abstract Federal public lands dominate many western landscapes, and are therefore a major factor in western land use planning. The public lands themselves, though, are planned and managed through an outmoded centralized system that, although well intentioned and seeking to achieve worthy public policy objectives, all too often leads to gridlock and frustration. At the same time, the West is experiencing tremendous growth that local communities have done far too little to address. This commentary suggests an alternative approach—dubbed “Region 7”—for planning and managing federal forest lands that could address both of these problems at once. It would create a “virtual” region made up of individual national forests that major public land stake-holders—including neighboring local communities—could propose for experimental management programs. In exchange for being given more responsibility for, and flexibility in, developing and implementing plans for these forests, local communities would be expected to better plan private lands under their jurisdiction and to integrate that planning with forest planning.