Status Reviews and Management Recommendations

Threats to the Coronado National Forest are rampant. Many of the most pressing issues that must be addressed in revising the Land and Resource Management Plan are Forestwide. Likewise, most of the core principles of the Coronado Planning Partnership apply to landscapes throughout the Coronado. But each of the Forest's management units also is faced with specific threats and harbors specific values. Each of the Coronado's 12 Ecosystem Management Areas (EMAs) is centered on one or more major mountain ranges in the region. One strength of the current revision process for the Coronado is that it recognizes the uniqueness of each EMA and will address site-specific needs.

But, given shortfalls in budget and staff in the Forest Service, what is the best mechanism for gathering information on local ecology and conservation needs? How can the new Forest Plan incorporate the field data and experience of conservation groups and scientists, as well as local knowledge and vision?

What Are Status Review and Management Recommendations Reports?

To channel the wealth of existing site-specific information into conservation of the Coronado's ecosystems, Sky Island Alliance has taken responsibility for collecting, compiling, and analyzing data on Sky Island mountain ranges, and for reporting the outcome to the Forest Service. The result will be Status Review and Management Recommendations reports—at least one for each EMA on the Forest. These reports, which will include maps and photos as well as data and text, will be keys to informing and influencing management decisions. The first report, on the Dragoon Mountains EMA, is now in draft. “Status and Rec” reports summarize information gathered from the Coronado Planning Partnership and other stakeholders regarding ecological values, threats, opportunities, and recommendations for management of the land.

Where Does the Information Come From?

Status and Rec reports will draw on many sources of existing information, starting with fifteen years' worth of field data in the archives of Sky Island Alliance. Other sources include

•  Consultation with natural and social scientists with experience in each management area;
•  Literature review;
•  Town hall meetings and the Forest Neighbor Network;
•  Forest Service data; and
•  GIS databases from other conservation groups.

A major source of scientific information on specific EMAs is the Southwest Forest Assessment Project (SWFAP), a cost-share project of The Nature Conservancy and the Forest Service's Southwest Region (Region 3). The SWFAP converts current scientific information into tools to assist the Forest Service with revisions of Forest Plans. Among the primary tools in development are (1) a photo archive documenting landscape change, (2) analysis of historical range of variation in forest ecology, (3) models of vegetation change, (4) regional assessment data, (5) a database of species in Region 3 Forests, and (6) a dataset on fire-return interval.

Another key source of data is "An Ecological Analysis of Conservation Priorities in the Apache Highlands Ecoregion" (PDF), a report prepared by The Nature Conservancy and Instituto del Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable del Estado de Sonora. The Apache Highlands report identifies conservation targets that are the basis for threats analysis and management recommendations.

Sky Island Alliance and allies are supplementing these existing data with fieldwork (for example, trips to bring maps of roads, trails, and campsites up to date) where gaps exist.

What Are the Current Goals and Strategies for Status and Rec Reports?

Goal:
Strengthen the conservation content of the Forest Plan by providing site-specific information and recommendations to the Forest Service.

Strategies:
•  Inventory existing Sky Island Alliance data and analyses on current Forest conditions: e.g., transportation systems and road density, fire and fuel loading, threatened and endangered species, wildlife linkages, damage from motorized recreation.
•  Put Sky Island Alliance staff and volunteers into the field to conduct on-the-ground assessments of each EMA, enriching existing data and bringing them up to date.
•  Convert digital data to maps and user-friendly databases; incorporate data from other sources through the Sky Island Action Center.
•  Focus the first round of Status Review and Management Recommendations reports on EMA hotspots (where ecological values or threats, or both, are high). Submit these reports to the Forest Service as Partnership products and post them on the Action Center website.
•  Complete a second round of reports on entire EMAs, as well as a thematic synthesis of reports to submit as a master document to the Forest Service.
•  Produce and circulate a series of EMA-specific booklets that summarize the highlights of Status and Recommendations reports for the Forest Neighbor Network.

As a result of these strategies, Sky Island Alliance expects that
•  The Forest Service will adopt a critical mass of these site-specific recommendations into the Forest Plan and will archive data and recommendations for future project-level analyses.
•  Partnership members will use these reports as information sources for their own recommendations to the Forest Service.

What Lies Ahead?

The 2005 planning rule for the National Forest System calls for Forest Plans that are more strategic, with a broader focus, than plans of the past. Status Review and Management Recommendation reports will be a strong link between the overarching expressions of management needs in the Coronado's Forest Plan and the specific challenges of the Dragoons, the Santa Catalinas, the Pinaleños, and all the other mountain ranges and interconnecting landscapes of the Coronado. As the Coronado Planning Partnership and the Forest Neighbor Network strengthen and grow, so will the streams of data and experience that will flow into these reports.