American rangelands and forests

Associate Level Material

American Rangelands and Forests

Part 1

Choose either a rangeland or a forest of the United States and describe current federal management strategies. Explain federal efforts to manage these lands sustainably by completing the chart below.

Rangeland or Forest Location
Brief History of Rangeland or Forest
What are current land management problems?
What are the current federal land management strategies that address these problems?
What is one sustainable effort that should be implemented?
American Rangeland or Forest: San Bernardino National Forest
San Bernardino Forest
The San Bernardino Forest was born in 1907 after the forest reserve act was passed in 1891. The forest has a history of mining and prospecting in the past.
The roads during the winter. Trees are dying off at a fast rate causing a high chance for forest fires. Insects are damaging the trees at a fast rate.
The Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) program is trying to stop the damage that burnt areas causing. The run off hurts fish, wildlife, and many other things that are important.
Ecological Restoration plan. It will take over stewardship of the land for the next 15 to 20 years. They need to sell some of the land for mining as it has a history of mining and prospecting in the past.

Part 2

Take your information from Part 1 and use it to create a Sustainability Plan.

Your sustainability plan should present what, when, and how something is to be sustained and maintained now and into the indefinite future. Your plan can be submitted in a narrative or table format. The Corporation for National and Community Service (n.d.) provides the following list of components that make up a sustainability plan that should be included in your paper or table:

1. Action items: Provide the items or activities that need to be addressed or that need to occur. Refer to the following example:

My plan for sustaining clean air in my community is to develop an education program about air pollution-generating activities and their effects, schedule a presentation day and time, invite community participants, and research the effects of air pollution.

2. Order of action items: Discuss how the action items in Step 1 will align or occur. One event or activity should occur before another; thus, order the items into steps similar to the following:

1) Research the effects of air pollution.
2) Develop an education program.
3) Schedule a presentation day and time.
4) Invite the community.

3. Action steps: Explain how you are going to conduct the action items. How are you going to make each item or activity happen? Include individuals or groups who will help you conduct these activities. Use the following as a guide:

In order to schedule a presentation day and time, I will attend next month’s community homeowner’s association (HOA) meeting and request permission from the board to add it to the following month’s agenda.

4. Timeline: Estimate when you are going to conduct the action items, such as “In months 1–3, I will complete the research.” If an item or activity does not have a specific conclusion time, indicate that it is ongoing.

The following is a sample of how you might incorporate your sustainability plan into a table format—keep in mind this is an incomplete plan:

Action Items
(in the correct order)
Action Steps
Action Steps
Research and identify the effects of air pollution.
Review environmental websites and journals.

Document the sources of air pollution and both environmental and health effects of air pollution.

Document video interviews of environmental researchers and facilitators.
Month 1–3
Develop an education program about air pollution effects.
Develop a presentation about why this program is needed and include air pollution’s ill effects, the lifestyle changes that will be required, and the benefits and challenges of change.
Month 1–3
Schedule a presentation day and time.
Attend a monthly HOA meeting to present the benefits of the program.

Request that the HOA board add the presentation to the following month’s agenda.

Document the audio and visual equipment needed for presentation and layout of the room.
Month 4
Identify and invite community participants.
Tally the number of homes in the community.

Create and distribute flyers to homes announcing the next HOA meeting and the educational program that will be introduced.
Month 4–5

Blank Sample Action Plan

Action Items
(in order)
Action Steps
Timeline
Anybody who wants to join groups that wants to save the San Bernardino Forest. We will talk about information on saving the forest; newsletters, and other ways of keeping people informed.
We need to set regulations and rules to help preserve the forest. We have many laws and Government groups (Baer) that need our help and support. I feel that education will be the most important tool. People always want to get involved we just have to give them a chance. If they know what to do if something is wrong it could save the forest.
1 – 5 months

Education will be the most important for everybody that works or visits the forest.
If we want to keep the forest in good condition we have to educate all people that work and visit the park what causes damage and how to keep the forest safe. If people know how to save the forest they will. We need to make sure all laws are posted up all over. We need to make sure that people know the benefits of keeping the forest in good condition.
6 – 9 months
How to preserve the forest.
We need to inform all entering the San Bernardino forest why it is important to protect the forest. The forest is very important to way of life and the future of our kids. It will help with air quality and the clean water. We need to cover fire safety.
1 year
How to take action
We need to take action and make sure we implement Government plans and the plans as a group that we came up with. We need to take care of the insect problem with safe pesticides that don’t hurt the wildlife and fish.
The future
Be a good steward
Follow up on all the plans and make sure we take the lead as a group. We need to see if the plans we made are making a difference and cleaning up the burnt trees and the insect problem.
Follow up

References www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf/

Corporation for National & Community Service. (n.d.). Sample sustainability plan. In Toolkit for program sustainability, capacity building, and volunteer recruitment/management (Section 4). Retrieved from http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/filemanager/download/online/sustainability_plan.pdf.

References: www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf/ Corporation for National & Community Service. (n.d.). Sample sustainability plan. In Toolkit for program sustainability, capacity building, and volunteer recruitment/management (Section 4). Retrieved from http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/filemanager/download/online/sustainability_plan.pdf.