Ecological Restoration Implementation Plan Angeles National Forest Vision Statement 3

ii The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720- 2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. iii Executive Summary Implementation Plan for Leadership Intent for Ecological Restoration In March 2011 the Pacific Southwest Region of the US Forest Service released a statement of its Leadership Intent for Ecological Restoration, which laid out the Region's guiding vision and goals for its stewardship of wildland and forests for the next 15–20 years. The following draft document reflects the Regional leadership's current thinking on how the Leadership Intent will be implemented. This draft is a beginning point for discussions with employees, partners, tribes, agencies, communities of place and interest and those who care about the future of their National Forests. Like the Leadership Intent the Implementation Plan is fluid and we expect that adjustments will be made over time as the Region continues to collaborate; follow new science; and seek out and form new alliances. These ongoing processes will reveal new and smarter ways to increase the pace and scale of restoration work while balancing the ecological, social and economic benefits of our restoration actions. Regional leadership has committed to editing and improving this document following these discussions and then reviewing and updating it at least annually in the future years. Hence we invite discussion, input and insight to ensure that the Implementation Plan reflects and is responsive to new information, partnerships, and conditions. The Implementation Plan is organized into the following chapters: 1. LEADERSHIP INTENT FOR ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION (page 1) (March 2011). 2. REGIONAL OVERARCHING STRATEGIES (page 5) – strategies the Region will use to meet the Leadership Intent. This includes Regional methods to increase the pace and scale of restoration and to increase large scale restoration with an all lands approach. 3. PARTNERSHIP STRATEGY (page 13) – strategic thinking on how to increase the effectiveness of existing partnerships and to develop new partnerships to help implementation of the Leadership Intent. Both the Region’s strategy and Pacific Southwest Research Station strategy is included. 4. DIRECTORS CHAPTER (page 29) – the Regional Directors’ vision and commitment for integration of programs and budgets to improve and increase restoration actions on the ground. 5. SOCIOECONOMIC BENEFITS OF ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION (page 30) – a discussion of how embracing a sound restoration approach includes ecological, economic and social outcomes and a commitment to utilize and monitor this triple bottom line approach. 6. NATIONAL FOREST CHAPTERS (page 32) – each includes: The Forest’s unique niche in restoration – its need for action, ecological restoration goals, challenges, and opportunities Specific Forest strategies to increase restoration work within existing resource constraints Focus in coming years Past accomplishments that exemplify future work Partnership opportunities. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region – iv Chapter 1 Region 5 Ecological Restoration Leadership Intent The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. It is our intent to establish a regional vision and corresponding goals for Ecological Restoration consistent with this mission and the laws, regulations and policies that guide National Forest management. Our goal for the Pacific Southwest Region1 is to retain and restore ecological resilience of the National Forest lands to achieve sustainable ecosystems that provide a broad range of services to humans and other organisms. Ecologically healthy and resilient landscapes, rich in biodiversity, will have greater capacity to adapt and thrive in the face of natural disturbances and large scale Meadow restoration in the Tahoe National Forest threats to sustainability, especially under changing and uncertain future environmental conditions such as In the 21st century, three major drivers of change define those driven by climate change and increasing human restoration needs on the National Forests of the Pacific use. Our goal is based on a commitment to land and Southwest Region: climate change and shifting resource management that is infused by the principles hydrologic patterns; increasingly dense and unhealthy of Ecological Restoration and driven by policies and forests; and rapidly growing human populations. These practices that are dedicated to make land and water synergistic sources of change are resulting in ecosystems more sustainable, more resilient, and increasingly over-allocated and undervalued ecosystem healthier under current and future conditions. services (especially water); a dramatic increase in disturbance events such as uncharacteristic large-scale Ecosystem services are the goods and services that wildfires, floods, and insect and disease outbreaks; new flow from wildlands and forests that are valued and and growing threats from terrestrial and aquatic used by people, and that directly or indirectly support invasive species; and a growing need to revitalize rural human well-being. Wildlands and forests are valued for economies in California, Hawaii and the Pacific basic goods, such as wood, fiber, and water, but these Islands. ecosystems also deliver important services that are perceived to be free or limitless such as air and water While sound restoration work is being conducted purification, flood and climate regulation, biodiversity, throughout the Region to increase forest and watershed scenic landscapes, wildlife habitat, and carbon resilience, important indicators suggest that disturbance sequestration and storage. The National Forests are impacts already outpace the benefits of this work, and important providers of ecosystem services to humans that we will fall further behind over time. Wildland and to other inhabitants of our wildlands as well. Our fires in California are becoming larger and more commitment to restoration-based management includes frequent. Of greatest concern is a notable increase in a commitment to a renewed focus on the sustainable the area of forestland burning at high severity over the delivery of ecosystem services. last quarter-century. Fire exclusion over many decades, in conjunction with other forest management choices, has resulted in dense, middle-aged forests over large areas of California. These forests are highly susceptible to severe wildfire, which fragments forests, emits 1. The Pacific Southwest Region (also known as Region 5) includes carbon, increases erosion rates and sedimentation, California, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. It also includes small negatively affects water quality and delivery, and portions of the state of Nevada, managed by the Inyo National damages old-growth forest habitats that sustain Forest, and the state of Oregon, managed by the Klamath National important components of the Region’s biodiversity. Forest. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region – 1 CH1–Region 5 Ecological Restoration: Leadership Intent Dense middle-aged forests are also more susceptible to frequency to the extent that fire-adapted chaparral can drought stress, large-scale insect outbreaks and disease no longer survive and is being replaced with non-native epidemics. annual grasses at an alarming rate. To counter these trends, forest managers will need to significantly increase the pace and scale of the Region’s restoration work. Only an environmental restoration program of unprecedented scale can alter the direction of current trends. From this point forward, Ecological Restoration will be the central driver of wildland and forest stewardship in the Pacific Southwest Region, across all program areas and activities. Future Land and Resource Management Plans, other strategic plans and project plans will identify Ecological Restoration as a core objective. Our Ecological Restoration work will include coordination and support for all wildlands and forests in the Region to promote an “all lands” approach to restoration. It will lead to a new way of doing business with our partners and neighbors, to coordinate work and priorities across forests and wildlands regardless of ownership. Collaboration across ownerships and jurisdictions to achieve Ecological Restoration will require active use of Forest Service State and Private Forestry authorities; an expanded effort to engage tribes, partners, and neighbors and to work in closer coordination with other agencies. Resource program managers will have the responsibility for promoting Ecological Restoration activities including, but not limited to, management of vegetation, water, wildland fire,

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