[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 36, Volume 2]
[Revised as of July 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 36CFR219.12]

[Page 44-45]
 
              TITLE 36--PARKS, FORESTS, AND PUBLIC PROPERTY
 
          CHAPTER II--FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 
PART 219--PLANNING--Table of Contents
 
 Subpart A--National Forest System Land and Resource Management Planning
 
Sec. 219.12  Collaboration and cooperatively developed landscape goals.

    (a) Collaboration. To promote sustainability, the responsible 
official must actively engage the American public, interested 
organizations, private landowners, state, local, and Tribal governments, 
federal agencies, and others in the stewardship of National Forest 
System lands. To engage people in the stewardship of National Forest 
System lands, the responsible official may assume many roles, such as 
leader, organizer, facilitator, or participant. The responsible official 
must provide early and frequent opportunities for people to participate 
openly and meaningfully in planning taking into account the diverse 
roles, jurisdictions, and responsibilities of interested and affected 
organizations, groups, and individuals. The responsible official has the 
discretion to determine how to provide these opportunities in the 
planning process.
    (b) Cooperatively developed landscape goals. (1) The responsible 
official and other Forest Service employees involved in planning must 
invite and encourage others to engage in the collaborative development 
of landscape goals. Using information from broad-scale assessments or 
other available information, and subject to applicable laws, the 
responsible official may initiate or join ongoing collaborative efforts 
to develop or propose landscape goals for areas that include National 
Forest System lands.
    (2) During collaborative efforts, responsible officials and other 
Forest Service employees, must communicate and foster understanding of 
the nation's declaration of environmental policy as set forth in section 
101(b) of the National Environmental Policy Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. 
4321-4347), which states that it is the continuing responsibility of the 
Federal Government to use all practicable means, consistent with other 
essential considerations of national policy, to improve and coordinate 
federal plans, functions, programs, and resources to the end that the 
Nation may--
    (i) Fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as trustee of 
the environment for succeeding generations;
    (ii) Assure for all Americans safe, healthful, productive, and 
esthetically and culturally pleasing surroundings;
    (iii) Attain the widest range of beneficial uses of the environment 
without degradation, risk to health or safety, or other undesirable and 
unintended consequences;
    (iv) Preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of 
our national heritage, and maintain, wherever possible, an environment 
which supports diversity, and variety of individual choice;
    (v) Achieve a balance between population and resource use which will 
permit high standards of living and a wide sharing of life's amenities; 
and
    (vi) Enhance the quality of renewable resources and approach the 
maximum attainable recycling of depletable resources.

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    (3) Cooperatively developed landscape goals, whether the result of 
efforts initiated by the Forest Service or others, must be deemed an 
issue for the purposes under Sec. 219.4.