Draft 2006 NPS Management Policies

**Chapter 2: Park System Planning**

2--PARK SYSTEM PLANNING

2.1GENERAL PRINCIPLES

2.1.1DECISION MAKING

2.1.2SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL, SCHOLARLY ANALYSIS

2.1.3PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

2.1.4GOAL ORIENTATION

2.2MAJOR ELEMENTS OF NPS PARK PLANNING AND DECISION-MAKING

2.3LEVELS OF PARK PLANNING

2.3.1General Management Planning

2.3.1.1Statutory Requirements

2.3.1.2Management Zoning

2.3.1.3Planning Team

2.3.1.4Public Involvement

2.3.1.5Alternative Futures

2.3.1.6Environmental Analysis

2.3.1.7Cooperative Planning

2.3.1.8Wild and Scenic Rivers

2.3.1.9Alaska Park Units

2.3.1.10Periodic Review of GMPs

2.3.2Program Management Planning

2.3.3Strategic Planning

2.3.3.1Relationship between Strategic Plan and GMP

2.3.4Implementation Planning

2.3.4.1Environmental Analysis

2.3.4.2Annual Performance Planning and Reporting

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**Management Policies 2006**

**CHAPTER 2: PARK SYSTEM PLANNING**

**[Cover page summary statement.]**Park planning helps define the set of resource conditions, visitor experiences, and management actions that, taken as a whole, will best achieve the mandate to conserve resources unimpaired for the enjoyment of present and future generations. NPS planning is holistic and interdisciplinary, recognizing that *“To isolate and emphasize either use or preservation to the exclusion of the other can seriously distort park planning, confuse park management, and imperil the validity of the whole national park concept.”*  (Howard R. Stagner) 

**2.1   General Principles**

**2.1.1   Decision Making**

The National Park Service uses planning to involve the public in making decisions about the future of their parks, to provide a logical and consistent framework that analyzes a broad spectrum of options for long-term management of the park, and to provide accountability for future management decisions. Decisions and directions identified in long-term park planning will be used as the guidance for a tiered series of short-and medium-term planning documents that will document implementation of the long-range plan. Each park will be able to demonstrate to decision makers, staff, and the public through an administrative record that documents how planning decisions relate to one another in a logical progression.

**2.1.2   Scientific, Technical, and Scholarly Analysis**

Decision makers and planners will use the best available scientific and technical information and scholarly analysis to identify appropriate management actions for use and protection of park resources. General management plans (GMPs) should consider if adaptive management is appropriate. Analysis will be interdisciplinary and tiered, focusing first on the park as a whole (including its global, national, and regional contexts) and then on site-specific details. At key points in planning, the Park Service will identify a range of reasonable, legal, feasible, and practicable alternatives, and will analyze and compare their differences with respect to

· their consistency with the park’s purpose and foundation documents,

· the impacts on park visitors and park resources,

· short- and long-term costs, and 

· the environmental and socioeconomic impacts to areas and interests beyond park boundaries.

**2.1.3   Public Participation**

Americans have strong ties with national parks, which are part of their national heritage, cultural traditions, and communities. Public participation in planning and decision making will be conducted in such a way that the Park Service fully appreciates and considers the public’s interests and concerns about the parks, the resources, and their use. The Service will actively seek out and consult with existing and potential visitors; neighbors; people with traditional cultural ties to park lands; scientists and scholars; and those with socioeconomic ties, such as concessioners, cooperating associations, gateway communities; other partners; and government agencies. The Service will work cooperatively with others to improve the resources and infrastructure of parks; to enhance services for park visitors; and to integrate parks into larger ecological, cultural, and socioeconomic systems that extend beyond the park boundaries.

*(See Public Involvement 2.3.1.6; Consultation 5.2.1. Also see Director’s Order #75A: Civic Engagement and Public Involvement)*

**2.1.4   Goal Orientation**

Managers will identify long-term goals and annual goals that are incremental steps to carry out the park mission. Such planning is a critical and essential part of the National Park Service Performance Management System that is designed to improve the Service’s performance and results. Park staff will monitor resource conditions and visitor experiences, and plan, track, and report performance. If goals are not being met, managers will seek to understand why, and initiate appropriate actions. The broadest goals will be periodically reassessed, taking into account their efficacy, new knowledge and technology, changing conditions, and any previously unforeseen circumstances. 

*(See Park Management 1.4)*

**2.2   Major Elements of NPS Park Planning and Decision Making**

Park managers and regional directors are responsible for ensuring that planning is properly conducted within the planning framework, and for making management decisions supported by civic engagement, the best available information, and analysis. However, many parks may initially lack one or more of these planning elements. In the interim, management will be guided by the park’s foundation document, strategic plan, and other current approved plans. No major new development, or other major commitment of park land or natural or cultural resources, will be authorized without an approved general management plan.

The following planning elements are part of an interrelated framework that will inform NPS decision making: 

· **Foundation Document** — The planning process begins with the development of a single foundation document that includes the park mission, purpose, significance, special mandates and administrative commitments, fundamental resources and values (how each primary resource relates to the reason the park was established), and primary interpretive themes. Because this document plays an important role in all future planning and decision making, it must be developed with input from a wide range of people (public, other agencies, governmental entities and NPS staff).

· **General Management Plans** (GMPs) — A broad umbrella document that sets the long-term goals for the park based on the foundation document. The general management plan (1) clearly defines the desired natural and cultural resource conditions and visitor experiences to be achieved and maintained over time; (2) identifies the kinds and levels of management activities, visitor use, and development that are appropriate for maintaining the desired conditions; and (3) identifies indicators and standards for maintaining the desired conditions. 

· **Program Management Plans** — Program management plans are more detailed documents that follow the general management plan and provide program-specific information on strategies to achieve and maintain the desired resource conditions and visitor experiences, including identification of appropriate visitor use where applicable (e.g., resource stewardship plan and comprehensive interpretation plan).

· **Strategic Plans** — Provide 1- to 5-year direction and objective, measurable goals for resource conditions and visitor experiences. Results on progress towards these goals are reported annually. These goals are based on an assessment of the park’s natural and cultural resources; park visitors’ experiences; and the park’s performance capability, given available personnel, funding, and external factors. 

· **Implementation Plans** — These plans provide project-specific details needed to implement a specific action in a specific area of a park and how these actions help the park achieve its long-term goals.

· **Annual Performance Plans** — These plans contain annual goals and an annual work plan that guide park efforts for a fiscal year.

· **Annual Performance Report —** This report is an accounting of annual results in relation to annual goals. 

*(See Visitor Use 8.2)*

**2.3   Levels of Park Planning**

The order of plan development will generally flow from broad general management planning to progressively more specific planning. 

It is important to distinguish which issues can most appropriately be addressed by general management planning, and which can be most appropriately addressed by more detailed program, strategic, or implementation planning. Each level of planning has a distinctive function, and all levels are designed to interrelate with a minimum of duplication and confusion. At each level, plans will be written to make the links and relationships among the planning levels apparent to readers.

Environmental analysis of alternatives and public involvement required under section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (42 USC 4332(2)(C)) will be conducted at all levels of planning. Normally, NEPA analysis and public participation will be done at the general management planning level—when the overall direction for the park’s future is decided—and again at the implementation planning level, before funding and resources are committed to carry out specific actions (see 2.3.1 and 2.3.4, below). In keeping with the Council on Environmental Quality’s guidelines for NEPA compliance, environmental analysis for more specific programs or actions will follow, or flow from, earlier NEPA documents for the broader general management plan. The Service will apply the Departmental NEPA guidance principles of (1) tiering analyses off of other completed NEPA documents, (2) using adaptive management and consensus based decision making, and (3) complying with Executive Order 13352 regarding cooperating agency status. 

*(Also see Director’s Orders #2: Park Planning, and #12: Conservation Planning and Environmental Impact Analysis)*

**2.3.1   General Management Planning**

The Service will maintain a general management plan for each unit (or group of units) of the national park system. The purpose of the general management plan is to ensure that the park has a clearly defined direction for resource protection and appropriate uses. This document  will be developed by an interdisciplinary team, in consultation with relevant offices within the Service, other federal and state agencies, local and tribal governments, other interested parties, and the general public. The general management plan will be based on full and proper use of scientific and scholarly information related to existing and potential resource conditions, visitor experiences, environmental impacts, and relative costs of alternative courses of action. The approved general management plan will create a realistic vision for the future, setting a direction for the park that takes into consideration the financial as well as environmental impact of proposed facilities and programs, and ensures that the final plan is achievable and sustainable.

The first phase of general management planning will be the development of the foundation document. The general management plan will take the long view when dealing with the time frames of natural and cultural processes. The plan will consider the park in its full ecological, scenic, and cultural contexts as a unit of the national park system and as part of a surrounding region. The management plan will also establish a management direction for all park divisions and districts. This integration will help avoid inadvertently creating new problems in one area while attempting to solve problems in another. 

*(See Decision-making Requirements to Avoid Impairments 1.4.7; Visitor Use 8.2)*

**2.3.1.1   Statutory Requirements**

General management plans will meet all statutory requirements contained in 16 USC 1a-7(b), and will include

· the types of management actions required for the preservation of park resources, 

· the types and general intensities of development (including visitor circulation and transportation patterns, systems, and modes) associated with public enjoyment and use of the area, including general locations, timing of implementation, and anticipated costs, 

· visitor carrying capacities, and implementation commitments, for all areas of the park, and 

· potential modifications to the external boundaries of the park—if any—and the reasons for the proposed changes. 

*(See Visitor Carrying Capacity 8.2.1)*

**2.3.1.2   Management Zoning**

Each park’s general management plan will include a map that delineates management zones or districts, a prescription of the desired resource and visitor experience conditions to be achieved for each zone, and appropriate management activities needed to achieve those desired resource and visitor experience conditions. Management zoning will outline the criteria for (or describe the kind of) appropriate uses and describe the facilities necessary to support these uses. For example, highly sensitive natural areas might tolerate little use, while other areas might accommodate much higher levels of use. Even in historic structures, one floor might be most appropriate for exhibits, while another could accommodate offices or administrative uses. Some desired conditions may apply parkwide, but the delineation of management zones will illustrate where there are differences in intended resource conditions, visitor experience, and management activity. 

**2.3.1.3   Planning Team**

An interdisciplinary team, including park managers and staff and technical experts, will prepare general management plans. Planning teams will consult with park staff, Service and Departmental leadership, other agencies with expertise or jurisdiction by virtue of law, other knowledgeable persons, and the public concerning future management of park resources. Because this document serves as the framework for all future planning efforts, it is important that the senior park manager be involved with the plan’s development from the beginning and have frequent updates from the planning team. The planning team will advise the park superintendent and the regional director, but the superintendent and regional director have ultimate responsibility for the contents of the plan. The regional director is the official responsible for approving general management plans. 

**2.3.1.4   Public Involvement**

Members of the public—including existing and potential visitors; park neighbors; people with traditional cultural ties to lands within the park; scientists and scholars; and those with socioeconomic ties such as concessioners, cooperating associations, other partners, state and local governments, and other federal agencies—will be encouraged to participate during the preparation of a general management plan and the associated environmental analysis. Public involvement will meet NEPA and other federal requirements for identifying the scope of issues, developing the range of alternatives considered in planning, reviewing the analysis of potential impacts, and disclosing the rationale for decisions about the park’s future. 

The Service will use the public involvement process to

· share information about (1) legal and policy mandates, budget, and other constraints affecting development of alternatives and capacity of the Service to implement the planning process, (2) issues, and (3) proposed management directions,

· learn about the values placed by other people and groups on the same resources and visitor experiences,

· build support for implementing the plan among local interests, visitors, Congress, and others at the regional and national level, and

· gain scientific, technical, scholarly, and socioeconomic information from a variety of sources.

The Park Service encourages conservation through consultation, cooperation, and communication, and through multiple forms of public involvement, including “consensus-based management” as described in Part 516 of the *Department of the Interior Manual*. The Park Service will give appropriate consideration to consensus advice presented to it when those recommendations have been developed independent of the Park Service. Whenever groups are created, controlled, or managed for the purpose of providing advice or recommendations to the Service, the Service will first consult with the Office of the Solicitor to determine whether the Federal Advisory Committee Act requires the chartering of an advisory committee. Consultation with the Office of the Solicitor will not be necessary when the Service meets with individuals, existing groups, or existing organizations simply to exchange views and information, or to solicit individual advice on proposed NPS actions.

*(See Consultation 5.2.1. Also see Director’s Order #75A: Civic Engagement and Public Involvement; NPS Guide to the Federal Advisory Committee Act)*

**2.3.1.5   Alternative Futures**

Alternative futures for the park will be explored and assessed during general management planning and environmental analysis. Within the broad parameters of the park mission and purpose, various approaches to park resource preservation, use, and development may be possible, some of which may represent competing demands for the same resource base. The management plan will be the principal tool for generally resolving such issues. The range of alternatives will examine different combinations of management actions as well as life-cycle costs within the limits of laws, regulations, and policies governing national parks.

**2.3.1.6   Environmental Analysis**

The analysis of alternatives will meet the program standards for NPS implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act and related legislation, including the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). In most cases, an environmental impact statement (EIS) will be prepared for general management plans. In a few cases, the regional director, in consultation with the NPS Environmental Quality Division, through the Associate Director for Natural Resource Stewardship and Science, may approve an exception to this general rule if completion of scoping demonstrates that there is no public controversy concerning potential environmental effects, and when the initial analysis of alternatives clearly indicates there is no potential for significant impact by any alternative. Where NEPA and sections 106 and 110 of NHPA (16 USC 470f and 470h-2, respectively) apply, NEPA procedures will be used to inform the public about undertakings having the potential to affect properties listed on, or eligible for listing on, the National Register of Historic Places, consistent with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s regulatory provisions governing coordination with NEPA and the NPS nationwide programmatic agreement on Section 106 compliance. 

*(See Evaluating Impacts on Natural Resources 4.1.3; Planning 5.2. Also see Director’s Order #12: Conservation Planning and Environmental Impact Analysis)*

**2.3.1.7   Cooperative Planning**

General management planning will be conducted as part of cooperative regional planning and ecosystem planning whenever possible. NPS participation in cooperative regional planning will be undertaken with the hope of better coordinating and focusing the independent and autonomous efforts of multiple parties. Service participation in such planning efforts will acknowledge the rights and interests of other landowners. While being consistent with NPS management policies and park goals, plans will identify and consider potential effects outside, as well as inside, park boundaries, and will identify ways to enhance beneficial effects and mitigate adverse effects. 

**2.3.1.8   Wild and Scenic Rivers**

The Park Service has been charged by Congress to maintain an inventory of all rivers and river segments in the nation potentially eligible for inclusion in the national wild and scenic rivers system. As a part of that charge, the Service will compile a listing of all rivers and river segments in the national park system that it considers potentially eligible for the national wild and scenic rivers system. Rivers and river segments the Service considers eligible and proposes for listing on the Nationwide Rivers Inventory must be published in the *Federal Register*. A listing on the inventory, or a determination of eligibility, will not necessarily mean that the Service will seek designation, which requires Departmental approval and legislation. NPS plans potentially affecting these listed river resources will propose no actions that could adversely affect the values that qualify a river for the national wild and scenic rivers system. A decision concerning whether or not to seek designation will be initiated through a general management plan, or an amendment to an existing general management plan, or the legislative review process. 

*(See National Wild and Scenic Rivers System 4.3.4)*

**2.3.1.9   Alaska Park Units**

General management plans for park system units in Alaska that were established or expanded by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act will address the provisions for conservation and management planning specified in section 1301 of that act (16 USC 3191).

**2.3.1.10   Periodic Review of General Management Plans**

General management plans will be reviewed regularly to ensure that they are current. GMP revisions are generally needed every 10 to 15 years but may be needed sooner if conditions change significantly, or longer if conditions remain substantially unchanged. Even in parks with strong traditions and established patterns of use and development, managers will be responsible for assessing whether resources are threatened with impairment, the visitor experience has been diminished, or the park’s built environment is difficult to sustain. Periodically reassessing the general management plan will give everyone with a major stake in the park an opportunity to revalidate the park’s role in the nation and in the region, and to reevaluate whether the kinds of resource conditions and visitor experiences being pursued are the best possible mix for the future. An approved general management plan may be amended to address a single issue, or a limited number of issues, or area of the park, rather than preparing a whole new plan if conditions and management prescriptions governing most of the area covered by the existing plan remain substantially unchanged from those present when the plan was originally approved. Amendments to an existing general management plan will be accompanied by suitable NEPA analysis and public involvement.

*(See Chapter 1: the Foundation; Chapter 3: Land Protection; Chapter 4: Natural Resource Management; Chapter 5: Cultural Resource Management; Chapter 6: Wilderness Stewardship; Chapter 8: Use of the Parks; Chapter 9: Park Facilities; Chapter 10: Commercial Visitor Services. Also see Director’s Orders #2: Park Planning; and #12: Conservation Planning and Environmental Impact Analysis; #75A: Civic Engagement and Public Involvement)*

**2.3.2   Program Management Planning**

Program management planning for a park provides a bridge between the broad direction provided in the general management plan and specific actions taken to achieve goals. These plans provide a comprehensive approach for a specific park program area across most or all of the park. Program management plans planning may include special emphasis plans, such as a park resource stewardship plan, a comprehensive interpretive plan, a land protection plan, a visitor use plan, a fire management plan, an asset management plan, or a wilderness stewardship plan. Integrated, interdisciplinary approaches to program planning are encouraged. Program management plans will provide comprehensive recommendations about specific actions needed to achieve and maintain the desired resource conditions and visitor experiences.

**2.3.3   Strategic Planning**

Strategic planning will be conducted for the National Park Service as a whole, and every park, program, and central office will be covered by a strategic plan. Strategic plans will address Servicewide and local outcomes, and will be recommended by the superintendent, approved by the regional director, and consistent with the Department’s overall strategic plan. Strategic plans will contain the following elements: 

· mission statement and purpose from the foundation document, 

· long-term performance goals (with performance targets),

· a short description of the strategies chosen to accomplish the goals,

· a description of how the annual goals will relate to the long-term goals (if it is not obvious),

· an identification of the key external factors that could significantly affect achievement of the goals,

· a description of the core analysis used to establish or revise goals,

· a section that identifies the civic engagement strategy used to involve stakeholders and communities in the development of the strategic plan, and 

· a list of those who developed the plan. 

Because information in park strategic plans is used to compile Servicewide achievements, these plans must contain similar information. 

**2.3.3.1   Relationship between the Strategic Plan and the General Management Plan**

The park’s strategic plan will be consistent the Department of the Interior’s strategic plan and with the general management plan, building on the foundation document. Parks that lack a current general management plan will work from their existing plans or an updated foundation document. A strategic plan is focused on a shorter time frame than a general management plan; targets more measurable results; and does not usually require the comprehensive resource analysis, consultation, and compliance required for a general management plan.

Should a park decide, through its strategic planning process, that a major shift in direction or emphasis is needed, the strategic plan will identify the need for a new general management plan, or a GMP amendment. Strategic plans may also identify the need for more detailed program management or implementation plans.

**2.3.4   Implementation Planning**

Implementation planning will focus on how to implement activities and projects needed to achieve the desired conditions identified in the general management plan and other planning documents. Implementation plans may deal with complex, technical, and sometimes controversial issues that often require a level of detail and thorough analysis beyond that appropriate for other planning documents.

Implementation plans may concentrate on individual projects or components of the general management plan, and may specify the techniques, disciplines, equipment, infrastructure, schedule, and funding necessary to accomplish outcomes.

Implementation plan details may vary widely, and may direct a finite project (such as reintroducing an extirpated species or developing a trail) or a continuous activity (such as maintaining a historic structure). Examples of implementation plan details include management plans for specific species and habitats, site designs, off-road-vehicle management plans, and interpretive media plans. Details will generally be deferred until the activity or project under consideration has attained sufficient priority to indicate that action will be taken within the next two to five years, and will then be included in an annual work plan. This will help ensure that decisions about how to best achieve a certain goal are relevant, timely, and based on current data.

Technical specialty teams under the direction of the program leader in the park (usually a division chief) or in the regional office will develop implementation plans, and the park superintendent will approve the plans.

Development of an implementation plan may overlap other planning efforts, if appropriate for the purposes of planning efficiency or public involvement. However, the decisions made for the general management plan will precede—and direct—more detailed decisions regarding projects and activities to accomplish goals. Major actions or commitments aimed at changing resource conditions or visitor use in a park, and major new development or rehabilitation, must be consistent with an approved general management plan. Even if they are conducted simultaneously, the general management plan and an implementation plan will be contained in separate documents.

**2.3.4.1   Environmental Analysis**

Any decisions calling for actions having the potential to significantly affect the environment or be controversial will require a formal analysis of alternatives, in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and related legislation, including the National Historic Preservation Act. Because many issues involving environmental quality and cultural resources will be resolved through implementation plans rather than general management plans; implementation plans will often tier off the general management plan’s NEPA and NHPA section 106 processes. 

*(See Park Management 1.4; Chapter 3: Land Protection; Chapter 4: Natural Resource Management; Chapter 5: Cultural Resource Management; Chapter 6: Wilderness Stewardship; Chapter 8: Use of the Parks; Chapter 9: Park Facilities; Chapter 10: Commercial Visitor Services. Also see Director’s Orders #2: Park Planning, and #12: Conservation Planning and Environmental Impact Analysis)*

**2.3.4.2   Annual Performance Planning and Reporting**

Each park will prepare annual performance plans, articulating annual goals for each fiscal year, and annual performance reports, describing the progress made in meeting the annual goals. The development of the annual performance plan and report will be synchronized with NPS budget development.

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