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              Using the 2020 Resources Planning Act AssessmentT
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        Inside the Forest Service
    Using the 2020 Resources Planning Act Assessment
                            Published April 4, 2024
                                                        If you manage or plan for a forest or grassland, you’ll benefit from the 2020 Resources Planning Act Assessment. This national report, the latest in a series of decadal reports, can inform how you monitor and assess landscape health, determine changing needs, and develop desired conditions and objectives. And not only does the report summarize the status and trends of renewable resources on all U.S. lands — federal, state, Tribal, and private — but it also projects how these resources may change over the next 50 years. “The Assessment is unique in its focus on how the interaction of economic, social, and biophysical factors affect the productivity of forest and rangeland ecosystems and their ability to meet increasing demands for goods and services,” says Claire O’Dea, 2020 Assessment lead. “We often look at the potential impact of these factors in isolation, but in order to truly understand the scope of the issues we’re facing, we need to understand their relationship.”Assessment data rely on varying future scenarios.O’Dea notes differing future scenarios help managers anticipate and plan for changes not currently observed or that contrast past trends.“Instead of providing you with one prediction with high uncertainty, [The Assessment] creates a plausible range of possible futures with its scenarios,” says O’Dea.“Because it’s hard to say exactly what the world will be like in 50 years,” she continues, “running analyses for many different possible future scenarios helps us create the boundaries within which our future is likely to fall ... allowing us to examine the best and worst-case scenarios.”As an example, let’s look at outdoor recreation.“Assessment projections can help to provide a check against local estimates of future recreational use,” says Eric White, research quantitative social scientist. Local numbers, he notes, are based on National Visitor Use Monitoring Program data. While these numbers report the volume and demographics of forest-level visitors, their spending, and their activities, White suggests they may exaggerate short-term trends and inaccurately predict future demand — a shortcoming remedied by the Assessment.“Eight years ago, everyone was saying, ‘fat tire snow bikes are going to be where it’s at in 10 years,’” says White, “but we don’t see that in Assessment projections. A primary message of the Assessment is that the activities that are really popular today — which are general, broadly accessible activities like hiking and nature viewing — will remain popular in the future.”What’s new in the 2020 Assessment?The Resources Planning Act-Land Management Planning Catalog and Data Reference Quick Guides. The Catalog focuses on data and tools most helpful to planners who need to fulfill the 2012 Planning Rule — which explicitly lists the Assessment as a planning resource. Reference Guides more comprehensively list 2020 Assessment datasets.Leslie Brandt, climate adaptation specialist, notes the catalog offers datasets at multiple scales.“The number one misconception about Assessment data is that the scale is wrong — that it’s all national-level and therefore not useful at the [forest] plan level,” Brandt says. In contrast, many data are available at the scale of sub-region, county, or finer. A user guide accompanying each dataset suggests the best spatial scale for interpretation and recommends how to use data in plan assessments. These guides also indicate relevant assessment topic numbers and areas.Assessment webinars. Assessment authors narrated findings from each chapter during the SCIENCEx Planning for Forests of the Future webinar week. They also recorded videos explaining the scenarios underlying their findings. Access these scenario videos near the bottom of the 2020 Resources Planning Act Assessment webpage.We’re just shy of the Resources Planning Act’s fiftieth anniversary — why haven’t I heard more about it?President Gerald Ford signed the Resources Planning Act in the early 1970s due to concerns about future resource scarcity — think the energy crisis and the growing environmental movement. The Act required not only the recurring Assessment but also a now-discontinued program that used Assessment results to inform strategic planning. Eliminating the program and reducing capacity lessened the Assessment’s impact — despite continued improvement and relevancy of Agency research.Since 1975, The Resources Planning Act Assessment has provided:**Regular updates.** An Assessment is produced every decade, with updates every five years (mid-way between Assessments).**A broad context**. The Assessment reports the condition of renewable resources on all land ownerships inside and outside National Forest System boundaries.**Consistency.** The Assessment uses nationwide data and definitions to support collaborative planning.**Trends and projections.** Historic and projected trends help planners and managers contextualize current conditions in a changing landscape.**Information on multiple resources.** The Assessment addresses eight of the 15 land management planning assessment topics: land resources, disturbances, forest resources, forest product markets, rangelands, water resources, biodiversity, and outdoor recreation.The 2020 Assessment illustrates the need for the Resources Planning Act.Forest resources analyst Oswalt highlights how the Assessment, and its tools can reach broad audiences —state foresters, Congressional staffers, non-governmental organizations, and the public. “You can pull up a map, zoom into an area, and say, ‘look at what the future might hold in relation to where you live or the things that are important to you,’” she says. “That’s far more interesting than standing up and giving generalizations,” she concludes. “Assessment tools provide a foundation to say, ‘let’s talk about how we can plan for the future and make sure we are prepared.’”
      
                    
    







      ScienceX Planning for Forests of the Future Webinar Week
                            		
        									Assessment authors narrated findings from each chapter during this webinar series.
					
        					Webinars
	
																						
	
								SCIENCE x Assessments: Ecosystem Services, risks, and benefits
	
																						

									Webinars
	
																						
	
								SCIENCE x Assessments: Forest Inventory and Analysis in forest management
	
																						

									Webinars
	
																						
	
								SCIENCE x Assessments: Research to inform recreation management & activities
	
																						

									Webinars
	
																						
	
								SCIENCE x Assessments: Research to inform silviculture and management activities
	
																						

									Webinars
	
																						
	
								SCIENCE x Assessments: Science for forest planning
	
																						

									Webinars
	
																						
	
								SCIENCE x Climate Assessments and Management
  



      2020 RPA Assessment Web Pages
                            		
        							
        					2020 RPA Assessment
	
																												Using RPA Data
  






      2020 RPA Assessment Publications
                            		
        							
        					Forest Service U.S. Department of Agriculture.         2023. Key Findings of the 2020 RPA Assessment
                    Linda L. Langner, Linda A. Joyce, David N. Wear, Jeffrey P. Prestemon, David  Coulson, Claire B. O'Dea.         2020. Future scenarios: A technical document supporting the USDA Forest Service 2020 RPA Assessment
                    Linda A. Joyce, David  Coulson.         2020. Climate scenarios and projections: A technical document supporting the USDA Forest Service 2020 RPA Assessment
                    Mark D. Nelson, Kurt H. Riitters, John W. Coulston, Grant M. Domke, Eric J. Greenfield, Linda L. Langner, David J. Nowak, Claire B. O'Dea, Sonja N. Oswalt, Matthew C. Reeves, David N. Wear.         2020. Defining the United States land base: a technical document supporting the USDA Forest Service 2020 RPA assessment
                    Sonja N. Oswalt, W. Brad Smith, Patrick D. Miles, Scott A. Pugh.         2019. Forest Resources of the United States, 2017: a technical document supporting the Forest Service 2020 RPA Assessment
                    Consuelo  Brandeis, Marcus  Taylor, Karen L. Abt, Delton  Alderman, Urs  Buehlmann.         2021. Status and trends for the U.S. forest products sector: a technical document supporting the Forest Service 2020 RPA Assessment
                    Craig M.T. Johnston, Jinggang  Guo, Jeffrey P. Prestemon.         2021. The FOrest Resource Outlook Model (FOROM): a technical document supporting the Forest Service 2020 RPA Assessment
  


Resources Planning Act Assessment
            RPA
            2020 RPA
                            Last updated April 4, 2024
	

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