The forest plans, as they are usually called, represent an integrated, ecological approach to managing the forests' natural resources and guide all natural resource management decisions. The forest plans provide direction for multiple-use management and the sustained yield of goods and services in an environmentally sensitive manner. The forest plans are dynamic documents. To date both the Chequamegon and Nicolet plans have been amended several times. Under this approach, all of the resources in a specific area are considered jointly when management activities are planned.
Planning is done by a team representing several disciplines.
An interdisciplinary team, for example, may have an engineer, a silviculturist, a biologist, a forester, and a landscape architect. The Integrated Resource Management approach assures that all future forest plan implementation actions are coordinated, and that forest plan goals and objectives are achieved. By ecosystem management, we mean that an ecological approach will be used to achieve multiple-use management of national forests. It means that we must blend the needs of people and environmental values in such a way that national forests represent diverse, healthy, productive, and sustainable ecosystems. Ecosystem management is not a radical departure from our recent management strategy, but is the logical next step in the evolution of forest management in the United States.