What Planning Efforts have Occurred in the Past?

The San Juan landscape is rich and diverse, ranging from high desert to alpine. These public lands contain complex natural ecosystems, while sustaining the economies of local communities. National Forest and BLM lands are managed as “multiple-use” public lands. How they are managed is guided by their longrange plans. The current San Juan National Forest Plan was completed in 1983 and has been amended 21 times. Public involvement was started in 1996 and 1997 in anticipation of revising the Forest Plan, but that effort was put on hold by the 1998 Appropriations Act, and later delayed by budget shortcomings.

The Office of Community Services facilitated the earlier round of Study Group meetings between April 1996 and June 1997 to identify and discuss land management issues of concern to the public. During this process, over 100 community members met in Cortez, Durango and Pagosa Springs. The Study Group Process evolved into a second phase of topical Working Groups (June 1997—March 1998), in which community members studied and discussed resource specific issues in more detail, such as timber and fire, recreation and travel management, etc. A great deal of information was gathered from these processes in preparation for the Plan Revision. However the Plan Revision effort was put on hold by the 1998 Appropriations Act and later delayed by budget shortages, and a variety of other interruptions including catastrophic wildfires and critical wildfire prevention efforts. Below are the reports from these two processes:

1996-97 Study Group Summary (PDF, 441 KB)

1997-98 Work Group Summary (PDF, 1MB)