Ecosystem services to enhance sustainable forest management in the US: moving from forest service national programmes to local projects in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract

Ecosystem services are increasingly recognized as a way of framing and describing the broad suite of benefits that people receive from forests. The USDA Forest Service has been exploring use of an ecosystem services framework to describe forest values provided by federal lands and to attract and build partnerships with stakeholders to implement projects. Recently, the agency has sought placed-based applications of the ecosystem services framework to national forest management to better illustrate the concept for policymakers, managers and forest stakeholders. This framework includes describing the ecosystem services provided by forest landscapes, examining the potential trade-offs among services associated with proposed management activities, and attracting and building partnerships with stakeholders who benefit from particular services forests provide. Projects that describe objectives and outcomes using an ecosystem services framework are quickly gaining respect and could provide an optimal method of managing forests to better serve the needs of people. We describe how project-scale guidelines can be designed to address commonly recognized products such as timber and clean water, as well as critical regulating, supporting and cultural services. We present results from national programmes to forest plan assessments to project-scale applications that enhance the provision of ecosystem services and sustainable forest management at broad to local scales.