View PDF

Current development in forest management and rural community development present a special challenge and opportunity for forest-dependent rural communities in the southern region. All national forests are required to revise their long-range plans every 10 to 15 years. Many in the southern region have already done so, or are nearing completion of their revised plans. Others haven't, but will be doing so in the near future. In the past local communities have played a minor role in this process. However, greater involvement is being sought and, if it can be achieved, there is potential to use this planning process not only for the benefit of the USDA Forest Service but also to stimulate community strategic planning and development in many forest-dependent communities in the region. It is the thesis of this paper that achieving such a collaborative, community-based strategy, one that sees forest dependent communities as subjects and not merely the objects of USDA Forest Service policy and programs, ought to be of the highest priority within the U. S. Department of Agriculture. However, to actually achieve it will not be easy. This document reviews the definitions of forest-dependency, shows which communities are forest-dependent in the southern region based upon various definitions, and examines the hypothesis that forest-dependent communities suffer from a special "disadvantage." It then provides a review of the USDA Forest Service's emerging strategies for relating to forest-dependent communities, and summarizes the current Rural Community Assistance (RCA) program. Following this it presents the formal forest planning process in some detail, focusing upon opportunities for citizen access to this process. Then there is a brief summary of rural and community development agencies and programs available which might be mobilized to assist the USDA Forest Service in developing an integrated approach to forest-dependent communities, and a detailed presentation of several ongoing efforts to both implement and analyze strategies for linking community development efforts with forest planning and management. This is followed by a summary of emerging efforts to use local government--mostly county government--as a way for local citizens to gain "a place at the table" in forest planning and management. Finally there are some recommendations and a discussion of some of the issues or challenges which must be confronted in developing an integrated, community-based strategy.