Chapter 6 Conservation Goals and Priorities
6.4.2 US Forest Service (USFS) USFS, an agency within USDA, manages public lands in national forests and grasslands. The mission of the USFS is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. There are nine geographical regions and North Carolina falls within USFS Southern Region 8. There are four national forests in North Carolina, the Nantahala, Pisgah, Croatan, and Uwharrie national forests. Together they provide 1.25 million acres of public lands from the mountains and the coast. Each National Forest has a Land Management Plan, commonly referred to as a forest plan. The forest plan provides strategic direction for the forest and guidance for project and activity-level decision making. The plan describes the desired ecological, social, and economic conditions of the forest and provides constraints that focus management activities toward maintaining or achieving those conditions over time. Each forest plan also includes a plan monitoring program to evaluate whether the plan is being implemented properly, whether it is effective at guiding management toward long-term outcomes, or whether changes need to be made. • The Forest Service released the final revised Nantahala Pisgah Forest Plan (R8-MB-160) in January 2023. This Plan will guide future management of the national forests in western North Carolina. • The Croatan National Forest Plan was published in 2002, and since then, the USFS adopted a new planning rule that requires the forest monitoring program to meet new monitoring requirements and transition the forest to a biennial monitoring report, with the first report published in September 2020.
• The Uwharrie National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (R8-MB 140A) was published in May 2012.
• A Biennial Monitoring Evaluation report for the Uwharrie and Croatan national forests was published in September 2020.
The Land Management Plans and biennial monitoring reports for each National Forest in the state is available online at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r08/northcarolina/planning.
The Southern Region 8 identifies nonnative, invasive plant species as a critical threat to national ecosystems. A regional goal is to reduce, minimize, or eliminate the potential for the introduction, establishment, spread, and impact of nonnative invasive species across all landscapes and ownerships. To achieve this goal, the region has developed the Southern Region Framework for Non-Native Invasive Species. To address the problem, the USFS developed a National Strategy and Implementation Plan for Invasive Species Management (FS-805) that addresses prevention, early detection and rapid response, control and management, and
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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