252 



To fill this need, the Regional Office of the Forest Service initiated the Southern 

 Appalachian Assessment, The Assessment will produce a series of "snapshots" of 

 resource conditions in the Southern Appalachians. The Assessment will not produce 

 decisions about how the National Forests should be managed, but it will produce 

 necessary information on which quality Plan revisions can be based. Based on a reading of 

 the SAA, the Forest planners are now hsting the issues which should be included in the 

 revision of the Forest plans. They are also incorporating into the Analysis of Management 

 Situation for each Forest those passages in the SAA which provide information relevant to 

 an understanding of the Forest. 



The managers of other public lands and owners of private lands may use the information 

 fi-om the SAA as they think appropriate. 



Question 4: how the public has been involved in the process. 



The Assessment is not a decision document, and therefore it is not subject to the 

 procedural requirement of NEPA. Nevertheless, the Forest Service and others 

 cooperating agencies have made the Assessment process open to the public observation 

 and participation The Forest Service posted a Public Affairs Officer to each of the teams 

 or subteam. They provided notice of the meetings through a variety of channels The 

 places of the meetings were moved to different locations throughout the SAA area to 

 facilitate participation by local communities. 



I attended approximately 45-50 of the meetings held by the Assessment teams at various 

 sites in the Southeast; other SAFC members attended additional meetings. These 

 meetings were also attended by State agency representatives, academics, and by other 

 members of the public. Forest Service staff members attended because they were 

 interested in what was happening because they thought it had relevance for the revision of 

 the Forest Plans; staff members from other Agencies attended because they thought 

 something important was happening to which they might contribute or learn something. 



We believe the participation by the public made a significant contribution to improving the 

 SAA. Through an initial set of meetings the public helped set the questions which would 

 be addressed in the SAA. Members of the public who attended team meetings were able 

 to ask questions and make suggestions during the meetings. Another way the public 

 contributed to the SAA was to provide names of people with expertise to review the 

 "products" which were created by the teams. 



The Forest Service recently conducted a review of the SAA. Members of the public who 

 attended one or more of the meetings were also sent a questionnaire to solicit views about 

 how the SAA was conducted. We have attached SAFC's response to this questionnaire to 

 our testimony because we believe it provides additional perspectives about the SAA which 

 the subcommitee may find useful. 



