Public Involvement
The NC Forest Assessment will be conducted in consultation with the partners and stakeholders. Mandatory consultation with members of the State Forest Stewardship Coordinating Committee, State Technical Committee, the State wildlife agency, applicable Federal land management agencies such as the USDA Forest Service and DOI Bureau of Land Management, and State Urban Forestry Council are already underway. The NC Division of Forest Resources will also involve other key partners, including sister agencies within the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Tribes and natural resource-related entities, to ensure that the state's assessment integrates and builds upon other natural resource plans (e.g., State Wildlife Plan and One North Carolina Naturally Plan).
Partners will have specific roles in development of the assessment by providing comments, input and selection of GIS layers to be considered as part of the assessment process. Participating partners and stakeholders will also review the draft strategies that will contain that program actionsand response to the assessment findings.
The intent of all this involvement is to ensure that assessment (and the resource strategies that flow from that effort) address:
- the rural-to-urban landscape continuum, and identify
- opportunities for program coordination and integration.