DCR Public Meetings:
  FORESTRY - FOREST FUTURES VISIONING PROCESS

PROCESS GOALS

The key goals of this process, as identified by DCR with stakeholder input, are: 

• Review the public benefits and values of DCR forest lands and examine their inter-relationships.  These include:  recreation, tourism, aesthetics, renewable forest products, habitat diversity, local economics, landscape ecology, water quality, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

• Develop recommendations to ensure forest stewardship on DCR lands in the context of the broader forested landscape that is coordinated and implemented consistently with public benefits and values and DCR’s legal mandates.  Review and identify conditions and criteria under which forest management practices should be prescribed or prohibited on DCR lands.

• Develop strategies and processes for continuing to strengthen public dialogue and understanding of forest management principles and practices that support public benefits and values.

The desired outcome of this process is two-fold: 

First, to build a common framework for stewardship of DCR forest lands on the public benefits and values involved and the productive sharing of information and varying points of view, and

Second, to generate recommendations regarding forest stewardship that are informed by this common understanding, respect public values, and are consistent with widely accepted science.