Ecosystem management involves the integration of ecological, economic, and social objectives.  The ecological objectives addressed are the conservation of biological diversity and ecosystem integrity.  The ecosystem management plan should meet these ecological objectives while also allowing economic and social uses within the landscape.  In this way, an ecosystem management plan defines the ecological sustainability of the landscape, or the extent of goods and services that the landscape can supply in perpetuity while conserving biological diversity and ecosystem integrity.  The members of the Association will take the lead in initiating this approach to management of lands and resources while coordinating their efforts with the appropriate local, state, and federal entities.

The Association will conduct an ecological assessment and develop ecosystem management plans and subsequent conservation agreements.  The Association has obtained technical support from its Advisory Committee and Legal Counsel.  It has also received assistance for the ecological assessment from the Ecosystem Management Research Institute.

The ecosystem assessment and management plan will use a historical reference approach to address the ecological objectives. This approach will identify the array of ecosystems in the landscape that occurred under historical disturbance regimes, and subsequently will identify threshold levels for amounts of each ecosystem that must be represented and distributed within the landscape to meet the ecological objectives. The appropriate distributions and amounts of each ecosystem are checked using an assessment of the viability of selected species to assure that adequate threshold levels have been identified. This approach should provide the required habitat conditions for all native species within the landscape.

A limited number of native species of concern may not be limited by available habitat, but by other factors such as direct human impacts on their populations.  For any of these species, individual species conservation plans will be prepared. These plans will identify appropriate habitat for the species from the ecosystem management plan, and then evaluate other management considerations beyond the adequate retention of habitat within the landscape.

The overall process proposed here is to be conducted in three parts. The first part of the plan is the recently completed ecological assessment of the landscape.  The second part is the development of an ecosystem management plan and conservation strategies for selected species.  The third part is the implementation of this plan and development of conservation agreements.

Ecosystem Management Plan
The ecosystem management plan has two major functions. First, it must develop a view on ecological sustainability, specifically, what are threshold levels of ecological conditions needed to conserve biological diversity and ecosystem integrity. Second, it must identify desired economic and social activities that are the important components of human use of the landscape.

Identifying threshold levels for ecological sustainability requires both science and value decisions. Science strives to define a range of representation levels required to meet the ecological objectives as well as the possible range of socio-economic activity and productivity levels, while still providing for the ecological objectives. The ecosystem management plan will address the following needs for the overall landscape:

• The amount of each ecosystem needed to meet the ecological objectives, at an acceptable level of risk;
• The desired characteristics of each ecosystem in terms of its composition, structure and ecological function;
• Recommended sizes and spacing for representative areas of each ecosystem that will meet the ecological objectives;
• Recommendations for levels and distributions of land management activities;
• Levels of resource use compatible with representative areas of each ecosystem;
• Assessment of species viability for species of concern or species selected as indicators of threshold levels for ecosystems; and
• Other appropriate types of land use, and recommendations for their occurrence across the landscape.

Conservation Agreements
The ecosystem management plan identifies the desired conditions for the landscape in terms of total amounts, sizes, and distribution of specific ecosystems, as well as specific species needs.  It identifies suitable areas within the landscape that could provide each of the desired conditions.  It also identifies appropriate types and levels of grazing, energy development and production, and other economic and social uses of the landscape compatible with meeting specific ecological objectives. It does not specify where representation of each desired ecological condition should be located. This is the responsibility of the landowners, companies, and cooperating agencies. Each will have differing abilities and responsibilities to contribute to the overall amounts and distributions of the desired ecological conditions.  Landowners, companies, and cooperating agencies should jointly develop specific plans for providing the desired conditions.

It is expected that lands owned by different landowners or agencies may play different roles in the overall ecosystem management plan. Where representative ecosystems or species requirements are best located on private lands, private landowners or companies will recognize these needs. Cooperating landowners, companies, and agencies should develop specific conservation agreements to provide the desired conditions. Incentive programs should be identified to make private land contributions to the ecological objectives feasible to the landowner or company. Conservation agreements for private lands will be voluntary agreements.