ABSTRACT
It has been nearly seven years,as of this writing, since President Ford signed the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act (RPA) into law, and little more than four since the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) amended it. During those years the Forest Service has made considerable progress in implementing the comprehensive planning process that these laws established. Early in 1980 the agency sent to the Congress the products of the second cycle of RPA planning: the 1980 Assessment (USDA, Forest Service, 1980b) and Program (USDA, Forest Service, 1980a). In September 1979, the Forest Service published land management planning regulations under section 6 of the National Forest Management Act, and is well under way with the first round of regional and forest planning under those regulations.
