The Office of Federal Register Electronic Public Inspection Desk Version 02/11/2011
planning and resource specialists would continue to be involved by providing an additional level of oversight, including reviewing draft and final products developed during the planning process and participating in the development of those products. Regional office oversight would help to provide consistency in interpretation and implementation of the planning rule and other agency planning requirements on units within the region. The proposed rule also specifically would allow the option for a higher-level official, such as a regional forester, to choose to serve as the responsible official. For example, a higherlevel official could assume responsibility for decisionmaking when planning issues apply to multiple units. Section 219.3 Role of science in planning. This section of the proposed rule addresses the role of science in planning and would require that the responsible official take into account the best available scientific information. This requirement would apply throughout the planning process. The intent of this requirement is to ensure that the responsible official has access to and considers the best available scientific information in order to make informed decisions when developing, revising, and amending land management plans; that social, economic, and ecological science would be appropriately interpreted and applied throughout the planning process; and that the best available scientific information would increase the understanding of risks and uncertainties and improve assumptions made in the course of decisionmaking. This proposed rule emphasizes the use of science as an important source of information for decisionmaking with the intent that the best available scientific information be used to inform, but not dictate, decisions. The term “taking into account� is used because this term expresses that science is just one source of information for the responsible official and only one
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