The Landscape Management System (LMS) (link is external) and companion tools are an evolving set of computer applications designed to facilitate the analysis and communication of landscape-scale forest management decisions. They use standard inventory information to integrate many analyses and predict complex changes in stands and landscapes over time.

The Microsoft Windows computer-based system coordinates the flow of information among existing growth models, computer visualization software, and analysis tools to allow the user to simulate the growth of stands and landscapes and to view the outcomes using a “point-and-click” system. Preferred management scenarios are developed in LMS by evaluating multiple projections that can be done either at the stand or landscape level. Companion tools allow the user to develop and compare many alternatives very rapidly.

The methods and tools provide a scientifically credible, independent, efficient way to plan, manage, and demonstrate how many, diverse values are being sustained by maintaining a range of forest structures across the landscape and through time.

Graphical and Tabular Summaries are generated in Excel, and GIS outputs are possible via an interface with ArcView GIS. Landscape visualization utilizes Envision, and Stand Visualization uses Stand Visualization System (SVS). Envision and SVS were developed by Bob McGaughey of the cooperative for Forest Systems Engineering (link is external) (FORSYS), a partnership between USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station (link is external) and the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources (link is external).