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Medicine Bow- Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland
Sustainability Operations Team Charter
The purpose of this document is to charter the Sustainable Operations Team for the Medicine
Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland (MBR).
The Sustainable Operations Team will be composed of Priscilla Foster, Melissa Miller, Mike
Ross, and Mike Wheeler. Team members will serve for two years and be expected to spend not
more than one day a month on sustainable operations activities. There will be no special
funding for this team. The time spent working as a Team member is considered collateral duties
and will be funded from each team member’s primary purpose jobcode. This Team will remain
in effect until May 15, 2008. At that time the Forest Supervisor will decide if the Team should
be terminated, extended, and/or re-chartered.
Sustainable operations practices are those practices, which increase the environmental
stewardship of day-to-day operational decisions such as water and energy conservation, fleet and
transportation management, and waste prevention and recycling. The Team will concentrate on
promoting cost-effective energy and resource-efficient day to day operations which support the
land management activities of MBR. The role of the Team will include:
 Select, within their members, a chair to organize meetings and to serve as liaison with
the FLT.
 Recommend short term and long term sustainability goals for the Forest. Make
recommendations to the Forest Supervisor and FLT to meet Forest sustainable
operations goals.
 Maintain the Forest Sustainable Operations web-page, including the suggestions page.
Promote the suggestions that are reasonable and affordable. Funding for these
suggestions or action items will be decided on a case-by-case basis or through national
or regional grant money.
 Develop a sustainable operation action plan with funding estimates for the Forest.
 Provide information and technical guidance to the Forest on matters related to
sustainable operations.
 Serve as a forum for exchange of information and ideas about sustainable operations.
 Develop a Forest-wide baseline from which resource impacts would be reduced.
 Develop a strategy to identify transportation issues on the Forest and potential solutions
or opportunities.
 Develop a program that fosters the use of environmentally friendly products, from
procurement of products to their use, application, and disposal.
 Develop employee, visitor and community education information products to
communicate sustainable operations principles and goals.
 Implement waste stream reduction (recycling, composting, etc) and pollution prevention
activities.
 Develop monitoring, inventory and assessment protocols for operational activities.
 Maintain a record of Forest sustainable operations activities to facilitate upward
reporting.
The Sustainable Operations Team will seek to better the understanding of the interrelationship
between energy use, economics, and environmental impacts and, through leadership and
example, work to educate and guide others connected to Forest Service operations in reducing
expenditures, while simultaneously advancing the principles of sustainability.
/s/ Mary H. Peterson
MARY H. PETERSON
Forest Supervisor
cc: Priscilla Foster
Melissa A Miller
Mike K Ross
Mike Wheeler