The completion of the National Vegetation Classification Standards document has opened up an opportunity to apply a vast amount of accumulated knowledge about plant community diversity to the management and conservation of vegetation on a continent-wide scale. This opportunity provides a mechanism for evaluating the importance of local vegetation diversity on a national scale. This symposium, for the first time at such a scale, will bring together experts in vegetation classification with ecologists and natural resource managers from a broad range of universities, resource agencies, and NGOs to determine the most effective use of classification for sustainable management objectives. Speakers will share their expertise in application of vegetation classification for development of vegetation management plans, environmental impact reports, strengthening monitoring and assessment protocols, and improving the effectiveness of compensatory mitigation. We will begin the symposium with an overview of common practices in developing vegetation management plans on protected, public, and private lands. We will then move on to evaluate experimental evidence concerning the uses of hydrological alteration, logging, fire, livestock, and herbicide application on successional processes and the biological value of vegetation resulting from the use of those tools. The symposium will conclude with a panel summary and general discussion including a question/answer session focused on questions in sustainable ecosystem management. While the symposium focuses on linking vegetation classification, management, and conservation, individual talks will be presented within the broader conceptual framework of how ecological theory can be applied to sustainable management of both plant and wildlife diversity.