During the last 2 years, many people from numerous government agencies and private institutions compiled a scientific assessment of the natural and human resources of the Interior Columbia River Basin (Jensen and Bourgeron 1993). This assessment is meant to guide the development of a coarse-scale Environmental Impact Statement for all 82 million hectares comprising the Interior Columbia River Basin (fig. 1). A myriad of spatial data products has been generated from this immense effort, including a wide variety of coarse-scale GIS data layers that describe historical, current, and future Interior Columbia River Basin environmental and vegetation conditions. These spatial data products can be valuable for planning ecosystem restoration activities at multiple scales. Presented in this paper is a proposed strategy for the incorporation of these coarse-scale data layers into the planning and design of restoration projects within the Interior Columbia River Basin. An application of this approach is also presented for a declining firedependent vegetation type - the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) ecosystem.