Federal land management agencies must not only show they are responsive to general public interests and priorities in managing federal forest lands, but must also work collaboratively with the public. However, collaborative planning approaches tend to favor local citizens and communities whose perspectives of and interests in the federal forests do not overlap with perspectives and interests of the general public. Uncovering the range and scope of the difference between general public and local priorities is important in order for decision-makers to clearly present, analyze, and make trade-offs among competing priorities. This paper presents a methodology called Collaborative Objectives-Based Planning (COBP) that is being applied on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests (GMUG). The methodology is an integrated, simultaneous process that: 1) systematically elicits a broad range of public objectives for the GMUG and 2) refines those objectives relative to specific landscapes of the GMUG through a collaborative learning process. The methodology captures a representative sample of attitudes and behaviors towards a range of objectives and simultaneously involves a collaborative learning process in which stakeholders work with the GMUG planning team to examine if and how those objectives apply to specific landscapes on the GMUG. The large-sample population objectives and the landscape-specific objectives will be systematically compared with one another, with statutory and administrative constraints, and with technical information from the geographic assessments. The objectives will then be arranged into a range of prioritized planning objectives for the GMUG planning team to analyze as part of the formal planning process. An evaluation research component is integrated into the Collaborative Objectives-Based Planning to inform future design and research of federal land management decision processes.