Executive Summary policy of Indian self-determination through greater self-government, the Bureau has shifted its emphasis within the forestry program from maximizing timber production to accommodating tribal preferences for forest use. The Bureau encourages tribal participation in developing forest management plans, setting annual harvest goals and practices, and planning and approving timber sales. As a result, timber harvests on Indian reservations are to a large degree contingent on tribal choices about the use of their forest resources and the harvest goals and practices to be used. Other factors, such as market conditions and competing priorities for staff and resources, also have affected and will continue to affect annual timber harvests. In 1977 the Bureau identified a backlog of needed forest development of Principal Findings Tribal Preferences Have a A major factor affecting the level of timber harvesting since 1975 is the shift in the Bureau's forestry policy emphasis from maximizing timber production to accommodating tribal preferences and multiple uses for Indian forest land. This policy shift has allowed the tribes to exercise greater influence over the operation of the forestry program through participation in forest management planning. In addition, some have chosen to pursue harvest goals for their reservations that are below the annual allowable cut. For example, two of the reservations GAO visited are, with Bureau concurrence, pursuing harvest goals that are about two-thirds of their official annual allowable cut. Also, tribes exercise considerable control over timber sale planning and approval and, in so doing, can significantly affect the volume of timber harvested in a given year and the achievement of harvest goals. As a Page 3 GAO/RCED-91-53 Indian Programs Executive Summary 1977 Backlog Does Not Represent Current Needs result, timber harvests on Indian reservations are to a large degree contingent on tribal choices about the use of their forest resources and the harvest goals and practices to be used. Other factors that can affect the achievement of timber harvest goals include market conditions and the need to comply with federal laws relating to the environment, fish and wildlife, and historically significant sites that add to the complexity of timber harvesting. Compliance with these laws can affect the ability of reservation forestry program staff to prepare and complete the number of timber sales required to accomplish harvest goals. GAO found that the 1977 backlog of forest development needs was incomplete and imprecise, excluding, for example, over 300,000 acres of timber stand improvement needed at one reservation. Moreover, while Bureau data indicate that needed forest development had been completed for about one-half of the backlog acreage, differences in how accomplishments are measured and reported at individual reservations create uncertainties as to the progress that actually has been achieved. Because tribal preferences are being accommodated in forest management, some forest lands are being removed from commercial timber production; however, some acres that are no longer part of the commercial forests are still included in the remaining backlog. Conversely, hundreds of thousands of additional acres of forest development needs identified since 1977 cannot compete for funding with acreage included in the backlog. Forest and forest development needs are continually changing, and forest development needs identified at any time may soon be out of date and may not represent the best opportunities to enhance future forest productivity. Because funds have been targeted to reduce the 1977 backlog, they are not necessarily being spent to address the most important forest development needs. Recommendations GAO recommends that the Secretary of the Interior direct the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs to (1) determine the most important and most cost-effective forest development needs consistent with current reservations' forest management plans and annual harvesting activity and (2) annually rank these needs to support the Bureau's budget requests for forest development funding. Executive Summary Agency Comments GAO recommends that the Congress discontinue funding to eliminate the 1977 forest development backlog. Instead, GAO recommends that the Congress base funding on the Bureau's annual determinations of the most important and highest priority forest development needs. The Department of the Interior concurred with GAO'S recommendation regarding forest development. The Bureau of Indian Affairs will develop a current inventory of forest development needs, update this inventory annually, and base funding of individual projects on benefit/cost analyses. In fiscal year 1992 the Bureau plans to begin funding forest development projects on the basis of an updated inventory of forest development needs. |