1998 Explanatory Notes USDA, Forest Service Forestry works to advance U.S. interests in international forestry, timber supply and sustainability throughout the world. National forests occupy the headwaters of most rivers in the west and provide fresh, clean municipal water to about 900 cities and communities throughout the U.S. Protection and restoration are important to maintaining this important resource. Natural disasters such as wildfires can cause rapid deterioration in water quality. The Forest Service rapidly responds to fire disasters with fire suppression followed by burned area rehabilitation plans and works to stabilize soil, control water, minimize sediment and debris movement and minimize threats to human life and property. Other activities seek to restore watersheds that show past damage. Similar activities are assisted on state and private lands and important research efforts are ongoing. Valuable reserves of oil and gas, hardrock minerals (gold, silver, etc.), mineral materials (gravel, slate, etc.) lie beneath our national forests and grasslands. Besides providing us with fuels to heat homes and businesses, energy and minerals extracted from the national forests and grasslands are valued at over $4 billion per year. Annual revenues are about $200 million, 25-50% of which is returned to the states where production occurs. The Forest Service helps facilitate these activities while protecting natural resource values. Clearly, this is a broad set of activities and accomplishments that is important to the American people. The FY 98 budget provides a balanced program to achieve multiple objectives while protecting and caring for the land. The purpose is to meet people's needs today without compromising the ability of forests and grasslands to meet the needs of future generations. II. MAJOR INITIATIVES IN THE FY 98 PRESIDENT'S BUDGET PROPOSAL A) Timber Salvage Sale Fund The Administration will propose legislation to limit the Timber Salvage Sale Fund and create a new fund which will provide for ecosystem restoration. The salvage sale fund will finance the expeditious removal of dead and dying timber. A new "Forest Ecosystem Restoration and Maintenance Fund" (FERM) will provide increased funding for activities which meet the objectives of wildlife habitat and watershed improvement, reduction in stand density, and ecosystem restoration. Examples of activities which could meet these objectives include thinning, prescribed burning, road and trail obliteration, and timber sales. The proposed FERM Fund will be a permanent appropriation funded by transfer of a portion of Salvage Sale Fund balances, 10% of all receipts from the national forests, and any receipts generated from the fund. 2. Fire Operations: Emergency operations include wildfire suppression, emergency rehabilitation and restoration, meeting severe conditions, and reduction of hazardous fuels activities. Any costs above the amount directly included in the FY 98 budget will be funded from a government-wide emergency contingency account. This will assure funding for these essential activities and reflects the full costs in the President's budget. Reduction of hazardous fuels, including prescribed fire, is planned at $30 million (compared to $24 million in FY 97). C) Purchaser Credit Program The current practice of financing the bulk of road reconstruction and construction needed for timber sales through credits against the value of 1998 Explanatory Notes USDA, Forest Service Congress has established a limit on amounts of purchaser credits for each fiscal year. The FY 98 budget proposes to discontinue using the Department's discretionary authority to use purchaser credits for financing road costs. Road costs will be treated like other purchaser costs and will be reflected in the competitive bids made for sales. A timber sale contract provision will contain a limited option for qualified timber purchasers to elect to have the Forest Service construct necessary roads where important for safety and environmental reasons. III. EMPHASIS ITEMS WITHIN THE PRESIDENT'S FY 98 BUDGET There are some additional significant focus activities included in the FY 98 proposals: A) President's Forest Plan for the Pacific Northwest Continuing to implement the provisions of the President's Plan is a priority in FY 98. This includes watershed protection, monitoring, timber harvest, adaptive management, and development of rural communities' long-term economic strength. The FY 98 budget includes $107.4 million to carry out that year's requirements of the President's Plan, including provisions of the interagency MOU for economic adjustment and community assistance. The timber sale level for FY 98 is planned at the full implementation level of 763 million board feet (not including volume from the Bureau of Land Management). Likewise, Forest and Rangeland Research support to address high priority research needs of the President's Plan will be increased from $6.7 million in FY 97 to $7.6 million in FY 98. B) Hazardous Waste Funding for FY 98 Forest Service hazardous waste work is provided within the USDA central fund for this purpose. For FY 98 $14.25 million is identified in that account for the Forest Service. This amount assigns a high priority for cleaning up hazardous waste sites identified on national forest lands, especially identifying responsible parties under CERCLA so that they, not the taxpayers, pay the cost of cleanups. C) Forest and Ecosystem Health State and Private Forestry, Forest and Rangeland Research, and National Forest System continue to emphasize and expand the scope of forest health monitoring to cover 60% of the forest land in the lower 48 states, compared to 53% in FY 97 and 40% in FY 96. Significant monitoring is also occurring on the national forests and grasslands. Seeking efficiencies to further stretch the available dollars, different monitoring plots are being co-located and innovative, time-saving sampling designs are being used. These improvements should link with advances in Geographic Information Systems and other computer technology to build accessible data that allows scientists and managers to detect and respond to early, subtle, yet significant ecosystem change. The forest health monitoring program is a partnership with the states to provide monitoring and reporting on state and private lands to complement information on federal lands. IV. APPROPRIATION HIGHLIGHTS FOREST AND RANGELAND RESEARCH Forest and Rangeland Research covers 4 broad areas: Vegetation Management and Protection Research; Wildlife, Fish, Watershed and Atmospheric Sciences Research; Resource Valuation and Use Research; and Forest Resources Inventory and Monitoring. The Forest Service is a science-based organization. Each day, field foresters, land managers, farmers, ranchers, mill operators, urban foresters, public interest groups and many others apply the know-how developed by Forest Service scientists and cooperators in academia and in 1998 Explanatory Notes USDA Forest Service many tools used to address the unexpected questions and provide early warnings and solutions for potential problems. The Forest and Rangeland Research Budget is to be funded at $179.8 million, the same funding level as FY 97. However, the programs are continually being adjusted to meet changing and emerging national and regional issues and maintain a broad-based scientific capability. STATE AND PRIVATE FORESTRY The goal of State and Private Forestry is to maintain and improve, through collaborative stewardship, the health and productivity of the nation's urban and rural forests and related economies. The State and Private programs provide technical and cost-sharing assistance to help assure sound stewardship and use of the vast state and private forest lands, utilizing non-regulatory approaches. State and Private Forestry helps state, local and tribal governments and small nonindustrial private forest landowners manage forest resources to meet economic, social and environmental goals. State and Private Forestry funds are leveraged through cost-shares to provide increased on-theground project funding. Economic Action Programs (- $8.1 million; a 48% decrease): The Economic Action programs: Economic Recovery, Rural Development, Wood-in-Transportation and Forest Products Conservation and Technology, continue to provide a helping hand each year to more counties within the rural (nonmetro) counties (72% of the total counties in the U.S.) to strengthen and diversify their economies by bringing local people together to solve their own problems. The proposed budget focuses this program on the highest priorities--forest dependent communities with local plans in place to build their economies through sustainable develop ment. NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM The goal of the National Forest System appropriation is to provide for the protection, management and utilization of approximately 192 million acres of national forests and grasslands located in 44 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands for a wide variety of purposes and values. Programs run the spectrum from the preservation of our Wilderness areas to intensive resource utilization for timber harvest or developed recreation areas. Several adjustments in funding of $5 million or more are briefly discussed. Recreation Use (+ $5.1 million: a 2.4% increase): National forests are the largest suppliers of public outdoor recreation: 43% of total recreation use on federal lands. Our goal is to provide high quality outdoor recreation opportunities to meet users' demands while being good stewards of the land. We strive to provide a full spectrum of recreation from wild to urban and even to educational to respond to ever-increasing demand from Americans who seek to restore balance to hectic lives and have experiences that will be memorable and fun. Demand is growing fast, not only for outdoor facilities such as campgrounds and picnic areas, but also for Wilderness areas and for opportunities to participate in hands-on learning about our heritage resources (historical buildings, ar 1998 Explanatory Notes USDA, Forest Service The President's FY 98 budget provides some increases over FY 97 for recreation management, wilderness management and heritage resources. The funding will help meet the challenges of increasing demand and maintaining older, deteriorating facilities. The recreation program will continue to stretch dollars through partnerships and fee collection authority to meet the growing demand to the extent possible. Wildlife and Fish (+ $11 million: a 12.9% increase overall): National forests and grasslands provide vital habitats for over 3,000 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, as well as some 10,000 plant species- the greatest diversity on any single public land ownership. These habitats include 200,000 miles of fishable streams, 2 million acres of ponds, lakes and reservoirs, over 80% of the elk, mountain goat, and bighorn sheep habitat, and over 250 species of migratory songbirds. Local communities benefit from expenditures by hunting, fishing, and viewing recreationists. The national forests and grasslands are the last haven for 280 threatened or endangered species (33% of federally listed species), 2,500 sensitive species and 50% of the nation's plant diversity. FY 98 proposed increases will focus on critical backlogs in restoring and improving biologically significant riparian, old-growth, fire dependent, prairie, and watershed habitats. Improvement of habitat will help meet increasing wildlife and fish recreation demand. Working with partners is critical in protecting and managing fish and wildlife resources. The FY 98 budget provides funds to match with non-federal conservation groups like BASS, Ducks Unlimited, and the Nature Conservancy; groups with over 4 million members. These activities will enhance species recovery and conservation of sensitive species and species that are candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Rangeland Management (+ $7.4 million: part of western life, public rangelands have been in the spotlight in recent years. The Forest Service administers grazing allotments on 99 million acres (52% of national forest system lands) and in FY 96 it administered paid grazing permits for 9.9 million head months of grazing by domestic livestock. Public rangelands are generally in better condition today than they were at the turn of the century. Still, there are about 23.5 million acres of national forest system rangelands in unsatisfactory condition or requiring further analysis to determine condition, and noxious weeds are continuing to invade new areas. In FY 98 the priority work will be keeping many allotment analyses on track with the legally-mandated schedule. Administration of allotments is also important. Funding will permit roundup of excess wild horses and burros and will allow $4 million to accomplish 55,000 acres of noxious weed control. Forestland Management (+ $18 million: a 7.1% increase overall): The objectives of Forestland Management are to implement forest plans which provide for contributions to the nation's demand for timber and to maintain and restore healthy ecosystems. These objectives are achieved through reforestation and timber stand improvement. National forest plans have identified approximately 56 million acres out of a total of 192 million acres (or 29% of the land) suitable for timber harvest. Timber harvest is often controversial and extensive efforts are made to involve multiple viewpoints and expertise in planning and carrying it out. The FY 98 timber sale plan is 3.8 billion board feet timber including accomplishment of the full President's Northwest Forest Plan timber level. FY 98 funding provides for reforestation on 104,000 acres (up from 96,900 acres planned in FY 97). Increased reforestation is partially in response to the 1996 forest fires in the west. Soil, Water and Air (+ $7.6 million: an 18.1% increase overall): National forests 1998 Explanatory Notes USDA Forest Service about 900 cities and communities throughout the U.S. Currently 20% of the watersheds in national forests are in need of treatments to restore them to satisfactory condition. Over half the increase in FY 98 funding will be used to reclaim abandoned mines under an Interagency Initiative which includes the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Park Service. The Initiative coordinates the efforts of all land managers and owners to comprehensively address entire watersheds. General Administration (- $9.3 million: a 3.6% decrease): The goal of General Administration (GA) is to enable the Forest Service to operate efficiently both day-to-day and in the long term by providing appropriate line management and administrative support. GA covers line management, budget, personnel, civil rights, policy and management analysis, fiscal and accounting services, office management, and the other services necessary to operate effectively and provide accountability. The FY 98 proposed budget will minimally maintain core administrative functions while focusing on financial management. More critical support costs will be covered by resource programs than in past years. RECONSTRUCTION and CONSTRUCTION The Reconstruction and Construction appropriation provides for restoration, construction, and improvement of buildings (including research labs), utility systems, dams, recreation facilities, roads, bridges, trails, other physical facilities, and acquisition of administrative sites. Facilities (- $27.7 million: a 46.2% decrease overall): Many of our facilities are aging. Available funding will be directed at extensive reconstruction needs with emphasis on health and safety items such as contaminated water systems, sewage facilities and toilets. Many needed projects will not be completed until future years. The already large ($1 billion) backlog will increase. Facilities that do not meet safety and forest plan standards and are not sufficiently high The FY 98 President's Budget for the Forest Service discretionary appropriations (excluding wildland fire) totals $1.85 billion, an increase of 1.3% over FY 97. The changes highlighted represent continuing strategic shifts in priorities for current and future management of forests and grasslands. They focus on urgent on-theground resource needs to address issues such as forest and ecosystem health including increased monitoring, watershed assessments, and increased partnership work for wildlife habitat improvement. Focus is also on increasing management efficiencies and accountability for making the best use of the federal budget. These priorities are derived from the Forest Service's long term strategic direction and the commitment to collaborative stewardship. This budget will be directed at meeting the mission: Caring for the Land and Serving People. The job is large, the demands are great, and the stakes for the future are high. |