I

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1682

To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to use stewardship contracting

in a demonstration program to restore and maintain the ecological integrity and productivity of forest ecosystems to insure that the land and

resources are passed to future generations in better condition than they

were found.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 18, 1995

Mr. WILLIAMS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Resources,

for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case

for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the

committee concerned

A BILL

To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to use stewardship

contracting in a demonstration program to restore and

maintain the ecological integrity and productivity of forest ecosystems to insure that the land and resources

are passed to future generations in better condition than

they were found.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Forest Ecosystem

3 Stewardship Demonstration Act of 1995’’.

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS, PURPOSES, AND DEFINITIONS.

5 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find6 ing:

7 (1) In many of the units of the National Forest

8 System, current conditions—such as unnatural fuel

9 loads, high tree density, threat of catastrophic fires,

10 disease, and insect infestations, habitat loss, and

11 loss of historic species, stand diversity and integ12 rity—adversely affect the biodiversity, health, and

13 sustainability of the forest ecosystems of such units.

14 (2) A new and innovative contracting process

15 for the National Forest System is required to meet

16 Federal goals of improving forest resource conditions

17 through implementation of ecosystem management.

18 (3) Ecosystem management is not just a bio19 logical concept. It is the convergence of a set of ac20 tivities that is simultaneously ecologically sound, eco21 nomically viable, and socially responsible.

22 (4) The improvement of the health and natural

23 functioning of the forest resource is vital to the long24 term viability of species found on National Forest

25 System lands.
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1 (5) Ecosystem restoration and conservation

2 work performed with revenues from forest activities

3 would improve employment opportunities in commu4 nities near units of the National Forest System to

5 the benefit of long-term economic sustainability and

6 community viability.

7 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as

8 follows:

9 (1) To improve and restore the health of forest

10 resources through implementation of ecosystem man11 agement.

12 (2) To provide for employment opportunities

13 and economic health and viability for rural commu14 nities near units of the National Forest System.

15 (3) To provide for flexibility in procurement

16 and funding practices to enter into stewardship con17 tracts to achieve management objectives and require18 ments prescribed in the following provisions of law:

19 (A) The Act of June 4, 1897 (commonly

20 known as the Organic Administration Act; 16

21 U.S.C. 473–475, 477–482, 551).

22 (B) The Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act

23 of 1960 (16 U.S.C. 528–531).

24 (C) The Forest and Rangeland Renewable

25 Resources Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1600–1614).
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1 (D) Section 14 of the National Forest

2 Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 472a).

3 (E) The Act of May 23, 1908, and section

4 13 of the Act of March 1, 1911 (16 U.S.C.

5 500).

6 (F) The Federal Grants and Agreements

7 Act of 1977 (31 U.S.C. 6303–6308).

8 (G) National Forest Fund Act of March 4,

9 1907 (16 U.S.C. 499).

10 (c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this Act:

11 (1) ACCOUNT.—The term ‘‘Account’’ means the

12 Stewardship Account established under section 4.

13 (2) DESIGN SPECIFICATION CONTRACT.—The

14 term ‘‘design specification contract’’ is used to de15 scribe contracts in which the contracting entity spe16 cifically identifies all the tasks to be performed, and

17 the contractor performs per the designed specifica18 tions.

19 (3) FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL.—The

20 term ‘‘Forest Stewardship Council’’ means any one

21 of the local councils established under section 3(f) of

22 this Act to, in cooperation with resource managers:

23 prioritize and select stewardship projects, set oper24 ational goals in the context of current national forest

25 management policies and local forest plans, evaluate
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1 contractor performance and accomplishments, rec2 ommend progress payments for work successfully

3 completed by contractors, and make recommenda4 tions for the improvement of the stewardship con5 tract process.

6 (4) PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATION CON7 TRACT.—The term ‘‘performance specification con8 tract’’ is used to describe contracts in which the con9 tracting entity identifies the parameters of the

10 project, and the contractor identifies the method to

11 accomplish the work.

12 (5) RESOURCE ACTIVITIES.—The term ‘‘re13 source activities’’ includes area access, site prepara14 tion, replanting, fish and wildlife habitat restoration

15 or enhancement, silvicultural treatments, watershed

16 improvement, fuel treatments (including prescribed

17 burning), and road closure or obliteration.

18 (6) RESOURCE MANAGER.—The term ‘‘resource

19 manager’’ refers to the line officer responsible for

20 management decisions associated with project imple21 mentation on a national forest.

22 (7) ROADSIDE SALE.—The term ‘‘roadside

23 sale’’ refers to the sale by the Forest Service to the

24 highest bidder(s) of all contract-designated products

25 of the forest removed as part of the management ac-
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1 tivities conducted under a stewardship contract.

2 (Non-designated products may be assigned to the

3 contractor for salvage.) A roadside sale is a com4 pletely separate transaction from the awarding of

5 the stewardship contract itself.

6 (8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

7 the Secretary of Agriculture.

8 (9) STATEMENT OF WORK CONTRACT.—The

9 term ‘‘statement of work contract’’ is used to de10 scribe contracts in which the contracting entity gives

11 a general overview of the project, and the bidding

12 contractor provides the specifics on how he/she envi13 sions the project and the end result he/she would ob14 tain using his/her particular approach to land stew15 ardship.

16 (10) STEWARDSHIP CONTRACT.—The term

17 ‘‘stewardship contract’’ means a contract for carry18 ing out resource activities for the improvement and

19 restoration of forest ecosystems of units of the Na20 tional Forest System and to encourage or enhance

21 the economic sustainability and the viability of rural

22 and regional communities. A stewardship contract

23 could use a design specification format (definition 2,

24 above), a performance specification format (defini-
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1 tion 4, above), a statement of work format (defini2 tion 9, above), or some combination thereof.

3 SEC. 3. USE OF STEWARDSHIP CONTRACTS.

4 (a) USE AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary shall estab5 lish and implement in the Forest Service a demonstration

6 program through which forest- and/or district-level re7 source managers use stewardship contracts to carry out

8 resource activities in a comprehensive manner to restore

9 and preserve the ecological integrity and productivity of

10 forest ecosystems within the National Forest System and

11 to encourage or enhance the economic sustainability and

12 the viability of nearby rural communities. The resource ac13 tivities undertaken should be consistent with the precepts

14 of ecosystem management and with the forest’s manage15 ment plan for achieving the desired future conditions of

16 the area being treated.

17 (b) USE LIMITED.—Within the limits of available fi18 nancial resources, each forest within the National Forest

19 System may use stewardship contracts to carry out eco20 system management projects, if those contracts:

21 (1) Provide for payment to the contractor based

22 on the number of acres satisfactorily treated in ac23 cordance with an approved plan to create a desired

24 future condition on the land.
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1 (2) Are used for projects where the harvest of

2 timber is secondary to creating specific resource con3 ditions (e.g., wildlife habitat enhancement, water4 shed improvement, insect and disease control).

5 (3) Are not used for projects involving the con6 struction of new permanent roads or entries into

7 roadless areas.

8 (4) Will result in the removal of no more than

9 300,000 board feet of merchantable timber per

10 project.

11 (5) Provide for the roadside sale of all contract12 designated merchantable timber which is extracted.

13 (6) Are awarded competitively to qualified con14 tractors with no more than 25 employees.

15 (7) Include stewardship skill and experience

16 qualification requirements which have been estab17 lished by the local Forest Stewardship Council and

18 approved by the Forest Service.

19 (8) Are monitored not only by the Forest Serv20 ice, but also by the local Forest Stewardship Coun21 cil.

22 (9) Provide for periodic progress payments to

23 contractors based on successful completion of con24 tract activities on a per acre basis. The acceptability

25 of the contractor’s work shall be determined by the
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1 Forest Service, taking into account the recommenda2 tion of the local Forest Stewardship Council.

3 (c) DEMONSTRATION RESEARCH OBJECTIVES.—The

4 Secretary shall insure that in the carrying out of the provi5 sions of this Act enough flexibility is provided to resource

6 managers to enable them to test various approaches to

7 solving questions left unresolved in previous demonstra8 tions of stewardship and end results contracts authorized

9 in fiscal year 1991 and 1992 through the Department of

10 the Interior and Related Appropriation Acts. These ques11 tions include, but are not limited to:

12 (1) The need for the bonding of stewardship

13 contractors and/or possible alternatives which could

14 reduce the financial burden on small businesses.

15 (2) Preferred methods of marketing timber or

16 other products of the forest removed as a result of

17 stewardship contract activities.

18 (3) The standards to be used in evaluating the

19 quality and acceptability of the work performed by

20 a stewardship contractor.

21 (4) The desirability of multi-year contracts for

22 stewardship projects.

23 (5) The relative merits of using design speci24 fications, performance specifications, or statements
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1 of work in offering, awarding, and evaluating stew2 ardship contracts.

3 (6) The costs, benefits, problems, and opportu4 nities resulting from increased community involve5 ment in the design and monitoring of stewardship

6 contracts.

7 (7) The benefits and problems resulting from

8 restricting stewardship contracts to very small (no

9 more than 25 employees) contractors.

10 (8) The extent to which local economic sustain11 ability and rural community viability are affected by

12 the use of stewardship contracts.

13 (9) The difference between estimated and ac14 tual revenues derived from roadside sales of timber.

15 (10) The level of utilization of timber and other

16 products of the forest derived from stewardship con17 tract projects as compared with conventional timber

18 sales.

19 (11) The extent to which stewardship contract20 ing contributes to the achievement of forest eco21 system management plans.

22 (12) The extent to which the revenues from

23 stewardship contracts cover the cost of such con24 tracts or are offset by the costs which could reason25 ably be expected to result if the contracts are not
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1 carried out (e.g., fire suppression costs in areas with

2 heavy fuel loads).

3 (13) The administrative costs or savings in4 volved in the use of stewardship contracts.

5 (14) The benefits and/or disadvantages of using

6 local Forest Stewardship Councils as part of the

7 stewardship contracting process.

8 (15) The benefits and/or disadvantages of var9 ious methods of selecting members, organizing, ad10 ministering, and conducting the business of local

11 Forest Stewardship Councils.

12 (d) DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF CONTRACTS.—Each

13 resource manager of a unit of the National Forest System

14 may enter into stewardship contracts with qualified non15 Federal entities (as established in regulations relating to

16 procurement by the Federal Government or as determined

17 by the Secretary.) The local Forest Stewardship Council,

18 in cooperation with the Forest Service resource manager,

19 shall select the type of stewardship contract that is most

20 suitable to local conditions. Contracts should clearly de21 scribe the desired future condition for each resource man22 aged under the contract and the evaluation criteria to be

23 used to determine acceptable performance. The length of

24 a stewardship contract shall be consistent with the re-
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1 quirements of section 14 of the National Forest Manage2 ment Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 472a).

3 (e) SELECTION OF AREAS FOR CONTRACTS.—In se4 lecting areas within units of the National Forest System

5 to be subject to stewardship contracts, the Secretary, re6 source managers, and local Forest Stewardship Councils

7 shall base the selection on the need to improve forest

8 health, maintain and improve soil and water quality, and

9 improve fisheries and wildlife habitat. Priorities for activi10 ties within individual units will be established by local re11 source managers, in consultation with the appropriate

12 local Forest Stewardship Council.

13 (f) ESTABLISHMENT OF LOCAL FOREST STEWARD14 SHIP COUNCILS.—Local Forest Stewardship Councils

15 shall be established for each unit of the National Forest

16 System which offers stewardship contracts. The role of a

17 Forest Stewardship Council will be to, in cooperation with

18 the resource managers, prioritize and select stewardship

19 projects, set operational goals in the context of current

20 national forest management policies and local forest plans,

21 evaluate contractor performance and accomplishments,

22 recommend progress payments for work successfully com23 pleted by contractors, and make recommendations for the

24 improvement of the stewardship contract process. Each

25 participating National Forest System unit shall establish,
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1 after soliciting the comments of local citizens, the size of

2 the local council, the method of selection or election of

3 council members, the terms of service of members, and

4 the council administrative budget, if any. At least 51 per5 cent of members of any Forest Stewardship Council shall

6 be drawn from the private sector, in a manner which in7 sures representation of a broad range of public interests.

8 The functioning of the Forest Stewardship Councils must

9 assure a continuing and open process and must in no way

10 interfere with the broad public involvement in Federal re11 source management decision making required under the

12 National Environmental Policy Act of 1976.

13 (g) APPLICATION OF CONTRACTS.—Subject to sub14 section (h), the revenue received from the sale of timber

15 or any other products of the forest resulting to the Federal

16 Government as a result of work carried out under a stew17 ardship contract shall be deposited into a Stewardship Ac18 count as established in section 4(a).

19 (h) EFFECT ON OTHER REVENUE REQUIRE20 MENTS.—Twenty-five percent of the revenues received

21 from roadside sale of products extracted through steward22 ship contract activities shall remain available for payments

23 to States, as required under the Act of May 23, 1908,

24 and section 13 of the Act of March 1, 1991 (16 U.S.C.

25 500). The Secretary shall first collect revenues to make
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1 such payments before exercising the authority provided in

2 subsection g.

3 SEC. 4. STEWARDSHIP CONTRACT RECEIPTS AND EXPENDI4 TURES.

5 (a) RECEIPTS.—Monetary receipts received as pay6 ment for contract-designated timber and other products

7 of the forest extracted through stewardship contract ac8 tivities shall be deposited in a designated fund to be known

9 as the ‘‘Stewardship Account’’. Amounts in the Account

10 shall be used to make payments to States under the Act

11 of May 23, 1908, and section 13 of the Act of March 1,

12 1911 (16 U.S.C. 500), and to fund resource activities.

13 Amounts in the Account are hereby appropriated and shall

14 be available to the Secretary until expended, except that

15 those amounts found by the Secretary to be in excess of

16 the needs of the Secretary shall be transferred to mis17 cellaneous receipts in the Treasury of the United States.

18 Any additional revenues made available through direct ap19 propriations to the Forest Service for stewardship con20 tracting and ecosystem management purposes also shall

21 be deposited in the Account.

22 (b) EXPENDITURES.—Not less than 80 percent of

23 amounts in the Account available for resource activities

24 shall be used for the direct costs of such resource activi25 ties. The revenues received from sales of contract-des-
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1 ignated products resulting from stewardship contracts

2 shall be returned to the national forest from which they

3 were generated, to be used to fund additional stewardship

4 contracts. To the extent that additional revenues are re5 ceived in the Account from direct appropriations by the

6 Congress of funds for stewardship contract activities, such

7 funds shall be made available to those forest units using

8 stewardship contracts through a process to be developed

9 by the Secretary.

10 (c) REPORTING.—As part of the annual report of the

11 Secretary to Congress, the Secretary shall include an ac12 counting of revenues, expenditures, and accomplishments

13 related to the stewardship contracts.

14 SEC. 5. RELATION TO OTHER LAWS.

15 All stewardship contracts shall comply with existing

16 applicable laws, and nothing in this Act may be construed

17 as modifying the provisions of any other law except as ex18 plicitly provided in this Act.

19 SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.

20 This Act shall be effective upon passage.

21 SEC. 7. TERMINATION DATE.

22 Unless extended by a subsequent act of the Congress,

23 this Act shall terminate five years from its effective date.

Æ