FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

Table of Contents i 

United States Forest Service

FY 2017 Budget Justification

Table of Contents

Page

Annual Performance Report .............................................................................................. 1

Forest Service Strategic Goals and Alignment to USDA Strategic Plan .................. 2

Forest Service Contributions to USDA Strategic Goal #2........................................ 2

Mission Statement ..................................................................................................... 3

Vision and Values ..................................................................................................... 3

Forest Service Performance Management Framework .............................................. 3

Data Validity and Verification .................................................................................. 4

Flow of Strategic Goals, Objectives, and Strategic Performance Goals........................ 5

Strategic Goal: Sustain Our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands ...................................... 5

Strategic Objective A: Foster Resilient, Adaptive Ecosystems to Mitigate Climate 

Change ...................................................................................................................... 5

Strategic Objective B: Mitigate Wildfire Risk.......................................................... 5

Strategic Objective C: Conserve Open Space .......................................................... 5

Strategic Goal: Deliver Benefits to the Public .................................................................. 5

Strategic Objective D: Provide Abundant Clean Water ........................................... 5

Strategic Objective E: Strengthen Communities ..................................................... 5

Strategic Objective F: Connect People to the Outdoors ........................................... 6

Strategic Goal: Apply Knowledge Globally .................................................................... 6

Strategic Objective G: Advance Knowledge ............................................................ 6

Strategic Objective H: Transfer Technology and Applications ................................ 6

Strategic Objective I: Exchange Natural Resource Expertise .................................. 6

Management Goal: Excel as a High-Performing Agency ............................................... 6

Strategic Goal: Sustain our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands ....................................... 6

Strategic Objective A. Foster Resilient, Adaptive Ecosystems to Mitigate 

Climate Change ......................................................................................................... 6

Strategic Objective B. Mitigate Wildfire Risk .......................................................... 12

Strategic Objective C. Conserve Open Space ........................................................... 14

Strategic Goal: Deliver Benefits to the Public .................................................................. 17

Strategic Objective D: Provide abundant clean water .............................................. 18

Strategic Objective E: Strengthen Communities ...................................................... 19

Strategic Objective F: Connect people to the outdoors ............................................. 21

Strategic Goal: Apply Knowledge Globally ..................................................................... 25
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Strategic Objective G: Advance Knowledge ............................................................ 26

Strategic Objective H: Transfer Technology and Applications ................................ 29

Strategic Objective I: Exchange natural resource expertise ...................................... 30

Management Goal: Excel as a High-Performing Agency ................................................ 32

External Audits and Reviews ............................................................................................. 35

FY 2015 Office of Inspector General (OIG) Audits on the Forest Service: ............. 35

OIG Open Audits ...................................................................................................... 35

Summary of OIG Audits ........................................................................................... 36

Management Challenges .................................................................................................... 36

FY 2016 Actions Planned: .................................................................................................. 37

Appropriation Language Changes .................................................................................... 39

Forest and Rangeland Research ........................................................................................ 63

State and Private Forestry ................................................................................................. 89

Landscape Scale Restoration .................................................................................... 92

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands ............................................................. 96

Federal Health Management - Cooperative Lands ................................................... 102

Forest Stewardship Program ..................................................................................... 107

Forest Legacy Program ............................................................................................. 115

Community Forest and Open Space Conservation ................................................... 120

Urban and Community Forestry ............................................................................... 123

International Forestry ................................................................................................ 129

National Forest System ....................................................................................................... 133

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration ............................................................ 137

Land Management Planning, Assessment, and Monitoring ..................................... 146

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness ....................................................................... 154

Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management ............................................................... 161

Grazing Management ................................................................................................ 170

Forest Products.......................................................................................................... 175

Vegetation and Watershed Management .................................................................. 180

Minerals and Geology Management ......................................................................... 187

Landownership Management .................................................................................... 195

Law Enforcement Operations ................................................................................... 206

Valles Caldera ........................................................................................................... 210

Capital Improvement and Maintenance ........................................................................... 211

Facilities .................................................................................................................... 213

Roads......................................................................................................................... 224

Trails ......................................................................................................................... 233

Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement ........................................... 238
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Legacy Roads and Trails ........................................................................................... 246

Land Acquisition ................................................................................................................. 251

Other Appropriations ......................................................................................................... 261

Range Betterment Fund ............................................................................................ 261

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Forest and Rangeland Research ........................ 263

Management of National Forest Lands for Subsistence Uses .................................. 264

Wildland Fire Management ............................................................................................... 267

Preparedness ............................................................................................................. 269

Suppression ............................................................................................................... 276

Hazardous Fuels ........................................................................................................ 283

Research and Development....................................................................................... 292

Joint Fire Science Program ....................................................................................... 295

State Fire Assistance ................................................................................................. 298

Volunteer Fire Assistance ......................................................................................... 303

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund .................................................................. 307

Brush Disposal .......................................................................................................... 312

Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied Research ........................................... 314

Timber Salvage Sales ................................................................................................ 316

Timber Sale Pipeline Restoration ............................................................................. 318

Forest Botanical Products ......................................................................................... 321

Stewardship Contracting ........................................................................................... 323

Recreation Fees, Forest Service ................................................................................ 326

Timber Purchaser Election Road Construction......................................................... 330

Operation and Maintenance of Forest Service Quarters ........................................... 332

Roads and Trails for States ....................................................................................... 333

Land Between the Lakes Management ..................................................................... 335

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Rental Fees ...................................................... 337

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Restoration....................................................... 339

Quinault Special Management Area Fund ................................................................ 340

Valles Caldera ........................................................................................................... 341

Restoration of Forest Lands and Improvements ....................................................... 342

Commercial Filming and Still Photography Land Use Fee Retention ..................... 344

Organizational Camps Program ................................................................................ 346

Cost Recovery (Land Uses) ...................................................................................... 348

Licensee Program Smokey Bear ............................................................................... 351

Licensee Program Woodsy Owl ............................................................................... 352

Forest Service Go Green Program (Conservation) ................................................... 353

Conveyance of Administrative Sites ......................................................................... 355

Site-Specific Lands Act ............................................................................................ 358

Payment to States ................................................................................................................ 360
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Payments to Communities .................................................................................................. 365

Trust Funds ......................................................................................................................... 369

Cooperative Work - Knutson-Vandenberg ............................................................... 370

Cooperative Work, Other .......................................................................................... 374

Reforestation Trust Fund .......................................................................................... 377

Land Between the Lakes Trust Fund ........................................................................ 380

Special Exhibits ................................................................................................................... 383

Bark Beetle Infestation in the West .......................................................................... 385

Chief’s Reserve Fund ................................................................................................ 393

Conservation Education ............................................................................................ 396

Cost Pool Totals ........................................................................................................ 399

Deferred Maintenance and Asset Management ........................................................ 407

Equal Access to Justice Act ...................................................................................... 413

Facilities Maintenance Assessment .......................................................................... 420

Fire Transfers ............................................................................................................ 425

Fire, Preparedness, and Suppression Costs ............................................................... 427

National Scenic and Historic Trails .......................................................................... 429

Office of General Counsel Reimbursement .............................................................. 437

Office of Tribal Relations ......................................................................................... 438

Partnerships ............................................................................................................... 442

Reforestation ............................................................................................................. 452

Region, Station, and Area Allocations ...................................................................... 456

Research and Development Threat Assessment Centers .......................................... 479

Stewardship Contracting ........................................................................................... 488

Unobligated Balances ............................................................................................... 496

USDA Working Capital Fund and Greenbook Charges ........................................... 498

Working Capital Fund, Forest Service...................................................................... 511

Working Capital Fund - Forest Service Fleet Management ..................................... 512

Forest Service Budget Authorities ..................................................................................... 515
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Annual Performance Report

USDA Forest Service

Annual Performance Report

Introduction

The Nation’s forests are a fundamental part of the American landscape, of the Nation’s identity, 

and are a legacy that the Forest Service holds in trust for future generations. The forests provide 

clean air and water, recreational opportunities, jobs, and a multitude of forest products. The 

Forest Service plays a critical role in protecting and restoring America’s forests and grasslands 

and making them more resilient to threats and disturbances. Consistent with Secretary Vilsack’s 

vision of an “all-lands approach” to conservation, in 2015 we continued to focus on enhancing 

water resources, responding to climate change effects and reducing the threat of catastrophic 

wildfire while maintaining community-based stewardship and emphasizing jobs that support 

rural communities. The Forest Service demonstrates our achievements, identifies challenges and 

examines program strategies and methods by using performance systems to measure activities 

and monitor performance results throughout the year.

In 2015 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the new USDA Forest Service 

Strategic Plan: FY 2015 - 2020. The Forest Service wrote last year’s Annual Performance 

Report (APR) to the near final draft of the 2015 - 2020 Strategic Plan because we did not have an 

approved Strategic Plan in 2014. By using the FY 2014 APR as a transition document, we

established baselines and guiding principles to start making progress under the new Strategic

Plan. In the pages that follow, we lay out several measures that tell a compelling story of how

performance management is evolving to help us focus agency spending to make our Nation’s

forests and grasslands more resilient.

This chapter presents three strategic goals, one management goal, and a cross-cutting emphasis

on optimizing organizational capacity. The objectives and the performance measures associated 

with each represent our progress toward those goals. The Forest Service’s accomplishments

under the new Strategic Plan continue to inform progress toward Goal 2 of the USDA 2014 –

2018 Strategic Plan: Ensure our national forests and private working lands are conserved, 

restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our water resources.” The 

Forest Service is also helping to create a high-performing, efficient, and adaptable USDA for the 

21st century (USDA Goal 5).

The diagram that follows shows Forest Service strategic goals and their alignment to the USDA

Strategic Plan. The next section lists specific performance measures that tie the Forest Service’s 

contributions to USDA Goal 2.
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Annual Performance Report 

Forest Service Strategic Goals and Alignment to USDA Strategic Plan 

Forest Service Contributions to USDA Strategic Goal #2

FY 2015

Performance Measure FY 2011 

Actual

FY 2012 

Actual

FY 2013 

Actual

FY 2014 

Actual Planned Actual

2.1.2 Percentage of public and 

private forest and grazing land 

with conservation or 

management applied to 

improve or sustain productivity 

and ecological health *

-- -- -- 6.4% 5.6% 6.0%

2.1.3 Total acres of land protected 

from conversion through 

conservation easements and 

fee simple purchases to 

preserve natural resource 

quality, open space, and rural 

amenities

2,431,903 2,529,177 2,676,392 2,779,537 2,905,085 2,891,061

2.2.1 Percent of National Forests in 

compliance with a climate 

change adaptation and 

mitigation strategy

16% 36% 49% 64% 100% 88.5%

2.3.1 Percent of watersheds in 

properly functioning condition 52% 52% 52% 52% 52% 52.2%

2.4.1 Cumulative number of acres in 

the National Forest system that 

are in a desired condition 

relative to fire regime

59,269,943 59,468,313 59,784,485 60,065,020 61,500,000 60,417,289

* This was a new measure in FY 2014, developed during the revision of the FY 2014 – FY 2018 USDA Strategic Plan, so there are no 

accomplishments to report prior to FY 2014.
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Annual Performance Report 

Mission Statement

The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the

Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.

Vision and Values

As part of the USDA, the Forest Service embraces the values identified in the USDA’s 2014-

2018 Strategic Plan:

Forest Service Performance Management Framework

The Forest Service has an established performance management framework that tracks our 

outputs and outcomes and measures our progress towards goals. The framework begins with

performance measures established by the organizational unit (Deputy Area) responsible for the 

program, in support of the strategic plan and individual budget line items. Measures vary in their

objectives. Some track program outputs and others inform short-, mid-, and long-term outcomes. 

The agency annually sets targets for these measures during the budget process, and issues them to

the Regions, Stations, and Area (generally referred to as “the field”) upon enactment of an

Appropriations Bill or full year funding bill. We set national targets for all measures in the

Budget Justification and APR, and establish Regional or forest-level targets for some measures.

As work occurs on the ground throughout the year, we track and report on accomplishments that

support these targets in nearly 40 databases across the agency. These databases synchronize to

our official data source for external reporting. Once in this database, these accomplishments 

represent the collective work of:

Transparency Making the Department's management processes more open so that the public can 

learn how the USDA supports Americans every day in every way.

Participation Providing opportunities for USDA constituents to shape and improve services 

provided by the Department.

Collaboration Working cooperatively at all governmental levels domestically and internationally on 

policy matters affecting a broad audience.

Accountability Ensuring that the performance of all employees is measured against the achievement 

of the Department's strategic goals.

Customer Focus Serving USDA's constituents by delivering programs that address their diverse

needs.

Professionalism Building and maintaining a highly skilled, diverse, and compassionate workforce.

Results Measuring performance and making management decisions to direct resources to

where they are used most effectively.
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Annual Performance Report 

• 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands that contain more than 600 ranger

districts,

• nine regional offices,

• Northeastern Area for State and Private Forestry, and

• Seven research stations including the Forest Products Laboratory and the International

Institute for Tropical Forestry.

We annually report official accomplishments to USDA, Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB), Congress, and the public. Leadership also uses accomplishment data to inform progress 

and provide accountability for results.

Data Validity and Verification

The Forest Service uses a number of processes and controls to ensure data quality and validity. 

In the field, managers, supervisors, and project staff are responsible for reviewing the

completeness and quality of the data at the ranger district, national forest, and regional levels. 

We also require regional-level leadership to certify performance of all appropriate procedures to 

ensure validity and reliability of key performance data, and to document data that do not meet

the standard. 

In FY 2014, we started a new, more rigorous application of data quality assurance and began

phasing in a requirement for Data Quality Assurance (DQA) Plans on individual performance 

measures. A DQA Plan includes a clear articulation of data stewardship roles and responsibilities

at various levels in the agency, names responsible personnel by role, and provides training

modules tailored to roles intended to establish uniformity in the agency’s knowledge base on data

stewardship. By FY 2017, all measures will have a DQA Plan.
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Annual Performance Report 

Flow of Strategic Goals, Objectives, and Strategic Performance Goals 

Strategic Goal: Sustain Our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands 

Strategic Objective A: Foster Resilient, Adaptive Ecosystems to Mitigate Climate Change

By 2020: 

• Improve or sustain productivity and ecological health on public and private forest and

grazing land.

• Increase the proportion of acres with ecological benefit from natural ignition to 80 percent.

• Achieve a Forest Service-wide 25 percent reduction of Greenhouse Gas Scope 1 & 2

emissions and a 10 percent reduction in Scope 3.1

Strategic Objective B: Mitigate Wildfire Risk

• By 2020, reduce wildfire risk on the highest priority National Forest System lands by five

percent.

Strategic Objective C: Conserve Open Space

• By 2020, increase the connectivity of State and Private lands in priority areas and key

National Forest System lands by 15 to 25 percent from 2014, and double the retention of

working forests in key landscapes identified in Forest Action Plans from 2014 baseline.

Strategic Goal: Deliver Benefits to the Public

Strategic Objective D: Provide Abundant Clean Water

• By 2020, 54 percent of national forest and grassland watersheds will be functioning

properly.

Strategic Objective E: Strengthen Communities

The agency will continue to achieve mandatory Procurement Preference Goals annually, 

ensuring that a significant portion of the agency’s contracted work is awarded to small, minorityowned, veteran-owned, or other disadvantaged business category. 

1

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol separates greenhouse gas emissions into three different categories, or Scopes. Scope 1 emissions arise directly 

from sources that are owned or controlled by the agency, for example from fuels used in our boilers or the fleet vehicles; Scope 2 emissions are 

generated by purchased electricity, heat or steam consumed by the agency; and Scope 3 emissions are a consequence of the activities of the Forest 

Service but occur from sources not owned or controlled by us such as emissions associated with waste, water, business travel, commuting and 

procurement.
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Annual Performance Report 

Strategic Objective F: Connect People to the Outdoors 

• By 2020, increase the percent of people engaging in meaningful outdoor experiences by six

percent from 2014.

Strategic Goal: Apply Knowledge Globally

Strategic Objective G: Advance Knowledge

• By 2020, increase the external use of Forest Service-based knowledge products by five

percent from FY 2014 levels.

• By 2020, refresh and modernize 50 percent of enabling IT infrastructure, including network,

storage, end user computing, and radio, based on 2014 baseline.

Strategic Objective H: Transfer Technology and Applications 

• By 2020, 90 percent of all prioritized Forest Service datasets are externally available to the

public as downloadable files, map services, applications, or APIs.

Strategic Objective I: Exchange Natural Resource Expertise

• Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center students graduate with job placements at or above

the Department of Labor national average.

• The Forest Service effectively uses agency skills and capabilities for the benefit of our U.S.

and international partners and collaborators.

Management Goal: Excel as a High-Performing Agency

Strategic Goal: Sustain our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands 

The Nation’s vast forests and grasslands are essential to our country’s ecological, physical, 

biological, economic, cultural, and social well-being. Impacts from severe wildfires, insects and 

diseases, invasive species, human activities, climate change, extreme weather, and other visible

disturbances have raised public awareness about the environment. These impacts, combined 

with varying human demands, perpetually challenge our ability to ensure that ecosystems are

healthy, resilient, and thus more adaptable to changing conditions, or that restoration to a healthy

state remains a viable alternative. Long-term conservation across land ownership boundaries 

through collaborative partnerships and knowledge transfer can enhance the natural functions of 

the land and can contribute to sustainability—the ability of forests and grasslands to produce 

goods and services that people want and need, both now and in the future.

Strategic Objective A. Foster Resilient, Adaptive Ecosystems to Mitigate Climate Change

Strategic Performance Goal: By 2020, improve or sustain productivity and ecological health on 

public and private forest and grazing land. 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Annual Performance Report 

Overview 

Millions of acres of public and private forests and grasslands are at risk due to 

uncharacteristically severe wildfires, drought, and insect and disease outbreaks. By managing to 

this strategic performance goal, the Forest Service works to restore and manage our forests and 

grasslands so that they are more resilient to a variety of threats, and more capable of delivering 

benefits to the American people, while sustaining forest carbon sequestration and storage 

capacity to help mitigate the effects of climate change. Benefits of resilient landscapes include 

access to clean water, air, and fish and wildlife habitat, as well as the full range of ecosystem 

services, such as carbon sequestration, recreation access, and timber and biomass production. 

Key Performance Indicators 

FY 2015

Indicator FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Target Actual

All lands restored/enhanced 

(acres) 4,924,904 4,424,845 4,703,857 4,968,161 4,581,000 5,286,115

Grazing allotments 

administered to standard 

(acres)

27,132,200 30,396,997 29,268,333 29,794,000 27,000,000 28,605,088

Supporting Performance Indicators

The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) celebrated its five-year 

anniversary in 2015. During that time, the program delivered substantial progress on fulfilling 

the intent of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 to restore ecosystem resilience 

and reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildland fire on landscapes at high risk. In pursuit of 

these goals, our CFLRP program continues to build collaborative partnerships while we increase 

our capacity for on-the-ground project implementation and monitoring and support local 

communities and their economies. The CFLRP has met or exceeded its five-year targets for a 

majority of performance measures, including timber volume sold, hazardous fuels reduction, and 

wildlife habitat improved, and is on track to meeting its lifetime goals over its ten year 

timeframe. We completed a progress assessment on meeting program goals and presented the 

results in the CFLRP five-year report released in April 2015: 

http://www.fs.fed.us/restoration/documents/cflrp/CFLRP_5-YearReport.pdf . 

We have also focused on stewardship contracts as a tool for restoration, and have built capacity 

over the past several years to maximize the use of this tool. With permanent authority granted 

through the Agriculture Act of 2014, we have increased our flexibility to accomplish 

collaborative restoration work at a landscape scale. We have already demonstrated a shift 

toward stewardship contracts covering more acreage. From 2010 to 2015, our average acres per 

contract increased by 50 percent and our average volume per contract doubled. 

Strategic Objective Progress Update

The annual acres of public and private forest lands restored or enhanced looks at a broad suite of 

treatments and work across the landscape including agency efforts under Integrated Resource 

Restoration (IRR) to improve watershed function and resilience, a main driver of progress 
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Annual Performance Report

toward the stated objective. Fiscal year 2015 was the fourth year we piloted the IRR Program in 

Regions 1, 3, and 4. These pilot regions continued to work across disciplines to plan and 

implement landscape-scale restoration projects in collaboration with partners and local 

communities. While the most obvious change is the combining of several budget line items, 

under IRR we continue to increase the level of cross discipline integration to more efficiently 

achieve restoration outcomes and realize the intended benefits. These changes are complex and 

long term. The IRR pilot provides us with increased flexibility that has allowed the field to better 

integrate resource programs to focus on high priority restoration work, address unexpected 

challenges, conduct larger projects and enter into multi-year contracts.

Across all regions in FY 2015, we increased restoration efforts while also maintaining strong 

timber and biomass programs important to rural communities and economies. Working in a more 

integrated fashion boosted our restoration efforts, allowing us to lower the threat to communities 

by reducing hazardous fuels on 1.6 million acres in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). We also 

sustained or restored watershed conditions on 3.1 million acres, while producing almost 2.9 

billion board feet of timber of timber volume sold.

Strategic Performance Goal: By 2020, Increase the Proportion of Acres with Ecological Benefit 

from Natural Ignition to 80 Percent.

Overview

Wildland fire is a natural and necessary component of restoring and maintaining most of the

ecosystems managed by the Forest Service. Fire provides critical ecosystem functions including

transforming dead and dying material into nutrients, controlling insect populations, creating

habitat for wildlife, and creating conditions for establishment of plant communities. Many forest 

and grassland plant and animal species rely on immediate post-fire and early successional

conditions for their survival, so naturally-ignited fires that benefit ecosystems are an important

part of our Restoration and Hazardous Fuels programs. Wildland fires can provide resource

benefits by reducing hazardous fuels and restoring resilience to landscapes, especially those

ecosystems adapted to frequent fire. In addition, wildland fires can reduce the likelihood of 

high-severity fires in the future.

In addition to the ecosystem benefits, naturally-ignited wildfires that we allow to burn can have 

lower costs and can pose lower risk to personnel than fires we suppress as quickly as possible or 

than fuels we treat by traditional mechanical means. Naturally-ignited wildfires are often the 

most effective way to meet restoration objectives in remote areas like wilderness. However, we 

do not use this tool as often as we could for a variety of reasons, including internal or public 

pressure to put wildfires out quickly, and the possibility of larger and more severe fires resulting 

from extensive fuels buildup. Fire managers always assess the potential fire spread, behavior, 

and values impacted by each wildfire to decide the best strategy and tactics. With increased 

education and decision support tools, fire managers will be better equipped to identify when the 

conditions are present to manage rather than suppress wildfire for resource benefits.

Our objective is to allow fire to resume its natural role in ecosystems by increasing the 

percentage of fires that naturally burn to benefit resources, thereby decreasing the risk of 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Annual Performance Report

catastrophic fires, better protecting communities, and creating and maintaining landscapes that 

are more resilient.

Key Performance Indicators

FY 2015

Indicator FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY2014 Target Actual

Percent of acres burned by natural

ignition with resource benefits* - - - 70% - -

*This is a newly developed indicator that we are currently evaluating and piloting. An established baseline of 70% in FY 2014 replaces annual 

targets.

The use of natural fire for ecological restoration is dependent on natural fire activity, which is

characteristically random. The Forest Service continues to invest in educating fire managers and

the public about this tool, and in developing better decision support systems to inform agency

leaders and fire managers’ decisions on when it is most effective to use natural fire. As the 

agency continues to target the places where fuels treatments of all types will be most effective, 

more of the landscape will transition into a condition where fire can resume its natural role.

Strategic Objective Progress Update

Though implementation on a pilot basis will begin in FY 2016, we will assess progress for this 

newly implemented indicator at the end of the five-year period (FY 2016-2021). We expect to 

have preliminary results to compare against the FY 2014 baseline in FY 2016 and FY 2017. We

will look for trends in improvement by Region and nationally and will learn from the measure

and improve agency use of this tool. This new performance measure reflects both the landscape 

condition, as resilient landscapes should result in more beneficial fire effects, and our proactive 

efforts to use wildfire as a management tool. The measure is an indicator of how wildfire 

management, fire ecology, and agency leadership can work together to achieve desired 

conditions and leverage advantageous circumstances. 

The purpose of this strategic performance goal and performance indicator is to encourage and 

develop more consistency in the use of this treatment tool, as well as to increase how often it is 

used. Because certain conditions must be present in a specific wildfire incident to allow for 

opportunistic use of this tool, we must educate fire managers and improve decision support

systems to encourage managers to use natural fire as a tool under appropriate conditions.

Measuring and assessing its use, and annually increasing the percentage of acres managed in this

way, will help us to ensure progress in use of this important tool for managing wildland fire.

Increasing trends could indicate that conditions are improving where fire can play a natural role, 

and that fire managers are more actively seeking opportunities to manage naturally-ignited fires 

for resource benefits.

Strategic Performance Goal: By 2020, achieve a Forest Service-wide 25 Percent Reduction of

Greenhouse Gas Scope 1 & 2 Emissions and a 10 Percent Reduction in Scope 3.
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Annual Performance Report

Overview

To fulfill the agency’s obligation to present and future generations, the Forest Service must 

integrate its land stewardship mission with practices that reduce consumption and overall

resource use. Agency operations and assets must become more resilient to the impacts of a 

changing climate so we can continue to provide a high level of service while caring for the

National Forest System lands. There exists a direct relationship between healthy forests and

potable water, energy consumption, waste management, clean air, and modes of transportation.

Over the past 20 years, there have been many new sustainability mandates, and the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) scorecard requirements have established targets for reducing

Federal agencies’ environmental footprints. The President’s Climate Action Plan builds on the 

Presidential Memorandum on Federal Leadership on Energy Management, and other

sustainability and efficiency mandates, including the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Energy

Independence and Security Act of 2007, and a series of Executive Orders (EO). These include

EO 13423 “Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management,” EO

13514 “Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance,” and EO

13693 “Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade.” Increased attention to the 

consumption impacts of the federal sector reiterates the need for expanding adoption of

sustainable operations practices and behaviors. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission measures show 

progress in more finite areas such as renewable energy, reductions in petroleum consumption,

and increased use of telework to reduce commuting-related emissions. We set bold targets under 

this goal intentionally, and we actively support activities that address the impacts of climate

change overall and those that increase operational and asset resiliency.

Key Performance Indicators

The key performance indicator is the GHG level reported by metric tons of carbon dioxide 

equivalent (MT CO2e) in the Annual GHG Report to the USDA. The table below depicts totals 

reported for the past five years:

FY 2015

Indicator FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Target ‡ Actual †

Scope 1 & 2 GHG emissions, MT CO2e 346,508 257,521 282,628 194,724 232,099 -

Scope 3 GHG emissions, MT CO2e * 103,954 91,388 108,746 160,787 -

Total GHG emissions, MT CO2e 376,013 361,475 374,016 303,470 392,886 -

* Data incomplete for 2011

† Available later in 2016

‡ Target based on adjusted baseline

Supporting Performance Indicators

Sustainable Operations supports the mission in the face of a changing climate by conducting land

stewardship using practices that reduce our resource consumption and environmental footprint. 

The Sustainable Operations Collective focuses on reducing on-the-ground consumption, piloting 

scalable innovations, and developing policy that is integrated, solution-oriented, and supported

by leadership. The collective has engaged a network of dedicated employees who share the

commitment to build resiliency into landscapes and communities and to link current 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Annual Performance Report

consumption habits to future assets. Through a growing number of initiatives, the collective has 

enabled integration of best practices, building capacity in the agency and community, and saving

money and resources by implementing efficiencies.

Under an annual program of work, field-focused teams take steps towards footprint reduction in

six areas: energy, water, waste reduction and recycling, fleet and transportation, sustainable 

acquisition, and sustainable leadership. Although many of these actions may not tie directly to a 

reduction in GHGs, they support changes in behaviors and systems that can have significant 

impacts. Each field-based team develops a list of specific outcomes annually and maps them to 

the relevant executive orders, laws and Presidential mandates. The Sustainable Operations 

element of the agency climate-change scorecard also comprehensively reports measured 

progress.

Corporate Priority Action Items (CPAI) make up a major part of the Sustainable Operations 

program of work. Field-based teams piloted and identified these actions as scalable Forest

Service-wide and effective in reducing consumption. The CPAIs for FY 2014 and FY 2015 are

Utility Bill Cleanup, designed to identify baseline energy consumption, and Power-IT-Down, 

designed to reduce office energy consumption. We have phased implementation for both efforts.

Future CPAIs may include items such as a no-idling policy for fleet vehicles, leak detection for

Forest Service water systems, and recycling plans on all units for fire incidents. Completing 

identified CPAIs on all units will be a major performance indicator for Sustainable Operations.

Strategic Objective Progress Update

In addition to the field-based teams’ program of work, the Sustainable Operations Collective

annually updates each footprint areas’ “Cost and Consumption Reduction Plans” that span the

agency. The collective highlights actions that we need to implement to encourage greater

footprint reduction activities. They outline four categories of activities to 1) provide easy access 

to accurate, transparent energy consumption and cost data; 2) increase energy cost and

consumption awareness; 3) provide organizational capacity; and 4) implement reduction 

measures.

We are currently focusing on the greatest challenge to this program, improving the incomplete

and inaccurate data systems for all footprint areas and establishing accurate baselines. It is 

difficult to extract the agency’s baseline from the 2008 USDA-level baselines that form the 

foundation for mandated reductions.

The accuracy and completeness of GHG emissions reporting varies with data system accessibility 

and the accuracy and completeness of field reporting. In FY 2014, the change in utility payment

systems partway through the fiscal year resulted in gross under-reporting of Scope 1 & 2 

emissions, and in FY 2013, the agency did not report a subset of Scope 3 data. For that reason,

numbers reported in the table above do not tell a full and accurate story of the Forest Service’s

GHG emission profiles, and are a poor measure of effectiveness. We plan to continue to pilot 

place-based understanding of more local GHG inventories, focusing on relatively simple changes 

to the data systems and identifying where a smaller set of more accurate data may serve as a 

better indicator of progress and effectiveness. We will continue to divide our resources between 
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investments in data quality improvements and investments on the ground in actions that reduce

GHG emissions and internalize long-lasting behavioral and process change.

Strategic Objective B. Mitigate Wildfire Risk

Strategic Performance Goal: By 2020, Reduce Wildfire Risk on the Highest Priority National 

Forest System Lands by Five Percent.

Overview

The Fire and Aviation Management program supports the three goals of the National Cohesive

Wildland Fire Management Strategy: fire-adapted communities, resilient landscapes, and safe,

effective fire response. The prevention, preparedness, response and hazardous fuels programs

work together to reduce wildfire risk. The Forest Service cannot eliminate the occurrence of 

wildfire through prevention and fuel treatment programs. However, fuel treatments, along with 

preparedness, strongly affect our ability to prepare for, absorb the effects of, respond to, and

recover from wildfire in both natural and human communities. Fuel treatments can also be 

instrumental in reducing risk in order to increase the number of acres that burn with resource 

benefit, as described in further detail in Strategic Objective A.

Fuel treatments provide safer conditions and more strategic options for fire managers and

firefighters. Limited resources require us to prioritize areas for fuel treatment by risk (i.e., values

are high, multiple highly valued resources and assets are present and susceptible, the probability 

of fire is high, and/or expected fire intensity is high), as well as where we can effectively mitigate 

risk by reducing expected fire intensity.

Although the benefit of individual fuel treatments is well known and documented, the Forest 

Service continues to move our Hazardous Fuels program towards becoming more risk-based.

We are evaluating the nature and extent of the fuels problem in terms of risk to wildfire to key

values, evolving towards determining treatment and funding priorities based on those risks, and

developing ways to measure accomplishment and program success in terms of risk reduction.

Key Performance Indicators

FY 2015

Indicator FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Target Actual

National Forest System Wildfire Risk Index - - - 1 N/A N/A

The Forest Service is piloting this newly developed indicator to describe the relative risk of

wildfire to NFS lands over time. We tested the indicator on one Collaborative Forest Landscape 

Restoration (CFLR) project, and the agency is working with fire scientists to develop a 

nationally scalable methodology. We are piloting the measure more broadly in FY 2016 and 

have established the baseline reading of the index and set the value at “1.” The area this indicator 

is evaluating is large—the entire National Forest System in the lower 48 states—so annual

fluctuations are likely to be very small. For this reason, we have not identified annual targets, but 

have developed a target for the final year of the Strategic Plan, 2020. The measure would create 

an index of relative “fire risk” based on the likelihood of a large fire impacting highly valued 

resources. Annually, we will re-calculate the index and determine whether there is an overall 
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reduction in national risk. Changes that could affect the index include fuel treatments, wildfire, 

forest management, vegetation growth, increased wildland urban interface (WUI), insects and 

disease, and increases in fire-adapted communities.

Supporting Performance Indicators

Each fiscal year, the Forest Service measures the number of acres on which it treats hazardous 

fuels on the National Forest System, both outside and inside the WUI. This helps us to evaluate

the number of acres on which we are attempting to reduce risk, but does not inform the nature of 

the risk, either before or after the treatment. We are also implementing spatial accomplishment 

tracking in the reporting system to better represent the treatment “footprint” on the landscape.

This capability should be fully functional in FY 2017. Fire management personnel are using the 

spatial representation of fuel treatments to manage wildfires more effectively and more safely. 

We also monitor the efficacy of fuel treatments if a wildfire tests their effectiveness. In addition 

to monitoring overall effectiveness, this data helps us to drill down into design factors to 

improve the prescriptive details of future treatments. 

The Forest Service is also refining the way we account for acres treated for hazardous fuels 

reduction to better account for desired outcomes – actual acres where fuels have been effectively 

mitigated (footprint). In the past, reported hazardous fuels acres accomplishments reflected work 

awarded or completed, but not necessarily a change in landscape conditions. We will begin

tracking new measures in FY 2016 that count fuel treatments only when the unit certifies 

completion of all the planned treatments and that the fuels are in the desired condition based on 

the relevant NEPA documentation. We continue to track intermediate treatments for continuity 

and for overall activity tracking, but we will use the new measures for assessing outcomes (see 

the Hazardous Fuels section for more information on these new measures). More meaningful 

reporting will help us to focus on the most important work to increase resilient landscapes and 

reduce wildfire risk. 

Strategic Objective Progress Update

This is a newly developed indicator that the Forest Service plans to continue to pilot in specific 

places while we work on a nationally scalable methodology, which could take a couple of years. 

Very little change may occur annually in the risk index, due to the size of the evaluation area and

the number of acres that the agency can treat to reduce fuels each year. The purpose of this

indicator is to assess landscape change over time and it will be most meaningful to assess 

outcomes at the end of a five-year period. This can provide critical information for monitoring

trends in risk and evaluating the performance of previous risk mitigation investments.

Quantifying wildfire risk facilitates analysis of tradeoffs across highly valued resources and 

enables cost-effectiveness analysis as a basis for evaluating risk mitigation options. The Forest 

Service has a limited capacity to do fuel treatment work, and risk assessment is one important

way to prioritize fuel treatments. The potential scope of the fuels problem nationally is large and

constantly changing. This strategic performance goal and associated performance goal indicator

are one way to ensure we are investing resources effectively and efficiently to address fuels 

treatment.
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Strategic Objective C. Conserve Open Space

Strategic Performance Goal: By 2020, increase the connectivity of State and Private lands in 

priority areas and key NFS lands by 15 to 25 percent from 2014, and double the retention of 

working forests in key landscapes identified in Forest Action Plans from 2014 baseline.

Overview

Open space is vital to human health, economy, and well-being. The Nation loses an estimated 

6,000 acres of open space each day, at an average rate of four acres per minute. Looking ahead,

research estimates that by 2060, U.S. forest area will decline by over 24 million acres. In 

addition, 21 million acres of private rural lands near National Forests and Grasslands will

experience substantial housing density increases by 2030.

Open space development affects our ability to manage the national forests and grasslands, as

well as our ability to help private landowners and communities sustainably manage their land to

maintain private and public benefits and ecosystem services. The Forest Service is working 

towards an interconnected network of open space across the landscape that supports healthy 

ecosystems and a high quality of life for Americans. Fully realized, this network will include

sustainably managed private forests and rangelands, national forests and grasslands, other public

land, riparian areas and wildlife corridors, and urban greenspaces. Private and public open

spaces will complement each other across the landscape to provide ecosystem services, wildlife 

habitat, recreation opportunities, and sustainable products.

One of our primary land management objectives is to increase the connectivity of forests and 

grasslands. Consolidating the fragmented lands into public ownership supports landscape and 

watershed level restoration efforts, habitat management, and recreation access for the public. 

Undoing checkerboard ownership can make public lands more accessible. Every square mile of

checkerboard land acquired connects three square miles of lands. We estimate that the 144,000

acres acquired through a land exchange on the Lolo and Flathead National Forests in FY 2014 

reconnected over 400,000 acres, bringing dramatic efficiencies of scale for wildfire protection,

wildlife and game management, and public access.

Key Performance Indicators

FY 2015

Indicator FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Target Actual

Annual acres of NFS lands acquired or

donated 20,149 26,330 62,133 54,230 26,661 11,805

Private forest acres protected by the FLP

through conservation easements or feesimple purchases

Annual

149,911 52,999 87,927 34,715 90,000 106,369

Acres protected by the Community

Forest Program through fee- simple

purchases

Annual

- - 1,803 4,421 - 1,122
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FY 2015

Indicator FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Target Actual

Acres in important Forest Resource 

Areas covered by active Forest

Stewardship Plans and forest stand 

Management Plans

Annual

- - -

(Baseline 

being 

established†

- 1,040,458

Acres in important Forest Resource

Areas covered by Landscape

Stewardship Plans

Annual

- - -

Baseline 

being 

established‡

- 1,778,554

† Reporting for this data transitioned to the SMART system in FY 2014. We are still assessing data for quality control purposes, so FY 2014 is a

baseline year. 

‡ This is a new measure with only preliminary data in the system in FY 2014.

While we measure a number of important indicators that help to show progress towards the 2020

performance goal for this strategic objective, we are also developing new measurement tools to

track specific outcomes. We will leverage geospatial accomplishment data and other agencies’

Geographic Information System (GIS) data layers to describe more fully performance related to

the 2020 goal. We will evaluate methods for measuring relational aspects of key program 

indicators to identify priority landscapes in order to demonstrate all-land conservation outcomes. 

The Forest Service is evaluating potential metrics such as structural connectivity and

aggregation, and will evaluate how they work within and between geographic regions. This will

help us to evaluate the combined contributions of agency investments on a landscape scale, rather

than evaluating them solely on a program-by-program basis.

Supporting Performance Indicators

The Forest Service annually measures a number of indicators that help us assess our progress in

conserving open space, particularly focused on connectivity of key landscapes and retention of

working forests. These indicators include the number of community forests established each

year, and the associated acres of those forests that the Community Forest and Open Space 

program (CFP) protects. These indicators show the trends in the growth of community forests 

over time, and help us to determine whether interest is growing in this relatively new program.

We have established 17 community forests since the program’s inception in FY 2012, protecting

a total of 7,346 acres2

. The number of application requests for this program helps us to evaluate

the demand, and helps us focus our outreach efforts regarding the program. In FY 2015, the 

agency was able to fund six of 21 requests for funding and the program had four closings. 

The Forest Legacy Program collects data that enables the Forest Service to analyze key

contributions to connectivity in significant areas. For example, we are able to correlate the 

contributions of acres protected to watershed health, especially meaningful for important 

landscapes like the Crown of the Continent in Montana. We can also evaluate how much land

we have protected through Forest Legacy of the original range of critical imperiled species, like

longleaf pine. Transition zones, where one forest type is transitioning to another forest type, are

important areas to protect because as the climate changes, these areas will be most resilient. We

 1 In the FY 2016 Budget Justification, we reported a total of 8,394 acres protected based on acres estimated in project proposals. This updated 

total reflects actual closings, which is more accurate.
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can measure where we have protected these types of key landscapes and look at where we are 

retaining working forests through the Forest Legacy program. We are also able to evaluate key

contributions of protected lands in places important to the forest products industry.

In the Forest Stewardship program, the Forest Service is implementing the Landscape

Stewardship Approach, a new approach for program delivery that will enable us to increase

connectivity in priority areas identified in States’ Forest Action Plans, and retain more working 

forests. This approach involves developing and implementing landscape-scale and communitybased planning where State Forest Action Plans suggest that opportunities exist. To accomplish 

this, the Forest Service engages multiple owners of interconnected forest properties to achieve

one or more forest resource management objectives, such as creating economies of scale for local 

forest product markets. In total, through this work, almost 1.8 million acres in important forest 

resource areas are now covered by Landscape Stewardship Plans. 

We also bring landscape-level resource information and management practice guidelines into

individual Forest Stewardship Plans. In FY 2015, we finalized the revised Forest Stewardship

Standards and Guidelines, which better institutionalized this approach. The Forest Stewardship 

program also recently adopted new, more comprehensive performance metrics such as practice 

plans and other management plans. These types of plans equate to professional assistance tailored 

to site-specific landowner needs, delivered in an efficient manner. We plan to conduct similar 

studies every five years. Annually, the agency measures the number of private forest landowners

reached through Forest Stewardship Program technical, planning, and educational assistance. In 

FY 2015, such efforts reached 365,125 landowners.

In 2015, the Forest Service completed an historic acquisition on the Carson National Forest in 

New Mexico. The Miranda Canyon acquisition protected 5,000 acres that include the headwaters 

of the Rio Grande River and the entire Miranda Canyon Arroyo watershed. In 2010, the Taos 

County Commission approached the Forest Service about acquiring the land because residential 

development planned for the site threatened drinking water for the Taos Pueblo and other 

residents. With support from the Forest Service and the New Mexico Congressional delegation, 

the Trust for Public Land purchased the parcel, and held it until we could complete purchasing 

the tract over 4 years.

This acquisition complements ongoing landscape-level conservation efforts and investments by 

both the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior focused on the Upper Rio Grande 

region, which includes Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. The Carson National 

Forest is a popular recreation destination for people coming from Taos, Santa Fe and 

Albuquerque. The Miranda Canyon acquisition will open new areas to the public and connect 

trails for mountain biking and cross country skiing, and protect 5 miles of the Congressionally 

designated Old Spanish Trail that connected California and New Mexico in the 1800s.

The Land Acquisition program completed an historic investment on the Lolo and Flathead

National Forests in Montana aimed at reconnecting “checkerboard” lands on those forests. This

area of Montana contains one of the last intact ecosystems on earth for large carnivores such as

the Grizzly Bear, and is immensely popular for outdoor recreation, hunting, and fishing. This 

enhanced connectivity gives the Flathead and Lolo numerous benefits, but the fact that that no 

additional private homes will be built on those acres provides an immediate benefit because we 
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will not need to engage in the costly and time-consuming process of protecting additional private 

homes from wildfire in the WUI. In the west, private homes are present on 16 percent of the

WUI. If 50 percent of the WUI were developed, the estimated cost of protecting the homes from

catastrophic wildfires would be $4 to 5 billion3

. This example illustrates how connecting

fragmented lands, especially in the WUI, provides multiple benefits: reduced cost for firefighting, reduced risk to firefighters, residents, and property, and a connected landscape to better

support wildlife and recreation.4

Strategic Objective Progress Update

We have been working to connect key landscapes and retain working forests for a long time.

Since its inception as a small program in only a few states in 1990, the Forest Legacy program

investments and partners have grown significantly, resulting in the protection of over 2.5 million

acres of threatened forest landscapes. Forest Stewardship plans have evolved from serving

landowners on a “first come, first served” basis to focused program delivery on a landscape scale

that targets multi-landowner plans, and works to create economies of scale for local forest

products markets. We manage over 14 million acres in important forest resource areas under 

Forest Stewardship Plans. The “Open Space Conservation Strategy” developed in 2007

identifies how we can help conserve open space, with an emphasis on partnerships and

collaborative approaches. Ongoing programs across the agency, partnerships with other Federal

and State agencies, conservation organizations, universities, and others work together to support 

this strategy. 

Pressures from rapid urban expansion will continue to increase, and stemming the tide of open 

space loss requires us to work at different scales among a variety of different agency programs—

nationally, regionally, and locally—and to tailor our approaches to fit geographic regions. These

strategic performance goals and new ways to capture outcomes will help the agency to articulate

success, and assist us in identifying the most effective program investments for the future.

Strategic Goal: Deliver Benefits to the Public

America’s forests and grasslands are pivotal in providing a wide range of benefits to the

American people. Sustainable land management helps forests and grasslands to remain healthy 

and enables them to continue producing goods and services to meet multiple public demands,

thereby contributing to human health, prosperity, and quality of life for local communities and 

for the Nation as a whole.

These lands provide recreational settings and opportunities; cultural and heritage resources; 

scenery; resources such as clean air and water, minerals, fish, wildlife, livestock forage,

firewood, and various sources of renewable and nonrenewable energy; corridors for 

communication and energy transmission; and many other ecosystem services and benefits. These

benefits contribute billions of dollars to the national economy, underpin local economies in many

rural areas and enhance the quality of life and sense of place for people in many communities.

 3 Headwaters Economics. Available at: http://headwaterseconomics.org/wildfire/fire-research-summary. 4 USDA OIG, Western Region, Audit Report, Forest Service Large Fire Suppression Costs, 7, 10, ii, Report No. 08601-44-SF, 

November 2006
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Strategic Objective D: Provide abundant clean water

Strategic Performance Goal: By 2020, 54 percent of national forest and grassland watersheds 

will be functioning properly.

Overview

In addition to providing a wide array of ecological and community benefits, healthy forests play

a critical role in protecting access to abundant clean water for drinking and for other purposes. A 

properly functioning watershed is essential to providing a host of benefits including potable

water, sustained surface water and groundwater flow, and fish and wildlife habitat. This

strategic performance goal relies on the Watershed Condition Framework (WCF) as a foundation

and guide for consistent identification of factors limiting a watershed’s condition, for

determining the overall condition of a watershed, and for identifying those priority watersheds on

which to focus restoration efforts. The annual results associated with this measure reflect not

only work implemented within a given year, but represent the culmination of integrated,

watershed-based work that started with implementation of the WCF and development of

associated watershed restoration action plans. By managing to this goal, we seek to ensure

abundant, clean and reliable sources of freshwater.

Key Performance Indicators

FY 2015

Indicator FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY2014 Target Actual

Number of watersheds moved to an 

improved condition class 4 9 12 10 19 19

Acres treated annually to sustain or restore

watershed function and resilience 2,624,016 2,569,617 2,533,121 2,906,018 2,900,000 3,100,979

Miles of stream habitat restored or enhanced 3,878 3,704 4,168 3,488 3,262 3,465

Supporting Performance Indicators

Road decommissioning makes important contributions to our portfolio of restoration efforts by

reducing the environmental impact of our transportation systems. Road decommissioning

activities include restoring lands occupied by roads to a more natural state, which positively

affects water quality. In FY 2015, we decommissioned 1,299 miles of roads. The agency targets

roads that we no longer need, as well as unauthorized roads that are not part of the transportation 

system.

Strategic Objective Progress Update

We finished the year with 52.2 percent of our watersheds in properly functioning condition,

about the same level as FY 2014. The immediate negative effect of uncharacteristically severe 

wildfires on watershed health and function presents us with challenges. Catastrophic fire seasons 

such as we saw in 2015 can move watersheds to a degraded condition faster than our investments 

and improvements can restore other areas. In addition to catastrophic fire, other disturbances on

the landscape can also degrade watershed health and function. While we cannot control natural 
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events on the landscape, we can focus treatment efforts to make our watersheds more resilient to

natural threats.

During FY 2012 to FY 2015, we completed the necessary work to improve the condition of 50 

watersheds. During FY 2015, the IRR pilot regions improved 11 of the 19 total watersheds that 

we moved to an improved condition class. As an outcome measure, the annual result is not only

reflective of work implemented this year, but represents the culmination of integrated, 

watershed-based work that began when we developed watershed restoration action plans. As we

continue to gain experience working under the WCF, it is apparent that it may take us 5-10 years

to complete all the restoration actions under some watershed plans instead of the 3-5 years 

originally envisioned, due to complexity and cost.

We are seeing an increased ability to achieve outcomes at a larger scale by working in a more 

integrated manner. Continued strong performance across all regions drove FY 2015 results, with

the agency achieving a 7 percent increase over FY 2014 in acres treated annually to sustain or

restore watershed function and resilience. This measure is important because, as a composite of a 

number of activities across the landscape, it reflects restoration progress throughout the agency

more than just movement toward completing specific watershed restoration actions plans.

Integrated work in the IRR regions and a sustained focus on restoration work across the Forest

Service contributed to this result.

Stream restoration work directly affects habitat for threatened, endangered, and sensitive aquatic

species, as well as for native fishes with commercial and non-commercial value, and for desired

non-native species important to recreational fishing. For the third year in a row, the Forest 

Service took advantage of integrated planning and the effective use of partnerships to exceed our 

goal. We plan many fisheries and aquatic restoration projects in collaboration with partners in a 

more integrated manner at a broader landscape scale. Stream restoration projects, many of them 

benefitting a large number of stream miles at once through invasive species removal or reopening access to historically occupied habitat, often require longer planning cycles. Once 

planning is complete, project implementation occurs within a short timeframe based on funding 

availability and partner readiness. The increased accomplishments are a result of these 

collaborative planning efforts in previous years coming on line for implementation and our 

partners rallying their resources to help finance the accomplishments. The cumulative

accomplishments associated with this measure are critical to our threatened, endangered, and

sensitive aquatic species restoration.

Strategic Objective E: Strengthen Communities

Strategic Performance Goal: The agency will continue to achieve mandatory Procurement 

Preference Goals annually, ensuring a significant portion of the agency’s contracted work is 

awarded to small, minority-owned, veteran-owned, or other disadvantaged business category.

Overview

With over $1.2 billion expended on contracts annually, the Forest Service has a responsibility to

foster growth in the small businesses that strengthen communities and assist us in delivering on 
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our mission. We accomplish this by setting aside contract actions for small business concerns.5 

By contracting with small businesses, we contribute to a strong economy, job creation, and

greater partnerships between our agency and the communities surrounding the national forests 

and grasslands. We adopt procurement preference goals that are higher than targets mandated by

USDA, as shown in the table below.

Key Performance Indicators

FY 2015

Indicator

Prime Contracting – Business Type)

FY 

2011

FY 

2012

FY 

2013

FY 

2014

USDA 

Target Target Actual

Small Business 82.4% 82.1% 80.6% 84.1% 53% 72% 80.5%

Small Disadvantaged Business 23.1% 20.9% 16.3% 19.2% 5% 17% 19.4%

Woman-Owned Business 12.8% 13.3% 15.9% 17.9% 5% 9% 17.5%

Historically Underutilized Business 

Zone

13.9% 10.0% 10.3% 9.4% 3% 10% 8.1%

Service-Disabled Veteran- Owned

Small Business 2.8% 3.9% 2.8% 3.4% 3% 4% 3.6%

Supporting Performance Indicators

Achievement of procurement preference goals is the primary indicator of our success in

awarding as many contract actions to small business concerns as possible. Other non-measurable

indicators include increased awareness by small businesses of opportunities to contract with the

government, achieved through agency participation in national and local small business events,

and our increased use of electronic media to share contracting opportunities with a wider

audience.

Strategic Objective Progress Update

The Forest Service has been, and remains committed to, strengthening communities through

contracting with small businesses. Few agencies overseen by the Small Business Administration

procurement preference program have small business goals as high as USDA’s goals, and none

of the Cabinet-level agencies has goals as high as the Forest Service goals. The Forest Service 

routinely meets, and generally exceeds, most of its goals. As an example, the FY 2015 small 

business goal for USDA was 52 percent, and for the Forest Service it was 73 percent, but the

agency was able to award over 80 percent of its FY 2015 contracting funds to small business

concerns.

Future Strategic Performance Goals

The Forest Service will continue to seek support from small business concerns first, and strive to

strengthen communities through these actions and in many other ways. Rural forests and urban

 5 A small-business concern is “one that is independently owned and operated, is organized for profit, and is not dominant in its

field.” “What Is SBA’s Definition of a Small Business Concern?” U.S. Small Business Administration, N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec.

2014.
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trees provide ecological, economic, and social benefits to communities of all size. As an

example, in FY 2012 the agency estimated that the monetary value from recreation for all goods 

and services adds slightly more than $13 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP), and 

sustained about 190,000 full- and part-time jobs. In FY 2011, all Forest Service activities

combined contributed to nearly 450,000 jobs nationwide, mostly to rural communities near the

national forests and grasslands. We also convene partnerships and collaborations between state

and local governments, academic institutions, and the private sector, helping to strengthen

relationships between many groups in a community around natural resources, thereby reinforcing

community bonds and fostering shared community prosperity.

While the Forest Service clearly has a great impact on strengthening communities across the

Nation, we are still developing the measure we will ultimately use to evaluate progress towards 

this strategic objective. We will continue to refine potential measures of success until it 

identifies which set will best reflect outcome-based progress toward strengthening communities.

Strategic Objective F: Connect people to the outdoors

Strategic Performance Goal: By 2020, increase the percent of people engaging in meaningful 

outdoor experiences by 6 percent from 2014.

Overview

The Nation's rich history reveals the vital role the outdoors has played in defining the people and 

the country. From lakes and rivers to forests and mountains, the outdoors has served as a place

for Americans to create lasting memories and as a conduit for economic growth and job

development. The outdoor industry supports 6.1 million American jobs and $646 billion in 

outdoor recreation spending each year. However, an increasing disconnects between nature and 

people, especially children, are a serious threat facing America today. Spending time in nature 

benefits physical and mental health, academic performance, and overall quality of life. Research

has shown that childhood activities in natural environments have a significant, positive

association with adult environmental attitudes and behaviors.

Today’s more urbanized youth spend 50 percent less time in natural areas than youth did 20

years ago. Additionally, the shift toward sedentary lifestyles is a major contributor to the decline

in children's health. Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates have tripled.

Opportunities for youth to engage with nature improve advanced motor fitness, and enhance

powers of observation and creativity.

The single biggest predictor of environmental stewardship in adults is meaningful childhood

experiences in nature. We are working to help re-create a Nation of citizen stewards committed 

to restoring forest health—from backcountry areas to shaded urban neighborhoods, parks, and

greenways—to ensure that stewards sustain the public and private forests and that the forests 

remain relevant to future generations.
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FY 2015

Indicators FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Target Actual

Number of visits where people 

are satisfied with NFS 

facilities, services, and 

settings

160,313,500 155,440,300 151,210,400 143,727,700 - 139,074,400

Number of people who

annually participate in Forest 

Service environmental literacy

programs and activities

5,183,467 6,878,710 4,562,348 6,808,901 6,000,000 7,459,632

Number of volunteers and

service participants caring for 

the land and serving people.

96,575 107,797 103,159 109,800 - Reporting 

period still 

open

While the Forest Service measures a number of important indicators that help us assess progress

towards the 2020 Goal, we are working to develop methods to assess meaningful connections to

ensure that we are engaging citizens in ways that will be sustainable into the future. We recently 

upgraded the national database we use to record educational and outreach activities, and note

that increases in 2014 and 2015 indicators may be representative of improved reporting rather 

than increased contacts. These numbers provide an index of the agency’s outreach and education 

efforts, and future reporting will reflect more accurately the number of people reached through 

these efforts. This updated version of the Nature Watch, Interpretation, and Conservation 

Education (NICE) database provides streamlined reporting with a straight-forward, user-friendly 

interface, improved data management through different input fields, and expanded reporting 

capacity with detailed drop down menus and specific reporting fields. By continuing to refine the 

NICE database, along with other investments in data about people using NFS lands and 

participating in agency-supported environmental education programs, we will better track and 

articulate progress towards the 2020 goal.

Supporting Performance Indicators

For a long time, the Forest Service has offered high-quality interpretative experiences on NFS

lands from informative displays at trailhead lodges to ranger-led hikes, to community service

days. The Federal Interagency Council on Recreation estimates that nearly 147 million visitors 

recreated on NFS lands in FY 2014. This equates to an estimated recreation contribution of

approximately $9.5 billion and 143,000 jobs to local economies in FY 2014.6

With Smokey Bear, we have one of the longest-running and most recognizable public service 

campaigns in history. Generations of children and adults around the world recognize and 

recall Smokey’s messages about campfire safety and forest fires. We have also been in urban 

classrooms with Woodsy Owl’s famous “Give a hoot, don’t pollute” and “Lend a Hand, Care for

the Land” messages for many years. Since 2009, the Forest Service has collaborated with The

Ad Council on the Discover the Forest campaign to reach today’s youth with new social media 

 6

 National Visitor Use Monitoring Survey Results, USDA Forest Service National Summary Report, DRAFT, 20 April 2015
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tools and using children’s popular cultural characters like Shrek and the Lorax to amplify our 

messages.

Recognition of the campaign website DiscoverTheForest.org has grown from 3 percent in 2011 to 

20 percent in 2014-15. Thirty-nine percent of the Discover the Forest target audience, parents of 

tweens, report seeing or hearing the “Come Alive” campaign that launched in June 2014. The 

Facebook page has 239,015 likes, Twitter has 10,200 followers, Instagram has 1,250 followers, 

and videos on YouTube have had 123,418 views (data as of the end of FY 2015). 

The Forest Service has two successful programs that use online technology to help connect youth 

with nature. Agents of Discovery, an innovative mobile gaming application, virtually leads youth 

and their families on trails or urban walks during which they complete challenges and answer 

questions that lead to observations and learning about nature. Agents of Discovery game mission 

sites are in place at national forest trails and sites in California, Kentucky and Washington, and 

there is an urban version for the National Mall in Washington, DC. We have plans to develop the 

game for Forest Service sites designated as Special Places. The FSNatureLIVE.org portal website 

provides easy access to the Forest Service’s award-winning distance learning adventures on 

nature topics. The website includes webcasts to classrooms, lesson plans, webinars, and 

education resources. Since the first Forest Service distance learning project in 2001, more than 

four million students have viewed the webcasts, learning about and connecting to nature, and 

learning how they can take conservation actions.

The Forest Service also partners with Project Learning Tree on a GreenSchools! program that

includes more than 4,000 registered schools. Students investigate their school’s environmental 

footprint and look for ways to green their school, home, and community. The Department of 

Education supports green schools programs with their Green Ribbon Schools Awards, of which 

25 percent have gone to schools in our program. 

This year we continued to work through new initiatives and with partners to welcome and attract 

new visitors to the national forests and grasslands, across multiple program areas. Today more 

than ever, the public receives its information digitally, primarily via mobile devices. We worked 

across disciplines and boundaries to improve public access to real-time recreation data. We

implemented initial steps towards a single, unified recreation database to support high-quality 

recreation data, and which will improve the information available through Recreation.gov and 

other social media and web-based applications that facilitate outdoor recreation. The Forest 

Service also began work on the Interactive Visitor Map 2.0 planned for release in spring of 2016. 

The map presents authoritative roads, trails, and recreation site information and provides visitors 

with trip-planning information for recreational opportunities available on the national forests, 

grasslands and other areas. The new map version will improve access to the recreation 

information through an innovative and practical web site for mobile users.

The Forest Service continued to develop the National Framework for Sustainable Trails in FY 

2015, which we expect to finalize during FY 2016. Under the framework, we will

synergistically collaborate with national partners to identify actions that will create a socially, 

environmentally and economically sustainable National Trails System. Additionally, the trails 

program has been active in an agency-wide effort to develop a comprehensive digital strategy, 

including incorporating trails information into the Interactive Visitor Map.
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In support of its goal to advance winter recreation activities, we published the final Over-Snow 

Vehicles rule, Part C of the Travel Management Rule, a policy that sets principles for consistent 

field implementation. The new rule expands winter recreation opportunities for the public and 

provides additional economic benefits for communities, while ensuring natural resource 

protection. 

Our 21st Century Service Corp (21CSC) partnership provides an enormous return on investment, 

allowing the Forest Service to address critical conservation restoration needs and simultaneously 

have a deep and lasting impact on the people who participate, thereby building the next 

generation of natural resource professionals. In FY 2014, we exceeded our 2013 engagement 

numbers by 30 percent, achieved a 30 percent increase in Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) 

participation to 1,400 youth, and orchestrated growth in the 21CSC organization, recognizing 

and approving 152 partner organizations, exceeding our own USDA goal.

Strategic Objective Progress Update

The Forest Service has undertaken a focused effort in recent years to better connect citizens, 

especially youth, to the national forests and grasslands, and their natural heritage nationwide. 

In 2015, the Chief released the Forest Service’s Integrated Strategy for Youth. This document 

provides a cohesive vision of what we strive to achieve through our youth engagement efforts. 

The vision for youth outreach is “our Nation’s forests and grasslands nurture every youth’s 

connection with nature and their understanding of natural resources, and provide opportunities 

for conservation service and employment to ensure the next generation cares for their public 

lands.” The strategy highlights five key goals:

1. Strengthen existing partnerships, build new ones that reach all America’s youth, and 

engage them in conservation education, service and employment opportunities.

2. Develop and nurture opportunities for all youth to engage in conservation service and 

investigate career opportunities in natural resource management.

3. Build knowledge about natural resources, conservation and stewardship of our Nation’s 

forests and grasslands by developing and implementing effective, standards-based, 

contemporary conservation education programs that reach all America’s youth.

4. Build lifelong connections with nature through outdoor recreation opportunities, and 

provide place-based experiences of nature.

5. Build capacity within the Forest Service and with our partners to plan, support, 

implement, evaluate and integrate youth engagement opportunities across America.

We launched the More Kids in the Woods initiative in 2007, followed by the Children’s Forest 

program in 2010, to focus support and attention on the critical youth outreach work. Since 2007, 

these programs have reached an estimated 100,000 children using Forest Service and partner 

contributions dedicated to youth outreach.

We are currently implementing the Presidential Initiative Every Kid in a Park, which provides 

free access for a year for fourth grade students across the country to experience their federal 

lands and waters. This complements the Chief’s Integrated Strategy for Youth by focusing on an 

age researchers found key to engaging young people in the outdoors. With a goal of reaching 
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50,000 fourth graders in FY2016, we are initiating new activities and tailoring annual events to 

attract this age bracket, especially focusing on underserved youth. The real measure of success 

will be the extent to which participating fourth graders embrace and value their public lands and 

waters in the years that follow. The President’s America’s Great Outdoors (AGO) Initiative,

launched in 2011, solidified an action plan to achieve lasting conservation of the outdoor spaces

that power the Nation’s economy, shape the culture, and build the outdoor traditions. Three

Forest Service-supported programs are among the eight programs selected as AGO Model 

Educational Programs: A Forest for Every Classroom, Children and Nature, and Hands on the 

Land. These programs exemplify best practices to inspire new and existing partners to increase

young people’s access to the outdoors through replicable and scalable program models. The

public and private sectors are able to maximize their resources when they build on each other’s

strengths to achieve shared goals.

The Forest Service is also working with our Federal partners to empower local communities to

accomplish their conservation and recreation priorities, and strengthen a 21st Century 

conservation ethic that builds on local ideas and solutions for environmental stewardship, and

connects Americans to their historic, cultural, and natural heritage. We have expanded our

commitment to creating green jobs, including through expanded participation in the Youth

Conservation Corps and 21st Century Conservation Corps, as part of this initiative. We are 

focusing on urban and rural youth, especially through its Discover the Forest program to promote

outdoor experiences and recreation among youth.

In this increasingly diverse, urbanized, and technology-focused world, the Forest Service 

acknowledges that we need to work harder to connect citizens to the outdoors and to meet them

where they are—in communities, in schools, and through new media. Forest Service outreach

programs that constructively use new media, including Discover the Forest, with a strong social 

media component on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, encourage parents and families

to go outdoors and discover the forest. This program also includes a Spanish language 

component, a climate change education program, Climate Change LIVE—completely based on

internet outreach, and a series of special outreach PSAs in Spanish to reach America’s Latino

population with information and resources about the natural environment. These are 21st Century

challenges and this strategic performance goal and performance goal indicator will help us to 

develop tools to meet that challenge to ensure the Nation’s forests and grasslands are sustained 

into the future.

Strategic Goal: Apply Knowledge Globally

Through intellectual inquiry and knowledge transfer, the Forest Service provides land managers

and others with enhanced information, applications, and tools for improved resource management

and decision-making. We are constantly improving our knowledge of complex environmental

processes, biological and physical conditions, resource uses, human and social dimensions, the

economic value of the resources we manage, and the interconnectivity among these elements,

both within and outside the Forest Service. To benefit from global knowledge, we continually

interact and shares knowledge with partners worldwide. The transfer of knowledge, technology,

and applications will help the global natural resource community make better management 

decisions in the collective effort to care for all lands and deliver sustainable benefits to people.
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Strategic Objective G: Advance Knowledge

Strategic Performance Goal: By 2020, increase the external use of Forest Service-based 

knowledge products by 5 percent from FY 2014 levels.

Overview

The Forest Service provides land managers and others with information, applications, and tools

for improved resource management and decision-making. Scientific research helps advance

knowledge about complex environmental processes, biological and physical conditions, resource

uses, human and social dimension, the economic value of natural resources, and the

interconnections among these elements. From natural resource management to long-term

strategic policy development, our efforts to sustain forest and grasslands now and into the future 

depend on new knowledge, information, and applications.

Key Performance Indicators

FY 2015

Indicator FY 

2011

FY 

2012

FY 

2013

FY 

2014 Target Actual

FIA – percent of States with FIA data available 96% 92% 96% 98% 98% 98%

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) indicator measures the thoroughness with which the

Forest Service quantifies the Nation’s resources. The FIA program inventories the status and

trends in tree species, size, and health; forest area and location; tree growth, mortality, and 

removal by harvest; wood production and utilization; and forest land ownership. The FIA

assessments extend to the trust territories and Puerto Rico and include reports on changes in

carbon budgets and forest health.

Supporting Performance Indicators

In order for external partners and organizations to use Forest Service-based knowledge products 

with confidence, we must produce consistently high-quality products. Refereed publications, 

including both formally refereed and informally refereed, are a measure of the publications that

the agency has published after a formal or informal peer review to ensure quality and relevance,

and are supporting performance indicators. During FY 2015, Forest Service research scientists’

published 2,013 documents that passed the peer review evaluation for quality and relevance. In 

addition, research scientists produced 442 science delivery products and 2,514 science delivery 

activities.7,8

Wildland fire and fuels research provides the knowledge and tools needed to help reduce the

negative impacts—and enhance the beneficial effects of—fire and fuels on society and the

 7 Science Delivery Products: Number of products developed to enhance the usefulness of scientific information that have not 

been published in formally or informally refereed outlets, regardless of durable delivery format, that are delivered to clients in 

clear and accessible formats.

8 Science Delivery Activities: Number of activities undertaken to enhance the usefulness of scientific information that are 

delivered to clients in clear and accessible formats.
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environment, while protecting lives and property. The fire science indices measure the rate at

which our scientists publish peer-reviewed products on fire science, and serve as an index of the

progress toward advancing knowledge in fire science.

Fire and Aviation Management is an integral partner with the wildland fire and fuels Research 

and Development program, and actively supports alignment of research, development, and

application strategies and products with national outcomes focused on resilient landscapes,

human communities, and safe and effective wildfire response. Examples include development of

new safety zone guidelines for firefighters, implementing regional risk assessments in the

National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, and ensuring science-based wildland

fire management through two research, development, and application centers and the National

Center for Decision Support. The 2014 Wildland Fire Management Annual Report includes 

results of this partnership.

In addition to meeting the targets for the percent of states with data available in the FIA program, 

we completed a package of deliverables for the Federal Geographic Data Committee. This 

includes materials for the Federal Geographic Information System, an auto-key for cross walking 

the U.S. National Vegetation Classification to FIA plots in the Eastern half of the United States. 

In addition, we have completed registering a national database for FIA, “Monitoring Trends in 

Burn Severity and Landfire,” to the GeoPlatform.gov for the Land Use and Land Cover Theme.

Strategic Objective Progress Update

National, State, and local policy makers, universities, businesses, Tribal governments, national

forests and grasslands, other natural resource agencies, interest groups, and many others depend

on models, information and data for timely, scientific credible assessments about U.S. forests.

The FIA program is an important component of the Forest Service, and it has been the Nation’s

forest census since 1930. This program collects, analyzes, and reports on the status and trends of

America’s forests, such as how much forest exists, where it exists, who owns it, and how it is 

changing. The agency derives many benefits from FIA information, including supporting 

planning and ecosystem management practices, monitoring forest health, providing the basis for

decision-making activities undertaken by public and private enterprises, and anticipating climate

change impacts to forests. Forest Service management continues to support the creation of better

tools for making the FIA data easier to access, and to help the public get what they need from the 

databases. For example, we created an online tool called “EVALIDator” that summarizes 

inventory data on the FIA website, and is accessible to the public. In FY 2014, the number of

states that had current and accessible FIA data exceeded the target by one state.

Strategic Performance Goal: By 2020, refresh and modernize 50 percent of enabling IT 

infrastructure, including network, storage, end user computing, and radio, based on 2014 

baseline.

Overview

The Forest Service makes a significant investment in information technology (IT) to provide the 

connectivity and the tools necessary to conduct to our wide ranging and information driven 

mission. This enabling technology includes data center services, software, end-user computing, 
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telecommunications and land mobile radios to cover the broad range of mission needs. To 

ensure core technology services meet employee needs, we have established a strategic goal of 

refreshing 50 percent of existing IT infrastructure by 2020 with a focus on network services, data 

storage, end-user tools and field radio communication. These core tools are necessary to help 

employees advance knowledge in the agency and with the public, to share data and ideas, and to 

conduct the field research necessary to maintain healthy forests. The Forest Service network 

enables agency offices to conduct business, access digital services, communicate via email, and 

carry out analytical work. The network also provides connectivity to the IT infrastructure. This 

includes the Wide Area Network (WAN) that allows all agency offices to communicate via email 

and instant messaging. This WAN provides secure connectivity to the internet and allows for 

communication with the public and cooperators. This strategic goal focuses on modernizing FS 

land mobile radio capabilities that we use for fieldwork, safety, and firefighting. Other agency 

infrastructure includes the largest non-Department of Defense, government-wide radio backbone, 

which covers over 150 national forests and is crucial to field-going personnel for communication 

and safe operations. End user computing devices are also part of this modernization effort and 

include desktop, laptop, and mobile devices necessary to conduct our work. The Forest Service 

has an inventory of 38,000 PCs that range from low-end laptops to tablets to high-end computers 

supporting scientists and GIS applications. 

By continuing to refresh and modernize this critical IT infrastructure, we will have the necessary 

technology to conduct our local, national, and international missions and effectively share ideas 

around the world. This modernization allows us to enhance our information sharing, analysis, 

and operational capabilities both internally and externally as we communicate with the public 

and improve on how we adapt to change. The Forest Service is a key player in the study of 

global warming and has a vital role in protecting the nation’s watersheds. Gathering data, 

protecting the national forests, and communicating and sharing ideas are cornerstones of the 

important work we do. If the agency does not keep up with the changes in IT, we could lose our

ability to be an innovator and collaborator in solving problems. Inadequate investments in IT 

modernization could endanger agency personnel and forest visitors, and hamper our ability to 

solve local and worldwide national natural resources issues.

Key Performance Indicators

FY 2015

Indicator FY 

2011

FY 

2012

FY 

2013

FY 

2014 Target Actual

Computers 7086 7211 3782 8954 3687 7203

Network Routers / Switches - - - 225 1118 1118

Radio Handhelds - - - 6958 3637 4647

Note: Table updated in 2015 to reflect more accurately the accomplishment to date. This results from improvements to the data collection 

systems.

Strategic Objective Progress Update

The Chief Information Office (CIO) has taken several actions to support the enabling IT 

infrastructure. The CIO has dedicated staffs to support the radio, network, and end user

computing programs. It has reduced the number of assets across the Forest Service to build a 
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right-sized inventory and to maximize funds available. It has established a mobile computing 

group to evaluate new technologies at lower cost, and to improve the agency’s ability to capture

and share data. It has also established teams to evaluate funding alternatives to allow for 

infrastructure growth and to ensure that technology implemented enhances the Forest Service’s

ability to meet our mission.

Strategic Objective H: Transfer Technology and Applications

Strategic Performance Goal: By 2020, 90 percent of all prioritized Forest Service datasets are 

externally available to the public as downloadable files, map services, applications, or APIs.

Overview

The Forest Service has made significant strides addressing the ‘transferring technology’

objective by making datasets available as part of its commitment to OMB’s Open Data Policy.

CIO will work with the Deputy Area Resource Information Managers (RIMs), business area

managers, and Information Management governance groups to inventory datasets managed by all

agency program areas, and to prioritize the datasets most useful to other organizations and the 

public. We will identify appropriate formats for distribution of each dataset among data

download, map services, Application Program Interfaces (APIs), or applications. As our IT 

capability matures, we plan to make available more customer-facing applications (e.g., mobile

apps) and APIs.

Key Performance Indicators

The key performance indicators for this goal are the number of datasets available in each format 

and the number registered with Data.Gov, indications of increasing the ability of interested 

organizations to find the datasets. Detailed target and actual FY15 numbers are incomplete for 

some of the required reporting categories listed below. A myriad of different factors have 

impacted our ability to create an internal tracking system for the maintenance and reporting of 

these data sets, such as recent turnovers in dedicated resources trained in doing this type of work 

combined with a lack of internal reporting and monitoring capabilities. 

The Forest Service has started to capture, through our Annual Investment review process that 

started formally 30 November 2015, those data sets and applications that are providing such 

services, in an attempt to re-baseline our foundational reporting efforts (FY14 data) and to 

establish FY15 “actuals” along with FY16 reporting targets. We believe that upon completion of 

this comprehensive scrub of both major and non-major IT investments (slated for 1 Feb 2016), 

these numbers will significantly rise, with the goal in FY16 to establish and resource a formal 

reporting and tracking methodology capability to ensure compliance with this key performance 

indicator. 

FY 2015

Indicator FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Target Actual

Datasets Publically Available - - - 112 Unknown Unknown

Datasets Registered with Data.Gov - - - 0 100 70

Map Services Publically Available - - - 64 0 0

Map Services Registered with Data.Gov - - - 58 100 68
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FY 2015

Indicator FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Target Actual

API Publically Available - - - 64 Unknown Unknown

API Registered with Data.Gov - - - 0 100 68

Applications Publically Available - - - 1 Unknown Unknown

Applications Registered with Data.Gov - - - 1 0 0

Strategic Objective Progress Update

The Forest Service CIO will continue to maintain the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) as a

repository for datasets, maintain map and web servers to publish map services and other APIs,

and maintain an external web site for hosting datasets that we will make available to the public as

downloadable files. The agency will evaluate this infrastructure and develop priorities for 

strengthening it as demands increase and as IT service delivery matures. Currently, the Forest 

Service has a many sites from which we disseminate data, but has no agency-wide view or

summary, nor information on the data quality for most sites. Work that began in FY 2015 will

identify these multiple sources and implement needed governance. We will also address a 

number of management challenges including insufficient resources to collect, edit, and quality 

control all data and insufficient support resources for governance and dissemination.

Strategic Objective I: Exchange natural resource expertise

Strategic Performance Goal: Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center students graduate with job 

placements at or above the Department of Labor national average.

Overview

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) contracts with the Forest Service to operate 27 Job Corps

Civilian Conservation Centers (JCCCC). These centers span 22 national forests and grasslands 

in 17 States, with a capacity to educate and train over 5,000 enrollees. The DOL provides 

oversight and funding to the Job Corps Program, which is a free federal career technical training

and education program for income-eligible young adults age 16 through 24. The goal of Job

Corps is to teach job and social skills to disadvantaged young adults to help them obtain

education and training, find good-paying jobs, and become independent. The program includes

housing, food, basic health care, and living allowances. In addition, it provides students

transition counseling, job search assistance and referrals, and follow-up services after they 

graduate. The maximum duration per person in the Job Corps program is two years, averaging 

eight to twelve months.

The Forest Service has operated JCCCCs since 1964. The JCCCC have an entwined history

related to conservation and serving rural America. Integrated with the Forest Service, Job Corps

advances the legacy of public land conservation, creates opportunities to connect youth with 

nature, and provides training and employment opportunities that support economic development

for individuals and local communities. The JCCCCs have a rich history of employment training

that supports Forest Service needs, including wildland firefighting and hazardous fuels reduction, 

watershed protection, recreation, forestry, and facilities maintenance. Today, JCCCCs are

continuing the tradition of protecting Americans’ natural heritage, and providing programs of

work-based learning to conserve, develop, manage, and enhance public lands.
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Key Performance Indicators

FY 2015

Indicator FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Target Actual

JCCCC Percent Placement Rate 81% 82% 82% 87% 90% 84%

Supporting Performance Indicators

The JCCCC students volunteer their time as part of their training programs, thereby giving

students the opportunity to exchange and apply what they are learning in the classroom. The 

JCCCC students also contribute to National wildfire suppression efforts by providing camp 

crews and Type II fire crews, composed of students who have earned certification as wildland 

firefighters. In calendar year 2015, the Job Corps Fire Program trained and red-carded 2,525 Job

Corps students as firefights, camp crew members, or administrative support personnel. Upon 

successful completion of the JCCCC Fire Program requirements, students are able to compete for 

permanent or seasonal appointments or for hiring under the Public Lands Corps authority. The 

Job Corps Fire Program training in 2014 resulted in hiring of four Job Corps students into Forest 

Service fire units, 19 students into 1039 hour temporary positions and four students into nonForest Service fire organizations. 

The Schenck Job Corps Advanced Fire program maintains a standing initial attack (IA) crew. 

This cadre supplements and exchanges the education and skills they develop in their Job Corps 

program with experience in wildland firefighting, a discipline that relies on the natural resource 

expertise across multiple agencies and jurisdictions. Aside from placing graduates in land 

management agencies, Job Corps supported the exchange of natural resource expertise through 

the 2,400 volunteer students who participated and contributed to public lands projects and fire 

incidents.

In FY 2015, the Forest Service requested that the Department of Labor add at least one 

additional Advance Fire program at the Centennial Job Corps Center located in Nampa, Idaho. 

This western Advanced Fire program will allow for more robust fire training that will benefit the

students as well as the Forest Service Job Corps partnership with the wildland firefighting 

program. 

Strategic Objective Progress Update

One of the main JCCCC goals in FY 2015 was that students would graduate with job placements

at or above the DOL national average. In order to achieve this going forward, we used the Public 

Lands Corps (PLC) and Pathways authorities to increase our placement rates for Job Corps

graduates within the USDA or DOI. By placing Forest Service Job Corps graduates in land 

management bureaus within DOI, the agency is fostering cross-Department knowledge and

experience in natural resource management. As part of the process to increase the job placement 

rates, the Forest Service has identified and is implementing a priority hiring emphasis in the

disciplines of fire, recreation management, wilderness management, and engineering.
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Consequently, these programs will provide increased placement opportunities for students in 

Federal land management agencies, who will be well poised to exchange their knowledge and 

experience in natural resource management across departments and agencies. During FY 2015, 

2,381 Forest Service Job Corps students contributed thousands of volunteer hours on the nation’s 

public lands. These hours translate into $5 million in value. The top three Job Corps student 

volunteer activities were fire prevention, facilities construction, and recreation 

maintenance/construction maintenance.

Management Goal: Excel as a High-Performing Agency

In order to fulfill our motto of “Caring for the Land and Serving People,” Forest Service 

management is committed to excelling as a high performing agency that promotes an inclusive

culture, and makes attracting and retaining a top workforce one of its priorities. The agency will

create a culture of inclusion that awakens and strengthens all peoples’ connections to the land. 

The FY 2015 – FY 2020 Strategic Plan contains a Management Goal that lays out our vision for 

fostering a diverse, inclusive, and engaged workforce. While we are assessing the best

performance measures to evaluate success, we will focus on several key areas for improvement. 

To transform the organizational culture, we are focusing on seven critical areas: leadership 

development, employee development, talent management, recruitment and retention, customer

focus, community outreach, and process improvement. An agency culture that fosters diversity 

and encourages new perspectives will strengthen our ability to meet public expectations. By

joining people with diverse perspectives, the Forest Service will find new solutions to complex

management challenges, and will make better-informed natural resource decisions.

One way we will measure the effectiveness of operations over the next five years is by improving 

the retention rate. We will also work to provide information and technology solutions that are 

compliant with 508 accessibility laws, an accomplishment vital to connecting with all people. We 

are working to improve the work environment, and focusing leadership efforts on translating the

results of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey into actionable items that will address 

employee concerns. We are improving leadership communication and increasing engagement 

with employees, creating and fostering skills in leaders, supervisors and managers to address 

work environment issues, and developing leadership competencies and assessing the needs of

leaders and employees. Recognizing that we have a unique opportunity to continue building on

being an agency of choice for present and future generations, field leaders are engaging

employees at all levels of the agency in conversations to foster greater connections. Our longrange goal is to ensure Forest Service employees are valued and respected for their diverse 

talents, ideas, backgrounds, and abilities and well positioned to serve the public in the future. 

This includes making new connections to diverse members of the public to increase awareness of 

and access to the Forest Service.

Optimize Organizational Capacity – Crosscutting Responsibilities

The Forest Service’s ability to fulfill its mission depends on having an optimal organizational

capacity. Accordingly, we are committed to maintaining an effective and efficient business

foundation. This section addresses how we will measure effectiveness for crosscutting measures. 

The desired outcome is to provide an effective and efficient business foundation for the agency 

that helps us to achieve the mission.
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The Forest Service will continue to strive for excellence in its business management practices,

and seek to optimize organizational capacity. The agency provides a critical business

infrastructure that maintains efficient, consistent, and continuous operations of all agency

business programs, functions and processes.

In FY15, Human Resources Management (HRM) held 14 two-day Workforce Planning 

Workshops across the Forest Service. The purpose of these sessions was to improve the hiring 

experience for hiring managers, Human Resources personnel and current and future employees 

by simplifying the process of collecting workforce planning data. We provided field units and 

staff with data to assess their workforce needs, training to improve workforce planning teams’ 

skills, instruction on aligning workforce planning to the budget planning cycle, means for 

identifying targeted outreach and recruitment opportunities, and methods for addressing 

developmental needs and identifying strategies to support succession planning and close critical 

skill gaps. The Workforce and Succession Planning approach we use is a data-driven approach 

in which each Region, Station, Area (R/S/As) and the Washington Office conducted 

environmental scans and analyzed their current diversity data of onboard employees, hiring and 

separation. Separation data included a focus on retirement eligibility as part of succession 

planning while hiring data included a discussion on the authorities available for targeted 

recruitment and retention. Civil Rights staff were active in the workshops and presented on 

outreach and recruitment. Following the workshops, each of the R/S/As and the WO submitted 

their workforce plans. The plans included retention and promotion strategies such as:

• Continuing to promote and use special pay rate and recruitment and retention bonuses and 

incentives (as budgets permit)

• Creating and hiring more virtual positions

• Endorsing and promoting quality-of-life programs (i.e. maxi-flex, wellness and telework) 

• Addressing salary range issues by using superior qualification appointments and bonuses to 

help the Forest Service compete with private sector salaries

• Developing a standardized interview and reference check process, and 

• Continuing with Forest Service “branding” in support of caring for the land and people

The FY16 Draft Forest Service Workforce Plan uses data from NFS and Workforce Planning 

projections from the field. As a supplement to the agency’s workforce planning initiative, we are 

also providing Workforce Planning coaching to employees across the agency. Employees will 

participate in six coaching sessions to improve their Workforce Planning skillset. Coaching 

promotes executive and employee leadership development geared toward enhancing overall 

Workforce Planning scope and performance.

In an effort to retain Forest Service employees who have the skills necessary to achieve the 

agency’s mission, a number of options are offered, such as mentoring, a wellness program and 

workplace flexibilities such as telework and flexible work schedules. Other than retention 

incentive bonuses, which affect few employees (45 employees in FY2015), there is not a direct 

way to measure the number of employees the agency retains. While it is feasible to measure the 

numbers of employees who are hired and lost, it is difficult to account for the movement of 

employees across regions, stations and areas.
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Mentoring has a long history as an integral part of the Forest Service culture. It provides 

employees with challenging opportunities to form new connections, broaden their experience, 

accomplish employee development goals and cultivate new skills. The Forest Service Mentoring 

Program benefits employees and the agency by strengthening the workforce to ensure a steady 

pool of talented, skilled and motivated employees to serve as future leaders. Leadership supports 

employee development and encourages participation in the HRM Mentoring Program. Mentoring 

is an excellent avenue to transfer institutional knowledge and to enhance employee skills. 

The Forest Service Office of Occupational Health and Safety provides a number of resources on 

health and well-being. One of the most popular programs is the allowance of time for fitness 

participation. Other programs include the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), accident 

investigation, Workplace Violence Prevention and the lactation program.

Depending on the type of position, many Forest Service employees participate in Alternative 

Work Schedule (AWS) programs, which can enable managers and supervisors to meet their 

program goals while allowing employees more flexibility in scheduling their personal activities.

As employees gain greater control over their time, they can balance work and family 

responsibilities more easily, become involved in volunteer activities, and take advantage of 

educational opportunities. The employee benefit provided by AWS programs is a useful 

retention tool.

Telework provides Forest Service employees the opportunity to work part of the workweek at the 

employee’s home or another alternative work site. The objective of this program is to maintain 

and improve our efficiency in meeting the mission, reduce automobile-created air pollution and 

traffic congestion, reduce our carbon footprint, improve employee morale and effectiveness, 

increase productivity and make the Forest Service an employer of choice. Telework offers an 

alternative to the traditional work environment that yields significant benefits to the agency and 

to the individual employee. Employees who telework are often more productive and generate 

better quality work because of the quiet environment with minimal interruptions. They avoid 

arduous commutes, thus have time to carry out work assignments as opposed to sitting in traffic, 

reducing employee stress levels and contributing to better health. Management can attract and 

retain employees in critical occupations and positions, target labor markets such as individuals 

with disabilities, and enable offices to conduct their work more efficiently by allowing flexibility 

in work site. The telework program is an excellent way to attract individuals with mobility 

limitations. Technological advances enable managers to support the disabled person with 

equipment that accommodates the individual’s impairment. Employees who are injured, 

recuperating, and physically limited may be able to work at home and complete work 

assignments while minimizing sick leave use. 

The Forest Service assigns the USDA New Supervisor AgLearn training to all newly hired and 

newly promoted supervisors. Part of this training includes lessons on Cultural Diversity in the 

workplace and nondiscrimination. Training assignments will continue, as new supervisors are 

hired/promoted. In addition, we periodically assign the USDA Experienced Supervisor training 

to identified experienced supervisors. These training curriculums will assist supervisors in 

maintaining leadership competencies and align with USDA Departmental Regulation, 4040-412-

002 Training and Development for Supervisors.
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Annual Performance Report

The Senior Leader Program (SLP) is a blended-learning leadership development program in 

support of the Forest Service leadership succession planning. Leaders of the Forest Service are 

committed to preparing our successors, nurturing their talent and developing their leadership 

competencies. The program, based on the “Leaders Growing Leaders” framework, includes 

considerable opportunity to meet and interact with leaders at the highest level. This development 

opportunity offers a rich diversity of learning experiences in residential, dialogue, distance 

learning, group and self-directed activities. This session is for high performing, highly motivated 

individuals who want to accelerate their leadership competencies, learn how to be champions of 

employee engagement for diversity, inclusion, safety, and to learn and perfect skills that will 

help face the future challenges of USDA Forest Service.

In FY15, the Forest Service offered five regional sessions of the National Middle Leader 

Program. The program is dynamic, cost effective, embraces generational differences and meets 

the Forest Services’ needs now and in the future. It focuses on the competencies most critical for 

development at the middle leader level. The course objectives are to encourage life-long 

learning, encourage self-management and personal discovery and provide participants with a 

consistent and nationwide access to a standard curriculum, coaching, and career stretching 

experiences.

Each year, the Forest Service provides Congressional Briefing training. This course provides an 

opportunity for employees to examine the legislative process first-hand. Participants attend 

sessions and briefings that illuminate the structure of Congress and its decision-making process.

Learning components include discussions with members of Congress and staffers, examination 

of the budget and appropriations process, identification of critical stages in the legislative 

process, identification of roles played by outside interests, and understanding the importance of 

building strategic coalitions to advance the organization’s position with Congress.

The Agency will continue to implement our Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans under the 

requirements established by the National Security 51 (NSPD-51), Homeland Security 

Presidential Directive 20 (HSPD-20), National Continuity Policy Implementation Plan, Federal 

Continuity Directive 1 (FCD 1), and Continuity Guidance Circular 1 (CGC 1). These directives 

ensure that we continue to perform Mission Essential Functions (MEFs) during a wide range of 

emergencies, including localized acts of nature, accidents, and technological or attack-related 

emergencies. These MEFs directly support the eight National Essential Functions (NEFs) that 

represent the overarching responsibilities of the Federal Government to lead and sustain the 

Nation, and will be the primary focus of the Federal Government’s leadership during and in the 

aftermath of an emergency. 

External Audits and Reviews

FY 2015 Office of Inspector General (OIG) Audits on the Forest Service:

OIG Open Audits

Audit Number Audit Title

Report 

Issue 

Date

Audit Status

08601-0055-SF Forest Service Administration of Special Use Program 6/16/2011 Implementation of corrective 

actions in progress.
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Annual Performance Report

Audit Number Audit Title

Report 

Issue 

Date

Audit Status

08601-0001-CH Evaluation of Forest Service’s Processes to Obtain and 

Grant Rights-of-Way and Easements 3/15/2012 Implementation of corrective actions in progress.

08601-0001-31 Forest Service Oversight and Compliance Activities 3/12/2015 Implementation of corrective 

actions in progress.

08601-0003-31 Forest Service: Controls Over the Stewardship Contracting 

Process for Land Management of National Forests 9/24/2015 Implementation of corrective actions in progress.

OIG Audits Officially Closed in FY 2015

Audit Number Audit Title Report Issue

Date

Closure 

Date

08703-0005-SF ARRA – FS Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration 

Projects on Non-Federal Lands 3/28/3013 12/18/2014

08401-0003-11 FY 2013 Financial Statement Audit 12/9/2013 1/30/2015

Summary of OIG Audits

OIG Audit Summary Status Number

FY 2015 Beginning Inventory 4

Audits added 2

Subtotal 6

Audits closed 2

FY 2015 Ending Inventory 4

FY 2015 Government Accountability Office Audits

Audit Report 

Number Audit Title Report Issue Date Audit Status

GAO-15-84 Managing for Results: Selected Agencies Need to Take 

Additional Efforts to Improve Customer Service 10/24/2014 Implementation of corrective actions in progress.

GAO-14-819 USDA Contracting: Further Actions Needed to Strengthen 

Oversight of Contracts for Professional Services 10/29/2014 Implementation of corrective actions in progress.

GAO-15-35

Hazardous Waste: Agencies Should Take Steps to Improve 

Information on USDA's and Interior's Potentially 

Contaminated Sites

2/13/2015 Implementation of corrective 

actions in progress.

GAO-15-398 Forest Restoration: Adjusting Agencies' Information-Sharing 

Strategies Could Benefit Landscape-Scale Projects 5/11/2015 Implementation of corrective actions in progress.

GAO-15-772

Wildland Fire Management: Agencies Have Made Several 

Key Changes but Could Benefit from More Information 

about Effectiveness

9/16/2015 Implementation of corrective 

actions in progress.

Management Challenges

The OIG issues its annual report to the Secretary on the most serious management challenges 

that USDA and its agencies face on August 25, 2015. To identify these challenges, the OIG 

examined issued audit reports with recommendations where agencies have yet to take corrective 

actions, assessed ongoing investigative and audit work to ascertain significant vulnerabilities, 

and analyzed new programs and activities that could pose significant challenges due to their 

range and complexity. This year, the report did not include challenges specific to the Forest 

Service so a formal action plan was not required.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Annual Performance Report

FY 2016 Actions Planned: 

Not applicable.
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Annual Performance Report

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Appropriation Language Changes

TITLE III

RELATED AGENCIES

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Appropriations Language uses the FY 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act as the baseline. 

Material proposed for deletion is enclosed in brackets; new language is in italics.

FOREST SERVICE

FOREST AND RANGELAND RESEARCH

For necessary expenses of forest and rangeland research as authorized by law, 

[$291,000,000] $291,982,000, to remain available until expended: Provided, That of the 

funds provided, [$75,000,000] $77,000,000 is for the forest inventory and analysis 

program. Provided further, That, notwithstanding any other provision of law, $3,000,000 

of funds appropriated under this appropriation shall be available for the Forest Service in 

support of fire science research authorized by the Joint Fire Science Program, including 

all Forest Service authorities for the use of funds, such as contracts, grants, research joint 

venture agreements, and cooperative agreements: Provided further, That all authorities 

for the use of funds, including the use of contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements, 

available to execute the Forest and Rangeland Research appropriation, are also available 

in the utilization of these funds for Fire Science Research.

Note: Provides funding for Joint Fire Science Program.

STATE AND PRIVATE FORESTRY

For necessary expenses of cooperating with and providing technical and financial 

assistance to States, territories, possessions, and others, and for forest health management, 

including treatments of pests, pathogens, and invasive or noxious plants and for restoring 

and rehabilitating forests damaged by pests or invasive plants, cooperative forestry, and 

education and land conservation activities and conducting an international program as 

authorized, [$237,023,000] $234,004,000, to remain available until expended, as 

authorized by law; of which $62,347,000 is to be derived from the Land and Water 

Conservation Fund.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS)

1.

For necessary expenses of the Forest Service, not otherwise provided for, for 

management, protection, improvement, and utilization of the National Forest System, 

[$1,509,364,000] $1,500,996,000, to remain available until expended, and in addition, 

$15,000,000 for the processing of grazing permits and leases, to remain available until 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Appropriation Language Changes

expended, to be reduced by amounts collected by the Forest Service and credited to this 

appropriation, which shall be derived by a $2.50 per head month administrative fee, as 

provided for in this Act: Provided, That of the funds provided, $40,000,000 shall be 

deposited in the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Fund for ecological 

restoration treatments as authorized by 16 U.S.C. 7303(f): Provided further, That of the 

funds provided, $359,805,000 shall be for forest products: Provided further, That of the 

funds provided, up to $81,941,000 is for the Integrated Resource Restoration pilot 

program for Region 1, Region 3 and Region 4: Provided further, That of the funds 

provided for forest products, up to $65,560,000 may be transferred to support the 

Integrated Resource Restoration pilot program in the preceding proviso: Provided further, 

That the Secretary of Agriculture may transfer to the Secretary of the Interior any 

unobligated funds appropriated in a previous fiscal year for operation of the Valles 

Caldera National Preserve. 

Note 1: Proposes a new grazing fee program in FY 2017.

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT AND MAINTENANCE [(INCLUDING TRANSFER OF 

FUNDS)]

For necessary expenses of the Forest Service, not otherwise provided for, [$364,164,000] 

$343,280,000, to remain available until expended, for construction, capital improvement, 

maintenance and acquisition of buildings and other facilities and infrastructure; and for 

construction, reconstruction, decommissioning of roads that are no longer needed, 

including unauthorized roads that are not part of the transportation system, and 

maintenance of forest roads and trails by the Forest Service as authorized by 16 U.S.C. 

532–538 and 23 U.S.C. 101 and 205: Provided, That $40,000,000 shall be designated for 

urgently needed road decommissioning, road and trail repair and maintenance and 

associated activities, and removal of fish passage barriers, especially in areas where Forest 

Service roads may be contributing to water quality problems in streams and water bodies 

which support threatened, endangered, or sensitive species or community water sources: 

Provided further, That funds becoming available in fiscal year [2016]2017 under the Act 

of March 4, 1913 (16 U.S.C. 501) shall be transferred to the General Fund of the Treasury 

and shall not be available for transfer or obligation for any other purpose unless the funds 

are appropriated: Provided further, That of the funds provided for decommissioning of 

roads, up to $14,743,000 may be transferred to the "National Forest System" to support 

the Integrated Resource Restoration pilot program. 

Note: No language changes are proposed.

LAND ACQUISITION

For expenses necessary to carry out the provisions of chapter 2003 of title 54, United 

States Code, including administrative expenses, and for acquisition of land or waters, or 

interest therein, in accordance with statutory authority applicable to the Forest Service, 

[$63,435,000] $65,653,000, to be derived from the Land and Water Conservation Fund 

and to remain available until expended.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Appropriation Language Changes

Note: No language changes are proposed.

ACQUISITION OF LANDS FOR NATIONAL FORESTS SPECIAL ACTS

For acquisition of lands within the exterior boundaries of the Cache, Uinta, and Wasatch 

National Forests, Utah; the Toiyabe National Forest, Nevada; and the Angeles, San 

Bernardino, Sequoia, and Cleveland National Forests, California, as authorized by law, 

$950,000, to be derived from forest receipts.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

ACQUISITION OF LANDS TO COMPLETE LAND EXCHANGES

For acquisition of lands, such sums, to be derived from funds deposited by State, county, 

or municipal governments, public school districts, or other public school authorities, and 

for authorized expenditures from funds deposited by non-Federal parties pursuant to Land 

Sale and Exchange Acts, pursuant to the Act of December 4, 1967 (16 U.S.C. 484a), to 

remain available until expended (16 U.S.C. 516–617a, 555a; Public Law 96–586; Public 

Law 76–589, 76–591; and Public Law 78–310).

Note 1: No language changes are proposed.

RANGE BETTERMENT FUND

For necessary expenses of range rehabilitation, protection, and improvement, 50 percent 

of all moneys received during the prior fiscal year, as fees for grazing domestic livestock 

on lands in National Forests in the 16 Western States, pursuant to section 401(b)(1) of 

Public Law 94–579, to remain available until expended, of which not to exceed 6 percent 

shall be available for administrative expenses associated with on-the-ground range 

rehabilitation, protection, and improvements.

Note: No language changes are proposed

GIFTS, DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS FOR FOREST AND RANGELAND RESEARCH

For expenses authorized by 16 U.S.C. 1643(b), $45,000, to remain available until 

expended, to be derived from the fund established pursuant to the above Act.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

MANAGEMENT OF NATIONAL FOREST LANDS FOR SUBSISTENCE USES

For necessary expenses of the Forest Service to manage Federal lands in Alaska for 

subsistence uses under title VIII of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act 

(Public Law 96–487), [$2,500,000] $2,441,000, to remain available until expended.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Appropriation Language Changes

Note: No language changes are proposed.

WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT (INCLUDING TRANSFERS OF FUNDS)

1.

2.

For necessary expenses for forest fire presuppression activities on National Forest System 

lands, for emergency fire suppression on or adjacent to such lands or other lands under 

fire protection agreement, hazardous fuels management on or adjacent to such lands, 

emergency rehabilitation of burned-over National Forest System lands and water, and for 

State and volunteer fire assistance, [$2,386,329,000] $2,451,445,000, to remain available 

until expended: Provided, That such funds including unobligated balances under this 

heading, are available for repayment of advances from other appropriations accounts 

previously transferred for such purposes: Provided further, That such funds shall be 

available to reimburse State and other cooperating entities for services provided in 

response to wildfire and other emergencies or disasters to the extent such reimbursements 

by the Forest Service for non-fire emergencies are fully repaid by the responsible 

emergency management agency: [Provided further, That, notwithstanding any other 

provision of law, $6,914,000 of funds appropriated under this appropriation shall be 

available for the Forest Service in support of fire science research authorized by the Joint 

Fire Science Program, including all Forest Service authorities for the use of funds, such as 

contracts, grants, research joint venture agreements, and cooperative agreements: 

Provided further, That all authorities for the use of funds, including the use of contracts, 

grants, and cooperative agreements, available to execute the Forest and Rangeland 

Research appropriation, are also available in the utilization of these funds for Fire Science 

Research:] Provided further, That funds provided shall be available for emergency 

rehabilitation and restoration, hazardous fuels management activities, support to Federal 

emergency response, and wildfire suppression activities of the Forest Service: Provided 

further, That of the funds provided, [$375,000,000] $384,126,000 is for hazardous fuels 

management activities, $19,795,000 is for research activities and to make competitive 

research grants pursuant to the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Research Act, 

(16 U.S.C. 1641 et seq.), $78,000,000 is for State fire assistance, and $13,000,000 is for 

volunteer fire assistance under section 10 of the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 

1978 (16 U.S.C. 2106): Provided further, That of the funds provided, $873,904,000 is an 

amount for wildfire suppression operations to meet the terms of section 251(b)(2) of the 

Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as amended, and 

$864,096,000 is additional new budget authority for wildfire suppression operations 

specified for purposes of section 251(b)(2) of such Act: Provided further, That amounts in 

this paragraph may be transferred to the "National Forest System", and "Forest and 

Rangeland Research" accounts to fund forest and rangeland research, the Joint Fire 

Science Program, vegetation and watershed management, heritage site rehabilitation, and 

wildlife and fish habitat management and restoration: Provided further, That the costs of 

implementing any cooperative agreement between the Federal Government and any nonFederal entity may be shared, as mutually agreed on by the affected parties: Provided 

further, That [up to $15,000,000 of ]the funds provided herein may be used by the 

Secretary of Agriculture to enter into procurement contracts or cooperative agreements or 

to issue grants for hazardous fuels management activities and for training or monitoring 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Appropriation Language Changes

3.

4.

associated with such hazardous fuels management activities on Federal land or on nonFederal land if the Secretary determines such activities benefit resources on Federal land: 

Provided further, That funds made available to implement the Community Forest 

Restoration Act, Public Law 106–393, title VI, shall be available for use on non-Federal 

lands in accordance with authorities made available to the Forest Service under the "State 

and Private Forestry" appropriation: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior 

and the Secretary of Agriculture may authorize the transfer of funds appropriated for 

wildland fire management, in an aggregate amount not to exceed $50,000,000, between 

the Departments when such transfers would facilitate and expedite wildland fire 

management programs and projects: Provided further, That of the funds provided for 

hazardous fuels management, not to exceed $15,000,000 may be used to make grants, 

using any authorities available to the Forest Service under the "State and Private Forestry" 

appropriation, for the purpose of creating incentives for increased use of biomass from 

National Forest System lands: Provided further, That funds designated for wildfire 

suppression[,including funds transferred from the "FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve 

Fund",] shall be assessed for cost pools on the same basis as such assessments are 

calculated against other agency programs: Provided further, That of the funds for 

hazardous fuels management, up to $24,000,000 may be transferred to the "National 

Forest System" to support the Integrated Resource Restoration pilot program.

Note 1: Deletes reference to the Joint Fire Science Program because these funds are 

requested in Forest and Rangeland Research. 

Note 2: Budget cap adjustment for fire suppression proposal.

Note 3: Removes ceiling for funds for hazardous fuels grants to increase the agency’s 

flexibility. 

Note 4: Deletes reference to FLAME since no funds are requested. 

FLAME WILDFIRE SUPPRESSION RESERVE FUND [(INCLUDING TRANSFERS OF 

FUNDS)

1. [For necessary expenses for large fire suppression operations of the Department of 

Agriculture and as a reserve fund for suppression and Federal emergency response 

activities, $823,000,000, to remain available until expended: Provided, That such 

amounts are only available for transfer to the "Wildland Fire Management" account 

following a declaration by the Secretary in accordance with section 502 of the FLAME 

Act of 2009 (43 U.S.C. 1748a).]

Note 1: No funds are requested for this program. 

ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS FOREST SERVICE (INCLUDING TRANSFERS OF 

FUNDS)

Appropriations to the Forest Service for the current fiscal year shall be available for: (1) 

purchase of passenger motor vehicles; acquisition of passenger motor vehicles from 

excess sources, and hire of such vehicles; purchase, lease, operation, maintenance, and 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Appropriation Language Changes

acquisition of aircraft to maintain the operable fleet for use in Forest Service wildland fire 

programs and other Forest Service programs; notwithstanding other provisions of law, 

existing aircraft being replaced may be sold, with proceeds derived or trade-in value used 

to offset the purchase price for the replacement aircraft; (2) services pursuant to 7 U.S.C. 

2225, and not to exceed $100,000 for employment under 5 U.S.C. 3109; (3) purchase, 

erection, and alteration of buildings and other public improvements (7 U.S.C. 2250); (4) 

acquisition of land, waters, and interests therein pursuant to 7 U.S.C. 428a; (5) for 

expenses pursuant to the Volunteers in the National Forest Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 558a, 

558d, and 558a note); (6) the cost of uniforms as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 5901-5902; and 

(7) for debt collection contracts in accordance with 31 U.S.C. 3718(c).

Note: No language changes are proposed.

1.

2.

Any appropriations or funds available to the Forest Service may be transferred to the 

Wildland Fire Management appropriation for forest firefighting, emergency rehabilitation 

of burned-over or damaged lands or waters under its jurisdiction, and fire preparedness 

due to severe burning conditions upon the Secretary's notification of the House and Senate 

Committees on Appropriations that all fire suppression funds appropriated under the 

[headings]heading "Wildland Fire Management"[ and "FLAME Wildfire Suppression 

Reserve Fund"] will be obligated within 30 days[: Provided, That all funds used pursuant 

to this paragraph must be replenished by a supplemental appropriation which must be 

requested as promptly as possible].

Note 1: Delete reference to FLAME.

Note 2: Deletes request for replenishment of funds through a supplemental 

appropriation.

Funds appropriated to the Forest Service shall be available for assistance to or through the 

Agency for International Development in connection with forest and rangeland research, 

technical information, and assistance in foreign countries, and shall be available to support 

forestry and related natural resource activities outside the United States and its territories 

and possessions, including technical assistance, education and training, and cooperation 

with U.S., private, and international organizations. The Forest Service, acting for the 

International Program, may sign direct funding agreements with foreign governments and 

institutions as well as other domestic agencies (including the U.S. Agency for 

International Development, the Department of State, and the Millennium Challenge 

Corporation), U.S. private sector firms, institutions and organizations to provide technical 

assistance and training programs overseas on forestry and rangeland management.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

Funds appropriated to the Forest Service shall be available for expenditure or transfer to 

the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, for removal, preparation, 

and adoption of excess wild horses and burros from National Forest System lands, and for 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Appropriation Language Changes

the performance of cadastral surveys to designate the boundaries of such lands. 

Note: No language changes are proposed. 

None of the funds made available to the Forest Service in this Act or any other Act with 

respect to any fiscal year shall be subject to transfer under the provisions of section 702(b) 

of the Department of Agriculture Organic Act of 1944 (7 U.S.C. 2257), section 442 of 

Public Law 106-224 (7 U.S.C. 7772), or section 10417(b) of Public Law 107-[107]171 (7 

U.S.C. 8316(b)).

Note: No language changes are proposed.

1.

None of the funds available to the Forest Service may be reprogrammed without the 

advance [approval of] notification to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations 

in accordance with the reprogramming procedures contained in the explanatory statement 

[described in section 4 (in the matter preceding division A of this consolidated Act] 

accompanying this Act. 

Note 1: Language deleted because it limits agency flexibility. 

Not more than $82,000,000 of funds available to the Forest Service shall be transferred to 

the Working Capital Fund of the Department of Agriculture and not more than 

$14,500,000 of funds available to the Forest Service shall be transferred to the Department 

of Agriculture for Department Reimbursable Programs, commonly referred to as 

Greenbook charges. Nothing in this paragraph shall prohibit or limit the use of 

reimbursable agreements requested by the Forest Service in order to obtain services from 

the Department of Agriculture's National Information Technology Center and the 

Department of Agriculture's International Technology Service.

Note: No language changes are proposed. 

Of the funds available to the Forest Service, up to $5,000,000 shall be available for 

priority projects within the scope of the approved budget, which shall be carried out by the 

Youth Conservation Corps and shall be carried out under the authority of the Public Lands 

Corps Act of 1993, Public Law 103–82, as amended by Public Lands Corps Healthy 

Forests Restoration Act of 2005, Public Law 109–154.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

Of the funds available to the Forest Service, $4,000 is available to the Chief of the Forest 

Service for official reception and representation expenses.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Appropriation Language Changes

Note: No language changes are proposed.

Pursuant to sections 405(b) and 410(b) of Public Law 101-593, of the funds available to 

the Forest Service, up to $3,000,000 may be advanced in a lump sum to the National 

Forest Foundation to aid conservation partnership projects in support of the Forest Service 

mission, without regard to when the Foundation incurs expenses, for projects on or 

benefitting National Forest System lands or related to Forest Service programs: Provided, 

That of the Federal funds made available to the Foundation, no more than $300,000 shall 

be available for administrative expenses: Provided further, That the Foundation shall 

obtain, by the end of the period of Federal financial assistance, private contributions to 

match on at least one-for-one basis funds made available by the Forest Service: Provided 

further, That the Foundation may transfer Federal funds to a Federal or a non-Federal 

recipient for a project at the same rate that the recipient has obtained the non-Federal 

matching funds.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

Pursuant to section 2(b)(2) of Public Law 98-244, up to $3,000,000 of the funds available 

to the Forest Service may be advanced to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in a 

lump sum to aid cost-share conservation projects, without regard to when expenses are 

incurred, on or benefitting National Forest System lands or related to Forest Service 

programs: Provided, That such funds shall be matched on at least a one-for-one basis by 

the Foundation or its sub-recipients: Provided further, That the Foundation may transfer 

Federal funds to a Federal or non-Federal recipient for a project at the same rate that the 

recipient has obtained the non-Federal matching funds.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

Funds appropriated to the Forest Service shall be available for interactions with and 

providing technical assistance to rural communities and natural resource-based businesses 

for sustainable rural development purposes.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

Funds appropriated to the Forest Service shall be available for payments to counties 

within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, pursuant to section 14(c)(1) and 

(2), and section 16(a)(2) of Public Law 99-663.

Note: No language changes are proposed. 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Appropriation Language Changes

Any funds appropriated to the Forest Service may be used to meet the non-Federal share 

requirement in section 502(c) of the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3056(c)(2)).

Note: No language changes are proposed.

Funds available to the Forest Service, not to exceed $65,000,000, shall be assessed for the 

purpose of performing fire, administrative and other facilities maintenance and 

decommissioning. Such assessments shall occur using a square foot rate charged on the 

same basis the agency uses to assess programs for payment of rent, utilities, and other 

support services.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any appropriations or funds available to the 

Forest Service not to exceed $500,000 may be used to reimburse the Office of the General 

Counsel (OGC), Department of Agriculture, for travel and related expenses incurred as a 

result of OGC assistance or participation requested by the Forest Service at meetings, 

training sessions, management reviews, land purchase negotiations and similar 

nonlitigation-related matters. Future budget justifications for both the Forest Service and 

the Department of Agriculture should clearly display the sums previously transferred and 

the requested funding transfers.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

An eligible individual who is employed in any project funded under title V of the Older 

Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3056 et seq.) and administered by the Forest Service 

shall be considered to be a Federal employee for purposes of chapter 171 of title 28, 

United States Code.

Note: No language changes are proposed.

Title IV

GENERAL PROVISIONS

(Including Transfers of Funds)

[RESTRICTION ON USE OF FUNDS]

1. [SEC. 401. No part of any appropriation contained in this Act shall be available for any 

activity or the publication or distribution of literature that in any way tends to promote 

public support or opposition to any legislative proposal on which Congressional action is 

not complete other than to communicate to Members of Congress as described in 18 

U.S.C. 1913.]
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Appropriation Language Changes

Note 1: Proposed for deletion as it restricts agency flexibility. 

OBLIGATION OF APPROPRIATIONS

1. SEC. [402]401. No part of any appropriation contained in this Act shall remain available 

for obligation beyond the current fiscal year unless expressly so provided herein. 

Note 1: No language changes are proposed and section number changes

DISCLOSURE OF ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES

1.

SEC. [403]402. The amount and basis of estimated overhead charges, deductions, reserves 

or holdbacks, including working capital fund and cost pool charges, from programs, 

projects, activities and subactivities to support government-wide, departmental, agency, or 

bureau administrative functions or headquarters, regional, or central operations shall be 

presented in annual budget justifications [and subject to approval by the Committees on 

Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Changes]. Advance 

notice of changes to such estimates shall be presented to the Committees on 

Appropriations [for approval]. 

Note 1: Language deleted because it limits agency flexibility and section number 

changes.

MINING APPLICATIONS

1.

SEC. [404]403. (a) LIMITATION OF FUNDS.—None of the funds appropriated or 

otherwise made available pursuant to this Act shall be obligated or expended to accept or 

process applications for a patent for any mining or mill site claim located under the 

general mining laws.

(b) EXCEPTIONS.—Subsection (a) shall not apply if the Secretary of the Interior 

determines that, for the claim concerned (1) a patent application was filed with the 

Secretary on or before September 30, 1994; and (2) all requirements established under 

sections 2325 and 2326 of the Revised Statutes (30 U.S.C. 29 and 30) for vein or lode 

claims, sections 2329, 2330, 2331, and 2333 of the Revised Statutes (30 U.S.C. 35, 36, 

and 37) for placer claims, and section 2337 of the Revised Statutes (30 U.S.C. 42) for mill 

site claims, as the case may be, were fully complied with by the applicant by that date.

(c) REPORT.—On September 30, [2017]2018,the Secretary of the Interior shall file with 

the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations and the Committee on Natural 

Resources of the House and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the 

Senate a report on actions taken by the Department under the plan submitted pursuant to 

section 314(c) of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 

1997 (Public Law 104–208).

(d) MINERAL EXAMINATIONS.—In order to process patent applications in a timely 

and responsible manner, upon the request of a patent applicant, the Secretary of the 

Interior shall allow the applicant to fund a qualified third-party contractor to be selected 
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by the Director of the Bureau of Land Management to conduct a mineral examination of 

the mining claims or mill sites contained in a patent application as set forth in subsection 

(b). The Bureau of Land Management shall have the sole responsibility to choose and pay 

the third-party contractor in accordance with the standard procedures employed by the 

Bureau of Land Management in the retention of third party contractors.

Note 1: Update report deadline.

CONTRACT SUPPORT COSTS, PRIOR YEAR LIMITATION 

1. SEC. [405]404. Sections 405 and 406 of division F of the Consolidated and Further

Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Public Law 113–235) shall continue in effect in 

fiscal year [2016]2017.

Note 1: Not applicable to the Forest Service and section number changes.

CONTRACT SUPPORT COSTS, FISCAL YEAR [2016]2017 LIMITATION

1. SEC. [406]405. Amounts provided by this Act for fiscal year [2016]2017 under

the headings "Department of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Service,

Contract Support Costs" and "Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs

and Bureau of Indian Education, Contract Support Costs" are the only amounts

available for contract support costs arising out of self-determination or self-governance

contracts, grants, compacts, or annual funding agreements for fiscal year

[2016]2017 with the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the Indian Health Service:

Provided, That such amounts provided by this Act are not available for payment

of claims for contract support costs for prior years, or for repayments of payments

for settlements or judgments awarding contract support costs for prior years.

Note 1: Not applicable to the Forest Service.

FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANS

1. SEC. [407]406. The Secretary of Agriculture shall not be considered to be in violation of 

subparagraph 6(f)(5)(A) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act 

of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1604(f)(5)(A)) solely because more than 15 years have passed without 

revision of the plan for a unit of the National Forest System. Nothing in this section 

exempts the Secretary from any other requirement of the Forest and Rangeland 

Renewable Resources Planning Act (16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.) or any other law: Provided, 

That if the Secretary is not acting expeditiously and in good faith, within the funding 

available, to revise a plan for a unit of the National Forest System, this section shall be 

void with respect to such plan and a court of proper jurisdiction may order completion of 

the plan on an accelerated basis.

Note 1: Changes section number.
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PROHIBITION WITHIN NATIONAL MONUMENTS

1. SEC. [408]407. No funds provided in this Act may be expended to conduct preleasing, 

leasing and related activities under either the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) 

or the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.) within the boundaries 

of a National Monument established pursuant to the Act of June 8, 1906 (16 U.S.C. 431 et 

seq.) as such boundary existed on January 20, 2001, except where such activities are 

allowed under the Presidential proclamation establishing such monument.

Note 1: Changes Section number.

LIMITATION ON TAKINGS 

1.

2.

SEC. [409]408. Unless otherwise provided herein, no funds appropriated in this Act for 

the acquisition of lands or interests in lands may be expended for the filing of declarations 

of taking or complaints in condemnation without [the approval of] providing prior 

notification to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations: Provided, That this 

provision shall not apply to funds appropriated to implement the Everglades National Park 

Protection and Expansion Act of 1989, or to funds appropriated for Federal assistance to 

the State of Florida to acquire lands for Everglades restoration purposes.

Note 1: Changes Section number.

Note 2: Proposed language provides notification of Congress if agency using authorities.

[TIMBER SALE REQUIREMENTS] 

1. [SEC. 410. No timber sale in Alaska’s Region 10 shall be advertised if the indicated rate 

is deficit (defined as the value of the timber is not sufficient to cover all logging and 

stumpage costs and provide a normal profit and risk allowance under the Forest Service’s 

appraisal process) when appraised using a residual value appraisal. The western red cedar 

timber from those sales which is surplus to the needs of the domestic processors in 

Alaska, shall be made available to domestic processors in the contiguous 48 United States 

at prevailing domestic prices. All additional western red cedar volume not sold to Alaska 

or contiguous 48 United States domestic processors may be exported to foreign markets at 

the election of the timber sale holder. All Alaska yellow cedar may be sold at prevailing 

export prices at the election of the timber sale holder.]

Note 1: Proposed for deletion as it limits agency flexibility and creates an excessive 

administrative burden. Current law requires residual value appraisal and domestic use of 

timber.

PROHBITION ON NO-BID CONTRACTS 

1. SEC. [411]409. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act to 

executive branch agencies may be used to enter into any Federal contract unless such 

contract is entered into in accordance with the requirements of Chapter 33 of title 41, 
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United States Code, or Chapter 137 of title 10, United States Code, and the Federal 

Acquisition Regulation, unless—

(1) Federal law specifically authorizes a contract to be entered into without regard for 

these requirements, including formula grants for States, or federally recognized Indian 

tribes; or

(2) such contract is authorized by the Indian Self-Determination and Education and 

Assistance Act (Public Law 93–638, 25 U.S.C. 450 et seq.) or by any other Federal laws 

that specifically authorize a contract within an Indian tribe as defined in section 4(e) of 

that Act (25 U.S.C. 450b(e)); or 

(3) such contract was awarded prior to the date of enactment of this Act.

Note 1: Changes section number.

POSTING OF REPORTS 

1. SEC. [412]410. (a) Any agency receiving funds made available in this Act, shall, subject 

to subsections (b) and (c), post on the public website of that agency any report required to 

be submitted by the Congress in this or any other Act, upon the determination by the head 

of the agency that it shall serve the national interest.

(b) Subsection (a) shall not apply to a report if—

(1) the public posting of the report compromises national security; or

(2) the report contains proprietary information.

(c) The head of the agency posting such report shall do so only after such report has been 

made available to the requesting Committee or Committees of Congress for no less than 

45 days.

Note 1: Changes section number.

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS GRANT GUIDELINES

1. SEC. [413]411. Of the funds provided to the National Endowment for the Arts—

(1) The Chairperson shall only award a grant to an individual if such grant is awarded to 

such individual for a literature fellowship, National Heritage Fellowship, or American 

Jazz Masters Fellowship.

(2) The Chairperson shall establish procedures to ensure that no funding provided through 

a grant, except a grant made to a State or local arts agency, or regional group, may be used 

to make a grant to any other organization or individual to conduct activity independent of 

the direct grant recipient. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit payments made in 

exchange for goods and services. 

(3) No grant shall be used for seasonal support to a group, unless the application is 

specific to the contents of the season, including identified programs and/or projects.

Note 1: Changes section number. Not applicable to the Forest Service.

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS PROGRAM PRIORITIES
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1. SEC. [414]412. (a) In providing services or awarding financial assistance under the 

National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 from funds appropriated 

under this Act, the Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts shall ensure that 

priority is given to providing services or awarding financial assistance for projects, 

productions, workshops, or programs that serve underserved populations.

(b) In this section:

(1) The term ‘‘underserved population’’ means a population of individuals, including 

urban minorities, who have historically been outside the purview of arts and humanities 

programs due to factors such as a high incidence of income below the poverty line or to 

geographic isolation.

(2) The term ‘‘poverty line’’ means the poverty line (as defined by the Office of 

Management and Budget, and revised annually in accordance with section 673(2) of the 

Community Services Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2))) applicable to a family of the 

size involved.

(c) In providing services and awarding financial assistance under the National Foundation 

on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965 with funds appropriated by this Act, the 

Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts shall ensure that priority is given to 

providing services or awarding financial assistance for projects, productions, workshops, 

or programs that will encourage public knowledge, education, understanding, and 

appreciation of the arts.

(d) With funds appropriated by this Act to carry out section 5 of the National Foundation 

on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965—

(1) the Chairperson shall establish a grant category for projects, productions, workshops, 

or programs that are of national impact or availability or are able to tour several States;

(2) the Chairperson shall not make grants exceeding 15 percent, in the aggregate, of such 

funds to any single State, excluding grants made under the authority of paragraph (1);

(3) the Chairperson shall report to the Congress annually and by State, on grants awarded 

by the Chairperson in each grant category under section 5 of such Act; and

(4) the Chairperson shall encourage the use of grants to improve and support communitybased music performance and education. 

Note 1: Changes section number. Not applicable to the Forest Service.

[STATUS OF BALANCES OF APPROPRIATIONS]

1. [SEC. 415. The Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the 

Forest Service, and the Indian Health Service shall provide the Committees on 

Appropriations of the House of Representatives and Senate quarterly reports on the status 

of balances of appropriations including all uncommitted, committed, and unobligated 

funds in each program and activity.]

Note 1: Proposed for deletion as this creates an excessive administrative burden and 

duplicates existing financial reporting protocols.

[REPORT ON USE OF CLIMATE CHANGE FUNDS]
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1. [SEC. 416. Not later than 120 days after the date on which the President’s fiscal year 2017

budget request is submitted to the Congress, the President shall submit a comprehensive 

report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the 

Senate describing in detail all Federal agency funding, domestic and international, for 

climate change programs, projects, and activities in fiscal years 2015 and 2016, including 

an accounting of funding by agency with each agency identifying climate change 

programs, projects, and activities and associated costs by line item as presented in the 

President’s Budget Appendix, and including citations and linkages where practicable to 

each strategic plan that is driving funding within each climate change program, project, 

and activity listed in the report.]

Note 1: Proposed for deletion as this creates excessive administrative reporting burden. 

[PROHIBITION ON USE OF FUNDS]

[SEC. 417. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available 

in this Act or any other Act may be used to promulgate or implement any regulation 

requiring the issuance of permits under title V of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7661 et 

seq.) for carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, water vapor, or methane emissions resulting from 

biological processes associated with livestock production.]

Note: Language proposed for deletion.

[GREENHOUSE GAS REPORTING RESTRICTIONS]

1. [SEC. 418. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available 

in this or any other Act may be used to implement any provision in a rule, if that provision 

requires mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from manure management 

systems.]

Note 1: Language proposed for deletion.

MODIFICATION OF AUTHORITIES

1. SEC. [419]413. (a) Section 8162(m)(3) of the Department of Defense Appropriations 

Act, 2000 (40 U.S.C. 8903 note; Public Law 106–79) is amended by striking "September 

30, [2015] 2016" and inserting "September 30, [2016] 2017".

[(b) For fiscal year 2016, the authority provided by the provisos under the heading 

‘‘Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission—Capital Construction’’ in division E of 

Public Law 112–74 shall not be in effect.]

Note 1: Changes section number.

[FUNDING PROHIBITION]

1. [SEC. 420. None of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to 
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regulate the lead content of ammunition, ammunition components, or fishing tackle under 

the Toxic Substances Control Act (15 U.S.C. 2601 et seq.) or any other law.]

Note 1: Language proposed for deletion as it limits flexibility. 

[CONTRACTING AUTHORITIES]

1. [SEC. 421. Section 412 of Division E of Public Law 112–74 is amended by striking 

"fiscal year 2015," and inserting "fiscal year 2017,".]

Note 1: Language proposed for deletion.

[CHESAPEAKE BAY INITIATIVE]

1. [SEC. 422. Section 502(c) of the Chesapeake Bay Initiative Act of 1998 (Public

Law 105–312; 16 U.S.C. 461 note) is amended by striking "2015" and inserting

"2017".]

Note 1: Not applicable to the Forest Service.

EXTENSION OF GRAZING PERMITS 

1. SEC. [423] 414. The terms and conditions of section 325 of Public Law 108–108 (117 

Stat. 1307), regarding grazing permits issued by the Forest Service on any lands not 

subject to administration under section 402 of Federal Lands Policy and Management Act 

(43 U.S.C. 1752), shall remain in effect for fiscal year [2016]2017.

Note 1: Addresses concerns that, with respect to grazing permits issued by the Forest 

Service, the amendments to section 402 of Federal Land Policy and Management Act 

(FLPMA) (43 U.S.C. 1752) in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2015 (P.L. 

113-291) incorporated the authority in 325 only as it applied to grazing on National 

Forests in the 16 contiguous Western States but not to grazing on National Grasslands 

and on eastern National Forests. With the addition of this section, the terms and 

conditions in section 325 of P.L. 108-108 would apply to grazing permits issued by the 

Forest Service on any National Forest System lands.

RECREATION FEE

1. SEC. 415. Section 810 of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (16

U.S.C. 6809) is amended by striking "September 30, 2017" and inserting "September

30, 2018".

Note 1: Extends authority for the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (16 U.S.C. 

6809).

LIVESTOCK GRAZING ADMINISTRATION

1. SEC. 416. Beginning on March 1, 2017, and only to the extent and in the amount provided 
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in advance in appropriations Acts, the Secretary of Agriculture shall collect an annual 

administrative fee for grazing domestic livestock on National Forests in the 16 contiguous 

western States and on National Grasslands in the amount of $2.50 per head month for 

cattle and its equivalent for other livestock. The administrative fee shall be billed and 

collected using the process as provided in sections 222.50 through 222.52 of title 36, 

Code of Federal Regulations. Fees collected may be used, subject to appropriation, to 

offset the cost of administering the livestock grazing program. Nothing in this provision 

shall affect the calculation, collection, distribution, or use of the grazing fee under 43 

U.S.C. 1751(b), title III of the Bankhead Jones Farm Tenant Act (7 U.S.C. 1010), and 

implementing regulations.

SEC. 417. In fiscal year 2017, beginning on March 1, 2017, and only to the extent and in 

the amount provided in advance in appropriations Acts, the Secretary of the Interior shall 

collect an administrative fee to offset the increased cost of administering the livestock 

grazing program on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management by 

charging $2.50 per Animal Unit Month, which shall be billed, collected, and subject to the 

penalties using the same process as the annual grazing fee in 43 C.F.R. 4130.8–1. 

Penalties assessed shall be deposited in the General Fund of the Treasury. Nothing in this 

provision affects the calculation, collection, distribution, or use of the grazing fee under 

43 U.S.C. 315–315rr, 43 U.S.C. 1751(b), 43 U.S.C. 1905, Executive Order 12548, or 

administrative regulation.

Note 1: Establishes new administrative fee program for grazing.

OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF LEASING REVIEW PERIOD 

1. SEC. 418. Section 11(c)(1) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 

1340(c)(1))is amended in the fourth sentence by striking " thirty" and inserting " ninety ".

Note 1: Not applicable to the Forest Service.

STEWARDSHIP CONTRACTING AMENDMENTS

1. SEC. 419. Section 604(d) of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 

6591c(d)) as amended by the Agricultural Act of 2014 (P.L. 113–79), is further amended

a) in paragraph (5), by adding at the end the following: " Notwithstanding the Materials 

Act of 1947 (30 U.S.C. 602(a)), the Director may enter into an agreement or contract 

under subsection (b)."; and (b) in paragraph (7), by striking “and the Director”.

Note 1: Not applicable to the Forest Service.

PAYMENTS IN LIEU OF TAXES

1. SEC. 420. Section 6906 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding after and 

below paragraph (2) the following new paragraph: 

"Payments made under this chapter are subject to the availability of appropriations. In 

the event the sums appropriated for any fiscal year to make payments pursuant to this 
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chapter are less than the amounts which provides full payment to all units of local 

government, then the payment to each local government shall be proportionately 

reduced."

Note 1: Not applicable to the Forest Service.

[USE OF AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL]

1. [SEC. 424. (a)(1) None of the funds made available by a State water pollution control 

revolving fund as authorized by section 1452 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 

300j–12) shall be used for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair 

of a public water system or treatment works unless all of the iron and steel products used 

in the project are produced in the United States.

(2) In this section, the term ‘‘iron and steel products’’ means the following products made 

primarily of iron or steel: lined or unlined pipes and fittings, manhole covers and other 

municipal castings, hydrants, tanks, flanges, pipe clamps and restraints, valves, structural 

steel, reinforced precast concrete, and construction materials. 

(b) Subsection (a) shall not apply in any case or category of cases in which the 

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (in this section referred to as the 

‘‘Administrator’’) finds that—

(1) applying subsection (a) would be inconsistent with the public interest;

(2) iron and steel products are not produced in the United States in sufficient and 

reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality; or

(3) inclusion of iron and steel products produced in the United States will increase the cost 

of the overall project by more than 25 percent.

(c) If the Administrator receives a request for a waiver under this section, the 

Administrator shall make available to the public on an informal basis a copy of the request 

and information available to the Administrator concerning the request, and shall allow for 

informal public input on the request for at least 15 days prior to making a finding based on 

the request. The Administrator shall make the request and accompanying information 

available by electronic means, including on the official public Internet Web site of the 

Environmental Protection Agency.

(d) This section shall be applied in a manner consistent with United States obligations 

under international agreements.

(e) The Administrator may retain up to 0.25 percent of the funds appropriated in this Act 

for the Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds for carrying out the provisions 

described in subsection (a)(1) for management and oversight of the requirements of this 

section.]

Note 1: Language proposed for deletion.

[NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS]

1. [SEC. 425. (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term "Administrator" means the Administrator of the 

Environmental Protection Agency.
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(2) AFFECTED STATE.—The term "affected State" means any of the Great Lakes States 

(as defined in section 118(a)(3) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 

1268(a)(3))).

(3) DISCHARGE.—The term "discharge" means a discharge as defined in section 502 of 

the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1362).

(4) GREAT LAKES.—The term "Great Lakes" means any of the waters as defined in 

section 118(a)(3) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1268(a)(3)).

(5) TREATMENT WORKS.—The term "treatment works" has the meaning given the 

term in section 212 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1292).

(b) REQUIREMENTS.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall work with affected States having publicly 

owned treatment works that discharge to the Great Lakes to create public notice 

requirements for a combined sewer overflow discharge to the Great Lakes.

(2A) NOTICE REQUIREMENTS.—The notice requirements referred to in paragraph (1) 

shall provide for—

(i) the method of the notice;

(ii) the contents of the notice, in accordance with paragraph (3); and

(iii) requirements for public availability of the notice.

(32) MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS.—

(A) IN GENERAL.—The contents of the notice under paragraph (1) shall include—

(i) the dates and times of the applicable discharge;

(ii) the volume of the discharge; and

(iii) a description of any public access areas impacted by the discharge.

(B) CONSISTENCY.—The minimum requirements under this paragraph shall be 

consistent for all affected States.

(43) ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS.—The Administrator shall work with the affected 

States to include—

(A) follow-up notice requirements that provide a description of—

(i) each applicable discharge;

(ii) the cause of the discharge; and

(iii) plans to prevent a reoccurrence of a combined sewer overflow discharge to the Great 

Lakes consistent with section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 

1342) or an administrative order or consent decree under such Act; and

(B) annual publication requirements that list each treatment works from which the 

Administrator or the affected State receive a follow-up notice.

(54) TIMING.—

(A) The notice and publication requirements described in this subsection shall be 

implemented by not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act.

(B) The Administrator of the EPA may extend the implementation deadline for individual 

communities if the Administrator determines the community needs additional time to 

comply in order to avoid undue economic hardship.

(65) STATE ACTION.—Nothing in this subsection prohibits an affected State from 

establishing a State notice requirement in the event of a discharge that is more stringent 

than the requirements described in this subsection.]

Note 1: Not applicable to the Forest Service.
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[GREAT LAKES RESTORATION INITIATIVE] 

1. [SEC. 426. Section 118(c) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C.

1268(c)) is amended by striking paragraph (7) and inserting the following:

"(7) GREAT LAKES RESTORATION INITIATIVE.—

"(A) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established in the Agency a Great Lakes Restoration

Initiative (referred to in this paragraph as the "Initiative") to carry out

programs and projects for Great Lakes protection and restoration.

"(B) FOCUS AREAS.—The Initiative shall prioritize programs and projects carried

out in coordination with non-Federal partners and programs and projects that

address priority areas each fiscal year, including—

"(i) the remediation of toxic substances and areas of concern;

"(ii) the prevention and control of invasive species and the impacts of invasive

species;

"(iii) the protection and restoration of nearshore health and the prevention

and mitigation of nonpoint source pollution;

"(iv) habitat and wildlife protection and restoration, including wetlands restoration

and preservation; and

"(v) accountability, monitoring, evaluation, communication, and partnership

activities.

"(C) PROJECTS.—Under the Initiative, the Agency shall collaborate with Federal

partners, including the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force, to select the best

combination of programs and projects for Great Lakes protection and restoration

using appropriate principles and criteria, including whether a program or project

provides—

"(i) the ability to achieve strategic and measurable environmental outcomes

that implement the Great Lakes Action Plan and the Great Lakes Water

Quality Agreement;

"(ii) the feasibility of—

"(I) prompt implementation;

"(II) timely achievement of results; and

"(III) resource leveraging; and

"(iii) the opportunity to improve interagency and inter-organizational coordination and 

collaboration to reduce duplication and streamline efforts.

"(D) IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECTS.—

"(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subparagraph (G)(ii), funds made available to

carry out the Initiative shall be used to strategically implement—

"(I) Federal projects; and

"(II) projects carried out in coordination with States, Indian tribes, municipalities,

institutions of higher education, and other organizations.

"(ii) TRANSFER OF FUNDS.—With amounts made available for the Initiative each

fiscal year, the Administrator may—

"(I) transfer not more than the total amount appropriated under subparagraph
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(G)(i) for the fiscal year to the head of any Federal department or agency, with

the concurrence of the department or agency head, to carry out activities to

support the Initiative and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement; and

"(II) enter into an interagency agreement with the head of any Federal department

or agency to carry out activities described in subclause (I).

"(E) SCOPE.—

"(i) IN GENERAL.—Projects shall be carried out under the Initiative on multiple

levels, including—

"(I) Great Lakes-wide; and

"(II) Great Lakes basin-wide.

"(ii) LIMITATION.—No funds made available to carry out the Initiative may be

used for any water infrastructure activity (other than a green infrastructure

project that improves habitat and other ecosystem functions in the Great Lakes)

for which amounts are made available from—

"(I) a State water pollution control revolving fund established under title VI;

or

"(II) a State drinking water revolving loan fund established under section

1452 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j-12).

"(F) ACTIVITIES BY OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES.—Each relevant Federal 

department

or agency shall, to the maximum extent practicable—

"(i) maintain the base level of funding for the Great Lakes activities of that

department or agency without regard to funding under the Initiative; and

"(ii) identify new activities and projects to support the environmental goals of

the Initiative.

"(G) FUNDING.—There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this paragraph

for fiscal year 2016, $300,000,000.". ]

. 

Note 1: Not applicable to the Forest Service.

JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER REAUTHORIZATION

1. SEC. [427] 421. Section 13 of the John F. Kennedy Center Act (20 U.S.C. 76r) is

amended by striking subsections (a) and (b) and inserting the following:

"(a) MAINTENANCE, REPAIR, AND SECURITY.—There is authorized to be 

appropriated to the Board to carry out section 4(a)(1)(H), $22,000,000 for fiscal year 

[2016] 2017.

"(b) CAPITAL PROJECTS.—There is authorized to be appropriated to the Board to

carry out subparagraphs (F) and (G) of section 4(a)(1), $15,000,000 for fiscal year

[2016] 2017.".

Note 1: Not applicable to the Forest Service.

COLLABORATIVE FOREST LANDSCAPE RESTORATION PROGRAM 
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1. SEC. 422. Sec. 4003(f)(6) of Public Law 111-11 (16 U.S.C. 7303(f)(6)) is amended by 

striking “$40,000,000” and inserting “$80,000,000” and by striking “2019” and 

inserting “2026”.

Note 1: Expands program to $80 million. 

SMALL TRACTS ACT CONVEYANCE AUTHORITY, LAND ADJUSTMENT PROGRAM

1. SEC. 423. The Act of January 12, 1983 (commonly known as the Small Tracts Act (16 

U.S.C. 521c – 521i)) is amended—

 (a) in section 3—

 (1) in the introductory text, by striking “$150,000" and inserting 

“$250,000";

 (2) in paragraph (2) by striking “; or” and inserting a semicolon; 

 (3) in paragraph (3), by striking the period and inserting a 

semicolon; and

 (4) by adding at the end the following—

“(4) parcels of 40 acres or less which are determined by the Secretary to 

be physically isolated, to be inaccessible, or to have lost their National Forest 

character;

“(5) parcels of 10 acres or less and encumbered by permanent habitable 

improvements which are not eligible for conveyance under the Encroachment 

Category, but which are not intentional trespasses nor for which existing 

information would have prevented the encroachment;

“(6) parcels used as a cemetery, a landfill, or a sewage treatment plant 

under a special use authorization issued by the Secretary.

 (b) by adding at the end the following—

“SECTION 9. DISPOSITION OF PROCEEDS.

 “(a) IN GENERAL.—The net proceeds derived from any sale or exchange 

under paragraphs (4), (5) and (6) of section 3 shall be deposited in the fund 

established by Public Law 90-171 (commonly known as the “Sisk Act”) (16 

U.S.C. 484a).

“(b) USE.—Amounts deposited under subsection (a) shall be available to 

the Secretary, without further appropriation, and shall remain available until 

expended for—

“(i) the acquisition of land or interests in land for administrative 

sites for the National Forest System in the State;

“(ii) the acquisition of land or interests in land for inclusion in the National Forest 

System within the State, including those which enhance recreational access 

opportunities.

Note 1: Revises this authority.

DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY

1. SEC. 424. (a) The Secretary of Agriculture may appoint, without regard to the

provisions of subchapter I of chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code, other than
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Appropriation Language Changes

sections 3303 and 3328 of such title, a qualified candidate described in subsection

(b) directly to a position with the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest

Service for which the candidate meets Office of Personal Management qualification

standards.

(b) Subsection (a) applies to a former resource assistant (as defined in section

203 of the Public Land Corps Act (16 U.S.C. 1722)) who—

(1) completed a rigorous undergraduate or graduate summer internship with

a land managing agency, such as the Forest Service Resource Assistant Program

(2) successfully fulfilled the requirements of the internship program; and

(3) subsequently earned an undergraduate or graduate degree from an accredited

institution of higher education.

(c) The direct hire authority under this section may not be exercised with respect

to a specific qualified candidate after the end of the two-year period beginning on

the date on which the candidate completed the undergraduate or graduate degree, as the 

case may be.

Note 1: Provides the Forest Service with authority similar to the Department of the 

Interior.
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Forest and Rangeland Research

1. Forest and Rangeland Research

Appropriation Forest and Rangeland Research

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Forest and Rangeland Research

Annual Appropriations $296,000 $291,000 $291,982 $982 0%

Forest and Rangeland Research Total 296,000 291,000 291,982 982 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 1,810 1,810 1,810 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 1,810 1,810 1,810 0 0%

Forest and Rangeland Research

Wildland Fire & Fuels R&D 22,160 21,179 20,786 -393 -2%

Invasive Species R&D 35,106 33,551 32,927 -624 -2%

Recreation R&D 4,423 4,228 4,149 -79 -2%

Resource Management & Use 93,382 89,250 87,589 -1,661 -2%

Water, Air & Soil R&D 35,389 33,824 33,195 -629 -2%

Wildlife & Fish R&D 27,128 25,928 25,446 -482 -2%

Inventory & Monitoring R&D 78,412 83,040 84,890 1,850 2%

Extramural Research Support

Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP)9 3,000 3,000 100%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Forest and Rangeland Research

Customer satisfaction index score for R&D 79 79 79 76 79 76

Number of patent applications filed (5-year rolling 

average) 12 10 0 12 0 0

Patent licenses executed on a 5 year rolling average 0 2 2 2 2 2

Science Delivery Products 0.0 429.0 429.0 442.0 486.0 486.0

Percent of Nation with accessible FIA data 96.0% 98.0% 98.0% 98.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Quality Science Index - peer-reviewed fire science 

publications per scientist year on a 3-year rolling average 3.0 3.4 3.0 4.2 3.0 3.0

Output Efficiency Index - total fire science products per 

scientist year on a 3-year rolling average 4.0 4.5 4.5 5.2 4.5 4.5

Invasive species tools developed, delivered and used on 

a 5-year rolling average 193 169 173 258 173 190

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, 

strategies, and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

(2) During 2015 it was discovered that the value reported for the Science Delivery Products measure in 2014 had 

been transposed with those for another measure. The values in this document are correct.

 9 The table total includes $3,000,000 of Research funds that will support the Joint Fire Science Program.
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Forest and Rangeland Research Overview

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $291,982,000 for Forest and Rangeland Research, an

increase of $982,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funding supports key research 

associated with the Priority Research Areas and Strategic Program Areas. It includes 

$77,000,000 for the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program. Also, $3,000,000 will be 

transferred from the Forest and Rangeland Research allocation to the Joint Fire Science Program

(JFSP) budget line item to support fire science research. The Joint Fire Science Program is 

described in more detail in the Wildland Fire Management chapter. This transfer will result in an 

effective decrease of $2,000,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget.

The Administration has worked this year to analyze and develop a strategy to address 

catastrophic fire risk. There are three main challenges that require a comprehensive plan of 

action to fully address this risk. The first challenge is to provide a stable source of funding for 

wildland fire suppression while minimizing destabilizing transfers from non-fire programs. The 

second is to increase the capacity for active management of Federal lands. Increased land 

management activities will have many benefits, including a reduction in wildland fire risk, 

improved fire fighter safety, improved water quantity and quality, and enhanced carbon 

sequestration. The third challenge is for non-Federal land managers, including private land 

owners, to implement actions to reduce the risk of fire and increase the resilience of these lands 

to fire. We have prioritized our most important activities to maximize the Forest Service’s 

ability to address the three main challenges with wildland fire.

The Forest and Rangeland Research appropriation provides funds to develop and deliver 

knowledge and innovative technology, to reduce risk, and improve the health and use of the 

Nation’s forests and rangelands in public and private lands. Forest Service Research and 

Development (Forest Service R&D) conducts research across all forest ownerships and across 

the landscape continuum, from wilderness to urban areas. Research conducted by Forest Service 

R&D informs policy and land-management decisions that improve the health and use of the 193 

million acres of national forests and rangelands, and non-Federal forested lands including 423

million acres of privately-owned forests, 69 million acres of State forests, 18 million acres of 

Tribal forests, and over 130 million acres of urban and community forests.

Forest Service R&D efforts provide scientific information and new technologies to support 

sustainable management of the Nation’s forests and rangelands. These products and services 

increase the basic biological, physical, and applied knowledge of the composition, structure, and 

function of forest, rangeland, and aquatic ecosystems. Forest Service R&D is federally 

mandated to provide new knowledge and technologies to foster healthy watersheds, sustainable 

forest products, wildlife protection, outdoor recreation opportunities, robust urban ecosystems, 

and other benefits, across all Territories and States (including both Federal and non-Federal 

lands) benefiting rural and urban communities. The knowledge and information gained from this 

research benefits the American public by improving the health and quality of life of communities 

by providing protection from fire, improving water and air quality, and a variety of other 

ecosystem services.

Forest Service R&D provides the basic and applied science that bolsters the agency’s efforts to 

promote resilient forests and sustainable communities that can adapt to forest threats such as 
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climate change, fire, and insect and disease infestations. Our efforts are important contributors 

to the USDA Interagency Climate Change Initiative and Priorities. Together with other agency 

deputy areas and covering multiple staffs, Forest Service R&D contributes to the eight 

restorative action areas. The eight areas are: science delivery and adoption, biomass use, Forest 

Inventory and Analysis, fuels density reduction, watershed restoration, open space connectivity, 

stressor management, and restoration/recovery. These areas are identified as critical in helping 

create resilient forests that are adaptive and mitigate climate change.

The Forest Service R&D program supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national 

forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate 

change while enhancing our water resources. Additionally, the Forest Service R&D program 

supports the Forest Service strategic goal of sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands 

through the fostering of healthy ecosystems; mitigating wildfire risk; conserving open space; 

delivering benefits to the public by developing new markets for forest products and applying

knowledge globally by delivering the state of the knowledge through technology transfer 

products and applications.

Strategic Program Areas

The Forest Service R&D program structure has two integrated components: Priority Research 

Areas and Strategic Program Areas. To address emerging needs and agency priorities, Forest 

Service R&D funds the Priority Research Areas from across the Strategic Program Areas

including Wildland Fire and Fuels; Invasive Species; Recreation; Resource Management and 

Use; Water, Air, and Soil; Wildlife and Fish; and Inventory and Monitoring. The seven Priority 

Research Areas are: Forest Inventory and Analysis; Forest Disturbance; Watershed Management 

and Restoration; Bioenergy and Biobased Products; Urban Natural Resources Stewardship; 

Nanotechnology; and Localized Needs Research. The Priority Research Areas are described in 

detail in the latter half of this chapter, following the Priority Research Areas and Strategic 

Program Area Matrix Funding Table. The following section displays information for each 

Strategic Program Area.

Wildland Fire and Fuels Research & Development (R&D)

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes $20,786,000, for wildland fire and fuels research, a 

decrease of $393,000 from the FY2016 Enacted Budget.

Wildland Fire and fuels research will focus on priority research areas to include identifying the 

factors affecting fire size, severity, and frequency; fire impacts on forested ecosystems; 

improving the understanding and tools related to fire emissions; smoke forecasting; and real-time 

reporting. Traditional fuels characterization and modeling research will be reduced.

Past Performance

Analyzing data from 1979 to 2013, Forest Service researchers found that while fire seasons are 

not getting consistently longer everywhere, unusually long fire seasons have been more frequent 

across much of the globe, even in areas such as Australia and the boreal forests around the globe. 
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The researchers identified climate change as the driving factor in longer fire seasons, and not 

changes in vegetation or sources of ignition. This information can help managers plan for 

extended fire seasons and mitigate increased wildfire potential through climate adaptation 

practices.

Forest Service scientists developed a new assessment approach to strengthen local planning 

efforts and better prioritize investments in fuels reduction to mitigate wildfire risk on Federal 

lands near high-risk communities. Their work combined social science information on potential 

risk mitigation activities on the part of 

private landowners with biophysical 

information on the risk of fire transmission, 

allowing researchers to identify the sources 

of wildfire exposure to communities. The 

Forest Service’s State and Private Forestry 

Washington Office and Pacific Northwest 

Region have funded pilot studies to apply 

this approach in more than 120 

communities in the western United States. 

This work will directly aid in the 

implementation of the National Cohesive 

Wildland Fire Management Strategy 

(Cohesive Strategy) at regional scales.

The phrase “spreads like wildfire” is wellknown, but until recently, scientists did not 

know how wildfires actually spread. The 

research allows us to: (1) improve fire 

fighter safety by providing better training to 

recognize and anticipate wildfire behavior; 

(2) develop prediction models based on 

sound physical principles; and (3) improve 

our mitigation strategies by accurately 

modeling and describing fuel contribution 

to wildfires.

To assess the long-term effectiveness of 

mechanical and fire-only hazardous fuel 

treatments, Forest Service researchers evaluated surface fuel load, vegetation cover, and forest 

structure before and after treatments across 11 national forests in California. Treatments that 

used prescribed fire only required additional treatments after eight years to reduce accumulating 

fuel, understory vegetation and small-diameter trees. Study results show that mechanical 

treatments were generally more effective than fire-only treatments for forests in the study area. 

But, by adding prescribed fire to the mechanical treatments would provide further benefits in 

terms of fuels reduction and the restoration of fire as an ecological process.

Quantifying Impact of Wildland Fires on Particulate 

Matter in Central California

As California's climate warms and wildfires increase in 

frequency and severity, forest managers and policy makers 

need to understand the impacts of smoke from wildland fire 

on air quality. This is particularly true in regions such as 

Central California where densely populated areas are 

adjacent to forest lands that that are prone to frequent fires. 

However, assessing impact of wildland fire on air quality is 

difficult because of the many variables that affect the 

transport of smoke. Using real time smoke data, from 

satellites and ground monitoring stations, researchers found 

that, even though significant effects of wildfires on air 

quality occurred when large smoke plums were close, fires 

in most years had no significant impact on overall 

compliance with EPA standards. On average, 

anthropogenic sources of air pollution appear to be much 

more significant.
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Program Overview

The Wildland Fire and Fuels strategic program area provides the knowledge and tools needed to 

help reduce the negative impacts and enhance the beneficial effects of wildland fire on people

and the environment. Research portfolios include physical fire science, fire ecology and fuels, 

smoke and emissions forecasting, human dimensions of fire, and integrated science and fire 

management decision support systems. This program area focuses on three main objective areas 

articulated in the Cohesive Strategy: (1) restoring resilient landscapes; (2) establishing fire 

adapted human communities; and (3) responding to wildfires safely and effectively. Outcomes 

from the program’s work include improved ability across organizations to: protect lives, homes, 

and infrastructure; manage fire-impacted natural resources; sustain carbon storage; and promote 

the health of America’s forests and grasslands.

Invasive Species R&D

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes $32,927,000 for invasive species research, a decrease 

of $624,000 from the FY2016 Enacted Budget. At this level, Forest Service R&D will address 

priority research areas, including the introduction and spread of non-native species, and maintain 

research on established indigenous species.

The emerald ash borer is spreading rapidly and threatens all native ash trees in North America. A 

number of Forest Service R&D studies have focused on stopping emerald ash borer spread and 

ameliorating its impact. After monitoring areas long-infested by the emerald ash borer, Forest 

Service researchers discovered a small number of trees (less than 1 percent) had survived an 

attack by emerald ash borers. Further analysis of grafted branches from the suviving trees 

revealed several mechanisms that may be responsible for emerald ash borer resistance. Careful 

selection and breeding of these trees may lead to even larger increases in resistance by 

combining the different defense responses. Clones of over 40 surviving ash trees are being 

propagated in order to test their emerald ash borer resistance.

Along with insect pests, disease pathogens constitute another major threat to trees in the United 

States. An example is myrtle rust disease, which originated in Brazil but is now spreading to 

eucalyptus and related trees around the world. The work has important implications for trade 

regulations and forest management in affected areas, including Hawaii where the myrtle rust 

pathogen has been recently introduced and threatens the native ohi’a tree, a major component of 

Hawaii’s native forest.
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Sagebrush ecosystems are highly imperiled due to persistent threats such as invasive annual 

grasses, pinyon and juniper expansion, and altered fire regimes. Forest Service scientists have 

developed management guides and associated planning tools for selecting appropriate treatment 

and restoration strategies for sagebrush and piñon-juniper ecosystems. The management guides 

use six key components to rapidly evaluate resilience to disturbance, resistance to invasive 

annual grasses, and plant community succession following wildfires and management treatments.

This approach is being widely adapted by managers seeking to increase treatment effectiveness.

Program Overview

The invasive species strategic program area provides the information and technology needed to 

reduce or eliminate the spread and 

impact of invasive species, and to 

restore ecosystems affected by these

species. This research focuses on 

non-native plants, animals, and 

diseases whose introduction may 

cause adverse economic or 

environmental consequences. Natural 

resource managers use Forest Service 

R&D technology and knowledge to 

prevent, detect, and manage 

important invasive species. 

Investment in research and 

technology benefits forest and 

rangeland health by improving on the 

ground operations aimed at

controlling key invasive species and 

restoring impacted ecosystems.

Recreation R&D

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget 

includes $4,149,000 for recreation 

research, a decrease of $79,000 from 

the FY 2016 Enacted Budget.

Past Performance

Forest Service scientists investigated the impacts on recreation values in the San Jacinto 

Wilderness in southern California from the closure of trails due to high intensity wildfires. The 

benefits of landscape protection were estimated using economic modelling techniques in 

combination with survey data of backcountry visitors. Recreation values can be substantial for 

some of the hiking trails; for complete trail closure due to high intensity wildfires, researchers

estimated total seasonal wilderness recreation losses for the San Jacinto Wilderness at $3.7 

Examining the Role of Humans in the Spread of 

Invasive Species

Scientists and collaborators have contributed innovative research 

to the field of forest pest risk assessment by focusing on 

pathways for the human-assisted spread of forest pest species, 

including merchandise trade and firewood transport. Research 

results anticipate where and how often invasive alien forest 

insects are likely to be established. The findings can assist U.S. 

and Canadian decision-makers and offer guidance for border 

control efforts, post-border surveillance, and rapid-response 

measures.
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million. These results highlight the importance of this resource for visitors and can help fire 

managers plan more efficient fire management strategies that take into account user values.

Program Overview

The Recreation strategic program area is focused on understanding and increasing knowledge 

about a wide variety of outdoor environments, activities, and experiences that connect people 

with the natural world. The program pre-examines social and economic changes such as 

population growth, increased population diversity and mobility, globalization, changing values, 

and urbanization that alter recreation preferences, use patterns, and opportunities. Catastrophic 

events such as fire and flooding that impact outdoor recreation activities are also studied. This 

program area develops the knowledge and tools to address these complex issues and to inform 

management decisions that maintain and improve outdoor recreation opportunities for current 

and future generations while sustaining healthy ecosystems and economies.

Resource Management and Use R&D

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President's Budget includes $87,589,000 for Resource Management and Use 

Research, a decrease of $1,661,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funding will be directed 

within the Resource Management and Use Research and Development program area to maintain 

focus and progress in the highest priority research. These high priority research areas include 

research on integrated management and production systems, sustainable bioenergy production, 

nanotechnology, urban sustainability and natural resource stewardship, and restoration and 

climate adaptation research.

Past Performance

Severe wildfires create pulses of dead trees that influence future fuel loads, fire behavior, and 

fire effects. Harvesting fire-killed trees may reduce future surface woody fuels and related fire 

hazards, but the magnitude and timing of post-fire logging effects on woody fuels have not been 

fully assessed. Forest Service scientists sampled surface woody fuels in Washington and Oregon 

forests that had burned between 1970 and 2007. Study results indicate that post-fire logging can 

significantly reduce future surface woody fuel levels in forests regenerating following wildfires

depending on forest characteristics and the post-fire logging techniques used. Study results have 

direct implications for post-fire management decisions and predicting fire behavior in burnedover areas. http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/48822 .

Sugar maple provides maple syrup. The species is present throughout much of eastern North 

America, but its future range under climate change is expected to constrict and move northward. 

Forest Service researchers estimated potential changes in syrup production in three states

(Vermont, Wisconsin, and Kentucky) for three future dates (2040, 2070, 2100), and across two 

climate change scenarios (mild and harsh). Based on the likelihood of changes in sugar maple 

distribution and syrup production, scientists estimated the additional number of taps required to 

equal 2012 syrup production for each state, date, and scenario. For example, Vermont (the 

Nation’s largest producer) would need 88 percent more taps by 2100 under the harsh scenario, 

representing an 88 percent increase in taps and nearly $17 million in additional spending. These 
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results demonstrate the linkages between climate change, forest conditions and an important 

forest products industry. http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/45664

Over 50 million tons of plastic resins are used annually in the United States to manufacture 

products for a variety of end uses, including packaging, building materials, vehicles, furniture 

and furnishings, and electronics and electrical devices. Forest Service scientists have devised a 

new method of mixing wood-based cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) with plastics, resulting in 

significantly improved durability and other performance characteristics. Together these attributes 

demonstrate that CNCs make attractive “green filler” for polymer composites. The addition of 

renewable CNCs to these polymers could open a vast new market for forest-based materials 

while simultaneously reducing oil consumption.

Ongoing land management and consequent land-use changes at large scales may have 

unintended effects on ecosystem functioning and sustainability. These effects can include a 

reduction in the capacity of forests to resist insect outbreaks and to avoid the associated major 

ecological and economic consequences. A Forest Service scientist led an international team to 

investigate how different historic forest management practices have affected spruce budworm 

outbreaks in a large “experimental landscape” spanning the U.S.-Canadian border. Their results 

show the strongest evidence to date that human-caused changes to forest landscapes affect the 

intensity and consequences of forest insect outbreaks at broad spatial scales. The resulting 

understanding can help improve predictions of the nature and extent of insect outbreaks in the 

future.

Program Overview

The Resource Management and Use strategic program area provides the scientific and 

technological base to sustainably manage and use forest resources and forest fiber-based 

products. Forest products used for timber, medicinal purposes, food, and other products 

contribute to local economies and the management of our Nation’s forests while also providing

an assortment of ecosystem services including clean air and water. Critical Forest Service 

research in this area includes plant science, soil science, silviculture, social science, productivity, 

forest and range ecology and management, forest harvesting and operations, forest and biomass 

products and utilization, economics, urban forestry, climate change, and nanotechnology. The 

benefit of this program area helps ensure our Nation’s forests remain a sustainable asset in 

achieving domestic energy security, economic opportunity, environmental quality, and quality of 

life experiences for the public.

Water, Air, and Soil R&D

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes $33,195,000 for water, air, and soil research, a 

decrease of $629,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funds will be focused toward research 

in support of watershed restoration, soil conservation during road decommissioning, and air 

quality research in support of forest health management. The Forest Service is committed to 

producing the science and delivery to support high quality water, air, and soil resources.
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Past Performance

Recognizing that properly functioning soil is a prerequisite for the health of all forested 

ecosystems, the Long-Term Soil Productivity Study was conceived in the 1980s by a consortium 

of concerned U.S. and Canadian scientists. The scientists designed and installed a common 

experiment at more than 100 sites throughout the two countries to test the resilience of soils and 

forests following moderate-to-severe disturbance. A series of treatments on clear-cut land 

included combinations of soil compaction and partial or complete removal of nutrient-rich 

surface organic residues. By 2015, most study sites in California had reached the 20-year mark, 

and study findings from these sites provided evidence of unanticipated levels of forest soil 

resilience and recovery. Diagnostic soil 

properties such as carbon storage, nutrient 

content, root penetration, and water and air 

movement did not differ dramatically among 

treatments, and tree growth was relatively 

unaffected. These findings demonstrate that soil 

functions can remain robust following a one-time 

forest harvest disturbance of considerable 

severity. 

http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/40791; 

http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/48539

Smoke from prescribed fires in the Deschutes 

National Forest in Oregon has negatively 

affected the city of Bend nine times over the past 

two years. These smoke events threaten the 

ability of land managers to use prescribed 

burning as a tool to mitigate hazardous fuels in 

the wildland urban interface. Forest Service 

scientists partnered with the Deschutes National 

Forest to better understand when and how these 

smoke intrusions occur. This study will help 

forest managers better plan prescribed fire 

applications and their timing in order to 

minimize adverse smoke affects in the study 

region and elsewhere.

Drought conditions influence forest composition 

directly by limiting water availability, or 

indirectly by intensifying other stressors that 

affect trees. Research on the spatial patterns of 

forest composition in the eastern United States and drought tolerance levels among species helps 

to better predict the impacts of recent and expected trends in drought conditions. Using habitat 

suitability models from the Forest Service Northern Research Station’s Climate Change Atlas, 

Forest Service researchers assessed community assemblages of eastern United States tree species 

and their drought tolerance characteristics. The scientists then examined recent drought 

conditions in relation to the spatial distribution of species and their tolerance to drought. This 

Forest Cover Plays a Critical Role in Regulating 

Streamflow in Piedmont Region of the Carolinas

The Carolinas have a long history of forest 

hydrology research, but little is known about the 

impacts of forest harvesting on streamflow in the 

rapidly urbanizing Piedmont region of North and 

South Carolina. As part of a six-year study, Forest 

Service researchers found that forest vegetation plays 

a more significant role in affecting streamflow in the 

Piedmont than in the mountains and coastal plain due 

to the region's topography and climatic conditions. 

Specifically, the amount of water in study streams 

tripled following forest clearing, suggesting that 

when converted from forests to urban lands, 

watersheds in the Piedmont might be more prone to 

high flows or flooding than elsewhere in the region.
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research provides land-owners and managers with information about long-term trends and 

seasonal timing in drought conditions and the current sensitivity of forests and their composite 

species to these conditions.

Forest Service scientists collaborated with the National Forest System Air Resource 

Management program to develop the Air Quality Portal, a web-based decision support system 

based on the best available science to guide forests through air quality assessments. Phase I of 

the Air Quality Portal helps ensure that National Forest System planners understand the concept 

of critical loads (or air pollution thresholds), allowing for appropriate incorporation of critical 

loads/exposures and target loads/exposures into Forest Plan Revisions to meet the intent of the 

2012 Planning Rule. Phase II of the Air Quality Portal is now being constructed to refine the data 

and information currently available, and it will expand available guidance to support other 

aspects of air quality-related Planning Rule directives. The Air Quality Portal also helps Air 

Quality Specialists meet provisions governing Class I Wilderness Areas in the Clean Air Act.

http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/airqualityportal/.

Program Overview

The Water, Air, and Soil Strategic Program Area enables the sustainable management of these 

essential resources by providing information on how forests can support clean air and drinking 

water, and on how to improve our ability to adapt to climate variability and change. The program 

area takes an integrated approach to studying ecosystem services associated with air, water and 

soil resources. We pay particular attention to the effects of climate variability and change on 

water budgets. This research benefits managers and policymakers by providing the scientific 

information and tools needed to address critical issues on an all-lands basis.

Wildlife and Fish R&D

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes $25,446,000 for Wildlife and Fish Research, a 

decrease of $482,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The Budget will support priority 

research including climate change adaptation, habitat restoration strategies, and innovations in 

inventory and monitoring. Wildlife and fish research is vital in informing high priority 

conservation efforts such as managing for resilient populations of cold water fishes, restoring 

sage grouse habitat, managing habitat of elk and mule deer, and slowing the spread of white-nose

syndrome in bats. Results of this research include improved allocation of restoration dollars, 

increased resilience of valuable fish and wildlife resources, and support of the 2012 Planning 

Rule.
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Past Performance

Forest Service scientists are leading the development of a national Experimental Forests and 

Ranges “Smart Forests” Network. This network of wired forests uses digital environmental 

sensors, wireless communications, and new data visualization programs to create a powerful 

integrated research and monitoring program. Smart Forest technology has been deployed by 

Forest Service scientists at 10 sites in the northeast, with more coming on-line in 2016. Key 

components of the Smart Forest Network include: (1) a common suite of sensors for biological, 

physical, and chemical measurements; (2) real-time data delivery to a single web access point; 

and (3) interactive data visualizations and content for scientists, educators, and the public. 

http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/sustaining_forests/monitoring_assessment/smart_forests/.

The marbled murrelet is listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and 

its conservation is a key objective for the northwest Forest Plan. Forest Service scientists have 

monitored the species for 20-years, and have recently completed studies that show that 

population size has declined in Washington, but that there is no evidence of declining trends in 

Oregon and California. Total amount of nesting habitat has declined over the past 20 years of 

monitoring; more so on non-Federal land, and within Federal lands, 90 percent of suitable 

nesting habitat occurs within reserved land 

allocations. Results are being shared with the 

National Forest System and other land 

managers to evaluate whether the Northwest 

Forest Plan is achieving its objectives. The 

Washington Department of Natural Resources 

also is using results to inform development of a 

long-term conservation strategy for marbled 

murrelets on State lands.

Forest Service scientists, in collaboration with 

an array of partners, conduct a broad range of 

research in support of sage grouse conservation 

and sagebrush-steppe management. The 2015 

accomplishments include: (1) quantifying the 

effectiveness of post-fire restoration activities 

(seeding) for sage-grouse conservation in the 

Great Basin; (2) developing approaches to 

reduce the impact of invasive grasses and 

altered fire regimes in sage grouse habitats; (3) 

using molecular genetics to better understand 

the relationship between sage grouse subpopulations; and (4) producing a guide for sagebrush habitat restoration using projections of 

contemporary and future microclimates. These, and related research outputs, will assist land 

managers in conserving sage grouse populations and their habitats.

Cave-dwelling bat populations in the East and Midwest are declining drastically due to the 

expansion of white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease infecting hibernating bats. With these 

declines come the loss of important ecosystem services, including the bats’ voracious 

Using Science to Protect Bull Trout

The bull trout is an ESA-listed endangered species 

critical to the health of many aquatic ecosystems in 

the Northwestern States. The species relies on cold 

stream environments and is expected to decline with 

climate change. Forest Service researchers “crowd 

sourced” hundreds of biologists, using their raw data 

to build a habitat prediction database and model that 

can be used to efficiently target conservation efforts. 

Next steps include using environmental DNA (eDNA) 

to identify trout locations and habitat ranges.
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consumption of mosquitoes and other insects. In 2015, Forest Service researchers completed a 

study on the related bacterium and they tagged then released bats for monitoring over the coming 

winter (2015-2016). A broader effort, undertaken in collaboration with other Federal agencies, is 

underway to develop a statistically rigorous and coordinated bat monitoring program that will 

contribute to determining the impacts of the many stressors on bat populations, as well as 

determining the best management actions to conserve bat species.

Program Overview

The Wildlife and Fish Strategic Program Area provides knowledge and tools to sustain the 

health, diversity, and productivity of aquatic and terrestrial animals on the Nation’s forests and 

grasslands. Through interdisciplinary research, science delivery, and science-management 

partnerships, Forest Service R&D wildlife and fish research serves restoration and conservation 

efforts across large landscapes and watersheds, and facilitates the management of wildlife and 

fish under current and future environmental disturbances such as drought, fire, and invasive 

species. Forest Service R&D wildlife and fish scientists create innovative protocols for the 

inventory and monitoring of fish and wildlife populations and their habitats, and they develop 

strategies to meet the growing demand for water, energy, and other forest- and grassland-based 

commodities while ensuring the sustainability and diversity of terrestrial and aquatic species and 

ecosystems.

Inventory and Monitoring R&D

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes $87,890,000 for inventory and monitoring research, an 

increase of $4,850,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Inventory and Monitoring is 

comprised of Resource Data and Analysis and Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA).

At the FY 2017 Budget level, the capacity for Resource Data and Analysis to develop new tools 

to assess the current status and trends of forests will be increased. The FIA program will 

continue to implement the annualized inventory program in all 50 States (including interior 

Alaska), the affiliated Pacific Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The remeasurement cycle will be at a 7-year level in the east and a 10-year in the west, with an option 

for enhanced State contributions to achieve a 5-year cycle.
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As we continue with national implementation of the program, there may be some delay in the 

full inclusion of parts of interior Alaska. However, continued funding in the Resource Data and 

Analysis allocation will provide for improved base measurements and research capacity 

including the improved estimation of the forest carbon inventory, land cover and land use 

measurements, and timber products output data. Each of these improvements enhances FIA’s 

ability to deliver assessment of carbon fluxes within forest over time and across land uses. This 

information is a cornerstone of the President’s Climate Action Plan.

Consistent with the FY 2016 Enacted Budget, the FY 2017 President’s Budget transfers funding 

for the Forest Resources Information and 

Analysis program, historically funded 

through the State and Private Forestry 

appropriation, to the Forest and Rangeland 

Research appropriation. This funding 

($4,660,000 in FY 2013) is utilized to 

develop partnerships with State agencies to 

achieve program goals. Leveraging funds 

from State forestry agencies will allow for 

the continued delivery of a 5-year remeasurement cycle within participating 

States. Forest Service R&D will continue to 

work closely with the States and other 

partners to achieve the FIA mission.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, FIA partnered with the National 

Aeronautics and Space Administration and 

the State of Alaska to stage implementation 

of a multi-year plan for inventorying the 115 

million acres of forests in the interior of 

Alaska. The initial measurements include the 

use of lidar and multi-spectral images on a 

series of flight lines in the Tanana Valley. 

This initial developmental inventory consists 

of field measurements on 100 plots that are 

paired with the systematic flight lines. Initial 

inventory estimates are expected in a 

February-March, 2016 timeline. Implementation of interior Alaska will complete the full 

national coverage for the U.S. After the Tanana unit is completed, the next interior unit to be 

surveyed is the Porcupine which is due north of the Tanana. Significant bioenergy interest 

among native Alaskans exists in the Porcupine and the State Forester is partnering to deliver FIA 

throughout Alaska. FIA is currently poised to complete the Tanana and begin the Porcupine unit. 

FIA is collecting annual data in all 50 states. FIA measured 14 percent of the national base grid 

(permanent plots), and performed on site Quality Assurance on approximately 8 percent of all 

annual measurements.

Maps Depict the Wildland-Urban Interface across the 

United States

Wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas, where houses and 

other development meet or mix with undeveloped natural 

areas, are places of transition, change, and great fire 

danger. New U.S. Forest Service research products 

provide visually-appealing, high-resolution maps of 

wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas across the United 

States. A user-friendly book displays state maps that are 

easy to understand. The underlying data sets are also 

available on-line for those who want to do fine-grained 

analysis of WUI locations at the state or local level.
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State Partner contributions (cash and in-kind) continued at approximately $7.8 million which is 

down from a record high of $10 million in 2012. However, the $7.8 million level is in keeping 

with the running average of the previous five years. This is impressive and is in keeping with 

congressional direction to work with States and other partners in delivering the FIA program.

FIA delivered annual data on time and in FY 2015 was maintained at 98 percent (49 States 

online). Hawaii and interior Alaska do not have current data in the online database. These data 

supplied information for 586 spatial data requests and 186,175 online data requests of all types.

User group meetings are of critical importance for the program to ensure that we are providing 

the highest quality science and service. In 2015, FIA held six regional and one national users’ 

group meeting to gauge how well the program is meeting the goals of partners and to incorporate 

partner input and needs into the current Strategic Plan.

The FIA Strategic Plan was delivered to Congress in March, 2015. The plan covers 

implementation of interior Alaska and partnerships with State Foresters to complete a five year 

measurement cycle for the east and 10-year measurement cycle for the west. The plan 

emphasizes enhancements to rapid measurement of forest land use change, annual forest 

products measurement and reporting, improved biomass and carbon estimation, implementation 

of urban FIA and broader participation in the national woodland ownership survey.

Urban FIA has been implemented in Baltimore, MD and Austin, TX in FY 2015. FIA is working 

with the Forest Service’s chief urban scientists on urban resource methods and environmental 

services valuation. FIA is integrating the best of the i-Tree urban forest inventory tool with the 

robustness of FIA methodology to provide for a seamless integration of forest sampling and 

information across the transition from rural to urban treed lands. Several cities and States 

(Texas, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Maryland) have been vanguards in deployment of urban 

FIA. Texas is working with FIA to add Houston in FY 2016. Wisconsin is working with FIA to 

add Madison and Milwaukee in FY 2016.

Program Overview

The Inventory and Monitoring Strategic Program Area enhances the use and value of our 

Nation’s forests and grasslands by providing the resource data, analysis, and tools needed to 

assess current status and trends of forests; management options and impacts; and threats from 

fire, insects, disease, and natural processes. Assessing current and potential effects of climate 

change depends on monitoring those forest ecosystems at greatest risk to rapid change.

National, State, and local policy makers, universities, businesses, Tribal governments, national 

forests and other natural resource agencies, interest groups, and many others depend on our 

models, information, and data for timely, scientifically credible assessments about our forests. 

An important component of Inventory and Monitoring is the FIA program. The FIA program has 

been the Nation’s forest census since 1930. The program collects, analyzes, and reports on the 

status and trends of America’s forests, documenting how much forest exists, where it exists, who 

owns it, and how it is changing. Benefits derived from FIA include evaluation of wildlife habitat 

conditions, assessing sustainability of current and anticipated ecosystem management practices, 
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monitoring forest health, supporting planning and decision-making activities undertaken by 

public and private enterprises, and anticipating climate change impacts to forests.

Customer Satisfaction

The Customer Satisfaction Index is a weighted average of survey questions that measure: overall 

satisfaction; satisfaction compared to expectations; and satisfaction compared to an “ideal” 

organization. This survey is conducted every three years and provides a snapshot indication of 

customer satisfaction for Forest Service R&D in its entirety and not for any specific Strategic 

Program Area or Priority Research Area. The model weighs each question in a way that 

maximizes the ability of the index to predict changes in agency satisfaction. It is the only 

uniform, cross-industry/government measure of customer satisfaction. The index is reported as 

an average score for each organization on a scale of 0 (poor) to 100 (excellent). The Customer

Satisfaction Surveys help Forest Service R&D achieve its strategic and tactical goals by 

identifying key drivers of satisfaction by users of our products and services. Also, they evaluate 

performance and identify significant changes from previous surveys, and provide 

recommendations on how to improve satisfaction. The most recent survey was conducted in FY 

2015, in which Forest Service R&D received a score of 76. This represents a 3 point decline 

from the previous survey in 2012, but this is consistent with a government-wide decline noted by 

the surveying agency, and it is still above the baseline score of 72 from the initial survey in 2006. 

Also, the index for Forest Service R&D is well above the aggregate score (66) for all Federal 

agencies.

The survey used six drivers of customer satisfaction in the analysis: Products, Services, 

Accessibility, Communications, Relevance and Quality, and Staff. The 2015 survey showed that 

the highest customer satisfaction driver continued to be the category “Staff” with a score of 92.

The “Staff” driver measures courtesy, responsiveness, and influence of personnel. Also, a 

relatively high score for “Products” shows that Forest Service R&D science products are 

considered scientifically sound and authoritative, and this had a high impact on customer 

satisfaction. Customers were particularly pleased with the subject matter knowledge of R&D 

personnel (89) and their ability to answer questions (87).

In a previous Customer Satisfaction Survey “Accessibility” to Forest Service R&D products did 

not score well, but since that time, the Research Information Tracking System has improved the 

search capabilities for publications, and “Accessibility” no longer detracts from customer 

satisfaction with R&D products.

The most recent Customer Satisfaction survey identified “Relevance and Quality” as the driver 

with the most impact on Customer Satisfaction in 2015. R&D is addressing this deficiency by 

working to provide more detailed and actionable solutions and by making products easier to 

understand. “Communication” remains one of the lowest rated components of satisfaction for 

Forest Service R&D, but a recent focus by Forest Service R&D on improving science delivery is 

expected to improve satisfaction in communication, relevance and quality. Forest Service R&D 

recently launched two performance metrics for science delivery to maintain focus on this 

important component of communication.
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Forest Service Research and Development Program Overview

Forest Service R&D provides scientific information and new technologies to support sustainable 

management of the Nation’s forests and rangelands. These products and services increase the 

basic biological and physical knowledge of the composition, structure, and function of forest, 

rangeland, and aquatic ecosystems. Forest Service R&D is federally mandated to provide new 

knowledge and technologies to foster healthy watersheds, sustainable forest products, wildlife 

protection, outdoor recreation opportunities, robust urban ecosystems and other benefits across 

all Territories and States (including both Federal and non-Federal lands). Research is conducted 

at five research stations, the Forest Products Lab, and the International Institute of Tropical 

Forestry located in Puerto Rico. There are approximately 500 scientists at 67 sites located 

throughout the United States. In addition, Forest Service R&D maintains 81 experimental 

forests and ranges across the Nation, which serves as sites for most of the agency’s long-term 

research.

The following table illustrates the cross-disciplinary nature of most priority research areas and 

the balance of funding between national and localized research.
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FY 2017 Priority Research Areas and Strategic Program Areas Matrix Funding Table

(dollars in thousands)

Priority 

Research 

Areas

Strategic Program Areas

Fire Invasives

Recreation

Resource 

Mgmt. & 

Use

Water, 

Air, & 

Soil

Wildlife 

& Fish

Inventory 

& 

Monitoring

Total

Forest 

Disturbances $277 $188 $0 $14,588 $1,906 $2,987 $5,104 $25,050 

Forest 

Inventory 

and Analysis

$0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $77,000 $77,000 

Watershed 

Mgmt. and 

Restoration

$1,745 $1,134 $0 $2,812 $9,198 $5,670 $863 $21,422

Bioenergy 

and 

Biobased 

Products

$231 $91 $0 $10,827 $231 $0 $322 $11,702

Urban 

Natural 

Resource 

Stewardship

$436 $0 $1,969 $1,033 $1,308 $0 $872 $5,618

Nanotechnology $0 $0 $0 $4,318 $0 $0 $0 $4,318

Localized 

Research $18,097 $31,514 $2,180 $54,011 $20,552 $16,789 $729 $143,872 

Subtotal $20,786 $32,927 $4,149 $87,589 $33,195 $25,446 $84,890 $288,982 
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Priority 

Research 

Areas

Strategic Program Areas

Fire Invasives

Recreation

Resource 

Mgmt. & 

Use

Water, 

Air, & 

Soil

Wildlife 

& Fish

Inventory 

& 

Monitoring

Total

Extramural 

Research 

Support

(JFSP)

0 0 0 0 0 0 3,000 3,000

Total $20,786 $32,927 $4,149 $87,589 $33,195 $25,446 $87,899 $291,982 

Priority Research Areas

Forest Disturbances - $25,050,000

This research area provides managers and policy makers with scientific information and tools to 

anticipate and respond to the impacts of a changing climate and other disturbances on forests and 

rangelands. The program strategy focuses on predicting impacts on ecosystems and providing 

the research that will lead to: enhanced ecosystem sustainability (adaptation); increased carbon 

sequestration, reduced emissions, and product substitution, including biofuels and wood products 

(mitigation); developing decision support tools; and establishing collaborations that will enhance 

the delivery of the science needed to manage forest and rangeland ecosystems. This information 

is used to develop management strategies and provide decision support tools that aid managers 

and policy makers in fostering resilience to current and future forest disturbances associated 

directly or indirectly with climate change across forest, range, and urban ecosystems. Working 

with the other agency deputy areas (State and Private Forestry and National Forest System) and 

USDA agencies (Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Agricultural Research Service), 

Forest Service R&D continues to provide support to the Regional Hubs for Risk Adaptation and 

Mitigation to Climate Change. The Hubs provide coordinated technical support to supplement 

USDA agriculture and land management program delivery, especially to underserved and 

vulnerable communities, Tribes, and individuals. The Hubs will be responsive to the information 

and technical needs of public and private forest landowners.

Forest Inventory and Analysis - $77,000,000

The FIA reports on the current condition and recent trends in the area of public and private forest 

land in the United States. The FIA provides specific information on past, current, and projected 

tree numbers by species; the size and health of trees; tree growth, mortality, and harvest 

removals; loss of forested lands due to disturbances, such as hurricanes and wildland fires; wood 

production and utilization; and forest landownership. These data are essential to making sound 

investment decisions in forest management activities and land management planning, in ensuring 

the long-term health of forests, and in prolonging the availability of multiple uses from forests. 
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Forest Service R&D works closely with State forestry agencies and other partners to achieve the 

FIA mission. The FIA leverages one partner dollar for every six Federal dollars spent. Recent 

data show that the FIA “census for trees” program positions States and public and private 

landowners to implement and profit from alternative energy and ecosystem service markets 

focused on carbon sequestration and the conversion of woody biomass to energy. The FIA data 

enables the natural resource community to understand the magnitude of changes in forest 

conditions and trends and to make projections of future conditions - information which is vital to 

the long-term health of forests and the sustained availability of multiple uses from forests.

Watershed Management and Restoration - $21,422,000

Adequate supplies of clean water are essential to human health and economic growth. 

Population growth and forest disturbances, however, are stressing surface and ground water 

resources. New approaches are developed to effectively manage water resources given the 

changing social, economic, and environmental conditions. Forest Service R&D delivers:

• best management practices for watershed management and restoration in forest, urban, 

and agricultural settings, which support the provision of abundant, safe drinking water;

• methods for assessing changes in watershed condition as a result of changing 

demographics and development pressures;

• strategies for managing both surface and groundwater resources under changing forest 

conditions and urbanization;

• projections of national and regional water demand and supply as affected by forest 

disturbances, population growth, agriculture production, energy generation, and 

economic development; and

• improved techniques for restoring watersheds, which will enhance overall human and 

ecosystem health.

Bioenergy and Biobased Products - $11,702,000

Our Nation’s forests are a sustainable, strategic asset in achieving and enhancing domestic 

energy security, economic opportunity, environmental quality, and global competitiveness. A 

sustainable renewable bioenergy and biobased products sector is a growing source of jobs in the 

economy and contributes to energy security and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Woody 

biomass is a critical renewable resource that has the potential to fulfill a significant portion of the 

domestic need for liquid transportation fuels, chemicals and other bioproducts, and sustainable 

substitutes for fossil fuel-intensive products. A robust and productive research and development 

program is crucial to building and sustaining this economic sector. This research provides the 

science and technology to sustainably produce, manage, harvest, and converts woody biomass to 

liquid transportation fuels, chemicals, and other high-value products. By developing costeffective conversion processes that deliver fuel and high-value bioproducts plus efficient, high 

productivity biomass feedstock production and management systems, this research reduces 

investor risk in woody biomass projects and contributes to U.S. energy security, environmental, 

and economic goals (U.S. Department of Energy 2011, National Science Foundation 2008).

Urban Natural Resources Stewardship - $5,618,000
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Over 80 percent of the Nation’s population now lives in metropolitan areas (2010 United States 

Census) and the number is increasing. Improving the sustainability and livability of our cities 

and surrounding suburbs is a long-term challenge and goal as the Nation’s population becomes 

increasingly urban. Forest Service R&D provides leading science and new technology to 

improve environmental health and community well-being in urban areas. Forest Service 

scientists are at the forefront of urban forestry and socio-ecological research that helps cities and 

towns transition to a sustainable future. Critical areas of research include: urban forest structure 

and effects modeling, urban ecosystem health, urban watershed conservation and rehabilitation, 

ecosystem services valuation and assessment, urban environmental stewardship, and green 

infrastructure strategies and best management practices. Forest Service R&D is directing 

research efforts at the municipal level to provide new information and tools to help in 

sustainability planning. This effort involves initiating urban forest inventory work and 

advancing long-term, place-based, collaborative urban forest-related research in a number of 

cities throughout the United States.

Nanotechnology - $4,318,000

Forest Service R&D investments in nanotechnology provide research in the production, 

application, and technology deployment of cellulose nanomaterials. These activities provide an 

opportunity to utilize wood resulting from forest restoration and fuel treatment operations. 

Cellulose nanomaterials are renewable materials that may displace petroleum-based products in 

automobiles, biomedical devices, body armor, aerospace materials, plastics, composites, 

coatings, and electronics. Consequently, nanotechnology may bring about fundamental changes 

and significant economic and quality-of-life benefits to the American people. This research has 

the added benefit of providing markets for low value wood products, thus providing a financial 

incentive to public and private landowners to remove this low value wood, which reduces fuel 

loads and helps, accelerate forest restoration efforts.

Localized Needs Research - $143,872,000

In addition to the research investments in national Priority Research Areas, Forest Service R&D 

invests in research targeted to the geographic regions served by Forest Service research stations 

and field laboratories. Localized needs research is aligned with national strategic goals, but is 

particularly responsive to the social, economic, and ecological issues important to each region. 

Scientists from multiple research stations collaborate across regions to develop and share 

research findings and develop tools that solve common problems. Localized needs research by 

Forest Service R&D provides the foundation of basic and applied science needed to advance 

research in each of the Strategic Program Areas previously reviewed and described in this 

document.

Forest Service R&D develops and shares basic science, while developing applications specific to 

regional needs. This approach of developing a core foundation of basic science that drives the 

development of regionally specific knowledge, assessment methods, and management tools plays 

out at Forest Service R&D research labs throughout the Nation, addressing critical issues 

concerning wildlife, fish, water, air, forests and rangelands, invasive species, wood products 

utilization, recreation, economics, social science, and other needs critical to sustaining America’s 

natural resources and public uses.
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Extramural Research Support

In FY 2017, $3,000,000 of Forest and Rangeland Research Inventory and Monitoring funds will 

be transferred to the Joint Fire Science budget line item to support fire-related research 

authorized by the Joint Fire Science Program. The funding supports JFSP collaboration with the 

Department of the Interior. The program utilizes grants, contracts and cooperative agreements to 

develop science and technology products for the fire community. The tools developed help to 

track the effects of vegetation management for hazardous fuels reduction; to support resilient 

landscapes and communities; and for related work to mitigate wildfire impact on water quality, 

atmospheric emissions, and other natural resources and ecosystem services. The JFSP is further 

described in the Wildland Fire Management Chapter.

Allocation and Integration

Forest Service R&D priorities are based on the agency’s mission and Administration priorities. 

The base Forest Service R&D program is established using input from the field. The research 

stations, the Forest Products Lab, and International Institute of Tropical Forestry prioritize 

research in response to local and regional needs. Field requests are reviewed, coordinated with 

critical needs identified at the national level, and then merged into a national research program. 

Funds are distributed to support the seven Strategic Program Areas.

For the FIA program, funds have been allocated historically in equal proportion to eastern States 

and western States, as forest acres are evenly split between these two broad regions. Partner 

contributions are 15 percent of the total funding of eastern States and 10 percent of total funding 

in Western States, with the remainder coming from appropriated funds. For further detail and 

trends see: http://www.fia.fs.fed.us/library/bus-org-documents/docs/FIA_Annual_Report_2012-

opt.pdf .

The program also supports forest inventory activities with costs shared by States. Allocations to 

States are based upon the cost-effectiveness of past performance of State FIA implementation. 

State contributions represent approximately 11 percent of the total program funds and are 

contingent on FIA’s ability to provide matching funds. To make efficient use of available 

resources, FIA contracts some services when partners can provide them at a lower cost.

Approximately 20 percent of the FIA program (funding and resources) supports the National 

Forest System, including strategic inventory across 193 million acres in support of forest 

planning with information such as volume, biomass, growth, removals, mortality, forest carbon 

storage, forest health, and fire fuel loads.

Partnerships

Forest Service R&D partners include Federal and State agencies, universities, industry, 

nongovernmental organizations, Tribal groups, and foreign government research cooperators. 

One of the most important functions of Forest Service R&D is the distribution of information to 

forest managers and users implementing land management projects. The agency provides 

valuable technology transfer to our research partners, land management practitioners, State 

agencies, urban planners, private forest owners, private organizations, horticultural 
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organizations, agricultural interests, as well as forest practitioners internal to the Forest Service. 

Seeking and forging strategic partnerships is a critical activity of Forest Service R&D.

The FIA program is managed as a partnership, led by Forest Service R&D in cooperation with 

National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, and the National Association of State 

Foresters. FIA customers include: national forests and grasslands, State forestry agencies, 

Federal and State policy makers; corporations and consultants; researchers; environmental 

organizations; land managers; media; and anyone interested in reliable, current forest data. 

Partners contribute funds to leverage FIA programs commensurate with their individual needs. 

Partner funding is encouraged but not required to receive the base Federal program. In FY 2015, 

partners contributed over $7.6 million to shorten measurement cycles or otherwise enhance FIA 

programs. Participating State organizations include State forestry agencies, universities, 

nongovernmental organizations, and other partners. Partner contributions are primarily used to 

lower inventory cycles or cost share research. Nearly 34 percent of FIA’s annual work is 

accomplished in this manner. Not all States participate each year, but over the last 10-years all 

States have contributed to FIA program efforts.
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Land Area, Forest Area, FIA Federal Grants, and Partner Funds

By State in FY 2015

Region and State All Land Forestland

Forest and 

Woodland 

Federal FIA 

Grants Partner Funds 

(acres in thousands) (dollars in thousands)

Alaska, Coast 39,041 13,718 13,718 $604,216 $7,282

Alaska, Int 326,575 114,859 114,859 0 0

Alabama 32,413 22,877 22,877 232,438 76,796

Arkansas 33,303 18,755 18,755 400,882 144,077

Arizona 72,700 10,795 18,643 42,624 0

California 99,699 32,057 32,618 0 67,389

Connecticut 3,099 1,712 1,712 0 500

Colorado 66,331 19,995 22,837 989,383 252,246

Delaware 1,247 340 340 118,000 28,290

*District of Columbia 0 7,770

Florida 34,447 17,461 17,461 161,000 59,388

Georgia 36,809 24,768 24,768 436,296 272,648

Hawaii 4,110 1,748 1,748 250,000 0

Iowa 35,749 3,014 3,014 92,831 17,645
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Region and State All Land Forestland

Forest and 

Woodland 

Federal FIA 

Grants Partner Funds 

(acres in thousands) (dollars in thousands)

Idaho 52,892 21,247 21,448 239,095 0

Illinois 35,532 4,848 4,848 0 23,359

Indiana 22,929 4,830 4,830 79,781 120,715

Kansas 52,326 2,502 2,502 146,400 34,938

Kentucky 25,271 12,472 12,472 320,000 131,418

Louisiana 27,650 14,712 14,712 0 0

Massachusetts 4,992 3,024 3,024 252,775 52,950

Maryland 6,252 2,461 2,461 0 12,300

Maine 19,739 17,660 17,660 232,270 381,061

Michigan 36,185 20,127 20,127 79,938 58,950

Minnesota 50,961 17,371 17,371 449,270 531,075

Missouri 43,995 15,472 15,472 11,250 98,547

Mississippi 30,031 19,542 19,542 0 92,263

Montana 93,149 25,169 25,573 72,000 213,400

North Carolina 31,115 18,588 18,588 1,030,060 24,552
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Region and State All Land Forestland

Forest and 

Woodland 

Federal FIA 

Grants Partner Funds 

(acres in thousands) (dollars in thousands)

North Dakota 44,161 734 760 28,326 7,200

Nebraska 49,167 1,576 1,576 71,880 5,853

New Hampshire 5,730 4,832 4,832 0 20,400

New Jersey 4,707 1,964 1,964 0 3,667

New Mexico 77,631 16,615 24,840 80,574 444,100

Nevada 70,260 8,121 11,169 796,242 220,595

New York 30,161 18,966 18,966 173,505 24,140

Ohio 26,151 8,088 8,088 44,400 11,345

Oklahoma 43,901 12,256 12,646 300,000 199,608

Oregon 61,432 29,787 29,804 786,310 485,855

Pennsylvania 28,635 16,782 16,782 0 115,536

Puerto Rico 2,192 1,213 1,213 42,175 100,000 

Rhode Island 662 360 360 0 3,069

South Carolina 19,239 13,120 13,120 348,900 124,000

South Dakota 48,519 1,911 1,911 58,397 21,851
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Region and State All Land Forestland

Forest and 

Woodland 

Federal FIA 

Grants Partner Funds 

(acres in thousands) (dollars in thousands)

Tennessee 26,390 13,942 13,942 444,200 102,940

Texas 167,188 40,318 62,425 720,500 309,409

Utah 52,589 11,866 18,135 863,524 529,952

Virginia 25,274 15,907 15,907 486,284 212,725

Vermont 5,899 4,591 4,591 0 100,600

Washington 42,532 22,435 22,435 101,406 88,280

Wisconsin 34,661 16,980 16,980 40,000 1,448,610

West Virginia 15,384 12,155 12,155 130,970 49,300

Wyoming 62,140 10,807 11,448 203,949 0

TOTAL 2,263,147 766,237 818,816 $11,962,051 $7,338,594

*The totals for the District of Columbia are included in the totals for Maryland.

 
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State and Private Forestry

Appropriation State and Private Forestry

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

State and Private Forestry

Annual Appropriations $232,653 $237,023 $234,004 -$3,019 -1%

State and Private Forestry Total 232,653 237,023 234,004 -3,019 -1%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 565 565 565 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 565 565 565 0 0%

State and Private Forestry

Landscape Scale Restoration 14,000 14,000 23,513 9,513 68%

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands 58,922 58,922 51,382 -7,540 -13%

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 45,655 40,678 40,678 0 0%

State Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0%

Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0%

Forest Stewardship 23,036 23,036 22,398 -638 -3%

Forest Legacy Program 53,000 62,347 62,347 0 0%

Community Forest and Open Space Conservation 2,000 2,000 2,000 0 0%

Urban and Community Forestry 28,040 28,040 23,686 -4,354 -16%

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 0 0 0 0 0%

International Forestry 8,000 8,000 8,000 0 0%

State and Private Forestry Overview

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $234,004,000 for State and Private Forestry (S&PF), 

a decrease of $3,019,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget.

The S&PF programs help sustain the Nation’s urban and rural forests, assist private landowners 

in maintaining their forests, and protect communities and the environment from insects, disease, 

and invasive plants. More than 50 percent our of Nation’s forests approximately 423 million 

acres - are privately owned. These forests supply almost 30 percent of the surface drinking water 

to cities and rural communities and over 90 percent of our domestically-produced forest products 

(Report to Congress on Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act and Other USDA Programs That 

Benefit Private Forests,2011) 

http://www.fs.fed.us/cooperativeforestry/library/private_forest_report.pdf.

The S&PF programs help protect these forests and provide support to keep working forests 

intact. This Federal investment leverages the capacity of State Foresters and their partners to 

manage State and private lands and produce ecological, social, and economic benefits for the 

American people. For example, almost 11 million acres are now being managed more 

sustainably because of landowner planning, have been treated to protect against wildfires and 

insects and diseases, or have been protected from development since 2008 as a result of S&PF 

program investments. In addition, between 2008 and 2011, Forest Service programs assisted 
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over two million landowners through education programs or other related services during this 

same timeframe.10

Partnerships are critical in implementing and delivering 

S&PF programs. Through a coordinated effort in 

management, protection, conservation education, and 

resource use, S&PF programs help facilitate sound 

stewardship of lands across all ownerships on a landscape 

scale, while maintaining the flexibility for individual forest 

landowners to pursue their objectives. The S&PF programs 

help Americans reconnect to the outdoors and are engines of 

job creation in rural communities. In addition, S&PF 

programs are key components of the President’s America’s 

Great Outdoors Initiative to conserve important landscapes 

and reconnect Americans to the outdoors. Along with the National Forest System, Forest and 

Rangeland Research, the Department of the Interior, and State and local partners, S&PF 

programs also manages the impacts of wildland fires on communities and the environment. 

Landscape Scale Restoration

The new Landscape Scale Restoration program focuses and prioritizes funds and resources to 

better shape and influence forest land use on a scale, and in a way, that optimizes public benefits 

from trees and forests for current and future generations. This program funds competitive 

projects that focus on all-lands and result in a targeted, positive impact in high-priority areas by 

leveraging State capacity with strategic Federal investments. All States and Territories have 

crafted assessments of the forests within their boundaries and developed strategies to address 

threats and improve forest health. The resulting Statewide Forest Resource Assessments and 

Strategies, or State Forest Action Plans http://www.forestactionplans.org, provide an analysis of 

forest conditions and trends and delineate priority forest landscape areas. Under the 2014 Farm 

Bill, Forest Action Plans will be updated as necessary; and where feasible, will include military 

installations to the extent that management of State and other public or private lands support and 

contribute to the mission of such installations. These State Forest Action Plans are an integral 

part of Landscape Scale Restoration and represent the first-ever “strategic plan” for the Nation’s 

forests. The State Forest Action Plans focus on all-lands (State, private, Tribal, and Federal) and 

strategically assess the greatest need, highest value, or strongest innovation potential. State 

Forest Action Plans are a path to effectively address contemporary conservation issues across the 

country in the urban-to-rural spectrum.

In FY 2015, the Forest Action Plans reached their five-year anniversary. A report11 released by 

the National Association of State Foresters in November 2015 evaluated Plans in three states and 

 10 This reference is from the September 2011 “Report to Congress on Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act and 

Other USDA Programs That Benefit Private Forests.” This is the most current report published on this subject. 

http://www.fs.fed.us/cooperativeforestry/library/private_forest_report.pdf

11 5-Year Review of Forest Action Plans and Effective Water Quality Protections. Dovetail Partners, supported by 

NASF. November 2015. 

http://www.dovetailinc.org/report_pdfs/2015/dovetailforestactionplans1115.pdf?utm_source=News%3A+Forest+Ac

tion+Plans+Report&utm_campaign=Forest+Action+Plans&utm_medium=email

S&PF Program Leverages

$14.3 Million in FY 2015

In FY 2015, S&PF 

competitively allocated $12.5

million to State Foresters, 

supporting 55 projects in 37

States and Territories. These 

allocations enabled the Forest 

Service to leverage over $14

million in partner funds and inkind contributions. 
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one island territory to evaluate accomplishments related to protecting water quality since the 

Plans were completed. This review found that Forest Action Plans provide a valuable tool for 

thoughtfully and thoroughly addressing threats and opportunities across diverse forests. The 

Plans provide a nationwide overview to support high-level decision making while also 

supporting local actions through state-specific and watershed-focused priorities. 

Cooperation and coordination across jurisdictional boundaries is needed to deal with the complex 

issues revealed in the State Forest Action Plans, most of which need to be addressed at a 

landscape level and by working through local communities. State forestry organizations and the 

Forest Service have a long history of working together on important forest management issues 

and State Forest Action Plans continue to help us identify priority landscapes on which to focus 

critical conservation actions. These Plans enable the Forest Service and State partners to better 

leverage stakeholder partnerships and heighten public awareness of the value and importance of 

the Nation’s public and private forests. The plans feature State-specific strategies based on local 

expertise and extensive public input. By linking the State Forest Action Plans with our national 

conservation and economic goals, they help facilitate long-term decisions for investing State, 

Federal, and other resources where there is the greatest need. By focusing on priority outcomes 

that address landscape-scale issues, the State Forest Action Plans guide investments to conserve, 

protect, and enhance our forests. 
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Landscape Scale Restoration

Budget Line Item Landscape Scale Restoration

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Landscape Scale Restoration

Annual Appropriations $14,000 $14,000 $23,513 $9,513 68%

Landscape Scale Restoration Total 14,000 14,000 23,513 9,513 68%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 0 0 0 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Landscape Scale Restoration

Total value of resources (expressed as a ratio) leveraged 

through partnerships with states and other partners 1.1 1.1 1.3 1.1 1.3 1.3

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $23,513,000 for Landscape Scale Restoration (LSR), 

an increase of $9,513,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. This increase will allow us to fund 

approximately 20 more innovative, cross-boundary projects that target priority areas that States 

have identified as those most in need of forest health improvement.

In FY 2017, this program will continue to fund cross-boundary competitive projects that address

priorities and needs identified in States’ Forest Action Plans focused around conserving working 

forest landscapes, protecting forests from harm, and enhancing the public benefits of trees and 

forests. This continued investment in cross-boundary, landscape scale projects on State and 

private lands will spur innovation, bring partners to the table, support climate change activities, 

and allow the agency to leverage partner contributions. This investment will also result in 

sustaining and restoring forest health and vigor on hundreds of acres, accomplishing meaningful 

change on priority landscapes in States, allowing the agency to assist urban communities in 

protecting their forests, and maximizing the number of cross-boundary projects that can be 

funded. The LSR program work is critical to ensuring the continued health and resilience of our 

Nation’s forested landscapes. 

LSR supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working 

lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our 

water resources. The LSR program supports the Forest Service strategic goal of sustaining our 

Nation’s forests and grasslands through the fostering of healthy ecosystems, mitigating wildfire 

risk, and conserving open space. Additionally, we achieve Forest Service goals of delivering 

benefits to the public, such as providing abundant clean water and strengthening communities.
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Past Performance

This new budget line item, first proposed in FY 2013, was enacted in the FY 2014 Consolidated 

Appropriations Act and, but due to the timing of enactment in FY 2014, was fully implemented 

for the first time in FY 2015. Projects were requested and selected using updated LSR guidance 

developed in conjunction with the National Association of State Foresters. Projects were 

focused on three key Farm Bill themes - conserving working forest landscapes, protecting forests 

from harm, and enhancing the public benefits of trees and forests.

12 Starting in FY 2015, LSR 

projects also had to be explicitly cross-boundary in nature and focused on priority landscapes, as 

identified in States’ Forest Action Plans. Analysis of State Forest Action Plans has shown that 

forest management priorities differ across, and even within States. Surveys conducted in 

conjunction with the National Association of State Foresters indicate that many States would like 

to change the configuration of S&PF grant dollars they receive. LSR creates the ability to fund 

priority projects without the limits created by specific program funding.

In FY 2014, we began tracking the spatial footprint of each LSR project, as well as cooperators 

involved and Forest Service objectives, for each of these projects in a new module in the 

Stewardship Mapping and Reporting Tool (SMART – see the Forest Stewardship section for 

more information on this tool. The data from this new tool can be downloaded and used for 

accomplishment reporting and more in-depth program analysis. The most notable enhancement 

to this system is that it allows for the upload or creation of a spatial footprint or impact area of 

the project. As the Forest Service promotes the all lands, landscape restoration approach this 

allows people to visualize and quantify where these projects are influencing change on the 

ground. Grant recipients are now also required to describe how their project influences positive 

change and integrates program delivery in a narrative fashion. They system also provides check 

boxes that offer a quick, clear and searchable means to describe how the projects align with 

USFS priorities. It also offers more clarity in terms of the amount of leveraged funding for each 

project by including more fields for matched funds. A publicly-accessible search tool is also 

expected to be released in FY 2016 so interested parties can see the details of these projects.

In Fiscal Year 2015, the Forest Service competitively allocated $12.5 million for 55 projects in 

37 States and Territories. These allocations enabled the Forest Service to leverage over $14 

million in partner dollars and in-kind contributions. Twenty-six (26) of these projects contributed 

to active and sustainable forest management; almost 30 of them mitigated threats to forest health; 

and 34 of them improved air quality, economic benefits, enhanced and protected water quality, 

or helped to mitigate or adapt to changing conditions.

Innovative projects spanning across States and landscapes, and leveraging numerous partners and 

program authorities, were selected. For example, in the Southeast a LSR project is helping seven 

States predict future timber supply by training State employees to use a Sub-Regional Timber 

Simulation Model developed by North Carolina State University. This will help ensure that 

States are focusing on effective means of developing markets and help sustain important forest 

product sector jobs. 

 12 These themes were codified in the 2008 Farm Bill as part of the State Action Plan Requirements. They continue in 

the 2014 Farm Bill.
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Another project funded in FY 2015 will help support a unique “Urban Forest Strike Team” in 13 

Southern States. The Team works with communities, State Emergency Management personnel 

and FEMA debris mangers to provide expertise during storm recovery. They have already 

responded to 11 disasters in 11 States since 2007, but support is needed to train new specialists, 

update equipment and help ensure State forestry agencies are positioned to coordinate State and 

federal resources in support of local efforts to mitigate risk and restore urban and community 

forests. 

In Arizona a project will address riparian (situated on the banks of a river) forest restoration on 

the Verde River by removing invasive plants and creating native habitat “islands” to seed and 

expand. In Vermont a project will promote “green” approaches to address stormwater runoff in 

20 municipalities. Investments in S&PF programs have resulted in almost 11 million acres being 

sustainably managed, protected from wildfires and insects and diseases, or protected from 

development. A focused effort on collecting and recording partner dollar and in-kind 

contributions demonstrated that these projects were matched on a more than one-to-one basis 

each year. LSR will continue to further increase the pace and scale of these investments.

Program Description

Program Overview

There are over 640 million acres of non-Federal forest lands in the United States—two-thirds of 

the Nation’s forests. These important resources generate millions of dollars in forest products 

revenues and recreation spending; provide well-paying rural jobs; supply almost 30 percent of 

the surface drinking water to cities and rural communities; and support imperiled wildlife and 

fish species. The LSR program helps ensure our Nation’s non-Federal forestlands will be able to

continue to provide these important benefits to the American public by allowing States to pursue 

innovative, landscape scale, projects that focus on their priorities, as identified in their State 

Forest Action Plans. 

Prior to the implementation of LSR, from FY 2008 through FY 2013, S&PF provided $13 to $20 

million in funding annually through a process known as S&PF “Redesign”. The Redesign 

funding was used for competitive projects focusing on issues and landscapes of national 

importance and on activities that provided meaningful outcomes on the ground. The funds for 

that effort were drawn from multiple S&PF budget line items. The Redesign process yielded 

numerous successful projects and leveraged over $125 million of partner funds and in-kind 

contributions during a six-year timeframe. LSR creates the ability to fund projects without the 

limits created by specific program funding. The LSR program is the next evolution of this 

process with a distinct budget line item that provides more flexibility for funding innovative, 

cross-boundary projects in priority areas identified by States.

The LSR program’s work is critical to ensuring the continued health and resilience of our 

Nation’s forested landscapes. This program is a competitive grant program that provides 

opportunities to fund innovative projects across program boundaries and across landscape 

jurisdictions that address priorities and needs consistent with the State Forest Action Plans. 

Projects are focused on restoring healthy and resilient landscapes and communities in priority 

areas that States identify. This program provides States the opportunity to develop targeted, 
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creative projects that most effectively leverage the agency dollar - spanning a wide spectrum to 

meet priority needs from stormwater management through urban trees in Massachusetts; to 

watershed improvement projects in Kansas, Alaska and Colorado; to cogon grass control and 

landowner engagement in Mississippi and North Carolina. By addressing threats to forest 

sustainability such as protecting lands from development, damaging wildfires or the spread of 

insects and disease, these projects will also benefit adjacent National Forest System lands, 

creating healthier, more resilient landscapes. 

Through new spatial tracking tools and improved reporting methodologies, these projects will 

also serve as a springboard for developing novel methods to measure and demonstrate improved 

outcomes on the ground in these priority areas such as enhanced water quality and quantity; 

reduced forest loss; improved forest markets; and the energy conservation and carbon 

sequestration benefits resulting from these projects. 

Allocation and Integration

Funds are allocated on a competitive basis focusing on cross-boundary projects, guided by the 

priorities outlined in State Forest Action Plans. This project selection process is managed in 

three different areas of the country: the Northeast, the South and the West. Projects are focused 

in priority areas also identified in the plans. The projects are required to address nationally and 

regionally significant issues or landscapes and focus on conserving working forests, protecting 

forests from harm, and enhancing public benefits from trees and forests. Because there are 

different needs and focus areas in different parts of the country, appropriate regionally-specific 

evaluation criteria are used as part of the project evaluation and selection process. Projects 

involve diverse collaboration and partnerships in planning and implementation and coordination

with complementary State and Federal programs when possible. 

Partnerships

The development and implementation of these projects is coordinated through close 

collaboration with State and Territorial forestry agency partners. All projects are leveraged by 

non-Federal contributions on at least a 1:1 basis. S&PF works directly with State forestry 

agencies to ensure that forest landowners have the best technical, educational, and financial 

assistance available to help them achieve their objectives in an environmentally beneficial 

way. This Federal investment leverages the capacity of State Foresters and their partners to 

manage State and private lands and produce ecological, social, and economic benefits.
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Forest Health Management - Federal Lands

Budget Line Item Forest Health Management - Federal Lands

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program

Changes

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands

Annual Appropriations $58,922 $58,922 $51,382 -$7,540 -13%

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands Total 58,922 58,922 51,382 -7,540 -13%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 302 302 302 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 302 302 302 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands

Federal acres treated - Invasives 126,460 153,577 146,338 165,008 122,997 88,688

Federal acres treated - Native pests 159,191 173,874 179,832 210,363 138,347 152,146

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $51,382,000 for Forest Health Management (FHM) 

Federal Lands, a decrease of $7,540,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget.

Funds are used to conduct insect and disease surveys on over 400 million acres of forest lands; 

conduct forest insect and disease prevention, suppression, restoration, and eradication projects; 

provide technical assistance; and monitor forest health on all Federal lands including those of the 

Departments of Defense and the Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers. A decrease of 

$7,540,000 in funding for FY 2017 will mean approximately 60,000 fewer acres treated

compared to FY 2015 levels. 

In FY 2017, the Forest Service will adjust monitoring and treatments based on allocations for 

some efforts, such as the Slow-the-Spread (STS) program for gypsy moth and for work on 

western bark beetles, southern pine beetle, sudden oak death, invasive plants, and hemlock 

woolly adelgid. Specifically, funding for Slow-the-Spread, western bark beetle, and sudden oak 

death will be reduced, which will result in an increase in the rate of spread of these pests. With 

limited resources, we are focused on the most pressing needs of forest restoration and reducing 
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the risk of catastrophic fire to communities. Additionally, technical assistance and awareness 

efforts may be reduced due to reduced funding. 

The request includes funding to meet the highest priority needs for:

• Western bark beetles

• Emerald ash borer 

• Sudden oak death 

• Oak wilt

• Root diseases

• Hemlock woolly adelgid 

• Southern pine beetle 

• Gypsy moth

Funding supports efforts on forests and grasslands managed by the Forest Service, other Federal 

agencies, and Tribal governments. 

In FY 2017, the Forest Service will continue to fund management actions to reduce forest 

susceptibility to beetle outbreaks and protect high value trees. This will result in more resilient 

forests, enhanced visitor safety by reducing hazard trees, and sustainable communities. In 

coordination with partners and stakeholders, the Forest Service directs funds to areas that have 

been experiencing bark beetle-induced mortality. Peer reviewed studies clearly demonstrate the 

effectiveness of bark beetle treatments on the landscape13. 

The Federal Forest Health program supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national 

forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate 

change, while enhancing our water resources. It also supports the Forest Service strategic goal 

of sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands through the fostering of healthy ecosystems, 

mitigating wildfire risk, and conserving open space. 

Past Performance

Because forests cross jurisdictional boundaries, we continue to employ an all-lands approach 

when dealing with forest health issues. Just as pests do not distinguish among different 

ownerships, some methods of pest management allow practitioners to affect entire landscapes, 

treating both public and private lands in an ecologically responsible and economically effective 

manner. 

An example of this is the cooperative approach being taken to reduce the impact of sudden oak 

death in the western United States. Sudden oak death is devastating, fast-moving disease that 

affects native oaks and related species, killing trees and disrupting ecosystems. In this program, 

we have been working with our Federal and Tribal partners, such as the Department of the 

Interior, to develop new techniques to combat this disease. In FY 2015, together with our 

 13 Christopher J. Fettig, Kier D Klepzig, Ronald F. Billings, A. Steven Munson, T. Evan Nebeker, Jose F. Negron, John T. 

Nowak. 2007. “The effectiveness of vegetation management practices for prevention and control of bark beetle infestations in 

coniferous forests of the western and southern United States.” Forest Ecology and Management 238(1-3): 24-53.
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partners, we removed trees infected with this disease on a variety of Federal land ownerships, 

helping to ensure that neighboring trees and landscapes would be less likely to be infested. We 

also increased homeowner awareness of this disease through an education campaign conducted 

with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park 

Service.

Recent efforts to protect native stands of white pine from white pine blister rust have fostered an 

integrative effort of a different nature. White pines are extremely important in high elevation 

landscapes. For example, they provide critical food sources for bears, Clark’s nutcracker, and 

other wildlife; they maintain slope stability in steep areas; and are culturally important to many 

Native people. We continue to work with our partners in Forest Management to identify 

individual trees that have withstood the impacts of white pine blister rust since its introduction in 

the 1930s, since they are now recognized as having genetic resistance to the disease. The 

restoration of white pine in high-elevation forest depends on the ability to utilize the resistance of 

these survivor trees by collecting and maintaining the genetic seed stock. However, recent 

increases in bark beetle activity in the West have put all high elevation pines, including white 

pines, at increased risk of mortality – both from the beetle and the rust. Application of 

management techniques to reduce the impact of the beetle has allowed managers to protect the 

genetic resource of the resistant trees and ensure the future survival of white pines. In FY 2015, 

we protected high value trees by applying protective sprays and using pheromones (naturally 

secreted chemicals) to disrupt beetle activity.

In southern Colorado, a spruce beetle outbreak is rapidly expanding in high elevation spruce-fir 

forests, and acres impacted have nearly doubled in the past few years. FHM is working with the 

National Forest System to address this outbreak in high value areas. On public lands close to the 

urban interface, actions have been taken to protect public safety. In FY 2015, treatments focused 

on removing hazard trees, especially in highly used areas like campgrounds. Restoration efforts 

are also underway to reforest and diversify the affected landscape.

Sometimes control efforts utilize entirely different tactics to achieve a singular goal. Programs 

designed to control southern pine beetle populations have focused upon the fact that wellmanaged stands are much less prone to attack. Southern pine beetles are a native component of 

these pine forests, but beetle activity can sometimes disrupt forests by killing a significant 

number of mature trees. Thinning of susceptible landscapes and diversifying conditions 

throughout the forest are proven techniques that reduce southern pine beetle activity. This 

strategy continued in FY 2015. These tactics are even more effective when conducted over large 

landscapes, so the cooperation of all landowners is vital to ensuring the overall success of the 

program. While Federal funding has sponsored these treatments, a portion of these funds has

been used to educate adjacent landowners on the benefits of management treatments. These 

efforts have resulted in cross-boundary efforts that have reduced southern pine beetle numbers to 

their lowest levels in decades.

The polyphagous shot hole borer, and the associated pathogen fusarium (known as “PSHB-FD”), 

was first detected in California in 2002, but not linked to tree injury and mortality until 2012 in 

Los Angeles County. Since 2012 the PSHB-FD has spread to five counties in southern California 

and injured or killed several native, ornamental, and agriculturally important tree species. This 

pest has also caused similar documented damage in Vietnam, China and Israel. It is under this 
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situation that the FHM Program has formed partnerships with counterparts under the AsiaPacific Forest Invasive Species Network. This issue-focused partnership aims to identify 

effective management options for this destructive pest. Initial studies were implemented in 

FY 2015 and planned to continue for three years. This study has confirmed through molecular 

analysis that the PSHB-FD from California, China, and Vietnam are from the same source, 

which will help in developing methods to combat it. 

The FHM Program is upgrading its performance accountability software program – the Forest 

Health Accomplishment Database (FAD) to include spatial mapping capabilities. The upgrade 

will include integrating with other State and private programs. The upgrade will also allow FHM 

to better track accomplishments and link with other datasets in order to more fully describe the 

impacts the program has on reducing risk from harmful pests, which leads to the maintenance 

and enhancement of healthy functioning forests.

Program Description

Program Overview

Pests cause billions of dollars in damage to trees and other forest resources each year, resulting 

in reduced productivity, loss of recreation opportunities for the public, and the creation of safety 

hazards in the Nation’s forested lands. The FHM Federal Lands program monitors and assesses 

short and long-term forest health conditions nationwide. Program investments provide for 

prevention, detection, monitoring, evaluation, and suppression of forest insects and diseases to 

protect forest lands managed by the Forest Service and other Federal agencies. Pests that are 

managed include sudden oak death, white pine blister rust, bark beetles, hemlock woolly adelgid, 

oak wilt and southern pine beetle. Since pests cross administrative boundaries, FHM uses an alllands approach involving all partners in the development of integrated management strategies to 

address each important pest. FHM treats the highest priority areas identified by aerial and ground 

surveys and the National Insect and Disease Risk Map (NIDRM) in coordination with State 

Forest Action Plans to make the most efficient use of funding. 

Insect and disease pests include those that are native and non-native invasive. Native insects and 

diseases are those that have evolved in the United States and are going through a cyclical 

outbreak period. Non-native invasive insect and disease pests are those that have been 

introduced from other countries and there is little or no resistance from the host, resulting in 

significant damage to the host species. Pests, both native and non-native invasive, can cause 

significant damage and mortality when populations are high; usually a result of the availability of 

hosts, biology of the pest, and environmental factors such as moisture, temperature, and 

nutrients.

Treating priority areas makes the most efficient use of Federal dollars. Treatments protect 

priority areas from damaging insects and disease, reduce the risks of mortality from wildland 

fire, and prevent future outbreaks by increasing the resilience of treated areas. 

FHM also leads the Slow-the-Spread program for the gypsy moth, which has been shown to slow 

the progression of this invasive insect by 60 percent as it moves across the eastern United States. 

Forest Service research indicates that without the Slow-the-Spread program, over 50 million 
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acres of oak hardwood forests would be infested with gypsy moth. Slow-the-Spread is an 

integrated program of monitoring, trapping, and treating the gypsy moth so that populations do 

not spread rapidly.

Additional projects also include gene conservation efforts to conserve at-risk tree species that 

will assist FHM projects that are negatively impacted by the effects of a changing climate, 

insects and diseases.

The program continues to fund the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center in 

Asheville, North Carolina, and the Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center 

in Prineville, Oregon. These Environmental Threat Assessment Centers are supported by S&PF, 

National Forest System, and Forest Service Research and Development (R&D) and provide 

information on how multiple threats interact with pests, focusing on the effects of a changing 

climate.

Allocation and Integration

Annual priorities for mitigating the risk of current and future and insect and disease outbreaks 

are based, in large part, on the findings from the pest conditions and location and the National 

Insect and Disease Risk Map. Prevention and suppression programs for major pests such as the 

gypsy moth, western bark beetles, and southern pine beetle are directly related to the relative risk 

of these pests, areas currently experiencing pest outbreaks, and the availability of cost-effective 

treatment technologies. Some forest pests, such as southern pine beetle, can be more easily 

treated than others. On the other hand, root disease, for which there are few management tools 

available, depends on sound silvicultural management practices to be effective.

Some of the techniques used to determine integrated optimal areas for treatment include 

overlaying national map layers using Geographic Information Systems for insect and disease, 

fire, watershed condition, and wildland-urban interface. The spatial placement and sequencing of 

treatments on the National Forest System (NFS) lands are planned and coordinated with other 

Forest Service vegetation management program areas, such as hazardous fuels reduction and 

forest management through the “Sustainable Landscape Management” Board of Directors. This 

Board includes a group of Directors from S&PF (FHM, Fire and Aviation Management), Forest 

Service R&D (Forest Management Sciences), and NFS (Forest Management, Range 

Management, and Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air, and Rare Plants). This coordination optimizes 

on-the-ground treatment and improves the overall health of forestlands across landscapes and 

ownerships. 

Partnerships 

This program funds the suppression of forest insect and disease pests on lands managed by all 

other Federal agencies and Tribal governments. Additionally, the FHM program provides 

technical assistance to other Federal agencies and Tribal governments to detect and assess pests 

on their lands. Where proposed treatment locations are adjacent to other Federal lands or nonFederal lands, treatment scheduling is coordinated with non-Forest Service partners to optimize 

improvements to forest health across landownership boundaries. 
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The Slow-the-Spread gypsy moth program works seamlessly across all landowners in a 

collaborative approach to implement this program on state and Federal lands. The Forest Service

works closely with all of the State departments of agriculture or State Foresters in ten Slow-theSpread states from Georgia to Wisconsin.

The Forest Service works with APHIS and other partners to combat important invasive pests and 

has systems established to survey, monitor, and respond to these invaders, as well as help 

communities restore degraded ecosystems.

Other Federal agencies, such as DOI and DOD, submit suppression related project requests to the 

Forest Service regional or national office and the projects are evaluated in a competitive process. 

These projects support work with tribes to prune white pine blister rust -- a devastating invasive 

species -- and dwarf mistletoe on their lands. Coordination meetings occur frequently between 

the other agencies and the Forest Service to ensure the funds are used wisely.

The FHM program is partnering with the American Public Gardens Association (APGA) to 

support the implementation of the Sentinel Plant Network. This network has three major 

components: 1) K-12 Plant Heroes program to bring greater awareness of the impact of insects 

and diseases on trees; 2) a program providing interpretive signs to over 190 gardens and arboreta 

about major forest pests, with links to FHM for further information; and 3) a program to develop 

a network of gardens and arboreta to monitor for harmful insects and diseases. Through the 

support of FHM and the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), educational 

material has been developed for over sixteen pests under the Plant Heroes program to date, and 

interpretive signs have been developed for display in gardens for nine pests. Efforts are 

underway to develop monitoring stations at ten gardens for detection of insect and disease pests. 

FHM plans to continue to support this partnership. 
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Federal Health Management - Cooperative Lands

Budget Line Item Forest Health Management - Cooperative

Lands

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands

Annual Appropriations $45,655 $40,678 $40,678 0 0%

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands Total 45,655 40,678 40,678 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 57 57 57 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 57 57 57 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands

Cooperative lands acres treated - Invasives 410,371 448,350 468,993 552,413 361,549 391,893

Cooperative lands acres treated - Native pests 34,203 38,362 49,032 33,944 41,460 42,115

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $40,678,000 for Forest Health Management (FHM) 

Cooperative Lands, level with the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

Funds will provide technical and financial assistance to State forestry agencies and State 

departments of agriculture to conduct surveys and provide technical assistance to conduct 

prevention, suppression, restoration, and eradication projects for forest insects, diseases, and 

invasive plants; and monitor forest health on State and private lands.

The program will fund the highest priority prevention and suppression needs for:

• Western bark beetles

• Hemlock woolly adelgid

• Oak wilt

• Southern pine beetle

• Gypsy moth

These pests are mentioned in State Forest Action Plans as high-priority pests. 

Other pests will also receive high priority as they can affect and spread to all forestlands. These 

pests include:

• Emerald ash borer
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• Asian longhorned beetle

• Sudden oak death

• Gold-spotted oak borer

• Thousand cankers disease

• Heterobasidion root disease

We will continue to work with our partners to inform the public, map the pests with new surveys, 

and develop methods to manage and mitigate pests. 

In FY 2017, the Forest Service will continue to fund management actions to reduce forest 

susceptibility to beetle outbreaks and protect high value trees. This will result in more resilient 

forests, reduce hazard trees for enhanced visitor safety and provide for more sustainable 

communities. In coordination with partners and stakeholders, the Forest Service directs funds to 

the areas that have been experiencing bark beetle-induced mortality. Peer reviewed studies 

clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of bark beetle treatments on the landscape14. 

Past Performance

Forest insects and pathogens impact forests on all lands and, as such, Forest Health Management 

addresses these pests on Federal, State and Tribal lands. In the Cooperative program, we work 

specifically with our State partners, providing technical and financial assistance to address needs 

and issues identified in State Forest Action Plans, pest detection surveys, and areas at risk for 

infestations. Of the dozens of programs and projects funded through the Cooperative program, 

the following projects highlight sustained, successful efforts at combatting the more pernicious 

and dangerous pests that threaten public, state and private lands.

Using tools such as the National Insect and Disease Risk Map and pest surveys, the Forest 

Service and State forest health staffs identify areas at risk for increased levels of insect or disease 

activity. Treatments are then selected to prevent the buildup of pests before they reach damaging 

levels. 

The Southern Pine Beetle Prevention Program is a good example of an all-lands strategy that 

works with State and Federal partners to encourage forest management practices that prevent 

outbreaks. These native insects kill off large areas of mature pine trees. This program has treated 

more than 1 million acres of forests across the south. These forests, thinned to be more resilient,

have seen very little beetle activity and, as a result, remain able to produce important benefits 

like forest products for landowners and clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreational 

opportunities. In FY 2016 we continue this effective program. When outbreaks of this insect do 

occur, FHM staffs work closely with partners to suppress the infestation and minimize impacts. 

For example, in 2015 an outbreak of the southern pine beetle was found on Long Island, New 

York. This was the first record of the beetle in the state. FHM provided technical and financial 

assistance to state cooperators, as well as Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service.

 14Christopher J. Fettig, Kier D Klepzig, Ronald F. Billings, A. Steven Munson, T. Evan Nebeker, Jose F. Negron, John T. 

Nowak. 2007. “The effectiveness of vegetation management practices for prevention and control of bark beetle infestations in 

coniferous forests of the western and southern United States.” Forest Ecology and Management 238(1-3): 24–53.
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Slow-the-Spread (STS) Programs are another proactive, long term strategy that works with many

state and federal partners across the landscape. Since its inception more than a decade ago, the 

gypsy moth STS program has prevented the spread of one of North America’s most devastating 

forest pests from the infested area north and east of a line from North Carolina to Minnesota to 

50 million acres of oak forests to the South and West. In FY 2015 alone, STS treated more than 

400,000 acres in eight States. Using a variety of techniques, federal and state partners identify 

treatment areas to keep the gypsy moth infestations contained and minimize further spread. 

An economic analysis of the program has shown that it has a benefit to cost ratio of 3:1 and has 

slowed the movement of gypsy moth by more than 60 percent. With funding provided by this 

program, Federal and State forest health staffs conduct aerial and ground surveys on more than 

400 million acres per year, to detect insect and disease outbreaks. We work in partnership with 

States to most effectively leverage Federal funding with State funding to conduct more 

comprehensive surveys that can be used by all land managers working to combat native and 

invasive pests. When outbreaks or infestations are identified on non-Federal lands, funding is 

provided through this program to help combat those pests on a 1:1 cost match basis. 

In cooperation with State Foresters, the Forest Service has implemented a national Hemlock 

Woolly Adelgid (HWA) Initiative which focuses on expanded management and technology 

development. This invasive insect attacks mature hemlocks, an important component of eastern 

forests, and can eventually kill them. The mortality caused by the aphid-like insect can change 

forest structure and create openings for invasive plants to gain a foothold and, affect species 

makeup and dynamics. Through a cooperative strategy with universities, States, conservation 

organizations, national forests and other Federal agencies, the Forest Service is working to 

reduce damage caused by HWA within the 19 affected States. For example, biocontrol (using 

natural enemies to combat pests) and chemical treatments are used to treat priority acres of 

ecologically significant and high use hemlock forests.

Bark beetle activity in the West remains at very high levels. Mitigation strategies focus on areas 

near the urban interface, while. Restoration strategies have included removal of dead trees to 

protect public safety and reforestation of affected sites. Federal, State and local entities have 

cooperated to share expertise and resources; resulting in a synergistic effect across the landscape.

Strategies for slowing the spread of sudden oak death in the coastal areas of California and 

Oregon involve working closely with state forestry to contain and arrest this invasive plant 

pathogen. In 2015 a National Stream Baiting strategy was also undertaken in the eastern U.S. 

(Stream baiting is a detection technique for determining the presence of pathogens using 

chemical attractants as “bait” on leaves in streams known or suspected to be infested.) With 

Forest Service funding, non-Federal land managers have treated infested areas to contain the 

outbreak and slowed its spread. We have reached out to Tribes and industry, who are heavily 

vested in combating sudden oak death because it has the potential to affect their timber products:

if their lands become infected, a federal quarantine may be necessary. All strategies --

prevention, detection, treatments, studies on new control methods, and outreach -- all work 

together to slow the spread of sudden oak death.

Invasive plants are non-native species that aggressively compete with and displace native plant 

communities and impact forest productivity, increasing the threat of devastating wildfires and 
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diminishing recreational enjoyment. Forest Health Management has provided essential matching 

funds and technical assistance to regional cooperative weed management organizations to 

combat economically significant invasive plant threats to forest lands. In FY 2016, the program 

continues to provide funds to treat invasive plants on private and State lands.

The Forest Service partnered with States and other non-Federal partners in FY 2015 to treat nonnative invasive pests on 552,413 acres of State and private lands and native pest species on 

33,944 acres. 

Program Description

Program Overview

The FHM Cooperative Lands program provides technical and financial assistance to States, the 

District of Columbia, and United States Territories to monitor, assess, and mitigate forest health 

threats on non-Federal lands across the Nation. Treatments protect priority areas from damaging 

insects, diseases, and invasive plants; reduce the risks of mortality from wildland fire; protect 

highly valued sites; and prevent future outbreaks by increasing the resilience of the vegetation in 

treated areas. The program also funds the use of Early Detection and Rapid Response efforts to 

detect invasive insects and diseases early, thereby reducing future costs to address pest 

outbreaks15. 

The support the Forest Service provides to its non-Federal partners is essential to protecting 

America’s forested lands from pests. States identified forest health challenges as one of the most 

common problems requiring attention in their State Forest Action Plans, but often States and 

Territories do not have the scientific or financial resources to address these issues on their own. 

A 2011 study found that the cost of non-native invasive forest insects to local governments alone 

is, on average, more than $2 billion per year, and residential property value loss from forest 

insects averages $1.5 billion per year16. The agency investment in the FHM Cooperative Lands 

program helps reduce these negative impacts. For example, the Forest Service Slow-the-Spread 

gypsy moth program has reduced the spread rate of gypsy moth by 60 percent along a 1,000 mile 

project area from North Carolina to Minnesota. Additionally, for every $1.00 invested in the 

Slow-the-Spread program, $3.00 is saved in future suppression costs. Without Slow-the-Spread, 

about 50 million more acres would be infested, resulting in larger and more costly future 

treatment costs.

Funds support three objectives: conducting pest surveys and providing technical assistance; 

conducting prevention, suppression, restoration, and eradication projects; and monitoring the 

health of the Nation’s forests. The Forest Service uses aerial and ground surveys and the 

 15Rabaglia, Robert, Donald Duerr, Robert Acciavatti, and Iral Ragenovich. Early Detection and Rapid Response for Non-Native 

Bark and Ambrosia Beetles (2008) USDA Forest Service.

16 Aukema, JE, Leung B, Kovacs K, Chivers C, Britton KO, Englin, J, Frankel, S, Height, RG, Holmes, TP, Liebhold, AM, 

McCullough DG, Van Holle, B. (2011) Economic Impacts of Non-Native Forest Insects in the Continental United States. PLOS 

ONE 6(9): e24587. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024587.
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National Insect and Disease Risk Map to select project locations for funding to non-Federal 

partners. The State Forest Action Plans help guide FHM activities on non-Federal lands. 

Treatment placements incorporate local priorities including priority landscapes such as: 

Wildland-Urban Interface areas, municipal water supply areas, outdoor recreational sites, and 

administrative sites. 

Allocation and Integration

Forest Service annual priorities are based on current surveys of pest conditions and priorities in 

the State Forest Action Plans and expected predictions derived from the National Insect and 

Disease Risk Map. Some pests, such as southern pine beetle, are more easily mitigated through 

management than others, such as sudden oak death. The Forest Service is working to align more 

closely identified risk with allocation, using an all-lands approach.

The program works with the FHM Federal Lands program to identify priority lands and manage 

forest insects and diseases across the landscape. 

The program supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private 

working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while 

enhancing our water resources. It also supports the Forest Service strategic goal of sustaining 

our Nation’s forests and grasslands through the fostering of healthy ecosystems, mitigating

wildfire risk, and conserving open space. 

Partnerships 

Partnerships leverage Federal financial assistance with a 1:1 match of non-Federal resources to 

implement programs and projects that protect forest resources and improve the health of the 

Nation’s forests. In FY 2015, approximately $30 million in grant dollars for prevention and 

suppression were leveraged on a 1:1 basis with States and other non-Federal partners.

Program activities are also coordinated closely with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service and State departments of agriculture to detect and monitor introductions of new nonnative invasive species such as the emerald ash borer, Asian long-horned beetle, sudden oak 

death, and thousand cankers disease. 

The Slow-the-Spread gypsy moth program works seamlessly across all landowners in a 

collaborative approach to implement this program on State and Federal lands. The Forest Service 

works closely with State partners to detect outbreaks, assess impacts, and conduct management 

activities. 

In cooperation with partners, the Forest Service conducts insect and disease surveys on more 

than 400 million acres per year and conducts special detection surveys for pests such as thousand 

cankers disease trapping, sudden oak death stream-baiting, and non-native bark beetles. If 

treatments are needed, the Forest Service provides technical and financial assistance to conduct 

control activities.
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Forest Stewardship Program

Budget Line Item Forest Stewardship

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Forest Stewardship

Annual Appropriations $23,036 $23,036 $22,398 -$638 -3%

Forest Stewardship Total 23,036 23,036 22,398 -638 -3%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 87 87 87 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 87 87 87 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Forest Stewardship

Percentage of nonindustrial private forest acres in 

important forest resource areas being managed 

sustainably, as defined by a current Forest Stewardship 

Plan 2.5% 2.6% 3.5% 2.5% 4.0% 4.0%

Acres of nonindustrial private forest land that are being 

managed sustainably under forest stewardship 

management plans. (Annual) 2,178,735 3,203,423 1,500,000 1,816,538 1,500,000 1,500,000

Acres of nonindustrial private forest land that are being 

managed sustainably under forest stewardship 

management plans. (Cumulative) 20,687,289 25,981,974 21,000,000 24,887,147 21,500,000 21,500,000

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $22,398,000 for the Forest Stewardship Program 

(FSP), a decrease of $638,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. This funding level will 

provide the agency the ability to assist private landowners with the management and 

conservation of their forest lands, particularly within priority landscape areas. However, this 

reduction in funding will impact the agency’s capacity to support strategic partners who enhance 

the overall reach of the program with local landowners, including innovative methods for 

reaching diverse and underserved populations, 

State Forest Action Plans enable States to focus and coordinate program delivery to produce 

cumulative, landscape scale, measurable impacts, with multi-landowner and multi-partner 

planning, and technical assistance efforts. With State Forest Action Plans, States also identify 

and address opportunities resulting from emerging ecosystem service and biomass energy 

markets, and focus program assistance to conserve a “green infrastructure” of interconnected, 

viable forested landscapes. The recently adopted Forest Stewardship Program strategy “FSP 20 

Twenty” provides State partners with a framework for focusing program delivery in priority 
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landscape areas, further leveraging existing partnerships, and utilizing innovative tools for 

reaching more landowners with limited resources.

The program will continue to extend its reach through peer-to-peer efforts, which support the 

program’s long-term goal of managing significant landscapes, such as priority watersheds (as 

opposed to scattered, individual properties), and the conservation of strategically-located and 

connected open spaces. With the use of the Stewardship Mapping and Reporting Tool 

(SMART), the program’s cumulative impact is being tracked spatially, to assess progress in 

achieving forest resource management outcomes. SMART is also enabling landscape-based 

strategic planning, including the ability to leverage place based partnerships. In FY 2017, a 

dashboard element for quick and easy analysis of stewardship data will be operational in 

SMART and SMART data will also be analyzed more regularly to “broadcast the story” of good 

stewardship. In late 2015 the Forest Stewardship Program developed the Cooperative Forestry 

Strategic Landscape Viewer. This online map viewer allows users to view large scale landscape 

conservation efforts. This tool is designed to help conservation organizations to make more 

informed decisions regarding the selection and location of focused large scale conservation 

efforts. The viewer displays layers from National Forest Projects, NRCS efforts and numerous 

nonprofit initiatives. Later in FY 16 the Forest Stewardship Program plans to launch the PRISM, 

an online map viewer and data summary tool. This will display summarized program 

information in the form of maps, tables and graphics on specific geographies across the United 

States giving a complete view of the programs national impact. 

The FSP continues to respond to the recommendations from an extensive program evaluation 

study carried out in 2013 by the Forest Service’s Family Forest Research Center at the 

University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The study utilized existing quantitative and qualitative 

research results to evaluate the program, including summaries of existing performance metrics, 

catalogues of State forest stewardship activities, analyses of National Woodland Owner Survey 

data for understanding how forest landowners use their lands, analyses of forest stewardship

activities of forest area trends, and focus groups. Study recommendations are being directly 

addressed, with the adoption of additional performance elements, to more comprehensively track 

the program’s many educational and technical assistance activities, and implementation of the 

FSP’s National Standards and Guidelines (finalized in 2015). In the future, there will be a 

renewed emphasis on the educational and technical assistance activities shown by the study to be 

more cost-effective in reaching more landowners and having farther reaching impacts. The FSP 

plans to continue performing program evaluations to strengthen program effectiveness and find 

more creative ways to continue reaching forest landowners.

The FSP will extend the many new, innovative landowners outreach and education tools being 

developed by the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Future Family Forest 

Initiative. In FY 2014 and 2015, the FSP supported a series of Tools for Engaging Landowners 

Effectively workshops around the country. The Forest Service will continue this outreach 

approach in FY 2017. 

In addition, the FSP will work with Forest Service National Forest System staffs to identify and 

address opportunities to coordinate landscape based work and make use of the expanded Good 

Neighbor and permanent Stewardship Contracting authorities. These tools could be leveraged in 
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key locations to join Federal, State, and private landowner resources to address priority resource 

management concerns.

Past Performance

In 2015, the Forest Stewardship Program (FSP) convened a team to revise the program standards 

and guidelines. The new standards more accurately depict the goals and activities of the Forest 

Stewardship Program and set a consistent, high standard for program delivery nationwide. This 

revision formalized several technical assistance products to better serve the public in a rapidly 

changing environment. The implementation of practice plans and other management tools are 

now described and recognized as methods to provide technical assistance to an increasing 

number of landowners. The updated standards and guidelines now also describe and formalize 

the Landscape Stewardship Plan approach (a planning effort focusing on program delivery at a 

landscape scale, including multi-landowner Forest Stewardship Plans – meant to create 

“economies of scale” for local forest product markets) to more efficiently deliver assistance to 

more landowners and address natural resource concerns across ownership boundaries. These 

multi-landowner Forest Stewardship Plans are designed to support rural economies by creating 

markets for local forest products, enhance and protect water quality and restore forests destroyed 

by fire and insects. 

In FY 2015, the program continued implementation and refinement of the Stewardship Mapping 

and Reporting Tool (SMART) online spatial mapping tool, which provides the ability to spatially 

track all program accomplishments with respect to priority areas identified in States’ Forest 

Action Plan. The use of SMART and the adoption of a SMART Data Quality Assurance Plan 

(DQA) have resulted in more reliable program performance data for FY 2015. The DQA assigns 

roles and responsibilities for assuring performance data is consistent with established, improved 

measure definitions and data collection and monitoring practices. 

In 2015, a statistically reliable and nationally consistent monitoring protocol was established in 

SMART to provide critical information on the implementation of plans and their tie to State 

Forest Action plans. Several geo-spatial performance elements were added to SMART in FY 

2015, allowing the Forest Service to gain a more comprehensive picture of programmatic impact 

and reach about priority landscapes. These include: acres managed under a variety of practice 

and management plans, which are supported by the program, but not “approved” Forest 

Stewardship Plans, and acres being managed under multi-landowner Landscape Stewardship 

plans.

In addition, the program has broadened implementation and development of Landscape 

Stewardship plans, whereby the Forest Service is working with State forestry agencies and other 

partners to maximize program investments. These landscape plans create the foundation for 

collaboration and partnership among organizations and span multiple ownerships. Resource 

management challenges – like forest insects and pests, invasive species, economic viability, and 

protection of water supplies - cross multiple ownerships and are more effectively addressed at 

the landscape scale. This approach will reach more landowners and lead to better environmental 

outcomes.

In FY 2015, nationwide, nearly 25 million acres of non-industrial private forest lands were 
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managed according to active Forest Stewardship Plans. Of this total, nearly 13 million acres are 

within high priority landscape areas, as identified in State Forest Action Plans. An additional 2.5

million acres were managed under Landscape Stewardship Plans and 5.1 million acres were 

managed under a variety of management plan types supported by the program, but not officially 

approved Forest Stewardship Plans. These plans are in many cases precursors to more 

comprehensive Forest Stewardship Plans that meet the established national standard. Monitoring 

results for FY 2015 confirm over 11million acres covered by Forest Stewardship Plans that occur 

in state defined priority areas are being managed as recommended. Additionally, FSP supported 

outreach to approximately 507,000 landowners in FY 2015, which includes 142,000 active 

Stewardship Plans and 365,000 landowners involved in other outreach activities, such as one-onone technical assistance, participation in field days, field-based events, and classes. 

The Forest Service will continue working with States to focus program investments where 

multiple resource outcomes are more likely, based on State Forest Action Plans. Performance is 

expected to improve as the Forest Service and States implement recently adopted Landscape 

Stewardship approach, which includes the development of multi-landowner, landscape scale 

Forest Stewardship Plans. Program performance and impact within priority areas is increasing.

Program Description

Program Overview

The FSP is the principle Forest Service program focused on private forest land management and 

conservation. This program plays a central role in linking private landowners - who own most of 

our Nation’s forests - with available assistance resources to address our most pressing resource 

management concerns. Program assistance is provided to landowners through a national 

network of forestry technical assistance providers, primarily State forestry agencies, in the form 

of comprehensive, multi-resource Forest Stewardship Plans and a variety of educational and 

technical assistance programs and activities. This program also serves as a way landowners can 

gain access to other forms of assistance and incentives, including reduced property tax rates, 

certification, and financial (cost-share program) assistance. The program is focused on delivery 

improvements, as demonstrated by the recently adopted Landscape Stewardship approach. The 

Forest Service is working with State forestry agencies and other partners to maximize program 

investments by linking individual landowner’s objectives to those of surrounding landscapes, and 

supporting the development of multi-landowner, landscape-scale Forest Stewardship Plans. 

This program helps landowners achieve their forest management objectives. There are 

thousands of small forest landowners in the United States and many of them struggle to find 

resources to help them keep their lands healthy and productive. Private forest landowners are 

also under increasing pressure to sell and sub-divide their forested lands and, as the next 

generation inherits forest lands, they often do not have the knowledge, skills, or interest in 

managing them. 

Actively managed forests provide timber, wildlife habitat, watershed protection, recreational 

opportunities, and many other benefits for landowners and communities. More than 60 percent 

of our Nation’s forests are privately owned—and over 350 million acres of these are owned by 
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small, private, non-industrial landowners, which are the focus of the FSP. Private forestlands 

provide numerous benefits for the American public and keeping them intact as working forests is 

critical to maintaining this stream of benefits. For example, private forest lands alone supply 

almost 30 percent of the surface drinking water to cities and rural communities, provide habitat 

for 60 percent of all at-risk species in the United States, and provide over 90 percent of all the 

timber harvested in this country. Private forest lands provide numerous benefits and keeping 

them intact as working forests is critical to maintaining this stream of benefits.

Investments in FSP help protect these forests and provide support to keep working forests intact, 

healthy, and productive. Forest Stewardship Plans help to motivate landowners to become more 

active in planning and managing their forests, greatly increasing the likelihood that their forests 

will remain intact, productive and healthy, and that the social, economic, and environmental 

benefits of these lands will be sustained for future generations. The program also helps create 

jobs in rural communities by sustaining local forest product markets and increasing demand for 

qualified private forestry consultants, loggers, and State agency field foresters. Additionally, the 

program helps prepare forest landowners for participation in emerging ecosystem services 

markets and other incentive programs. Forest Stewardship Plans are required to consider the 

possible near and long-term impacts of a changing climate, including increased fire risk, invasive 

species migration, and species range and habitat shifts. Where appropriate and feasible, 

management plans will include actions to mitigate the adverse impacts of a changing climate.

The Forest Service maintains longstanding partnerships with the Department of Agriculture 

(USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the American Forest Foundation, the 

National Association of Conservation Districts, and other partners to coordinate and streamline 

technical and planning assistance delivery and better address diverse landowner needs. This 

includes the deployment of a web-based management plan and spatial accomplishment tracking 

tool (SMART) to relate program accomplishments to a variety of landscape management 

objectives. Because of its unique role in reaching and assisting private forest landowners, and 

the fact that the majority of America’s forests are privately owned, the FSP is critical to fulfilling 

the Secretary’s all-lands vision for healthy and resilient forests.

The FSP supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working 

lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our 

water resources. FSP also supports the Forest Service strategic goal of sustaining our Nation’s 

forests and grasslands through the fostering of healthy ecosystems, mitigating wildfire risk, and 

conserving open space. Additionally, we achieve Forest Service goals of delivering benefits to 

the public, such as providing abundant clean water and strengthening communities; and applying 

knowledge globally by exchanging natural resource expertise and transferring technology and 

applications.

Allocation and Integration

Funding for the FSP is allocated to Forest Service regions, the Northeastern Area and the 

International Institute of Tropical Forestry based on statewide comprehensive program potential 

and cumulative program impact within priority landscape areas. Priority landscape areas are 

delineated in State Forest Action Plans. Program impact is primarily measured by the number of 
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acres within high priority landscape areas being managed according to active Forest Stewardship 

Plans as confirmed through a statistically valid field monitoring program. States greatly enhance 

program impact by integrating programs and leveraging partnerships to target high priority areas, 

maximizing Federal program investment. This approach supports both the Secretary of 

Agriculture’s all-lands vision and the Administration’s emphasis on integrated, place-based 

program delivery. 

Partnerships 

All FSP activities are coordinated with and delivered through State and Territorial forestry 

agencies; thus, the program leverages substantial non-Federal financial and human resources. 

States are required to provide a minimum 1:1 match for Federal funds, but most far exceed this 

level. For example, in FY 2015, the FSP provided nearly $15 million in grants to States and 

other partners that were matched on average 2:1 with cash and in-kind contributions. 

Partnerships remain a critical feature through which FSP assistance and programs are 

implemented. The Forest Service continues to expand its partnership with the American Forest 

Foundation (AFF) to include several additional landscape restoration areas. AFF Woodland 

Center Impact Projects include: Landscape restoration of Upper Monument Creek in Colorado, 

Black Hills Conservation Leaders Group in South Dakota, the Clearwater Basis Collaborative in 

Idaho, and building community resilience to wildfire on the east face of the Elkhorn Mountains 

of Northeastern Oregon. Within all of these project impact areas the Forest Service and AFF are 

working together to develop innovative place-based landowner outreach and engagement 

strategies to encourage and inform forest landowners who have not historically benefitted from 

USDA technical assistance or conservation programs. 

In 2015, the Forest Stewardship Program initiated a new partnership with Rural Voices for 

Conservation Coalition. This collaboration is helping bridge public and private interests for 

sustainable natural resource management and economic resilience. The coalition is comprised of 

local, regional, and national organizations that have joined together to promote new approaches 

to the ecological and economic problems facing natural resource dependent communities across 

the US. With a focus on finding and promoting practical solutions through collaborative, placebased work, the coalition helps the public recognizes the inextricable link between the long-term 

health of the land and the well-being of communities.

The FSP continues to provide funding for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Forestry program for 

ecosystem restoration activities, because the Chesapeake is the Nation's largest estuary and a 

high priority for Federal investment to improve water quality improvement. In executing this 

program, the Forest Service works closely with State and Federal partners and other 

organizations in the Chesapeake Bay program to implement forest stewardship, restoration, and 

conservation actions that contribute to overall watershed health, and specifically to water quality.

This program helps improve coordination in the installation of riparian forest buffers to protect 

water quality, and provides educational and technical assistance to partners at all levels. 

The Forest Stewardship Program administers forestland-related activities within the NRCS 

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). These activities stabilize soil, enhance wildlife habitat, 
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sequester carbon and trap agricultural nutrients by planting and growing trees. Currently, we are 

examining expanding the list of activities to offer more restoration activities to the public. In 

2015, an effort to evaluate and expand CRP riparian buffers in the Chesapeake Bay region will 

commence. This five-state project is aimed at increasing water quality by reducing sediment and 

nutrient delivery to surface waters. 

The FSP also provides funding in support of the NRCS to support the National Agroforestry 

Center, which successfully transfers sustainable agroforestry technologies to thousands of land 

management professionals. In 2015, the center partnered with University of Minnesota and 

University of Missouri to conduct workshops to train professionals in agroforestry techniques. 

Additionally, they hosted the five-day North American Agroforestry Conference in Ames, Iowa. 

The center, a multi-agency USDA partnership, is focused on three primary outcomes: (1) 

increase the adoption of agroforestry practices to improve water, soil and air quality; sustainable 

agriculture; product diversity and rural wealth; (2) create tailored, science-based agroforestry 

tools that can be used by landowners to address complex environmental, economic, and social 

conditions across all lands; and (3) integrate agroforestry into USDA programs and policies. 

Through its Rural Forestry Assistance component, FSP also supports the National Center for 

Reforestation Nurseries, and Genetic Resources. The team leverages expertise within State & 

Private Forestry and Research & Development to provide technical assistance to Federal, State, 

Tribal, Territorial, and private nurseries, supplying them with the latest science-based 

information and supporting an extensive network for seedling production. This national center

focuses primarily on six strategic areas: (1) provide leadership in reforestation, conservation, 

and restoration, (2) maintain technical expertise in growing and planting adapted seeds and 

seedlings, (3) expand the use of native plants, (4) assist underserved communities, (5) streamline

and leverage resources, and (6) conserve and assure the proper use and development of genetic 

resources. Currently, the team members are working on national, interdepartmental teams to 

address the President’s Memo on Pollinators and the Federal Native Seed Strategy (June 2014).

The FSP also provides support to innovative committees and teams that help streamline and 

develop technical resources, program guidance, and efficient business practices in support of 

private forest management. The Joint Forestry Team is a collaboration of the Forest Service, 

NRCS, National Association of Conservation Districts, and the National Association of State 

Foresters. Its purpose is to enhance the coordination of the interagency delivery of forestry and 

conservation assistance for working forests, farms, and ranches. The team seeks to improve the 

sustainability of the Nation’s forests in order to provide optimum levels of public benefits and 

ecosystem services. The Joint Forestry Team accomplishes this by determining where 

improvements may be made by removing overlap and duplication within programs and 

proposing actions to leadership. For example, team members manage the Two Chiefs Partnership 

Awards, which honor groups and individuals for outstanding efforts in conservation and forest 

stewardship. The Joint Forestry Team also provides input on the Two Chiefs’ Joint Landscape 

Restoration projects, a multi-year partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and the NRCS to 

improve the health and resiliency of forest ecosystems where public and private lands meet 

across the Nation. 
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FSP helps support the Forest Resource Coordinating Committee, which was established in the

Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Pub. L. No. 110-246). The purpose of this 

committee is to provide direction and coordination of actions within the USDA, State agencies 

and the private sector to effectively address national priorities for private forest conservation. It

focuses on three key areas: 1) conserve and manage working forest landscapes for multiple 

values and uses; 2) protect forests from threats, including catastrophic wildfires, hurricanes, 

tornados, windstorms, snow or ice storms, flooding, drought, invasive species, insect or disease 

outbreak, or development, and restoring appropriate forest types in response to such threats; and 

3) enhance public benefits from private forests, including air and water quality, soil conservation, 

biological diversity, carbon storage, forest products, forestry-related jobs, production of 

renewable energy, wildlife, wildlife corridors and wildlife habitat, and recreation. In FY 2015, 

the Forest Resource Coordinating Committee developed outreach and communication strategy to 

engage partners in the protection, conservation, and enhancement of private forests. The 

Committee is currently creating targeted outreach to engage federal and state agencies, nonprofits, professional associations and new partners to build support for their current 

recommendations and inform future recommendations. These recommendations are publically 

available at: http://www.fs.fed.us/spf/coop/frcc/.
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Forest Legacy Program

Budget Line Item Forest Legacy Program

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Forest Legacy Program

Annual Appropriations $53,000 $62,347 $62,347 0 0%

Forest Legacy Program Total 53,000 62,347 62,347 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 27 27 27 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 27 27 27 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Forest Legacy Program

Acres of environmentally important forests protected 

from conversion (Annual accomplishment for 

Discretionary funds) 87,927 34,715 90,000 106,369 95,000 95,000

Acres of environmentally important forests protected 

from conversion (Annual accomplishment for Mandatory 

funds) 0 0 0 0 0 55,000

Acres of environmentally important forests protected 

from conversion (Cumulative) 2,362,577 2,410,512 2,617,577 2,504,259 2,599,589 2,749,589

Parcelization of forests avoided (number of parcels 

prevented) (Discretionary funds) 2,854 4,123 2,846 3,647 5,328 5,441

Parcelization of forests avoided (number of parcels 

prevented) (Mandatory funds) 0 0 0 0 0 3,208

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $62,347,000 in discretionary funds, the same as the 

FY 2016 Enacted Budget. An additional $37,653,000 of mandatory funding is proposed to be 

transferred from the Department of the Interior for a combined total of $100,000,000.

The President’s Budget proposes to permanently authorize annual mandatory funding, without 

further appropriation or fiscal year limitation for the Department of the Interior and Agriculture 

Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) programs beginning in FY 2018. The Budget 

proposes $900 million in total LWCF funding, comprised of $550 million in mandatory and $ 

million discretionary funds. The amounts requested include the authorized levels for the 

Department of the Interior and Agriculture.

In planning for FY 2017, 33 States and 1 Territory submitted 51 proposed projects, totaling more 

than $152,000,000. Funding is provided to highest priority activities that can demonstrate 

performance in a transparent manner. FLP projects are located in Priority Areas or Forest 
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Legacy Areas identified in Forest Action Plans. In FY 2017, 34 projects are proposed for 

funding. Refer to the FY 2017 Forest Legacy Program Proposed Projects at the end of this 

section. The FY 2017 program targets include new measures for the acres of environmentally 

important forests protected from conversion using mandatory funds and parcelization of forests 

avoided using mandatory funds. 

The FLP supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working 

lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our 

water resources. The FLP also supports the Forest Service strategic goal of sustaining our 

Nation’s forests and grasslands through conservation of open space and the Forest Service 

strategic goal of delivering benefits to the public through strengthening our communities.

Past Performance

Since the FLP was authorized in 1990, a total of 2.49 million acres have been protected across 

the country. These acres include approximately 169,250 acres of water bodies and 3,288 miles 

of streams. In FY 2015, the FLP completed 15 transactions, leveraging $21,360,000 of Federal 

funds with $37,563,000 of partner funds to protect a total of 78,888 acres. Forest Legacy 

projects keep working forests intact and help provide public access for recreation opportunities, a 

key Administration objective. For example, the McArthur Lake addition project in Idaho is an 

acquisition of a conservation easement on 6,847 acres of highly productive timberland that 

supports the local forest products industry. The project is located within and adjacent to the 

internationally recognized McArthur Lake Wildlife Corridor (MLWC). This project creates an 

important connection between public lands in the Selkirk and Cabinet Mountains on either side 

of the project.

In FY 2014, we identified an emerging challenge in the FLP program related to the lack of 

qualified appraisers in some parts of the country. This remained true in 2015. The Forest 

Service currently supports one Senior Review Appraiser to help address program needs. The 

program is also able to meet some of this need using field unit appraisal staff, but there are limits 

to what can be provided given their workloads and being responsible for other programs. To 

meet the oversight responsibility of completing timely Quality Assurance Inspections of 

participating States’ appraisals and appraisal processes the Forest Service has entered into a 

contract. This approach is a good short-term solution, but we continue to seek a long-term 

solution to ensure we effectively exercise this important oversight responsibility. The Forest 

Service is currently evaluating options to address these challenges, which may include hiring an 

additional Review Appraiser who could provide assistance to partners and conduct Quality 

Assurance Inspections to ensure we can perform this critical oversight function. 

The Forest Service has been engaged in a multiple-year effort to update the program 

implementation Guidelines to provide clear information to partners resulting in more efficient 

program implementation. The focus of the updated Guidelines is on improved examples, 

commentary and explanations of program requirements and program implementation. We have 

worked with our participating State partners in developing these improved Guidelines and they 

have helped ensure that we have crafted a valuable program delivery tool. We anticipate 

implementing these final Guidelines in FY 2016.
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Program Description

Program Overview

The Forest Service is able to protect critical forest landscapes threatened by land conversion 

through FLP. These lands are protected through conservation easements and fee-simple 

purchases with partners, such as State agencies, private landowners, and other conservation 

partners (e.g., The Nature Conservancy, The Trust for Public Land, The Conservation Fund and 

other local/ regional conservation organizations). Projects are evaluated by a panel to fund the 

highest priority land conservation areas. Funds for the FLP are provided through the Land and 

Water Conservation Fund. 

More than 50 percent of forests nationwide are privately owned. Family forest owners and 

timber companies (including Timber Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs) and Real 

Estate Investment Trust (REITs)) are facing increasing pressure to sell, subdivide, and develop 

their land. Protection of private forests through the FLP helps provide private landowners with a 

conservation option. Intact private forest lands provide a multitude of benefits for the American 

public, including places to recreate and enjoy nature; provide jobs and forest products like wood 

and paper; and protect habitat for fish and wildlife. The FLP helps mitigate development in the 

wildland urban interface, which reduces community exposure to wildfire danger and maintains 

open space, thus increasing the likelihood of firefighter success in defending property. 

Additionally, keeping forests intact helps reduce threats from development and land use 

conversion, strengthens the capacity of our forests to serve as greenhouse gas sinks, mitigates the 

effects of climate change, and provides habitat for at-risk species. Conservation across a 

landscape, rather than focusing solely within ownership boundaries, is essential to address largescale conservation issues, like protection and restoration of watersheds, reduction of wildfire 

risk, and protection of at-risk species. The program operates on a willing buyer-willing seller 

basis and is a non-regulatory, incentive-based land conservation program. 

Protection of private forests through FLP maintains a multitude of public benefits and ecosystem 

services. Eighty-nine percent of all FLP acres are adjacent to other protected lands. Research 

also shows that approximately 17 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are the result of deforestation or conversion of forest land to other uses (Congressional 

Research Service, International Forestry Issues in Climate Change Bills; 2009). Protecting 

forests from conversion is critical to ensure resiliency to impacts from a changing climate on 

resource conditions.

Allocation and Integration

FLP projects are nominated through a two-stage competitive process that includes State-level 

identification and approval of projects as well as a national review and ranking of these Statenominated projects. This two-tiered review results in high-quality projects that are supported 

locally and nationally, and a process has become a model for other federally-funded competitive 

grant programs because of the integrity of the list once it is finalized. Each project is ranked 

using standardized criteria: (1) importance — public benefits gained from the protection and 

management of the property, (2) threat — likelihood of conversion to non-forest uses resulting in 

a loss of forest values and public benefits, and (3) strategic relevance — project fits with a larger 
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conservation plan, strategy, and initiative, and enhances previous conservation 

investments. Project management funds are allocated to Forest Service regions based on 

management needs for the projects.

In FY 2016, the Forest Service is forming a team to evaluate the current project scoring system 

to determine if the current guidance effectively considers adaptation and mitigation to climate 

change during project selection. If warranted, this team will develop updated scoring direction. 

Partnerships

More than 2.49 million acres of environmentally important private lands have been protected 

through FLP. States and landowners are the primary partners, but land trusts and other 

conservation organizations play a critical role in identifying and completing projects. While the 

program requires a 25 percent non-Federal match, the program averages a 50 percent nonFederal match.

Cooperative Forestry and the Forest Legacy Program have built on the very successful 

partnership with the Land Trust Alliance to partner with them to develop a Diversity in 

Conservation Internship utilizing the new Forest Service hiring authority – the Resource 

Assistant Authority. This partnership will grow new natural resources professionals and provide 

experience and develop skills of groups underrepresented in the Forest Service but also in the 

land conservation field in general.

The Forest Legacy Program has secured a very high leverage in its 25-year existence (greater 

than one dollar in cost-share for each dollar of federal dollars expended). In an effort to ensure 

that the FLP and conservation partners are able to continue this history of success, the Forest 

Service has engaged with the Conservation Finance Network to support the first conservation 

seminar conducted by the Network to focus on outreach and training of federal staff. This 

partnership also extends to support of the Conservation Finance Bootcamp that provides training 

to non-profit and government personnel to effectively leverage conservation finance transactions.

Fiscal Year 2017 Forest Legacy Program, Proposed Projects

Priority 

Rank State Project Name Request

Administrative Funds $6,400,000

1 GA Altamaha River-Sansavilla Project 5,000,000 

2 MT Whitefish Lake Watershed Project 7,000,000 

3 OR East Moraine Wallowa Lake 900,000 

4 FL Silver Springs Watershed 3,500,000 

5 WA South Puget Sound 6,318,000 

6 HI Ho'omau 2,000,000 

7 SC Gold Branch 2,030,000

8 FL Wolfe Creek Forest 2,800,000 

9 TN Karst Forest at Grassy Cove 1,350,000 

10 UT Zion-Simon Gulch 2,500,000 
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Priority 

Rank State Project Name Request

11 NC East Fork of French Broad Headwaters 

Phase IV 4,000,000 

12 NH Beebe River Uplands 2,600,000 

13 FM Yela Valley Watershed 565,000 

14 MA West Quabbin Woodlands 2,895,000 

15 MO Eleven Point Forest 2,000,000 

16 HI Helemano Wilderness Area 2,000,000 

17 VA New River Headwaters 1,320,000 

18 NM Brazos Cliff 3,480,000 

19 AL Coastal Headwaters Forest 3,000,000 

20 FL Gulf Coastal Longleaf Initiative 689,000 

Subtotal, Discretionary $62,347,000

21 FL Gulf Coastal Longleaf Initiative -remainder 

of total recommended funding 1,601,000 

22 UT Coldwater Ranch 3,870,000 

23 MS Pascagoula River 2,340,000 

24 VA Longleaf Pine 4,200,000 

25 PA Northeast Connection 3,255,000 

26 WY Grand Canyon of the Black Hills 4,500,000 

27 NY Fort Ann 710,000 

28 VT Worcester Woods 3,000,000 

29 CA Diamond D Forest 4,350,000 

30 IA Heritage Valley 2,200,000 

31 VT Windham Region 2,380,000 

32 AR Hot Springs Recharge 475,000 

33 NJ Rockaway River Wildlife Management 

Area 2,185,000 

34 WA East Simcoe Forest 2,587,000 

Subtotal, Mandatory $37,653,000

Total Funding $100,000,000
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Community Forest and Open Space Conservation

Budget Line Item Community Forest and Open Space 

Conservation

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Community Forest and Open Space Conservation

Annual Appropriations $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 0 0%

Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Total 2,000 2,000 2,000 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 0 0 0 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0 0%

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $2,000,000 for the Community Forest and Open 

Space Conservation Program (CFP), the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget.

Based on projects the Forest Service submitted in prior years, we expect to use the FY 2017 

funding for 6 to 8 projects. The Agency will continue to monitor previously funded projects and

ensure the agency has capacity to continue implementation of this program. 

The CFP supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working 

lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our 

water resources. The CFP program also supports the Forest Service strategic goal of sustaining 

our Nation’s forests and grasslands through the conservation of open space.

Past Performance

The CFP was authorized in FY 2008, the final rule was issued in FY 2012, and grants for the 

first ten projects were also issued in FY 2012. In four fiscal years, 27 grants have been funded 

and 12 projects were completed. Since the inception of CFP, the Forest Service has established 

or expanded 15 community forests, providing established or expanded important community 

benefits. The total acreage of the 15 completed projects is more than 8,000 acres.

Among the projects completed in FY 2015 is the Rensselaer Community Forest project 

(http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/101455.html), located on New York’s Rensselaer Plateau. This 

350-acre project was funded in FY 2014 and no time was wasted pulling together and closing the 

project. The community and their partners, including the New York Department of 

Environmental Conservation, met at the forest on Earth Day 2015 to celebrate this 

accomplishment. This community forest will provide important recreational and educational 

opportunities and conserves wildlife habitat located in an important watershed. This acquisition 

is truly a story of partnerships, both to acquire the land and as part of the long-term use and 

management. These partnerships span the full range of government, industry, academic, not-forprofit, and recreational and community partners. The growing list of partners includes: the New 
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York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Dyken Pond Environmental Education 

Center, Grafton Lakes State Park, the Sage Colleges, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 

Rensselaer Land Trust, Empire State Forest Products Association, New York Logger Training, 

New York Forest Owners Association, Saratoga Mountain Bike Association, and the Rensselaer 

Plateau committee of community members.

During implementation of the first round of projects, it became apparent the rule for 

implementing the program contained significant challenges for grantees that impacted the 

program’s overall success. In light of these challenges, the Forest Service began to update the 

rule to improve program implementation and administration. Working closely with partners and 

stakeholders, revisions to the rule were made to adjust requirements and clarify language within 

CFP. Specific revisions were made to allow CFP grantees to take advantage of additional 

funding sources as match to Federal funds, as long as the requirements of those funds are 

consistent with the intent and purposes of the Community Forest Program. Additional revisions 

were aimed at reducing the administrative burden for applicants by eliminating the draft 

community forest plan from the application process and requiring only those applicants who are 

selected for funding to fill out additional grant paperwork, instead of all applicants. These 

changes to the rule are expected to increase the number of applicants requesting the program, as 

well as increase the agency's efficiency in ensuring these important forests are protected in 

perpetuity. A final rule is anticipated in FY 2016 and program staff will apply the revised rule to 

current and future projects. 

Program Description

Program Overview

The CFP achieves community benefits through grants to local governments, Tribal governments, 

and qualified non-profit organizations to establish community forests by acquiring and protecting 

forestlands. Community benefits under CFP include, but are not limited to: (1) economic 

benefits of sustainable forest management, including forest products, jobs, recreational 

opportunities, and clean drinking water, (2) environmental benefits, including clean water and 

wildlife habitat, (3) educational benefits from forest-based programs, including vocational and 

environmental educational programs, (4) benefits from serving as replicable models of effective 

forest stewardship for private landowners, (5) recreational benefits, including hunting and 

fishing, and (6) public access benefits. This program promotes protection and enjoyment of the 

Nation’s outdoor heritage by empowering people and communities to protect and restore places 

they cherish. It plays a key role in the President’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative by 

connecting people to the outdoors where they live. Community forests are special public places 

that promote health, provide a place to find quiet and solitude, and generally improve quality of 

life. 

The Federal contribution to the project cannot be more than 50 percent of the total project 

cost. Cost sharing provides key opportunities to increase financial capacity and promotes local 

investment, allowing communities to actively participate in sustainable management of their 

local forests. 
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The CFP complements, but is not duplicative of, the Forest Legacy Program (FLP) and the 

Urban and Community Forestry Program (U&CF). CFP is focused on creating community 

forests through land acquisition, as opposed to FLP which protects at-risk forests through 

easements and land purchase. While a few projects may align with the intent of both programs, 

most projects will qualify for only one. Also, unlike U&CF which builds capacity for 

communities to develop and implement urban forestry programs, CFP is a land protection 

program. The program provides another tool to those entities that have demonstrated a sustained 

commitment to community forestry.

Allocation and Integration

Funding in support of CFP projects is distributed through competitively awarded Federal grants 

to qualified entities. Projects are selected by a diverse panel of experts based on specific 

selection criteria, which includes: community benefits provided by the project, degree of public 

participation in project development, strategic contribution of the project to landscape 

conservation, and threat of conversion to non-forest uses, like urban or sub-urban development.

While all federally recognized Indian tribes are eligible to apply to CFP and receive grants, only 

four have applied and two have received grants and completed projects. Since the program 

began, we have continued seeking avenues to outreach information to eligible entities including 

Tribes. In FY 2015, we focused resources on developing an efficient and targeted outreach 

strategy with the goal of increased interest and applications from Tribes.

Partnerships

The CFP has received and continues to receive support from State and local governments, Tribal 

governments, land trusts and other conservation organizations, and communities. Though not 

required, some State forestry agencies provide assistance to applicants in the development of 

their applications. In the case of one funded project, two non-profits and a Tribe worked closely 

together to develop a project and the application even though the non-profit organizations will 

not hold title to the community forest. The degree of community and partner support for the 

program is evident from the project cost-share dollars, currently averaging a 60-percent match 

above the 50-percent cost share requirement.

In FY 2016, the Forest Service will develop a guide to effectively provide partners with the 

information included in the current rule (and updated rule when published) document and 

provide examples and explanations so that an entity applying to the program can understand the 

full process from project development to project completion. The goal is to provide partners and 

the public with clear information that is accessible and understandable and ultimately result in 

more efficient program implementation. 
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Urban and Community Forestry

Budget Line Item Urban and Community Forestry

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Urban and Community Forestry

Annual Appropriations $28,040 $28,040 $23,686 -$4,354 -16%

Urban and Community Forestry Total 28,040 28,040 23,686 -4,354 -16%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 49 49 49 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 49 49 49 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Urban and Community Forestry

Percentage of people living in communities managing 

programs to plant, protect, and maintain their urban and 

community trees and forests. 47.0% 47.4% 47.0% 48.0% 47.0% 48.0%

Percentage of people living in communities developing 

programs and/or activities to plant, protect, and maintain 

their urban and community trees and forests. 31.2% 27.4% 31.0% 30.5% 31.0% 30.0%

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $23,686,000 for the Urban and Community Forestry 

(U&CF) program, a decrease of $4,354,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

U&CF has been consistent in successfully delivering a technical and financial assistance 

program through State Forestry Agencies by developing and enhancing urban forestry programs

- and the number of communities assisted through the U&CF program continues to increase. 

Communities are actively managing urban forestry programs by leveraging partnerships and 

generating local investments. 

With the funding decrease, U&CF will modify program delivery to enhance the health, livability 

and resilience of the Nation’s most populated metropolitan regions. According to regional 

planning projections1

, 90 percent of Americans will live in metropolitan areas by 2050. 

Currently the U&CF national allocation provides a minimum base of fiscal resources to each 

State, Island, and Territory - followed by a performance-based distribution. The allocation has 

been effective in enhancing community urban forestry programs and has helped developing 

programs move to managing programs in both urban and rural communities. With this funding 

decrease, and as the nation’s metropolitan areas continue to grow, the U&CF Program’s 

opportunity to benefit the largest populations will be in these geographic regions with large 

metropolitan areas, requiring a reconsideration of how the U&CF Program allocates resources.
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In addition, in recent years, catastrophic events, including fire, ice, wind, insect disease and 

drought have altered the footprint and challenged the sustainability of the Nation's most critical 

urban forests. U&CF’s five-year strategy focuses on the resilience and sustainability of 

communities with regard to the pressures of climate, energy, pollution, public health and 

catastrophic events. Highly-populated areas will experience the greatest strain on ecosystem 

services. Support to these urban forestry programs will provide a more effective delivery of the 

U&CF program. Looking ahead and accounting for these changes, U&CF has an opportunity to 

increase program effectiveness by strategically aligning resources to benefit the nation’s highest 

populated metropolitan regions. These areas will benefit greatly from the social, economic, 

public health and environmental services of urban trees and forests. In addition, previous 

program investments in performance data, science and research tools will be used to educate and 

inform the urban forest health and wildfire risks associated with the sprawl of metropolitan 

landscapes. 

Past Performance

In FY 2015, U&CF served more than 200 million people in over 7,700 communities across the 

U.S. through the development and maintenance of local urban forestry programs. Working in 

partnership with State forestry agencies and other partners, U&CF promoted science-based 

management of urban forest resources in communities in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, 

U.S. Territories and affiliated Pacific Island Nations.

States determine the priorities for U&CF program delivery unique to their geographic and 

community needs. For example, the Arizona State Forestry Division provided a U&CF grant to 

promote the use of edible trees with the Iskashitaa Refuge Network, which helps refugees learn 

about American culture while teaching their knowledge of collecting and using cultural fruits 

like dates, purslane and jujube, familiar staples in their home countries. The State also provided a 

grant to the Linking Edible Arizona Forests Network to create and maintain a network of sites 

and people involved with planting, conserving, and harvesting edible trees in Arizona. 

With U&CF support, the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Kansas Forest Service 

enabled the Mid-America Regional Council, a regional planning association for the bi-State, 

nine-county Kansas City area, to conduct a regional forest assessment. The Mid-America 

Regional Council, then worked with local communities to develop a regional forest policy 

framework to guide future management. In Maine, the State Department of Natural Resources 

created a new educational video about the City of Portland’s urban forests to educate the public 

about the history, cultural value, and environmental and economic contribution of Portland’s 

urban and working forest resources. 

In addition, in FY 2015, the U&CF program supported high-priority activities that contribute to 

the agency’s national strategic goals. For example, U&CF continued to support the Urban 

Waters Federal Partnership to restore degraded urban waterways and revitalize underserved 

communities. This innovative Federal partnership aims to stimulate regional and local 

economies, create local jobs, improve quality of life, and protect Americans’ health by 

revitalizing urban waterways in under-served communities across the Nation. The Urban Waters 

Federal Partnership contributes to actions in the Administration’s Climate and Natural 

Resources Priority Agenda, the USDA Environmental Justice Strategy, and the Forest Service 

Public-Private Partnership Strategy. The Forest Service works across all deputy areas to lead 
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interagency coordination in Urban Waters Federal Partnership locations, including Baltimore, 

Northwest Indiana, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, and the greater Philadelphia metropolitan 

region. In FY 2015, the Urban Waters Federal Partnership published a national Urban Waters 

Partnership Handbook, which documents best practices learned through the partnership’s placebased work in 19 cities. In Baltimore, where the Forest Service co-leads the local Urban Waters 

Partnership, the agency published a “Green Pattern Book” which is used by the City of Baltimore 

to help neighborhoods convert vacant lands to parks, gardens, urban forests and other community 

uses. 

To augment the Urban Waters effort, in FY 2015 U&CF partnered with the National Fish and 

Wildlife Foundation to support community grant-making for volunteer-led projects to revitalize 

urban watersheds. To-date, this partnership has resulted in $23.9 million in public and private 

support for projects that improve neighborhoods, restore watersheds, and enhance the health of 

community forests, while leveraging $8 in non-Federal support for every $1 of federal support 

contributed. In FY 2015, 64 projects were supported nationwide, in which local grantees will 

perform stream restoration, remove invasive species, install green infrastructure for stormwater 

management, provide for urban bird habitat, and a variety of other actions. For example, the El 

Paso Community Foundation received a grant which will enable the community to conduct iTree analysis and demonstrate green stormwater solutions to residents in a flood prone 

neighborhood.

In FY 2015, in support of USDA’s Building Blocks for Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry, 

U&CF partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation’s Energy Saving Trees program to promote 

urban tree planting and care to result in reduced energy consumption, avoided emissions, and 

carbon sequestration. Since inception in 2011, this innovative voluntary program has delivered 

125,000 young shade trees to utility customers to increase tree canopy on private land. Urban

trees provide a host of benefits, including reduced utility bills. For example, research has found 

that just three strategically placed trees can decrease utility bills by 50%17 and properly placed 

trees can reduce cooling costs by 30 percent. Shading an air conditioning unit can increase its 

efficiency by 10 percent.18

In FY 2015, the National Urban and Community Forestry Council engaged over 800 

stakeholders and professionals to develop a national 10 year action plan to address needs and 

gaps in the field of urban and community forestry. The action plan will be used by the Forest 

Service, States, and other partners in the urban forestry sector to coordinate and align resources 

around shared goals. Some of the key priorities identified in the plan include: informing local 

and regional planning processes, enhancing public health and wellness, strengthening community 

resilience, improving urban forest health and biodiversity, fostering youth engagement, 

diversifying the future workforce, and more. The action plan provides important strategic 

guidance that will inform U&CF program priorities and emphasis areas moving into the future. 

Revised program guidelines for the U&CF Program were approved in FY14 and have been 

successfully implemented by State partners, allowing for greater flexibility in how States deliver 

 17 America 2050 http://www.america2050.org/

18 Nebraska Forest Service. “Simply trees: tress for energy conservation”. Journal Star. March

2011. Web. http://journalstar.com/lifestyles/home-and-garden/article_97da4ef8-9dcf-5f1f-af9c59ac2d2baee5.html
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key program functions – for example, via public-private partnerships. The program continues to 

update its accomplishment reporting system, and in FY 2015 began collecting information about 

landscape scale restoration activities supported through the U&CF program. In FY 2015, U&CF 

contributed toward joint efforts within Cooperative Forestry to evaluate programs, set future 

strategies, and develop and improve metrics to track program performance and outcomes. In FY 

2015, Cooperative Forestry conducted a field-based review of Regions 1 & 4 and began work to 

develop a strategic direction document to guide Cooperative Forestry as a whole. Also, in 

partnership with the National Association of State Foresters, Cooperative Forestry began a 

process to develop metrics across multiple programs. 

Program Description

Program Overview

Americans benefit from the many services provided by well-managed urban forests, including 

improved human health and wellbeing, green jobs, energy conservation, improved air and water 

quality, enhanced property values, carbon sequestration, recreation opportunities, and wildlife 

habitat. 

The U&CF program assists cities, suburbs, and towns across the country to improve the health 

and management of urban forests, so communities fully benefit from the services trees provide. 

U&CF program investments are critical to reaching a majority of Americans in order to connect 

them to their natural heritage and ensure that our Nation’s public and private forests remain 

relevant to the next generation—over 83 percent of the Nation's population live in urban areas

and there are over 130 million acres of urban forest lands in the U.S. The U&CF program 

enhances community forests and green space, enriching opportunities for people to experience 

nature in their own neighborhoods. The benefits to people, especially in minority or underserved 

communities with health disparities, can be enormous. Research shows that kids exposed to more 

green spaces and natural scenery at school are able to sustain longer attention spans and display 

stronger working memory19, skills which benefit academic performance. Neighborhoods with 

higher tree canopy may even enhance pregnancy outcomes, as research suggests higher birth 

weights are associated with greener neighborhoods20. 

The U&CF program leverages State and other partner resources to ensure that communities 

across the country have the tools and tested knowledge to sustainably manage their urban forests 

and the economic, environmental, and health benefits they provide. For example, through the 

U&CF national cost-share challenge grant program advised by the National Urban and 

Community Forestry Council, the Forest Service is providing support to research and education 

to enhance understanding of trees’ role in green infrastructure for stormwater management. The 

City of New York will test the effects of pairing porous pavement and structural soil systems on 

street tree health compared to traditional washed stone base and paving. The program is also 

providing support for the University of California Cooperative Extension to evaluate tree 

 19 Payam Dadvand, Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen, Mikel Esnaola, Joan Forns, Xavier Basagaña, Mar Alvarez-Pedrerol, 

Ioar Rivas, Mónica López-Vicente, Montserrat De Castro Pascual, Jason Su, Michael Jerrett, Xavier Querol, and 

Jordi Sunyer. “Green spaces and cognitive development in primary schoolchildren” PNAS 2015 112: 7937-7942. 20 Donovan GH, Michael YL, Butry DT, Sullivan AD, Chase JM. 2011. Urban trees and the risk of poor birth 

outcomes. Health Place 17:390–393; doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.11.004.
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survival, growth and condition in stormwater facilities to develop a standardized monitoring 

protocol for trees in stormwater facilities. Funding for the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional 

Council of Governments will be used to develop a guide for localities about integrating trees into 

stormwater management design and policy. In addition, the Forest Service will provide support 

to the Morton Arboretum to develop new tools and maps focused on identifying communities 

underserved by urban forest green infrastructure, to better assist communities in planning for 

equitable distribution of environmental services.

As cities increase the use of green infrastructure to augment stormwater management techniques, 

a growing job sector is being created. The City of Philadelphia estimates that the city’s $1.6 

billion investment in greener stormwater infrastructure will generate 15,266 “green collar” jobs 

and nearly $7.4 billion in sales through the green stormwater infrastructure supply chain.21 In 

addition, Forest Service research has found that street trees in Minneapolis, Minnesota save $9.1 

million in stormwater treatments annually.22 The U&CF leverages State and other partner 

resources to ensure that communities across the country continue to protect and their urban 

forests and the economic and health benefits they provide. For example, U&CF is partnering 

with the American Planning Association to assess opportunities to inform regional scale planning 

to achieve landscape-scale conservation goals, defined by local communities. 

The U&CF program supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and 

private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while 

enhancing our water resources. The U&CF program also supports the Forest Service strategic 

goal of delivering benefits to the public through connecting people to the outdoors.

Allocation and Integration

This program allocates funds based on performance, tracked in a web-based accomplishment 

reporting system, which now provides 10 full years of consistent reporting data. Allocations 

target communities that have established one or more of the following: (1)professional urban 

forestry staff, (2)tree ordinances, (3)urban forest management plans, or (4)tree boards or 

advisory organizations. 

The U&CF program is well integrated with other Forest Service programs. For example, the 

Urban Waters Federal Partnership is delivered in partnership by U&CF with Forest Service 

Research and Development and the National Forest System. Landscape scale partnerships 

integrate the resources of U&CF with Forest Stewardship and other FS programs. U&CF 

contributes to the USDA Urban Agriculture Working Group and partners with the National 

Agroforestry Center to identify emerging needs in urban agriculture, relevant to the Forest 

Service mission. The U&CF and Forest Health Management programs work together to survey 

and monitor conditions of urban forests’ health, including the early detection and response to 

invasive insect pests such as emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle. 

 21 American Rivers and Alliance for Water Efficiency, Creating Jobs and Stimulating the Economy through 

Investment in Green Water Infrastructure (2008)

22 “City of Minneapolis, Minnesota Municipat Tree Resource Analysis.” Center for Urban Forest Research, USDA 

Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, June 2005. 
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U&CF works with Forest Service Research & Development to develop, disseminate, and support 

i-Tree, a public domain, peer-reviewed software suite that provides urban forestry analysis and

benefits assessment tools. To-date, over 12,000 users in 50 States and 120 countries have used iTree tools to help communities of all sizes strengthen urban forest management and policy 

efforts by quantifying the environmental services that trees provide and the structure of the urban 

forest. i-Tree provides an innovative watershed hydrologic modeling application and includes 

the ability to calculate human health benefits acquired from trees. The software offers smart 

phone and tablet friendly data collection methods. Major cities across the country are using iTree to inventory and analyze the benefits of their urban forest as a decision-support tool. For 

example, the City of Pittsburgh developed a master plan to expand its urban tree canopy after iTree calculations showed the city’s trees provided a monetary benefit three times greater than the 

annual cost of upkeep. 

Partnerships

The U&CF program is delivered in partnership by State forestry agencies, with cooperation from 

other Federal agencies, local governments, community organizations, volunteers and other 

partners. State programs leverage the Forest Service investment with non-Federal support to 

deliver financial and technical assistance to communities, often providing at least a 2:1 match for 

the Federal funds. 

To achieve program priorities, U&CF is also working with the National Urban and Community 

Forestry Advisory Council, which advises the Secretary of Agriculture on urban forestry issues. 

This 25-year-old Federal advisory council is constantly refreshed to provide cutting edge 

perspective that helps the U&CF program stay relevant to emerging trends in urban forestry and 

urban sustainability. 

Additional key partners include the USDA National Agroforestry Center, The Conservation 

Fund, Sustainable Urban Forest Coalition, National Association of Regional Councils, National 

Academy of Sciences, Arbor Day Foundation, American Forests, the Nature Conservancy, the 

American Planning Association and other national partnership organizations. 
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International Forestry

Budget Line Item International Forestry

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

International Forestry

Annual Appropriations $8,000 $8,000 $8,000 0 0%

International Forestry Total 8,000 8,000 8,000 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 43 43 43 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 43 43 43 0 0%

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $8,000,000 for the International Forestry program, 

level with FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The Forest Service will conduct its highest priority 

international work under existing authorities and in partnership with other Federal agencies 

whose missions are more centrally focused on international development.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Forest Service Office of International Forestry Programs promotes sustainable forest 

management overseas and brings important technologies and innovations back to the United 

States. Effective forest management at the global level is necessary to protect American trade 

interests—such as the ability of domestic timber producers to compete on a level playing field—

and to ensure the sustainability of critical domestic and foreign natural resources. Forest 

management policy discussions routinely tackle complex issues such as: trade, American

competitiveness, climate change, economic growth, preventing illegal logging, and national 

security. The program also addresses several critical domestic natural resource conservation 

issues, including protecting the Nation from invasive species as well as conserving habitat for 

migratory species of high importance. International Forestry maintains programs in the 

following areas:

Climate Change – International policy discussions on climate change have increased the 

focus on the role of forests and grasslands in greenhouse gas mitigation, as evidenced by the 

inclusion of the forest sector in the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Developed 

countries are considering how best to include the land sector in greenhouse gas reduction 

commitments. In developing countries, a coordinated effort to reduce deforestation, called 

Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation is gaining momentum. 

International Forestry works closely with the Department of State and other Federal 

government agencies in the international policy arena to: engage in a worldwide forest 
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restoration network to strengthen efforts to rehabilitate degraded land for carbon 

sequestration, as well as other economic and social benefits; contribute technical expertise to 

climate change negotiations; and participate in forest management and policy discussions. A 

good example is our ongoing work with the MegaFlorestais group, a network of forest 

agency leaders from the 12 largest forested countries. The group advances international 

dialogue and exchange on forest governance and public forest agency reforms—with a focus 

on climate change.

Combatting Illegal Logging – Worldwide trade of forest products is estimated to exceed $1 

trillion per year, approximately 15 percent of which is from illegally harvested wood. The 

artificially low price of the illegal harvest leads to an imbalance in which world markets 

cannot equally participate. This imbalance undercuts the competiveness of domestic forest 

products companies who are following policies and regulations, resulting in the loss of jobs 

in the United States. One of the major problems in policing illegal logging worldwide has 

been the difficulty in identifying wood species, especially tropical wood species. 

Identification is complex because of the sheer number of species and the difficulty in tracing 

illegally harvested wood. The FY 2017 Agency Request allows for maintenance level 

support for this work.

Protecting Forests from Invasive Species – Protecting the American economy from damage 

by invasive forest species involves facilitating collaboration among scientists to identify and 

use biocontrol agents on pests, which is more effective and economical than traditional 

methods. We collaborate with partnering agency scientists and land managers with 

counterparts in those countries where invasive species originate. Without international 

collaboration, we cannot effectively control pests already in the United States and prevent 

further introductions. One of our efforts addresses one of the most destructive invasive forest 

pests, the emerald ash borer (EAB). The goal is to understand why the EAB is so resilient 

and pervasive, so land managers can predict and prevent potential future outbreaks by related 

wood boring beetles. The partnership was formed between the Forest Service’s Northern 

Research Station, the USDA, the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS) and the 

Chinese Academy of Forestry. With support from International Forestry, the team has been 

working to find natural enemies of EAB in its native range. Two locations with different 

forest types were selected in China and specimens of key natural enemies, primarily egg and 

larval parasitoids, were collected and evaluated for their potential use in biological control 

programs. The work resulted in breakthroughs from ARS scientists who found three natural 

enemies of the EAB. The FY 2017 President’s Budget allows for maintenance level support 

for this work.

Conserving Migratory species that are declining or at risk – Many domestic organizations, 

including environmental groups, private citizen groups, and governmental and 

nongovernmental agencies, together invest millions of dollars in protecting habitat for listed 

and at-risk migratory species. The current state of migratory species conservation is dire, 

with approximately 64 percent of neotropical species in decline. The American public cares 

about these birds, bats, butterflies and dragonflies which often spend the winter in Latin 

America and the Caribbean. Our work protects habitats in these areas, ensuring the large 

Federal investment in domestic conservation is complemented by partners overseas.
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International Forestry programs contributes to the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national 

forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate 

change while enhancing our water resources. Additionally, International Forestry also supports 

the Forest Service strategic goal of “applying knowledge globally” through transfer of 

technology and applications, and exchange of natural resource expertise. 

Allocation and Integration

The program prioritizes work in collaboration with other Forest Service programs and in 

conjunction with the Department of State to address the most important international natural 

resource management issues including illegal logging, climate change, migratory species habitat, 

invasive forest pests, and sustainable forest management.

Partnerships

The International Forestry program works in coordination with Forest Service field units, 

domestic and international partners including those in other Federal agencies, foreign 

governments, international and local environmental organizations, universities, and the private 

sector, on a range of forest management and policy issues. International Forestry engages in 

technical collaboration to develop capacity, strengthen institutions, and develop economic 

alternatives to unsustainable and illegal harvesting.
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National Forest System

Appropriation National Forest System

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

National Forest System

Annual Appropriations $1,494,330$1,509,364 $1,500,996 -$8,368 -1%

National Forest System Total 1,494,330 1,509,364 1,500,996 -8,368 -1%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 10,858 10,858 10,858 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 10,858 10,858 10,858 0 0%

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration 40,000 40,000 40,000 0 0%

Land Management Planning, Assessment & Monitoring 0 0 183,928 183,928 100%

Land Management Planning 37,754 36,998 0 -36,998 -100%

Inventory and Monitoring 151,019 147,998 0 -147,998 -100%

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 261,719 261,719 263,942 2,223 1%

Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management 140,466 140,466 140,466 0 0%

Grazing Management 55,356 56,856 50,000 -6,856 -12%

Forest Products 339,130 359,805 359,805 0 0%

Vegetation & Watershed Management 184,716 184,716 184,716 0 0%

Minerals and Geology Management 76,423 76,423 75,069 -1,354 -2%

Landownership Management 77,730 77,730 71,440 -6,290 -8%

Law Enforcement Operations 126,653 126,653 131,630 4,977 4%

Valles Caldera National Preserve 3,364 0 0 0 0%

National Forest System Overview 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $1,500,996,000 for the National Forest System (NFS), 

a decrease of $8,368,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget.

The NFS appropriation provides funds for the stewardship and management of over 193 million 

acres of national forests and grasslands. Following Secretary Vilsack’s “All Lands” vision, the 

Budget focuses on meeting the challenges of building landscape and community resilience 

through collaborative approaches to ecological restoration, connecting Americans to the 

outdoors, expanding on recreation benefits, creating a wide range of opportunities for economic 

expansion to retain and create jobs, and partnering with communities and other agencies to 

reduce the threat of catastrophic wildland fires.

Conserving forests and grasslands not only conserves air quality, water, plants, wildlife, and 

fisheries; it also responds to the public’s interests and needs. Forests and grasslands generate 

wealth by providing opportunities for outdoor recreation and tourism such as camping, 

picnicking, skiing, snowboarding, hunting, fishing, hiking, wildlife viewing, scenic driving, and 

visiting cultural sites and visitor centers. People improve their health and well-being by 

engaging in the wide array of outdoor activities available on national forests and grasslands. The 

restoration of landscapes, sustainable forest management, and the development of markets for 

ecosystem services provide jobs to communities that benefit rural economies.
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Management of the vast array of natural resources on national forests and grasslands requires the 

effective integration of many different and complex program areas. The suite of NFS programs 

support the planning, coordination, implementation, and monitoring of activities that provide a 

wide variety of ecosystem services including: water-quality protection and improvement,

recreation opportunities for the public, energy for the Nation, food security, timber and nontimber forest products, maintenance of open space, and wildlife habitat and habitat connectivity. 

All of these services support the maintenance of jobs as well as growth in the domestic job 

market. These activities are managed to meet the needs of the Nation while maintaining or 

improving the health of the land and protecting the environment to provide the greatest good for 

the greatest number in the long term.

Integrated Resource Restoration (IRR)

The “All Lands” vision recognizes that forest management and threats do not end at property 

boundaries and emphasizes that to effectively restore all of our forests we need to integrate our

restoration activities to meet multiple objectives at the same time. In FY 2017 the agency will 

continue to increase opportunities to collaborate across ownership boundaries and within 

programs, using the lessons learned to gain the benefits realized through the IRR program.

For the past five years (FY 2012 through FY 2016), the agency embarked on a pilot program of 

IRR to realign the agency’s budget structure, with the goal of increasing efficiency and 

flexibility to perform integrated watershed protection and landscape-scale restoration. Several

existing budget line items (Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management, Vegetation and 

Watershed Management, Forest Products, Legacy Roads and Trails, and Hazardous Fuels 

Outside of the Wildland-Urban Interface) were consolidated into one single budget line item in 

three regions: Region 1 (Northern Region), Region 3 (Southwestern Region), and Region 4 

(Intermountain Region), see link below to receive the most recent reports: 

http://www.fs.fed.us/restoration/IRR/ .

We evaluated the success of the IRR pilot program by tracking five core performance measures. 

These included the number of watersheds moved to an improved condition class, the number of 

acres treated annually to sustain or restore watershed function and resilience, the miles of stream 

habitat restored or enhanced, the miles of roads decommissioned, and the volume of timber sold.

A team of researchers from Colorado State University and the University of Oregon also 

conducted a third party evaluation of IRR and its effects. 

Over the past four years of IRR pilot authority, the IRR regions on average achieved a higher 

proportion of their assigned targets than non-IRR regions for four of the five performance 

measures and for timber volume sold, the IRR and non-IRR pilot regions achieved a similar 

proportion of their assigned target. Results from the third-party monitoring found that IRR pilot 

authority fostered better communication among program managers and line officers about what 

work to prioritize and allowed them to better pool resources to conduct that priority work. The 

flexible spending authority also allowed forests to more quickly address unexpected needs, and 

complemented other restoration authorities such as the Collaborative Forest Landscape 

Restoration Program, the Watershed Condition Framework, stewardship contracting, and Good 

Neighbor Authority. These findings suggest some increased performance capacity and increased 

integration of activities in the IRR pilot regions. However, the IRR regions also had more 
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difficulty tracking unit costs under the combined IRR budget, and four years into the pilot there 

is no quantitative evidence of increased efficiency.

More generally, the IRR pilot program provides several valuable lessons about how to conduct 

integrated restoration work across the agency. IRR demonstrated how important it is for line 

officers and program managers to work together to set priorities and targets, and to bring 

together people to address shared restoration goals. Collaborative prioritization and target 

setting led to more landscape-scale restoration and helped to concentrate resources on priority 

projects. It also fostered a culture of working together towards mutual benefit. Forests with a 

strong culture of staff integration or whose leadership actively engaged in a diversity of staff 

areas reported positive experiences with how priorities were set and resources allocated. Forests 

who continued to struggle to integrate staff areas or where program managers were not actively 

engaged in the prioritization were more likely to feel like their programs lack sufficient support. 

IRR also showed the value of emphasizing outcome-based performance measurements. IRR 

regions focused on moving watersheds into an improved condition class and were remarkably 

successful in achieving that goal. The IRR program also showed the budgeting and 

administrative efficiencies that could be gained by simplifying budgeting structures, although 

having IRR in only three of the nine regions created dual budget structures and generated more 

work at the national level. 

We believe that these organizational behaviors and cultural attributes are the keys drivers to 

success in developing an integrated approach to restoration. The agency is assessing alternative 

paths forward that focus on maintaining and supporting these behaviors in a way that will allow 

the agency to achieve our restoration outcomes without relying on the IRR budget line item. 

Although this budget does not request nation-wide IRR authority, it does request the option to 

transfer a portion of integrated funds to the IRR pilot program in Regions 1, 3, and 4 to provide 

for a smooth transition for those regions back to a more traditional budget structure while 

maintaining approaches and behaviors learned from the pilot.

The Forest Service remains committed to accelerating the pace of restoration and continuing our 

work to create healthy landscapes and healthy communities and associated jobs and economic 

benefits. We will continue to integrate efforts to foster ecosystems that are resilient and 

adaptive, and to provide abundant clean water to Americans. 

Through an integrated approach to restoration, we will continue to sustain and improve 

ecosystems that deliver so many benefits and values to the American people.

Land Management Planning, Assessment, and Monitoring

The President’s Budget proposes a consolidated budget line item to facilitate an integrated 

approach to landscape management. In the budget, we propose to merge Land Management 

Planning and Inventory and Monitoring, into a single budget line item called Land Management 

Planning, Assessment, and Monitoring. Forest Service management occurs around a continuous 

cycle of assessing, planning at multiple levels, implementing and adjusting programs, and 

projects based on information acquired through integrated inventory and monitoring activities. 
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The proposed consolidated budget line item provides the agency flexibility to achieve 

efficiencies in several central activities in this cycle that are core to implementing the 

requirements of the 2012 Planning Rule. Requirements include an increased focus on agency 

assessment and monitoring activities. The 2012 Planning Rule promotes a collaborative sciencebased approach for planning, monitoring, and conducting assessments that considers information 

from and about all lands that may be affected by or influence planning unit activities. The need 

to integrate regional and local monitoring and assessment activities with unit planning efforts can 

be accomplished more effectively, clearly, and efficiently under the proposed budget line item. 

The proposed budget structure improves accountability within the activities funded and 

facilitates a more complete alignment with other budget line items that fund agency information 

management activities by reducing the complexity of agency budgeting and accounting 

structures. Accountability is improved through aligning priority management, information 

needs, and communicating explicit performance expectations in agency direction.

Land Management Planning, Assessment, and Monitoring

Consolidated Budget Line Items

(dollars in thousands)

Approp. Budget Line Item

FY 2015

Enacted

FY 2016 

Enacted Change

FY 2017 

Pres. Budget

NFS Land Management Planning, 

Assessment, and Monitoring - - $183,928 $183,928

NFS Land Management Planning $37,754 $36,998 -36,998

NFS Inventory and Monitoring 151,019 147,998 -147,998

Total $188,773 $184,996 -$1,068 $183,928
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Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration

Budget Line Item Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration

Annual Appropriations $40,000 $40,000 $40,000 0 0%

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Total 40,000 40,000 40,000 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 300 300 300 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 300 300 300 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration

Acres of forest vegetation established 15,539 17,954 24,250 29,645 30,782 23,615

Acres of forest vegetation improved 67,511 71,738 167,500 55,918 74,923 48,755

Acres of noxious weeds and invasive plants treated 18,180 16,749 30,875 15,363 26,062 23,956

Miles of stream habitat restored or enhanced 111 200 244 134 170 86

Acres of terrestrial habitat enhanced 398,231 399,861 420,200 284,763 356,533 348,371

Volume of timber sold (million board feet (MMBF)) 379.0 417.0 462.0 438.0 651.0 672.0

Number of green tons and/or volume of woody biomass 

from hazardous fuel reduction and restoration treatments 

on Federal land that are made available through permits, 

contracts, grants, agreements, or the equivalent 756,882 211,868 601,500 195,683 870,868 650,000

Acres of wildland-urban interface (WUI) high-priority 

hazardous fuels treated 277,966 283,889 380,625 244,389 345,247 348,842

Acres of hazardous fuels treated outside the Wildland 

Urban interface to reduce risk of catastrophic fire 141,912 138,136 246,625 116,560 139,947 158,794

Miles of roads decommissioned 152 122 243 99 332 187

Miles of passenger car system road reconstruction and 

capital improvement 120 184 229 201 274 292

Miles of high clearance system road reconstruction and 

capital improvement 137 137 120 236 143 145

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

Note: Targets are estimates of annual outputs/accomplishments from CFLRP project activities. FY 2015 and FY 2016 estimates 

reflect the President’s request level of $60 million rather than enacted levels.

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $40,000,000 for the Collaborative Forest Landscape 

Restoration Program (CFLRP), the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. At this funding 

level, the Forest Service will continue implementation and monitoring of the existing 23 CFLRP 

projects. Investing in this program is a critical part of the Forest Service’s capacity to reduce the 
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risk of catastrophic wildfires in priority, high-risk areas, improve water quality and quantity, 

increase carbon sequestration, and build on innovative implementation and monitoring with our 

partners. Restoring healthy, resilient ecosystems sustain local communities through economic 

wellbeing and recreation opportunities; provide water, timber, and fuel wood; and support vital 

ecological processes that support wildlife and maintain healthy soils and watersheds. By 

supporting these 23 collaborative efforts, CFLRP’s strategic investment of Federal dollars will 

continue to attract significant investments across land ownership boundaries within the CFLRP 

landscape, including private land, Tribal land, and land managed by State and other Federal 

entities. 

Existing projects will continue to build the scale and the capacity of their collaboratives as they 

work toward accelerating restoration outcomes on the landscape. 

For FY 2017, project activities and outputs will continue to include:

• safety enhancement and protection of natural resources through the treatment of 

hazardous fuels,

• restoration of watershed function and resilience,

• improvement of forest vegetation and wildlife habitat, and

• generation of commercial timber and biomass for bioenergy as a result of restoration 

treatments.

The FY 2017 existing projects are listed in the following table:
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FY 2017 CFLRP Existing Projects

Project Name Region National Forest(s)

Southwestern Crown of the Continent 1 Flathead, Lolo and Helena 

Selway-Middle Fork 1 Nez Perce-Clearwater and Bitterroot 

Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative 1 Idaho Panhandle 

Uncompahgre Plateau 2 Uncompahgre 

Front Range 2

Pike, San Isabel, Arapaho and 

Roosevelt 

Four Forest Restoration Initiative 3

Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, 

Kaibab and Tonto 

Southwest Jemez Mountains 3 Santa Fe 

Zuni Mountain CFLRP 3 Cibola 

Weiser-Little Salmon Headwaters CFLRP 4 Payette

Dinkey Landscape Restoration Project 5 Sierra 

Burney-Hat Creek Basins Project 5 Lassen 

Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group Cornerstone Project 5 Eldorado and Stanislaus 

Tapash 6 Okanogan-Wenatchee 

Deschutes 6 Deschutes 

Lakeview Stewardship CFLRP 6 Fremont-Winema 

Southern Blues Restoration Coalition 6 Malheur 

Northeast Washington Forest Vision 2020 6 Colville 

Accelerating Longleaf Restoration 8 Florida-Osceola 

Shortleaf-Bluestem Community 8 Ouachita 

Grandfather Restoration Project 8 Pisgah 

Ozark Highlands Ecosystem Restoration 8 Ozark-St. Francis 

Longleaf Pine Ecosystem Restoration and Hazardous Fuels

Reduction 8 De Soto 

Missouri Pine-Oak Woodlands Restoration Project 9 Mark Twain 

The CFLRP appropriated funding will continue to provide critical implementation and 

monitoring investments to carry out project work and monitor the effectiveness of that work 

through collaborative, multi-party monitoring efforts. These funds also attract partner 

contributions in the form of in-kind contributions and funds contributed through agreements. 

CFLRP helps prioritize Forest Service investments for high need, high capacity landscapes that 

deliver a suite of integrated restoration outcomes to enhance forest and community resiliency and 

support the Forest Service’s Strategic Plan. 
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FY 2015 FY 2016 (Projected) FY 2017 (Projected) 

Expenditures On NFS Lands

CFLRP Appropriation $40,000,000 $40,000,000 $40,000,000

Total FS Investments23 $72,754,900 $72,000,000 $72,000,000

Partner Match $15,225,920 $18,000,000 $20,000,000

Estimated Goods for Services24 $5,917,780 $6,000,000 $6,000,000

Additional Funding Invested and Generated

Leveraged Funds25 $62,166,490 $63,000,000 $63,000,000

Estimated Local Labor Income 

Generated26 $264,866,300 $265,000,000 $265,000,000

FY 2016 and FY 2017 projected expenditures reflect the FY 2016 enacted funding and the FY 

2017 President’s request and assume current expenditure trends continue into the future.

Past Performance 

In FY 2015, the CFLRP celebrated its five year anniversary. During that time, the program has 

delivered substantial progress on fulfilling the intent of the Omnibus Public Land Management 

Act of 2009 to restore ecosystem resilience and reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildland fire 

on landscapes at high risk. In pursuit of these goals, the projects continue to build collaborative 

partnerships and increase capacity for on-the-ground project implementation and monitoring and 

support local communities and their economies. The CFLRP has met or exceeded its 5-year 

targets for a majority of performance measures, which include timber volume sold, hazardous 

fuels reduction, and wildlife habitat improved, and is on track to meeting its lifetime goals over 

its 10 year timeframe. The agency completed an assessment of our progress in meeting program 

goals and presented the results in the CFLRP five-year report released in April 2015. A more 

thorough discussion may be found in the report at: 

http://www.fs.fed.us/restoration/documents/cflrp/CFLRP_5-YearReport.pdf. 

With its focus on creating and emphasizing partnerships between government, conservationists, 

businesses, local forest workers, sportsmen, recreationists, and others, the CLFRP projects 

enable communities to move work forward on the ground that would simply not be possible 

without this collaborative forest management approach. For example, a collaborative member 

from the Southern Blues Restoration Coalition project in Oregon reports that “by working 

together, we are on track to complete all of our watershed restoration goals in half the time 

predicted in our original CFLRP proposal. We would not be in this position without the 

CFLRP.” After facing years of gridlock over natural resource management issues and changes 

 23 Includes CFLRP appropriated funds, agency program matching funds, and additional project investments. 24 Goods for Services represents the value of goods traded for services in stewardship contracts expended to 

implement treatments and monitor a CFLRP project on NFS Lands 25 Leverage includes funds or in-kind services that help projects achieve proposed objectives within the CFLRP 

landscape but do not meet match qualifications, such as implementation and monitoring on private, State, and other 

Federal lands within the CFLRP landscape, but not on NFS lands. 

26 Labor income estimated from Treatment for Restoration Economic Analysis Tool, a standard interface designed 

for CFLRP that generates project impacts from proposed restoration activities within the counties where activities 

occur. 
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in the wood market, the last remaining sawmill in the nearby town of John Day, Oregon, nearly 

shut down in 2011. By effectively bringing together conservationists, loggers, and other 

members of the community, the CFLRP enabled the mill to stay open, and the ten year 

stewardship contract supported by CFLRP continued to provide a large percentage of the private 

employment in Grant and Harney Counties in FY 2015. Local loggers have been able to hire 

after a long period when the risk was too great. In the past five years, the CFLRP has 

demonstrated that these investments in forest and watershed restoration support local 

communities by generating considerable and much-needed economic benefits. Through a suite 

of restoration related activities, from utilizing the byproducts of hazardous fuels treatments to 

effective job training programs for at-risk youth, the CFLRP has created or maintained an 

average of 5,236 local jobs each year jobs each year and generated over $800 million in local 

labor income (FY 2012- FY 2015). Agency economists worked with the University of Oregon 

and the University of Montana to update the Treatment for Restoration Economic Analysis Tool 

(TREAT) economic analysis model this year. The resulting analysis is more accurate and shows 

that restoration related activities generate more labor income than previous analyses.

Reducing the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire and restoring resilient landscapes is one of the key 

outcomes of the program. The benefits of hazardous fuels reduction work as part of broader 

restoration efforts were borne out on the Bald Knob wildfire on the Pisgah National Forest in 

July 2015. The strategic placement of prior fuels treatments around the wildfire—which were 

part of the Grandfather Restoration CFLRP project—allowed the response to this fire to focus on 

restoring fire adapted ecosystems and reducing fuels while providing for firefighter safety and 

community protection. Recent prescribed burns created a buffer on three sides of the fire 

resulting in reduced fire behavior that allowed the forest to safely manage the fire for resource 

benefits with minimal risk of high intensity fire threatening values, including local communities 

and water supplies. Through the collaborative process, projects like the Grandfather Restoration 

Project are reducing risk and helping to create fire adapted communities. Additionally, through 

continued improvements to the Wildfire Hazard Potential map, a working group of economists, 

fire ecologists, program managers, and others are developing an approach to integrate this data 

with CFLRP landscapes and treatments to reflect progress toward lower risk conditions.

CFLRP is a strong contributor to the agency’s accomplishments on many of our key performance 

measures each year. For example, in FY 2015, the CFLRP projects contributed approximately 

14 percent of the acres treated to reduce hazardous fuels in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) 

and non-WUI, 16 percent of the timber volume sold, and 10 percent of the acres treated to 

enhance terrestrial wildlife habitat. Selected accomplishments and outputs across all projects are 

shown in the performance table at the beginning of this section—targets shown are only 

estimates provided for reference since decisions on how to allocate resources and the specific 

mix of project activities undertaken each year are made at the local project level. Changing 

conditions or circumstances can affect the mix of planned activities. The FY 2015 and FY 2016 

targets are those published in prior budget justifications and are based on request levels in those 

years of $60 million dollars. Actual accomplishments shown reflect the lower appropriation 

level of $40 million dollars in each of those years.

Last year, the agency also continued to focus on creating stronger communities of practice and 

shared learning between the 23 CFLRP projects and beyond to synergize efforts and build on the 

valuable lessons learned on ecological restoration approaches, collaboration, and multi-party 
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monitoring to date. In 2015, the Government Accountability Office drafted a report on 

landscape restoration that highlighted the important work being accomplished through 

collaborative, landscape-scale approaches, while emphasizing the opportunity to focus on these 

communities of practice to increase efficacy and scale (GAO-15-398: Forest Restoration: 

Adjusting Agencies’ Information-Sharing Strategies Could Benefit Landscape-Scale Projects.)

The agency partnered with the National Forest Foundation to host two Peer Learning webinar 

sessions on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) efficiencies and socioeconomic 

monitoring, and CFLRP project and regional coordinators shared lessons learned via numerous 

other national venues including the Partnership Network, the Sustainable Forests Roundtable, 

and an international seminar on forest landscape restoration hosted by the agency in partnership 

with nongovernmental organizations partners in Oregon. 

Program Description

Program Overview

The CFLRP encourages collaborative, science-based ecosystem restoration of priority forest 

landscapes. The CFLRP was authorized by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 

(L. 111-11, Title IV, March 30, 2009, 123 Stat. 1141). This Act authorizes the ecosystem 

restoration of priority forest landscapes that must be at least 50,000 acres in size, with the goal of 

promoting the resilience and adaptive capacity of ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged, 

or destroyed. By building resilience and mitigating wildfire risk on priority landscapes, the 

program directly supports the agency’s strategic goals to sustain our Nation’s forest and 

grasslands and to reduce wildfire risk.

Investing in the CFLRP is known to advance restoration by engaging diverse communities and 

leveraging partner resources through collaboration, implementation, and monitoring. The 

program is unique in that projects are selected based on proposals collaboratively developed with 

diverse partner communities. These collaborative groups are involved throughout the project 

cycle, providing feedback and input through the NEPA process and partnering as appropriate to 

complete implementation and monitoring. Activities implemented using CFLRP funds include: 

reducing the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire; including the use of fire for ecological restoration 

to restore or maintain resilient landscapes; improving fish and wildlife habitat; maintaining or 

improving water quality or watershed function; preventing, remediating, or controlling invasions 

of exotic species; maintaining, decommissioning, and rehabilitating roads and trails; and 

facilitating the removal and utilization of woody biomass and small trees produced from projects 

implementing the strategy. No more than $4 million of CFLRP funds may be allocated to an 

individual project in any one year. Land areas for consideration must have a substantially

complete restoration strategy, be primarily composed of forested National Forest System (NFS)

lands, and be in proximity to wood-processing infrastructure to use the woody biomass removed 

during ecological restoration treatments.

By working more closely with communities, CFLRP projects are identifying innovative 

techniques for getting work done, increasing community support for restoration projects, and 

generally increasing the capacity and pace of restoration work in CFLRP project areas. The 

program also supports local rural communities through the generation of forest products such as 

timber and biomass for bioenergy production, as well as the creation and maintenance of jobs.
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Effective monitoring and evaluation provides projects with the opportunity to learn and adapt as 

implementation progresses. CFLRP projects bring together multiple partners to plan and 

implement monitoring processes that assess ecological, social, and economic impacts of 

treatments on the landscape. This innovative, multiparty approach helps promote efficiency, 

transparency, and accountability. 

The CFLRP supports the U.S. Department of Agriculture Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national 

forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate 

change, while enhancing our water resources. The CFLRP also supports the Forest Service 

strategic goal of sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands through the fostering of healthy 

ecosystems, mitigating wildfire risk, and conserving of open space. In addition, we achieve 

Forest Service goals of delivering benefits to the public, such as providing abundant clean water 

and strengthening communities.

Allocation and Integration

The CFLRP Advisory Panel, a 15 member Federal advisory committee authorized by the Federal 

Advisory Committee Act, reviewed CFLRP project proposals in 2010 and 2011 and made 

recommendations for project selection. The Secretary of Agriculture then made the final 

decision as to which projects would receive funding, selecting 10 projects in 2010 and 10 more 

in 2012. Three additional projects were recommended by the CFLRP Advisory Panel in FY 

2012 and began receiving funding in FY 2013. No additional projects were selected for FY 2015 

funding, but all existing projects continued to be funded based on their project plans.

The CFLRP funds may be used to pay up to 50 percent of the cost of carrying out and 

monitoring ecological restoration treatments that occur on NFS lands. The CFLRP funds can be 

matched with appropriated, permanent, trust, or partnership funds; in-kind contributions; and 

restoration treatments funded through timber value within a stewardship contract. 

Partnerships

At the national level, the Forest Service works with the National Forest Foundation to provide 

support to the field units in implementing CFLRP projects. The National Forest Foundation has 

facilitated several peer-to-peer webinars for CFLRP projects. These webinars are designed to 

facilitate the sharing of information and best practices, and have focused on topics such as 

implementation, collaboration, multi-party monitoring, and ecological indicators. The Forest 

Service also works with field units and partners to develop methodologies for tracking project 

progress. In June 2011, the Forest Service met with interested partners and field representatives 

to develop indicators of project progress to develop the five year report to Congress required by 

the Act. These indicators cover topics including ecology, jobs, fire cost reduction, leveraged 

funds, and collaboration. Four of these indicators were implemented by the Forest Service in FY 

2012. The CFLRP Coalition, a partner group spearheaded by five nongovernmental 

organizations, is taking on the collaboration indicator independently. More information about 

our progress collaborating with partners—including these indicators can be found in the fiveyear report at: http://www.fs.fed.us/restoration/documents/cflrp/CFLRP_5-YearReport.pdf.
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https://grandfatherrestorationproject.wordpress.com/

The Grandfather Restoration Project and the Deschutes Collaborative, described below, are two 

examples of how public and nongovernmental organizations are working together to prioritize 

and accomplish forest landscape restoration. 

Grandfather Restoration Project: Collaboration is Key to Restoring Fire-Resilient Forests

The Grandfather Restoration CFLRP Project 

in North Carolina bring community members 

together to restore fire resilient ecosystems 

while providing for community protection, 

improve wildlife habitat and forest 

composition in degraded stands, treat forests 

for the destructive hemlock woolly adelgid, 

and restore watershed health to benefit native 

trout and improve water quality. Partners 

include local and regional non-profit 

organizations, forest product users, recreation 

interests, and State and other Federal agencies. 

This landscape is no stranger to wildfires, and 

with its proximity to communities and resources, it is a high-priority area for restoration 

activities that reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. In 2009, the Grandfather Ranger district 

began managing natural-ignition wildfires for resource benefit to reduce the risk of catastrophic 

wildfires and the associated risks and costs. The start of the Grandfather Restoration CFLRP

project in 2012 marked a 6-fold increase in acres of fuels treatments accomplished. Thanks to 

the resources and collaborative support provided through the CFLRP Program, the Grandfather 

Project has been able to greatly accelerated restoration work and provided the community with

opportunities to actively engage in fuel treatment prioritization and implementation.

When lighting struck 30 miles outside of Asheville, North Carolina, in July of 2015, the 

community experienced the benefits of these restoration treatments. The lighting started the 

“Bald Knob” fire in a rugged, backcountry area with limited access for firefighters. Due to 

damage from southern pine beetle outbreaks in the 1990’s and a history of fire suppression, the 

area was overgrown and in dangerous wildfire condition. However, thanks to previous 

hazardous fuels treatments accomplished in the area with CFLRP support - and through 

collaboration with partners and adjacent landowners – responders were able to manage the fire to 

protect communities, resources, and firefighter safety while allowing it to play its natural role as 

part of the ecosystem, increasing the area’s resilience to future threats. Prior to the wildfire, the 

collaborative efforts of the Forest Service and partners set the stage for effective communications 

with adjacent landowners and communities. According to the District Ranger, “with these recent 

fires we are starting to reap the value of the restoration work under our Collaborative Forest 

Landscape Restoration Project.”

Through close collaboration with partners, the Grandfather Restoration CFLRP Project has 

accomplished a suite of restoration activities on the landscape. In FY 2015, the project reported 

achievements including over 5,700 acres of terrestrial habitat enhanced, 306 acres of nonnative 
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invasive plant treatments, 10.5 miles of roads decommissioned, 60 miles of trails maintained,

and 737 acres of forest vegetation improved. 

Deschutes Collaborative: Leveraging Trust into Restoration Accomplishment

The future of forestry in a changing world lies in 

finding new and effective ways to collaborate with the 

public we serve. Approaches that allow us to work 

more closely with communities are altering the way 

forestry supports local economies and the way the 

Forest Service interfaces with stakeholders. The work 

occurring on the Deschutes National Forest exemplifies 

this shift. The Forest built on its history of successful 

collaboration to form an overarching collaborative 

group in 2010. This group generated the Deschutes 

Collaborative Forest Project, which became one of the 

first projects selected under CFLRP. The collaborative 

effort brought former adversaries to the table to work 

through the prioritization of restoration projects. A 

collaborator from an environmental non-profit group that has previously litigated the Forest said 

that through the collaborative effort, he has “gone from horrified to pretty darn optimistic about 

the future of this forest.” As another collaborator noted, “this represents a new way of doing 

business in the forest. Through collaborative baby steps we have built the relationships, the trust, 

and the transparency necessary to generate solutions that work for the community.” Partner 

groups include Oregon Hunters Association, Oregon Trails Alliance, Central Oregon Running 

Klub, High Cascade Forest Volunteers, Sisters Trail Alliance, Travel Oregon, Trout Unlimited, 

Central Oregon Community College Forestry Club, East Cascades Audubon Society, Sisters 

Schools, and various private citizens. 

The collaborative effort has allowed the forests to pursue innovative techniques for getting work 

done. The Forest has successfully utilized stewardship contracts on several restoration projects, 

which have in turn grown restoration capacity in the local community. One contractor reported 

having a colleague who had previously struggled to find consistent work and often relied on 

gathering firewood to generate income. When the forest began offering stewardship contracts, 

he recognized a need for new skills in the community, and now owns four mowers and employs 

a hand crew.

The success of the collaborative project is allowing the CFLRP project to make measurable 

impacts on the ground. Between 2010 and 2015, the Deschutes CFLRP has established 4,780

acres of vegetation and improved 11,300 acres of vegetation to enhance forest resiliency. By 

working closely with partners, the project has completed over 71,800 acres of fuels treatments 

within the CFLRP landscape to decrease the risk of catastrophic wildfire. Project activities have 

restored or enhanced 12,800 acres of terrestrial wildlife habitat and 57 miles of stream habitat, 

improving conditions for important fish such as salmon and steelhead. Through implementation 

of CFLRP activities, the project has generated over 161,000 ccf (approximately 81 million board 

feet) of timber volume sold and supported contracts for labor, equipment, and materials with the 

private sector, generating income and jobs in the community. 

Deschutes National Forest in Oregon

The Deschutes Forest Supervisor speaks 

with a collaborator in a restored forest stand 

on the Deschutes National Forest.
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Land Management Planning, Assessment, and Monitoring

Budget Line Item Land Management Planning, Assessment & 

Monitoring

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Annual Appropriations

Inventory and Monitoring $151,019 $147,998 0 -$147,998 -100%

Land Management Planning 37,754 36,998 0 -36,998 -100%

Land Management Planning, Assessment & Monitoring 0 0 $183,928 183,928 100%

Land Management Planning, Assessment & Monitoring 

Total 188,773 184,996 183,928 -1,068 -1%

Annual Appropriation FTEs

Inventory and Monitoring 862 862 0 -862 -100%

Land Management Planning 236 236 0 -236 -100%

Land Management Planning, Assessment & Monitoring 0 0 1,098 1,098 100%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 1,098 1,098 1,098 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Land Management Planning, Assessment & 

Monitoring

Number of land management plan amendments 

underway 28 30 20 26 20 10

Number of land management plan revisions or creations 

underway 31 25 28 17 25 32

Acres of inventory data collected and acquired 45,675,608 59,671,991 16,200,000 63,906,896 16,200,000 15,000,000

Number of annual monitoring requirements completed 1,330 1,170 1,130 1,212 1,130 1,130

Number of land management plan assessments 

completed 35 38 20 25 20 18

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies,

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $183,928,000 for the Land Management Planning, 

Assessment, and Monitoring Program, a net program decrease of $1,098,000 from the FY 2016 

Enacted Budget. This decrease in funding is necessary to balance other priorities of the agency. 

While the focus will continue on the highest priorities of this program, the decreased funding 

will mean less units will be able to move forward with implementation of the 2012 Planning 

Rule, which will slow our progress in updating land management plans (LMPs) and slow 

progress in implementing other important components under this rule related to inventory, 

monitoring, and assessment that would have addressed emerging issues and enhance program 

delivery.
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The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes consolidating the Land Management Planning and 

Inventory and Monitoring programs into one new budget line item called Land Management 

Planning, Assessment, and Monitoring. The proposed budget line item will provide flexibility to 

achieve efficiencies in several central activities in the planning cycle that are core to successfully 

implementing the requirements of the 2012 Planning Rule and supporting accelerated restoration. 

The net amount was calculated using the combined totals from the FY 2016 Enacted level as 

summarized in the table below.

Land Management Planning, Assessment, and Monitoring

Consolidated Budget Line Items

(dollars in thousands)

Approp. Budget Line Item

FY 2015

Enacted

FY 2016 

Enacted Change

FY 2017 

Pres Bud

NFS

Land Management Planning, 

Assessment, and Monitoring - - $183,928 $183,928

NFS Land Management Planning 37,754 36,998 -36,998 -

NFS Inventory and Monitoring 151,019 147,998 -147,998 -

Total $188,773 $184,996 ($1,068) $183,928

Forest Service management is founded on a continuous cycle of assessing and planning at 

multiple levels, implementing and adjusting programs, projects and plans based on information 

acquired through integrated inventory and monitoring activities. The proposed budget line item

provides flexibility to implement the requirements of the 2012 Planning Rule which includes an 

increased focus on agency assessment and monitoring activities. Under the proposed budget line 

item, critical planning-related work would not be constrained by activity funding levels. This 

flexibility will allow successful implementation of the full range of planning, assessment and 

monitoring activities in the management cycle. The need to integrate regional and local 

inventory, monitoring and assessment activities with unit planning efforts can be accomplished 

more effectively and efficiently under the proposed budget line item. These efficiencies will 

help achieve plan revisions in three to four years instead of the five to six it currently takes.

The 2012 Planning Rule promotes a collaborative science-based approach for planning, 

monitoring, and conducting assessments that considers information from and about “all lands” 

affected by, or influencing planning unit activities. National Forest System (NFS) units work 

with counterparts in Research and Development and State and Private Forestry, as well as with 

the public, Tribes, and other partners, to revise and amend plans, develop unit and regional 

monitoring programs and strategies, conduct assessments ahead of plan revisions, and ensure that 

inventories, data management, and corporate data systems support other business requirements.

Management priorities and actions funded under each activity area include:

Land Management Plan Revisions and Amendments - The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes 

funds for the creation, revision, and amendment of LMPs. Funding supports LMP revisions 

required under the National Forest Management Act. These funds will allow continued work on 

32 revisions under way and up to five units conducting pre-revision assessments. Four of these 

plan revisions are currently scheduled for completion by the end of FY 2016. The agency will 
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continue to improve its capacity as more units move into the LMP revision process and 

implement the other provisions of the 2012 Planning Rule. In addition, the agency amends, 

corrects or adjusts, as needed, the plans not currently under revision, focusing on completing 

amendments to address critical issues and decisions, including carbon sequestration, energy 

corridors, integrated forestry, travel management plans, and watershed restoration opportunities. 

This funding level supports work on up to 20 LMP amendments.

Assessments and Monitoring - The FY 2017 President’s Budget funds inventory, monitoring, 

and assessment work on national forests and grasslands in support of LMP revisions, 

amendments, and other agency priorities. The agency also integrates and improves databases 

and ensures that all existing and newly acquired data reside in a centralized repository which 

supports the efficient implementation of the 2012 Planning Rule and other programs requiring 

forest-wide inventory data. Assessments conducted in advance of LMP revisions determine the 

need to change direction in existing plans. Units not revising plans can conduct assessments 

designed to establish the need and priorities for project-level work. Including the five prerevision assessments mentioned above, the agency will complete 18 assessments in FY 2017.

Past Performance

The Land Management Planning program provides the foundation for the delivery of all the 

ecosystem services derived from NFS lands. This program is essential to effective management, 

helping identify the highest priorities and addressing community needs. This is done by having 

up-to-date LMPs with revisions and amendments completed with full community engagement, 

and based on science informed by effective inventory, monitoring and assessment activities.

Land Management Planning:

Wrap up of the 1982 Procedures - While we transition to the requirements of the 2012 Planning 

Rule, several plan revisions using the 1982 Procedures under the 2000 Planning Rule are being 

completed. In FY 2015, six plans using the 1982 Procedures under the 2000 Planning Rule 

completed revisions. The remaining seven plans being revised under this Rule will be completed 

by the end of FY 2017. Generally, revisions using the 1982 Procedures have taken five to six 

years to complete, with some taking considerably longer. As we learn from the first units 

implementing the 2012 Planning Rule and incorporate those lessons into our processes, we 

anticipate reducing that completion time for revisions to an average of three to four years. New 

planning directives released in early 2015 are assisting units in more efficiently meeting the new 

Planning Rule requirements.

Public engagement and improving plan revision processes - As the agency continues 

implementation of the 2012 Planning Rule, we are emphasizing meaningful public engagement 

throughout all phases of the planning process including assessments, revisions and amendments, 

the objections process, and plan monitoring. Quality public engagement also extends to plan 

implementation. The “early adopter” units (i.e., the first units to revise plans under the new 

Rule) are providing valuable insights into how to more efficiently and effectively conduct plan 

revision activities. This information will be extremely helpful as we continue to look for 

opportunities to plan across larger landscapes composed (multiple Forest Service units in order) 
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to more effectively address broader or common ecological, economic and social issues through 

assessment, planning, monitoring, implementation, and associated public engagement activities.

Revisions - In FY 2015, a Draft Environmental Impact Statement was completed for the Francis 

Marion National Forest plan revision, the first to be completed under the new Planning Rule. 

This revision is expected to be completed by the end of FY 2016. An additional seven revisions 

are expected to be completed in FY 2017 under the new Rule. Our emphasis on being more 

efficient in meeting the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act will also help 

with completing project level analyses and documentation necessary to implement these plans. 

Increased documentation efficiencies include electronic publishing and e-filing planning and 

project environmental documents with the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency is 

working with revision units to evaluate and communicate the lessons learned from these initial 

efforts to all NFS units in the agency.

Amendments –In September 2015, a multi-year collaborative effort between the Forest Service, 

Bureau of Land Management and others culminated in the completion of LMP amendments that 

are designed to conserve sage grouse populations and habitat on NFS lands. Two Records of 

Decision approved the desired conditions and standards and guidelines for 20 plan amendments 

using the 1982 Procedures under the 2000 Planning Rule. Implementation begins in FY 2016.

The Forests Service will continue to amend and revise LMPs as we transition to the requirements 

under the 2012 Planning Rule. We expect the number of major amendments to stabilize over the 

next two to three years as the revisions using the 1982 Procedures are completed. We will also 

have successfully completed the transition to the new plan monitoring requirements under the 

2012 Planning Rule in 2016. The agency developed guidance for making this transition in FY 

2015, and is tracking progress and providing oversight to ensure that it occurs on all units 

needing to meet this requirement. We will also be striving to achieve a consistent level of the 

number of Forest Service units initiating and engaged in either assessment or revision work) 

within the agency. We will then be able to support an average of six-eight new revision starts 

and have a total of 25 to 32 revisions underway in any given year.

Inventory Monitoring and Assessment:

As the agency continues implementation of the 2012 Planning Rule, we are emphasizing 

meaningful public engagement throughout all phases of the planning process including 

assessments and ongoing monitoring. The use of “citizen science” and information generated by 

third party monitoring are becoming important aspects of this program. The agency has 

established a Crowdsourcing and Citizens Science Team to identify issues, explore how existing 

projects can be applied to agency programs, develop and deliver communications products, and 

work with other agencies to learn, develop relationships and share experiences and approaches. 

Training, guidance and other needed support are being planned, developed and implemented to 

address all aspects of agency public engagement and collaboration needs.

The planning and assessment processes have been enhanced by more effective inventory and 

monitoring resulting from having clearly established requirements, efficiencies in data 

management, data collection standards and protocols, improved analytical tools, and corporate 

applications designed to make data accessible to managers, partners, and the public. Quality data 
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and information help us understand the conditions on the land and the social and economic issues 

associated with natural resources. Quality data drives the indicators for key management and 

monitoring questions that reflect the decisions and analysis needed to support land management 

planning, program evaluations and project planning. The 2012 Planning Rule requires 

assessments that consider a broad spectrum of ecological, social and economic resource 

conditions as well as specific resources that must be addressed through unit and broader scale 

monitoring. Inventory, monitoring, and assessment information supports agency decision 

making at all levels and the prioritization of management actions.

In FY 2015 for additional units had published their Notice to Begin Assessment. By 2017, 

nineteen units revising their plans under the new Rule will have published the results from the 

multiple unique social, economic, and ecological assessments they conducted to meet the 2012 

Planning Rule requirements. Assessments are a key initial step for determining the need to revise 

or amend plans in response to changing ecological, social, and economic conditions and for 

collaborating with the public. What we have learned from these initial efforts will be used to 

streamline the assessment process for future LMP revision efforts. Initial findings suggest a 

need to streamline and focus assessments on specific areas that need to change desired 

conditions, objectives, standards or guidelines for specific management areas in the LMP for the 

unit. This will help ensure that more attention is given to the specific data needed to address 

specific ecological, social and economic questions that need to be addressed.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Land Management Planning, Assessment, and Monitoring program is a foundational 

component of the agency’s stewardship responsibilities to manage healthy forests and grasslands 

that are resilient to changing climates and external factors and provide recreational opportunities 

that connect people to the outdoors. It helps to ensure that the agency can continue to provide to 

the American people the ecosystem and multiple services derived from NFS lands, including 

benefits from timber, grazing, outdoor recreation, and the many other types of goods and 

services. Without adequate planning and monitoring, restoration and other economically and 

socially important activities could not occur on NFS lands. Collaboration and engagement with 

partners and the public is critical to developing, revising, or amending LMPs, conducting 

assessments, and developing and implementing a monitoring program.

The LMP component provides for the creation, revision, and amendment of LMPs required 

under the National Forest Management Act and the associated regulations. The program will 

continue to improve its capacity to implement the 2012 Planning Rule and revise existing LMPs 

in a systematic, strategic manner across all regions. In addition, the program will amend, correct 

or adjust, as needed, the plans not currently under revision, focusing on completing amendments 

to address critical issues and decisions, including energy corridors, integrated forestry, travel 

management plans, and watershed restoration opportunities.

The LMP provide a long-term vision of the desired conditions that each NFS unit hopes to

achieve, and a management strategy for how to achieve them. To establish a framework for 

achieving this vision, each unit collaborates with the public to develop a strategic management 
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plan addressing a wide variety of programs and issues. A LMP provides the basis for 

identifying, prioritizing, and implementing the programs and projects to move the unit towards 

achieving desired conditions and agency objectives. Such goals and objectives may include 

addressing climate change, ensuring abundant clean water, providing recreation opportunities, 

and restoring and maintaining forest and rangeland ecosystems. This multi-tiered approach 

highlights ecological, social, and economic trends and conditions relevant to LMPs. The 

approach also generates efficiencies in data collection, mapping, storage, reporting, and use.

The Land Management Planning program is delivered through the following activities:

Maintain Land Management Plans – LMP maintenance includes making amendments, 

corrections, and adjustments; conducting any analyses needed after legal notice initiating an 

amendment; and, resolving any appeals, litigation, and objections to the amendment.

Create/Revise Land Management Plans – Includes all work activities associated with LMP

revision and creation including those identified in the 2012 Planning Rule and in the 1982 

Procedures of the 2000 Planning Rule, including public involvement, pre-revision 

assessments, development of LMP components, analysis of public comments and 

development of unit monitoring programs and broad scale regional monitoring strategies. 

This activity also involves resolving appeals, litigation and objections to the LMP.

The Land Management Planning program supports the Forest Service strategic goal of sustaining 

our nation’s forests and grasslands and delivering benefits to the public by providing abundant 

clean water benefits and strengthening communities through social and economic benefits.

The Inventory, Monitoring, and Assessment component provides for the inventory, monitoring, 

and assessment work on the national forests and grasslands that supports LMP revisions, 

amendments, and other agency priorities. It also supports adaptive management through Plan

monitoring activities that can lead to adjustments in Plan components as part of a revision or 

amendment process. These components include standards and guidelines for implementing onthe-ground activities that are designed to meet the desired conditions and objectives in plans.

The agency also integrates and improves databases and ensures that all existing and newly 

acquired data resides in a centralized repository which supports the efficient implementation of 

the 2012 Planning Rule and other programs requiring inventory data. Assessments conducted in 

advance of Plan revisions determine the need to change direction in existing plans.

The 2012 Planning Rule establishes a planning framework that emphasizes developing 

collaborative, science-based, unit-level monitoring programs and broader-scale monitoring 

strategies at regional and national levels to address high-priority landscape scale resource 

questions, conditions, and issues. This multi-tiered approach highlights ecological, social, and 

economic trends and conditions relevant to LMPs. The approach also generates efficiencies in 

data collection, mapping, storage, reporting, and use. Units will be completing and compiling 

monitoring information prior to initiating revisions or amendments in order to assess the need to 

change plan direction and identify resource issues.

The Land Management Planning, Assessment, and Monitoring Program contributes to the U.S. 

Department of Agriculture (USDA) Strategic Plan Goal 2, ensuring our national forests and 
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private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while 

enhancing our water resources. The program also supports all four Forest Service strategic 

goals: Sustaining Our Nation’s Forest and Grasslands, Delivering Benefits to the Public, Apply 

Knowledge Globally, and Excel as a High Performing Agency.

Allocation and Integration

Integrated allocations for this program are based on several factors related to planning, 

inventory, monitoring and assessment activities. These include the number of LMPs in each 

region that are under revision, the number of pre-revision assessments being conducted, the 

number of programmatic amendments underway, the number of plans in a non-revision or 

maintenance mode, and the number of units and total acreage in each region. Priority for 

allocating funds is given to those units revising their LMPs under the 2012 Planning Rule.

Coordination with other programs with responsibility for planning and amendments assures that 

appropriate direction, funding, and performance expectations are included in agency program 

and information resource direction.

Partnerships

Collaboration with partners and the public is critical to developing, revising or amending LMPs, 

conducting assessments, and developing and implementing a monitoring program. Collaborative 

activities assist in identifying needs, establishing desired conditions, crafting alternatives or 

scenarios for future management, and identifying information needs and monitoring 

requirements.

For plan development, revision, and maintenance activities, agency field units work closely with 

citizens and organizations with an interest in how the land is managed. The Federal Advisory 

Committee for Implementation of the Planning Rule continues to address the challenges 

associated with implementing land management planning at the broader landscape scale 

envisioned in the Rule and directives. It is also providing recommendations to the Department of 

Agriculture and the Forest Service on adaptive management, including plan monitoring and 

assessments. The Committee is comprised of 21 members who provide balanced and broad 

representation of public interests including industry and user groups; environmental 

organizations; conservation organizations; recreation interests; members of the scientific 

community; State, county, or local elected officials (or designee); Tribal representatives; and 

others (http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/planningrule/committee/?cid=stelprdb5372048). The 

USDA and the Forest Service considers recommendations from the Committee, along with 

public comment, as it develops the guidance, tools and other resources needed to improve its 

capacity to successfully implement the new Planning Rule and directives.

The agency works with Federal, regional, and local partners to inventory and monitor its lands. 

Within the Federal Geographic Data Committee, the Forest Service has the lead responsibility to 

work with other agencies to set standards for vegetation classification. The agency also works 

with governmental and nongovernmental partners to collect data and set inventory and 

monitoring protocols for consistent data collection methods.
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Units Completing Revisions using the 1982 Planning Procedures

by Fiscal Year

FS Region Unit State Completed

1 Idaho Panhandle National Forest ID 2015

1 Kootenai National Forest MT 2015

2 Shoshone National Forest WY 2015

3 Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest AZ 2015

3 Prescott National Forest AZ 2015

8 George Washington National Forest VA 2015

Expected Completions

5 Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit CA 2016

3 Coronado National Forest AZ 2016

3 Coconino National Forest AZ 2016

6 Malheur National Forest OR 2017

6 Umatilla National Forest OR 2017

6 Wallowa-Whitman National Forest OR 2017

6 Colville National Forest WA 2017

Units Implementing Revision Requirements under the 2012 Planning Rule

by Fiscal Year

FS Region Unit State Assessment 

Initiated

Revision 

Initiated

Expected 

Completion

8 Francis Marion National Forest SC 2013 2014 2016

8 El Yunque National Forest PR 2012 2014 2017

5 Inyo National Forest CA 2013 2014 2017

5 Sequoia National Forest CA 2013 2014 2017

5 Sierra National Forest CA 2013 2014 2017

8 Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest NC 2013 2014 2017

1 Flathead National Forest MT 2013 2015 2017

10 Chugach National Forest AK 2013 2016 2017

3 Cibola National Forest NM 2013 2015 2018

3 Carson National Forest NM 2014 2016 2018

3 Santa Fe National Forest NM 2014 2016 2018

1 Helena National Forest MT 2014 2016 2018

1 Lewis & Clark National Forest MT 2014 2016 2018

2 Rio Grande National Forest CO 2015 2016 2018

3 Tonto National Forest AZ 2014 2016 2019

3 Gila National Forest NM 2015 2016 2019

3 Lincoln National Forest NM 2015 2017 2019

1 Clearwater National Forest ID 2012 2014 TBD

1 Nez Perce National Forest ID 2012 2014 TBD
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Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 

Budget Line Item Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness

Annual Appropriations $261,719 $261,719 $263,942 $2,223 1%

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness Total 261,719 261,719 263,942 2,223 1%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 1,918 1,918 1,918 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 1,918 1,918 1,918 0 0%

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness

Manage Recreation Operations 151,797 151,797 154,768 2,971 2%

Administer Recreation Special Use Authorizations 39,258 39,258 41,590 2,332 6%

Manage Heritage Resources 28,789 28,789 28,593 -196 -1%

Manage Wilderness & Wild & Scenic Rivers 41,875 41,875 38,991 -2,884 -7%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness

Number of recreation site capacity (PAOT days) 

operated to standard 71,371,135 69,395,856 69,396,000 77,374,507 70,000,000 70,000,000

Percentage of NFS lands covered by travel management 

plans resulting in visitor safety, resource protection using 

best management practices, and less visitor conflict with 

off-road vehicle usage 85.5% 87.1% 100.0% 85.8% 100.0% 100.0%

Number of recreation special use authorizations 

administered to standard 17,506 15,429 15,400 16,082 15,000 15,500

Number of wildernesses meeting baseline performance 

for preserving wilderness character 0 0 0 0 44 26

Number of wild and scenic river areas meeting statutory 

requirements 55 49 57 43 57 45

Number of heritage programs managed to standard 81 74 75 82 80 80

Heritage program score 5,231 5,125 5,125 5,260 5,260 5,260

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $263,942,000 for the Recreation, Heritage, and 

Wilderness program, an increase of $2,223,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted level. The increase 

will enhance the Forest Service’s efforts to strengthening and deepening connections with the 

public through outdoor experiences. At this level of funding, we will continue to expand and 

enhance outdoor experiences for the public by implementing five emphases:
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• modernize our recreation special uses program;

• increase capacity and focus on our community service and volunteer programs;

• implement digital innovation;

• enhance citizen access through our system of recreation roads and trails; and

• leverage demonstration projects in key special places.

Past Performance

Our Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness programs provide a broad range of outdoor recreation 

and stewardship benefits to the public, individual businesses, and local economies. In FY 2015, 

we focused our resources on investing in partnerships and volunteers, including through the 21st 

Century Conservation Corps (21CSC); supporting and expanding opportunities for winter 

recreation opportunities in ski areas and trails; improving the quality and availability of 

recreation data, to support economic opportunity and public use; celebrating the 50th anniversary 

of the National Historic Preservation Act; modernizing our permit systems to expand outdoor 

experiences on the National Forest System (NFS); and rolling out our new Wilderness 

Stewardship Performance management approach, building on the success of the 10-Year 

Wilderness Stewardship Challenge. In 2015, more than 100,000 volunteers and service 

participants contributed 4.3 million hours or 2,388 Full-Time-Employees to help the Forest 

Service achieve its mission. These contributions were valued at $100 million.

Recreation Operations and Volunteers and Service

Advancing Digital Access to the Outdoors

Throughout FY 2015, Recreation personnel worked across disciplines and boundaries to improve 

public access to Forest Service data. To make available high quality recreation data, we first 

need to ensure that data is complete and consistent. In FY 2015, we implemented initial steps 

towards a single, unified recreation database. Working with a single data system will reduce 

field work and greatly improve the public facing information that feeds into Recreation.gov and 

other social media and web-based applications that facilitate outdoor recreation. For example, 

we worked to improve how we display information regarding campgrounds, trailheads, picnic 

areas, and other facilities on maps which then created more robust trip-planning tools. We began 

work on the Interactive Visitor Map 2.0, which is scheduled for release in spring of 2016, and 

will improve access to recreation information through an innovative and practical web site for 

mobile users.

We also strengthened relationships with partners and third-party vendors interested in using this 

data in the future, by co-hosting the myAmerica Developer Summit in April 2015. More than 80 

participants from across the Nation gathered to develop apps and generate ideas for using 

government data sources to improve public access to outdoor recreation, such as by providing 

real-time information on campground availability or road and trail conditions.

Expanding Employment and Access for Youth and Veterans

In FY 2015, we continued to engage youth, particularly those from underserved communities, in 

the outdoors through partnerships, both through the 21CSC, National Public Lands Day (NPLD) 
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events, and other volunteer and service programs. We provided training and employment 

opportunities to 5,193 youth and 139 Veterans thus far, increasing our capacity to manage the 

NFS and build the next generation of conservation stewards. We also set a new Forest Service 

record holding 216 NPLD events across the Nation, a 32 percent increase above FY 2014. The

NPLD is the Nation's largest, single-day volunteer effort for public lands seven Federal agencies 

as well as nonprofit organizations and State, regional, and local governments participate in the 

annual day of caring for public lands.

Over Snow Travel Management

In FY 2015 we published the final Over-Snow Vehicles rule, Part C of the Travel Management 

Rule, a policy that sets principles for consistent field implementation. The new rule, which was 

very well received by multiple partners, provides clarity for managers on the ground expands

winter recreation opportunities and ensures natural resource protection at the same time. 

Heritage Resources

Throughout FY 2015, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation 

Act (NHPA) through more than 170 “Preservation 50—Windows on the Past” projects across the 

Nation. “Preservation 50” is a public-private collaborative effort to leverage the 

accomplishments of the first 50 years of the NHPA to assure historic preservation’s vibrant 

future in America and better connect the American public to their cultural and historic resources. 

To engage the public in Preservation 50 events, we reached out to several media outlets 

including multiple social media platforms and apps such as Instagram and Yonder. 

In 2015, several Preservation events were held on national forests, such as the Malheur National 

Forest and the National Forests in Florida. Here are two examples of Preservation 50 events held 

in 2015. On the Malheur National Forest in Oregon, we partnered with the Kam Wah Chung 

Heritage group to preserve and interpret the legacy of 19th century Chinese immigrant miners at 

a mining site with intact earthworks and mining features. And in the National Forests in Florida

we partnered with American YouthWorks and HistoriCorps to stabilize and interpret the 

National Historic Landmark at Fort Gadsden, once a bustling British fort/trading post, later a 

recruitment center for escaped slaves and Seminole Indians to thwart American expansion until 

the Fort’s destruction in 1816. Highlighting the breath, significance, and diversity of cultural 

assets on the NFS will spark the interest of all segments of the American public resulting in 

increased use, visitation, and appreciation that will also benefit rural gateway communities with 

economic opportunities. 

Recreation Special Uses

In FY 2015, we solicited and completed analysis of comments on the proposed ski area water 

clause and submitted the final directive for Federal Register publication, a significant step 

forward to support additional seasonal or year round recreation use at ski areas. The final rule, 

which includes two clauses that address the sufficiency of water for ski area operations, will 

promote the long-term sustainability of ski areas on the NFS and support jobs and the local 

economies that depend on them.
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We also initiated steps to expand economic opportunities and outdoor experiences on the NFS 

more broadly, through special uses. In FY 2015, we initiated a multi-year, multi-faceted 

modernization effort of our permitting system. Once complete, this modernized system will 

make it easy for the public to seek, and staff to issue, recreation special use permits. 

Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers

In FY 2015, we successfully implemented a new performance measure in a trial mode, with 

plans to formally use the measure beginning in FY 2016. This measure “wildernesses meeting 

baseline performance for preserving wilderness character”, also known as “Wilderness

Stewardship Performance”, provides flexibility for national forest and district staff to choose ten 

evaluation elements, from a broader set of 19 elements, that most closely reflect local 

stewardship priorities for every wilderness they manage, while using a consistent framework to 

make the reporting results comparable across the country. These elements were developed in 

close coordination with other resource areas including fire management, water resources, air 

quality, invasive species, grazing, recreation, cultural resources, and special uses to address the 

truly integrative nature of wilderness stewardship. We provided national funding and staffing to 

assist in the selection of elements for all 445 wildernesses. This measure will help us move the 

Wilderness Program forward towards effective stewardship management for all designated 

Wilderness, following the successful completion of the 10-Year Wilderness Stewardship 

Challenge in FY 2014.

In FY 2015, we also fulfilled Wild and Scenic Rivers planning and active management efforts to 

successfully meet statutory requirements for 35 percent (43 of 122) of designated rivers managed 

by the Forest Service or flowing through NFS lands. Such work delivered benefits to the public 

through protection and enhancement of river values such as clean water, free-flowing condition, 

and river-related recreation. We also continued to collaborate with the Department of the 

Interior in the Interagency Wild and Scenic Rivers Coordinating Council, including work to 

develop a draft technical paper and hold a workshop for agency and non-agency river managers 

on the topic, “Addressing User Capacities on Wild & Scenic Rivers.”

Program Description

Program Overview

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness programs on the NFS offer a diverse range of recreational 

opportunities across NFS lands, connecting people with nature in an unmatched variety of 

settings and activities. Outdoor recreation is by far the single greatest use of the NFS, supporting 

approximately 143,000 full- and part-time jobs and contributing close to $10 billion to the 

communities surrounding national forests and grasslands. NFS lands host about 147 million 

visits annually, engaging the public in activities such as camping, picnicking, skiing, 

snowboarding, hunting, fishing, hiking, backpacking, horseback riding, wildlife viewing, and 

visiting cultural sites. The benefits to rural communities from visitors to NFS lands continue 

long after visitors leave the forest. Visitors spend money in rural communities on everything 

from lodging and restaurants to ski lessons and river guides. 
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In addition to these economic benefits, recreation opportunities contribute greatly to the physical, 

mental and spiritual health of individuals, bond families and friends, and instill pride in our 

natural and cultural heritage. Heritage resources, particularly those that offer opportunities for 

the public to visit, make significant contributions to local economies, provide authentic 

experiences for cultural tourism. Wilderness fulfills a deep seated need for an alternative to 

urban and suburban parks, and furnishes a frequently sought environment for undisturbed 

solitude and relaxation.

Every Kid in a Park

The Forest Service continues to be an active partner in President Obama’s Every Kid in a Park 

initiative which is committed to getting all children to visit and enjoy the outdoors and inspire a 

new generation to experience the country’s public lands and waters. Every Kid in a Park allows 

every fourth-grader in the Nation - and their families - to receive an “Every Kid in a Park” pass 

that is good for free admission to all of America’s Federal lands and waters. The Forest Service 

will continue to implement local programs throughout the country to support this initiative and 

provide meaningful opportunities for children to experience the outdoors.

Aspects of the Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness programs also restore and maintain 

landscape character, and support a sense of place on landscapes visitors recreate within, the trails 

they hike, and the viewsheds they value. High-value recreation settings and scenery support 

community identity and influence quality of life and our sense of place. These settings shape our 

public image and guide experiences of visitors recreating on NFS lands. Participation in 

recreational activities is the way that most people come to know our national forests and 

grasslands, making recreation a critical avenue for developing an understanding of the relevance 

of our lands and natural and cultural resources, and creating support and a future constituency for 

public land management.

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness programs manage 26,750 recreation sites, over 30,000 

recreation special use authorizations, 25 major visitor centers, 22 National Historic Landmarks, 

over 362,000 heritage assets, 136 national scenic byways, 445 designated wildernesses (over 36 

million acres), and 122 designated wild and scenic rivers (over 4,900 miles). Through 

advancements in innovation and technology, we are expanding access to information and 

reservation services to encourage public enjoyment of these recreation opportunities.

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness programs are delivered through the following activities:

Manage Recreation Operations – This activity funds the operation of developed sites, such as 

campgrounds, day-use areas, boat ramps, solid waste disposal facilities, and visitor centers; 

general forest areas, including landscape corridors for national trails and scenic byways, 

snow play areas, lakes, streams, and roads; interpretive and educational services; and 

dispersed recreation activities such as hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, and wildlife and 

scenic viewing. This activity also funds sustainable recreation and tourism planning, visitor 

use management, cleaning facilities and sites; providing safety and security measures for 

visitors and employees; conducting prescribed inspections; managing partnerships and 

volunteers; and providing interpretive or educational programs, presentations, and products 
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to visitors. In addition, this activity also provides for the assessment, inventory, protection, 

enhancement, and monitoring of NFS recreation settings and scenic character. 

Administer Recreation Special Use Authorization – This activity funds processing new 

requests for recreation special use permits and administering existing authorizations, 

including permits for downhill ski areas; campground management; organization camps; 

outfitting and guiding; resorts and marinas; recreation events; and recreation residences. 

This activity funds responses, analyses, and decisions to proponents and applicants who 

request the use of NFS lands to provide recreation opportunities and benefits to forest 

visitors. This activity also includes providing inspection, oversight, and monitoring of 

authorizations issued to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of the 

authorizations. Special use permits make it possible for the public to enjoy many recreational 

opportunities which we would not otherwise be able to provide.

Manage Heritage Resources – This activity supports the protection of significant heritage 

assets and contributes interpretive, educational, site stewardship, and scientific and technical 

information to governmental entities, the public, and tribes. Agency efforts include heritage 

asset rehabilitation, both to reduce deferred maintenance and to provide enhanced 

opportunities for community economic development and tourism. Funded activities include 

identifying, evaluating, protecting, monitoring, and preserving heritage resources, sites and 

areas, and promoting heritage values through interpretation, Passport in Time projects, 

presentations, and other public information and outreach efforts. 

Manage Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers – This activity funds the protection and 

management of designated wilderness and wild and scenic rivers. Funded activities include 

managing visitor use and impacts, education and outreach, inventory and monitoring, 

information management, protecting wilderness character for designated wilderness, and 

protecting free-flowing conditions for wild and scenic rivers through collaborative public, 

private, and interagency management. Funded activities also include evaluating and 

recommending areas and rivers worthy of addition to the National Wilderness Preservation 

System and the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System during forest planning.

By providing sustainable recreation opportunities and protecting wilderness areas and wild and 

scenic rivers, the program contributes to the USDA Strategic Goal 2: ensuring our national 

forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate 

change, while enhancing our water resources. The Recreation, Heritage and Wilderness program 

also supports the Forest Service strategic goal of delivering benefits to the public through 

strengthening communities and connecting people to the outdoors.

Allocation and Integration

Funds are allocated to the regions based on program capability, core operations, and national 

priorities. The allocation process considers past performance and future needs regarding 

developed recreation site use; special use permit processing and administration; heritage 

resources; and management of wilderness areas and wild and scenic rivers.
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Recreation and wilderness programs achieve multiple management objectives by integrating with 

other land and resource programs. Examples include: joining resources with Capital 

Improvement and Maintenance programs to implement travel management; coordinating with 

other programs to address interpretation and education needs that connect the American public to 

nature; identifying and pursuing acquisition of needed access with and through the 

Landownership Management and Land Acquisition programs; coordinating with the Integrated 

Resource Restoration program to complete resource tasks in wilderness areas such as invasive 

species management, air quality monitoring, and prescribed burning; and using Research and 

Development programs to address the effects of climate change on wilderness areas. 

Partnerships 

The Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness program is supported through volunteers, Youth 

Conservation Corps, and hosted programs. Hosted program organizations such as the Greening 

Youth Foundation, Student Conservation Association, AmeriCorps, Los Angeles Conservation 

Corps, Southwest Conservation Corps, and others work with us to offer public service 

opportunities to connect youth with nature and prepare the next generation of conservationists. 

More than 80 percent of these contributions to the agency have been in the areas of recreation, 

trails, and wilderness.

The public’s use and enjoyment of resources on national forests and grasslands is enhanced 

through a variety of partnerships including volunteers and nongovernmental organizations such 

as outfitting and guiding, ski areas, and campground concessionaires. We collaborate with the 

Departments of Transportation, Commerce, and the Interior; States and communities; and other 

recreation providers to improve programs, provide access, and to support social and economic 

benefits derived from federally managed lands. Partnerships and programs that enable youth and 

Veterans to serve and work on public lands are essential to sustaining these resources for future 

generations and developing our workforce. This program consistently involves the highest 

number of volunteers and service participants within the agency.

Volunteers and service participants contribute significantly to assisting the agency in managing 

heritage resources, providing interpretive services, maintaining trails, and managing youth 

programs and campgrounds. Organizations like HistoriCorps and the Passport in Time 

Clearinghouse enable citizens to engage with their government and contribute in ways that build 

links to the past and positive perspectives of support for the agency mission. Partnerships 

employing Indian youth conducting archaeological surveys change agency interpretations of the 

past and build greater Tribal relationships. In addition, we work with partners at the national 

level, such as the National Forest Foundation, National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance, and 

the River Management Society to recruit wilderness and wild and scenic river volunteers and 

with the WILD Foundation on international skill exchanges. 

In FY 2014, nearly 110,000 volunteers contributed 4.64 million hours of service valued at $101

million according to the Independent Sector valuation of the volunteer hour, while service 

participants obtained job training, national service, and other development opportunities. 
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Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management

Budget Line Item Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management

Annual Appropriations $140,466 $140,466 $140,466 0 0%

Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management Total 140,466 140,466 140,466 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 772 772 772 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 772 772 772 0 0%

Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management

Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management 140,466 140,466 140,466 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management

Number of watersheds moved to an improved condition 

class 12 10 19 19 20 22

Acres treated annually to sustain or restore watershed 

function and resilience 2,533,121 2,906,018 2,900,000 3,100,979 2,900,000 2,900,000

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $140,466,000 for Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat 

Management, the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. This funding level will allow the 

agency to continue the pace of ecological restoration similar to FY 2016 levels.

The Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management program incorporates the lessons learned from 

the agency’s Integrated Resource Restoration (IRR) pilot. We continue to work across 

landownerships and programs in an integrated fashion to achieve landscape scale outcomes and 

incorporate work in site specific areas to address significant localized impacts to the ecosystem. 

The proposed FY 2017 program of work continues the emphasis on watershed restoration and 

moving watersheds to an improved condition class. Through integration with other programs, 

this budget provides a portion of the integrated funds necessary to move 22 watersheds to an 

improved condition class, treat 2,900,000 acres to sustain or restore watershed function and 

resilience, and restore or enhance 3,450 miles of stream habitat. Through an integrated approach 

to restoration, we estimate we will also improve 2,500,000 acres of wildlife habitat, enhance 

30,000 lake acres, and complete conservation actions benefitting 185 listed threatened and 
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endangered species, as well as engage tens of thousands of individuals across the nation through 

our conservation education efforts.

The program will focus on species and habitats most at risk from the effects of climate change. 

Program funding, including that identified for conserving priority landscapes, plays a critical role 

in management activities that restore, recover, and sustain wildlife and fish – particularly rare 

animal and plant species –and those of economic significance to local communities, States and 

tribes. We will continue to work across all program activities and enhance our partnerships and 

collaboration with nongovernmental organizations, other Federal agencies, State agencies, 

Tribes, and civic groups to continue to achieving the program’s accomplishments.

Restoring and protecting high quality habitats, reconnecting fragmented landscapes and waters, 

and engaging partners and local communities in large landscape conservation efforts are some of 

the ways the agency is working towards mitigating the effects of climate change on at-risk 

species and habitats. Emerging scientific data regarding climate change will be incorporated in 

the evaluation of management actions and alternatives to facilitate implementation of successful 

species and habitat adaptation strategies.

Specific priorities within each activity include:

Manage Aquatic Habitat - The request will fund the restoration and enhancement of stream and 

lake habitat and will support management priorities that recover and conserve 156 species of 

threatened or endangered fish, mussels, crustaceans, and 440 Forest Service aquatic animal and 

plant sensitive species or species of conservation concern. Habitat improvement projects 

designed to benefit multiple species, where possible, will be emphasized. Coordinated planning 

with other agency programs, such as the Legacy Roads and Trails program and Road 

Management activities will be emphasized to restore fish passage in fragmented stream 

segments, reestablish stream and riparian habitat function, and facilitate long range life cycle 

movements for aquatic species. These management activities are necessary to meet recovery 

objectives for threatened and endangered fish and other aquatic organisms; provide clean and 

abundant water for terrestrial wildlife and human uses; and provide quality sustainable fisheries 

resources guaranteed by Tribal treaties, and for use by the public. Hundreds of partners will 

continue to invest both funds and labor to make significant contributions to program activities.

Manage Terrestrial Habitat - The request will support the restoration of terrestrial habitats. 

Activities will focus on the recovery needs of over 109 threatened and endangered wildlife 

species, and 162 listed plant species. Funding will support management priorities for Forest 

Service sensitive species or species of conservation concern, habitats most affected by climate 

change, and species and habitats important to providing quality hunting and viewing 

opportunities for the public.

Priorities will focus on reforestation and revegetation efforts in support of ecological restoration, 

post-wildfire recovery. The agency will continue investment in conservation actions essential to 

improve habitat for the Greater Sage Grouse. We will also invest in work focusing on protecting 

and enhancing habitat for key pollinator species.
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Across the national forest and grasslands, hundreds of projects will be implemented in a variety 

of habitats that benefit a diverse suite of terrestrial species. Examples include creating breeding 

habitat in jackpine forests for the endangered Kirtland’s warbler in the Eastern Region; 

improving bighorn sheep, elk, and mule deer winter range in the Rocky Mountain and Northern 

Regions; treating late successional forests accompanied by road closures and decommissioning 

to benefit northern goshawk, spotted owl, and fisher in the Pacific Southwest Region; and 

creating nest islands for the declining populations of dusky Canada geese in the Copper River 

Delta in the Alaska Region.

A large number of acres will be managed with prescribed burning in the Southern Region in 

short- and longleaf pine forests to maintain adequate habitat conditions for a large suite of plant 

and animal species, some of which are only found in these fire dependent habitats including the 

red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher tortoise, and rough-leaf loosestrife, all of which are federally 

listed species.

Provide Wildlife and Fish Interpretation and Education – Supporting youth engagement and 

recreation will be achieved through conservation and education elements including the 

Naturewatch program and associated activities. Wildlife and fisheries environmental education 

programs will connect adults and children with their natural heritage through a variety of 

agency’s initiatives such as the “Kids in the Woods” program. An increased emphasis will be 

placed on upgrading and expanding the Forest Service “critter cams.” This popular program 

connects the public to a number of unique species, providing real time viewing opportunities 

through the internet. The agency will continue to support the ever popular and educational 

“International Migratory Bird Day”, “National Fishing Week”, and hunter programs such as the 

National Wild Turkey Federation’s Wheelin’ Sportsman, and Women in the Outdoors. All of 

these efforts and activities increase awareness, understanding, and enjoyment of wildlife, fish, 

and the ecosystems upon which they depend.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the agency continued to build on the lessons learned from the IRR pilot to more 

effectively integrate our efforts, work across landownerships, use the best available science, and 

increase collaboration with our partners. The primary outcome measure we use as a benchmark 

for our efforts is the number of watersheds moved to an improved condition class. The annual 

result is not only reflective of work implemented this year, but represents the culmination of 

integrated watershed-based work that started with the development of watershed restoration 

action plans. As we progress in our experience with the Watershed Condition Framework, we 

are learning that some watershed plans may need five to ten years to complete all the restoration 

actions required instead of the three to five years originally envisioned, due to the complexity 

and/or expense of watershed improvements and the focusing of available resources towards other 

priorities. Some watersheds simply have a longer list of required actions for their restoration 

plans which can drive up the time and expense needed. It is also taking longer to complete the 

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) work on some projects—particularly where the 

watershed work is bundled together with other restoration treatments for an environmental

analysis.
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To further accelerate watershed restoration both internally and externally and further stimulate 

water inspired human connections and investment in sustaining abundant, clean water and 

healthy aquatic habitat from our Nation’s watersheds. In FY 2015, we initiated efforts to 

convene leaders and existing and new partners to achieve national water quality, water supply, 

and aquatic habitat objectives through collaborative restoration actions on all lands.

A critical aspect of attaining our strategic goals of sustaining our Nation’s forest and grasslands 

and delivering benefits to the public is achieved through the work captured by the performance 

measure referred to as “acres treated annually to sustain or restore watershed function and 

resilience.” This measure is a composite that captures the “foot print” of our acre based 

treatments accomplished through a wide variety of restoration actions and programs, including 

activities supported by other budget line items. For the last three years including FY 2015, we 

have accomplished 2.7 to 3.1 million acres of restoration treatments each year. In FY 2015, the 

Wildlife and Fisheries Management Program remained a significant contributor to this 

accomplishment. This wildlife and fisheries habitat work, accomplished through a variety of 

integrated funding sources, included a total, of almost 29,000 acres of Lake Habitat work and 

over 1,300,000 acres of terrestrial habitat enhancements.

For wildlife, the focus continued on restoration of landscape scale ecosystem function and 

habitat connectivity through habitat restoration projects and protection and maintenance of 

migration corridors for a host of important species, such as grizzly bear, mule deer, elk, bighorn 

sheep, and sage grouse. Benefits of these activities are directly related to important conservation 

of species listed or being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

The restoration efforts of the wildlife and fish habitat management program along with 

integrated restoration efforts accomplished through other programs are critical in maintaining 

strong fish and wildlife populations important to the American public and for achieving the 

strategic goals of strengthening communities and connecting people to the outdoors. Across the 

U.S., hunters, anglers, and wildlife viewers combined spent $7.7 billion for their activities and 

equipment used for Forest Service related recreation on the National Forest System (NFS) lands. 

These expenditures supported 189,000 jobs and $878 million in Federal income tax receipts 

(Report prepared by American Sportfishing Association for the Wildlife, Fish and Rare Plants 

Staff, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, January 3, 2007, pg. 8).

Ensuring quality aquatic and terrestrial habitat and functional landscape connectivity across all 

lands remains a top focus for the agency. Stream restoration work directly affects habitat for 

threatened, endangered, and sensitive aquatic species as well as habitat for native fishes with 

commercial and non-commercial value, and for desired non-native species important to 

recreational fishing. The Legacy Roads & Trails Fund played a significant role in enhancing 

stream and terrestrial habitat for fish and wildlife resources and restoring habitat connectivity. 

Integrated planning and the effective use of partnerships allowed us to continue to make strong 

progress in this area. The cumulative accomplishments associated with this measure are a 

critical component of our threatened, endangered, and sensitive species restoration. Expanding 

the available habitat is making these species less susceptible to impacts associated with 

catastrophic events such as climate change, wildfire, or flood damage and helping us achieve our 

strategic goal of providing more resilient, adaptive ecosystems.
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The agency continues to work with a variety of partners and municipalities to improve culverts 

for aquatic organism passage and in FY 2015 achieved a milestone of its 1,000th culvert 

upgraded to fish-friendly standards under the Legacy Roads & Trails Fund. In addition, the 

prioritized retrofitting of irrigation diversions, support of instream flows, removal of invasive 

species, and a growing interest in decommissioning aging dams all restore aquatic connectivity 

networks located on and adjacent to NFS lands.

Removal of unnecessary roads can decrease long-term road maintenance costs and reduce the 

environmental impact of our transportation systems on aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and nonpoint source runoff. Challenges in maintaining prior levels of performance and accomplishments 

stem from a reduction in FY 2015 Roads and Legacy Road & Trails funding. Road 

decommissioning makes important contributions to our portfolio of restoration efforts by 

reducing the environmental impact of our transportation systems. These impacts include 

fragmentation of terrestrial and aquatic habitats and the channeling of sediment into streams, 

Road decommissioning activities include restoring lands occupied by roads to a more natural 

state. This work provides substantial benefit to fish and wildlife resources and improves water 

quality.

Other FY 2015 highlights include conservation efforts for the Greater Sage-grouse. In 2015, 

following years of effort, the Final Environmental Impact Statements and records of decision 

(RODs) for the Greater Sage-grouse (GSRG) were completed. 

These documents are the culmination of an unprecedented 

planning effort in cooperation with the Department of the 

Interior, Bureau Land Management (BLM) to conserve this 

critical GSGR habitat on NFS and BLM-administered lands. 

The Forest Service, as a cooperating agency with the BLM, 

developed a targeted, multi-tiered, collaborative landscapelevel conservation strategy based on the best available science 

that offers the highest level of protection for GRSG in the

highest priority habitat areas.

The GRSG currently occupies only 56 percent of its historic 

range and populations have continued to decline for the past 40 years. On September 22, 2015, 

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced that this species does not warrant protection 

under the Endangered Species Act, due, in part, to the collective conservation efforts of the FS 

and BLM, as reflected in the decisions. The conservation measures presented in the RODs and 

the Land Management Plan (LMP) amendments protect the GRSG and its habitat, and also more 

than 350 other wildlife species associated with the sagebrush steppe ecosystem, which is widely 

recognized as one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America.

Implementation of the LMP amendments will occur over a number of years; 2016 is a transition 

year, and 2017 marks a year of concentrated focus. The LMP amendments include a suite of 

management actions, such as the establishment of lek (sage-grouse courtship areas) buffers, 

mitigation requirements, monitoring protocols, and targeted restoration and habitat 

improvements. These efforts will require substantial commitments of time and funding to ensure 

that we follow through on our commitment to conserve, enhance, and restore GRSG habitat.
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A key component of accomplishing our strategic goal of connecting people to the outdoors is 

achieved through our Naturewatch programs. Supporting youth engagement and recreation is 

achieved through conservation and education elements including the Naturewatch program and 

associated activities. In 2015, more than 300 events were held reaching thousands of children 

and adults in celebration of National Fish and Boating Week across our national forests and 

grasslands. This is one of many ways in which the agency connects people with nature, helping 

to outreach and educate the public on the value and importance of NFS lands.

The Forest Service worked closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and State forestry and 

wildlife resource agencies to monitor bat populations in light of the devastating impacts of whitenose syndrome caused by an invasive species. Through an interagency effort, the entities 

developed and published a national protocol for monitoring bats - The North American Bat 

Monitoring Program (NABat), which was published in June 2105. We are continuing to 

effectively cost-share and workload share implementation of NABat with willing partners.

In response to the Presidential Memorandum, “Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health 

of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators,” (June 2014), the Forest Service has been actively 

participating in interagency working groups that resulted in a National Pollinator Health 

Strategy, a Pollinator Action Plan, and the “Conservation and Management of Monarch 

Butterflies: A Strategic Framework” (March 2015) that describes current research and restoration 

efforts, including partnerships and citizen science opportunities for managers and public entities.

We leveraged our investments to achieve important habitat work through a collaborative 

partnership with other agencies and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. In September of 

2015, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced a first round of grants totaling $3.3 

million from its recently launched Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund, see link:

http://www.nfwf.org/whoweare/mediacenter/pr/Pages/monarch_pr_15-0928.aspx. The 22 

grants, which will be matched by more than $6.7 million in grantee contributions, will support 

the restoration of up to 33,000 acres of habitat in areas identified by experts as key to monarch 

recovery.

Program Description

Program Overview

In today’s Forest Service, successful ecosystem restoration requires an integrated approach to 

achieve multiple resource objectives at scales that are meaningful to ecologic function and 

economic and social expectations. Working at the landscape or watershed scale and involving 

multiple disciplines and partners is critical in systems where boundaries based on land 

ownership, jurisdiction, and community interest are superimposed onto natural systems. As the 

agency has learned through the IRR pilot, national forests and grasslands are most successful 

when ecosystem restoration improves resilience of watersheds; restores and conserves quality 

fisheries and wildlife habitat and biodiversity of plant and animal communities; and ensures vital 

products and amenities such as clean water and recreational opportunities are available to our 

society. Timely reforestation and restoration following high intensity wildfire is also important 

to maintaining forest and grassland ecosystems and deriving associated ecological, social, and 

economic benefits.
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The Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management program protects, restores, and enhances 

habitats for wildlife, fish, and rare plants for their sustainable use and enjoyment by the public. 

The national forests and grasslands contain some of the most ecologically and economically 

significant habitat remaining for the Nations fish, wildlife, and botanical resources. These 

resources include 220,000 miles of fishable streams, more than 2 million acres of lakes, and 5 

million acres of wetlands. The NFS provides habitat for 420 threatened and endangered species 

and another 3,100 species listed as sensitive by the Forest Service and States. In the lower 48 

States, NFS lands contain 80 percent of elk, bighorn sheep, and mountain goat habitat; the 

majority of habitat remaining for rare and wide-ranging carnivores (e.g., grizzly bear, Canada 

Lynx, North American wolverine), and some of the Nation’s most economically valuable coldwater fish populations. 

The program is delivered through the following 

activities:

Manage Aquatic Habitat - Activities include 

actions to improve and restore native and 

endangered species habitat such as improving water 

quality, substrate, streambank, riparian and 

watershed habitat conditions; controlling aquatic 

invasive species; increasing fishing opportunities 

and access; monitoring species status and project 

effectiveness; and reducing stream habitat 

fragmentation primarily by identifying priorities for 

restoring fish passage. Developing tools to evaluate 

aquatic species adaptability and resilience to 

climate change has become an important aspect of 

this program.

Manage Terrestrial Habitat – Activities ensure that 

there is suitable habitat to support sustainable 

populations of harvestable species, and threatened, 

endangered and sensitive species (animals and plants), across the national forests and grasslands. 

Examples of activities include prescribed fire to produce early successional habitat; thinning 

treatments to hasten the creation of old-growth components in even-aged stands; erecting 

temporary fencing to protect newly treated aspen clones; mechanical treatments to rejuvenate 

decadent shrub-steppe habitat for sage dependent wildlife; and protecting and restoring wetlands, 

high elevation wet meadows, bogs, fens, springs, and other water sources. Developing and 

implementing consistent inventory, monitoring, and strategic conservation strategies and actions 

is also a critical aspect of this program.

Provide Wildlife and Fish Interpretation & Education – Supporting youth engagement and 

recreation is achieved through conservation and education elements including the Naturewatch 

program and associated activities. These activities, include developing and maintaining 

permanent wildlife viewing sites; conservation education; providing viewing opportunities; and 

the development and sponsorship of local and national events such as Kids Fishing Days and 

Stream Crossing using Simulation design

Stream crossings using the Stream Simulation 

Design approach allow for aquatic organism 

passage during low and high flows and flood 

resiliency by passing sediment and wood 

during flood events. A partnership with Trout 

Unlimited upgraded two priority culverts for 

aquatic organism passage in 2015 reconnecting 

23 miles of stream in the Upper Greenbrier 

North watershed.
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International Migratory Bird Day programs There are hundreds of other Naturewatch activities 

implemented that connect people with “all things wild” on the national forests and grasslands.

The Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management program supports U.S. Department of Agriculture 

Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, 

and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our water resources. Our strategic 

plan charts a path to sustaining our Nation’s forest and grasslands and delivering benefits to the 

public and this program’s activities are important to fostering ecosystems that are resilient and 

adaptive, providing abundant clean water, and creating or maintaining economic opportunities 

and jobs providing socioeconomic benefits to local communities and the Nation.

Allocation and Integration

Each region receives a base level of funding to ensure that viable fish and wildlife programs are 

implemented on all national forests and grasslands. Funding allocations are based on a process 

that combines support for core operations and priorities with a set of criteria that compares 

regional performance and needs. The results are then evaluated against capability information 

submitted by the regions which may result in distribution adjustments. Examples of allocation 

criteria include: total need identified by the regions, previous accomplishment levels, unit costs, 

and high priority restoration needs created by fires and other disturbance events. Adjustments 

may also be made based on evaluation of program delivery across budget line items to ensure 

integrated program implementation.

Integration and collaboration with other programs are important aspects of wildlife and fisheries 

habitat management activities and influence allocations. Habitat restoration projects that benefit 

terrestrial species are enhanced and expanded by combining efforts with the Wildland Fire 

Management Hazardous Fuels; Vegetation and Watershed Management; and Recreation, 

Heritage and Wilderness programs. Aquatic species and their habitats benefit from combining 

efforts with Vegetation and Watershed Management and Capital Improvement and Maintenance 

Roads and Trails programs. The conservation of migratory birds is enhanced through interdeputy collaboration with Forest Service International Programs; and working with the 

Landownership Management program has helped identify opportunities for improving access for 

hunters and anglers.

Partnerships

The Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management program has an extensive network of 

collaborators and long-term partners, Federal and State agencies, Tribal governments, 

nongovernmental organizations, and local communities which help power our program annually. 

Successful partnerships and collaborative efforts have led to the restoration of millions of acres 

of terrestrial habitat, and thousands of miles of streams for imperiled, common, and 

economically significant species throughout the Nation. These partnerships have increased 

Forest Service capacity to perform habitat management through sizeable contributions of 

matching funds and in-kind support from external partners. For decades, the agency has worked 

closely with State wildlife agencies; local communities; civic organizations; and national 

conservation oriented organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, National 

Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Forest Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, 
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Wildlife Forever, Ducks Unlimited, and the National Wild Turkey Federation. Annually, 

external partners help the agency complete over 2,000 wildlife and fisheries projects on national 

forests and grasslands. The dollar and in-kind value of these efforts is typically over $55 million 

annually.
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Grazing Management

Budget Line Item Grazing Management

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Grazing Management

Annual Appropriations $55,356 $56,856 $50,000 -$6,856 -12%

Grazing Management Total 55,356 56,856 50,000 -6,856 -12%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 423 423 423 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 423 423 423 0 0%

Grazing Management

Manage Grazing Allotments 24,453 25,116 22,087 -3,029 -12%

Prepare Grazing Allotment NEPA 30,903 31,740 27,913 -3,827 -12%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Grazing Management

Allotment acres administered to 100% of Forest Plan 

standards 29,268,333 29,794,000 27,000,000 28,605,088 27,000,000 27,000,000

Number of grazing allotments with signed decision 

notices 123 103 110 48 110 100

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $50,000,000 for Grazing Management, a decrease of 

$6,856,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funding at this level will maintain the 

administration of grazing permits and the completion of the National Environmental Policy Act 

(NEPA) decisions at slightly reduced levels from FY 2016. The agency places a high priority on 

making investments necessary to restore and manage our rangelands so that they are more 

resilient to a variety of threats such as insects, disease, invasive species, and drought, and are 

more capable of delivering benefits to the American people—creating strong rural communities 

and economic opportunity.

Funding the Grazing Management program supports two primary activities: 1) administering 

livestock grazing use on approximately 93 million acres of the National Forest System (NFS)

lands and approximately 10 million acres of private land within grazing allotments; and 2) 

completing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis on grazing allotments in 

accordance with the NEPA schedule established under the provisions of the Rescissions Act of 

1995 (P.L. 104-19, section 504), along with the subsequent implementation of management 
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practices derived from NEPA decisions. In FY 2017, we will emphasize a balance between the 

completion of allotment NEPA and the administration of existing permits. Administration of 

existing permits will focus on basic stewardship to ensure grazing will be sustained at the 

appropriate levels. 

The agency will make NEPA-based decisions for allotment management plans based on the 

resource assessment, monitoring data and best existing scientific information to help the Forest 

Service ensure that grazing on NFS lands facilitates ecosystem restoration associated with those 

grazing allotments. NEPA allotment planning and management is a dynamic process. The 

NEPA national summary of allotment schedules is published every three years to incorporate a 

new three-year planning period and to maintain a long term schedule. FY 2014 was the first year

of a 3-year cycle. At the end of FY 2016, a new national summary of allotment NEPA schedules 

will be published to include the next 12-year span, 2017-2028. The reduced rate of completion 

of NEPA will necessitate extending the scheduling timeframe for all needed NEPA analyses. 

Benefits from the FY 2017 program of work will include: a sustainable supply of forage for 

livestock; sustained quality and quantity of water resources; economic opportunities for rural 

communities; sustaining grazing management practices to support ecosystem restoration efforts; 

and working landscapes associated with open space and habitat connectivity across NFS and 

other Federal, State, Tribal, and private lands. The agency will continue to look for opportunities 

to coordinate sustainable landscape management on grazing lands and integrate work across 

programs, including efforts to restore Greater Sage Grouse habitat in western regions.

Specific priorities within each activity include:

Manage Grazing Allotments - The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes administration of 27

million acres of grazing allotments to 100 percent of Land Management Plan standards. This 

measure reflects the level of permit administration relative to implementing all grazing 

management direction prescribed in land management plans, project-level NEPA decisions, 

grazing permits or agreements, and other relevant documents. Administering allotments to 

standards assures that management decisions identified during the NEPA process are 

implemented, achieve desired outcomes, or are adjusted if initial actions are not effective. 

Although all grazing allotments are administered, priority is placed on administering allotments 

with known critical resource issues, such as management of habitat for endangered species.

Prepare Grazing Allotment NEPA - The FY 2017 President’s Budget provides funding to 

complete grazing NEPA analysis and decisions for 100 grazing allotments. The planned 

accomplishment level reflects a capacity assessment based on a number of factors including a 

lower funding request compared to FY 2016 enacted levels; an anticipated increase in NEPA 

analysis unit costs due to many controversial and complex allotments; and the continued need to 

fund priority restoration activities. Adjusting priorities in response to dynamic change on the 

landscape (such as fires, floods, and other unplanned events) could have a direct impact on the 

number of grazing decisions completed. Effective NEPA analysis and decisions ensure that 

livestock grazing strategies are designed to provide for the restoration and long-term 

sustainability of rangeland vegetation and dependent resources while continuing to provide 

essential goods and ecosystem services.
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Past Performance

Ensuring grazing allotments meet forest plan standards is important to sustain healthy, resilient 

rangelands—which provide a wide range of resource benefits. In 2015, the agency exceeded its 

goal to administer allotment acres to forest plan standards, a key performance measure to ensure 

healthy rangelands. Maintaining a focus on monitoring and on-the-ground administration 

resulted in the program continuing to meet expectations for these activities.

Completing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis—and the resulting signed 

decisions—gives the agency a path forward to manage allotments to maintain, restore, and 

rehabilitate the land as needed to meet the forest plan standards. Challenges to this work include 

increased complexity of analyses, increased workload associated with litigation, increased costs 

for obtaining comprehensive resource condition and trend data to support decisions, and the lack 

of completed assessments necessary to support the record for making management decisions.

One tactic to improve efficiency was the continuation of combining multiple allotments into one 

large decision where possible. Region 1 has used this successfully on national grassland where 

grazing sites are similar. While transferability of this approach to other regions may be limited, 

we continue to explore similar innovations to increase our efficiencies nationwide.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Grazing Management program manages the diverse rangeland resources on approximately 

93 million acres of NFS lands and administers grazing use on approximately 10 million acres of 

private land serving 6,317 permit holders across 29 States. Proper control and management of 

grazing use was one of the core reasons for the establishment of a Forest Reserve System that 

eventually became the National Forest System (NFS). The development and implementation of 

proper grazing practices has been a significant part of the overall management of the Forest 

Service from the very beginning of the agency. The program seeks to maintain healthy 

rangelands but also seeks to restore and/or rehabilitate historically depleted rangelands to 

maintain a sustainable supply of forage for livestock, open space, wildlife habitat connectivity 

and to support healthy rural communities by linking NFS grazing authorizations to privately 

owned lands managed for agricultural production, and by helping sustain the rural based 

ranching and farming lifestyle. On average livestock grazing on NFS lands contributes 

approximately 19,500 jobs and almost $900 million to the Nation’s economy each year.

Properly managed rangelands support ecosystems that provide secure food sources, sustain water 

resources, and provide wildlife habitat and other natural resources benefits. This program’s 

activities include environmental planning with direction in NEPA for the use of grazing 

allotments and grazing permit administration. Thorough NEPA analyses and decisions ensure 

that livestock grazing strategies are designed to provide for the restoration and long-term 

sustainability of rangeland vegetation and dependent resources while continuing to provide 

essential goods and ecosystem services. Incorporating adaptive management strategies into 

grazing NEPA decisions provides flexibility for the grazing permittee while increasing 

accountability in meeting desired resource conditions. This also supports ecosystem 

improvement by properly adapting grazing timing and use to meet changing climate conditions.
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This program is delivered through the following activities:

Manage Grazing Allotments – This activity provides for implementation of NEPA 

sufficient management plans along with the proper administration and monitoring of 

grazing permits and activities. This includes issuance of grazing permits, processing 

permit waivers, preparation and processing of bills for collection, and the development of 

annual operating instructions. Compliance monitoring determines if the terms and 

conditions of the grazing authorization necessary to move toward or maintain healthy 

rangelands are being properly implemented by the grazing permittee. Effectiveness

monitoring determines whether the evaluated acres meet, are moving toward, or do not 

meet, resource objectives identified in the land management plan or other appropriate 

decision document, and allows managers to determine whether additional monitoring or 

adjustments in management are required.

Prepare Grazing Allotment NEPA – Involves all elements of NEPA compliance 

pertaining to decisions authorizing grazing on an allotment, including the resolution of 

appeals and litigation associated with these decisions. This activity includes managing 

public involvement in the decision process; coordinating with Federal, State, Tribal, and 

local governments; development of alternatives; analysis of environmental effects; and 

the preparation of NEPA documents. The agency strives to incorporate adaptive

management into grazing NEPA decisions. Adaptive management strategies are 

designed to maximize management flexibility for the grazing permittee with a concurrent 

increase in accountability for success in meeting desired resource condition on the 

allotments and across the larger landscape. Adaptive management also allows maximum 

flexibility for the agency to gain ecosystem improvement by properly changing timing 

and use to fit ever changing weather and climate conditions.

The Grazing Management program supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national 

forests and private working lands are conserved, restored and made more resilient to climate 

change, while enhancing our water resources. Additionally, the Grazing Management program 

supports the Forest Service strategic goal of sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands 

through the fostering of healthy ecosystems. We also achieve Forest Service goals of delivering 

benefits to the public, such as providing abundant clean water and strengthening communities.

Allocation and Integration

Funds are allocated to the field based on the number of term grazing permits, the number of acres 

in active allotments, the amount of scheduled NEPA work, and the number of grazing allotments 

for which the agency made NEPA decisions during the previous three fiscal years. The agency 

may make additional adjustments to reflect regional capability.

The Grazing Management program has been closely coordinated with the Integrated Resource 

Restoration pilot program in Regions 1, 3, and 4 and would continue to be integrated with the 

nationwide implementation proposed in the FY 2017 Budget. The Integrated Resource 

Restoration program provides the funding for rangeland vegetation monitoring necessary to 

determine the health of rangeland ecosystems, as well as to determine whether implemented 

grazing management actions are achieving desired resource conditions. Data gathered through 
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these monitoring efforts is the foundation for preparing grazing NEPA analyses and making

subsequent decisions for allotment management, as well as determining where management 

adaptations are necessary. Also critical funding for construction of range improvements needed 

to implement allotment management plans if determined necessary in the NEPA decisions. 

Partnerships

The agency supplements our capability to accomplish grazing permit administration through a 

variety of partnerships. Grazing permittees engage in monitoring, and providing documentation 

demonstrating compliance with livestock distribution and other management requirements. 

Special interest groups also enter into agreements with the agency to conduct implementation 

monitoring, often in coordination with the grazing permittee.
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Forest Products

Budget Line Item Forest Products

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Forest Products

Annual Appropriations $339,130 $359,805 $359,805 0 0%

Forest Products Total 339,130 359,805 359,805 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 2,238 2,239 2,239 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 2,238 2,239 2,239 0 0%

Forest Products

Forest Products 339,130 359,805 359,805 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Forest Products

Number of watersheds moved to an improved condition 

class 12 10 19 19 20 22

Acres treated annually to sustain or restore watershed 

function and resilience 2,533,121 2,906,018 2,900,000 3,100,979 2,900,000 2,900,000

Volume of timber sold (million board feet (MMBF)) 2,610 2,831 2,900 2,867 3,200 3,200

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $359,805,000 for Forest Products, the same level as 

the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. This budget will allow the agency to accelerate the pace of 

restoration and continue our work to create healthy landscapes and healthy communities and 

associated jobs and economic benefits. The budget will support the sale of about 3.2 billion 

board feet of timber. Through integration with other programs, including hazardous fuels 

projects where both fire risk reduction and timber output objectives may be accomplished 

together, the agency expects to reach a total volume sold of 3.2 billion board feet in FY 2017. 

Our integrated efforts to foster ecosystems that are resilient and adaptive, and to provide 

abundant clean water are also expected to result in making progress with enhancing 22 

watersheds to an improved condition class, and treating 2,900,000 acres to sustain or restore 

watershed function and resilience.

Funding is requested to analyze, prepare, offer for sale, award, and administer timber sales, 

stewardship contracts, and special forest product permits on the national forests. The program 

will emphasize restoration of the National Forest System (NFS) lands, and building their 

resiliency and ability to adapt to climate change. These efforts require the fuller and more 
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systematic use of the latest science to develop new, more innovative approaches to silviculture 

and landscape management.

In setting our timber volume goal at 3.2 billion board feet—a challenging level last achieved in 

the late 1990s—the agency is taking a number of steps beginning in FY 2016 to streamline our 

processes and improve our ability to deliver both restoration and economic results. We are 

revising our national appraisal system and working with field units to better align our timber and 

stewardship offerings with current market conditions. We are mobilizing resources to deliver 

additional outcomes using key authorities from the Agricultural Act of 2014 to address insect 

and disease issues. A key part of our long-term approach will be a concerted effort to use the 

timber sale pipeline permanent authority more effectively to increase the volume of timber 

prepared for future sales. Implemented effectively, these efforts will help us deliver sustained 

results on the ground.

Specific priorities within each activity include: 

Plan and Prepare Timber Sales - The request includes funding to plan and prepare timber sales, 

stewardship contracts, and special forest products permits. The funds would support the 

continued analysis and field preparation of sales and permits leading to their offer or sale in FY 

2010 and future years. These timber sales, contracts, and permits are important tools the agency 

has to accomplish hazardous fuels reduction, wildlife habitat restoration, and other land 

management objectives in the most cost efficient manner.

Administer Timber Sales - The request includes funding to administer timber sale contracts and 

permits, and special products sales to meet local and national needs. The request would support 

continued administrative oversight and field presence during timber harvesting operations, 

ensuring that these operations meet all appropriate contractual provisions and environmental 

protection standards. The funding would also be used to prepare, issue, and administer special 

products permits. 

Past Performance

The agency employs a community-based, collaborative approach to achieve resilient landscapes, 

integrating across programs to realize outcomes. The program—integrated with other programs 

including the Integrated Resource Restoration (IRR) pilot in FY 2015—plays a key role in this 

work. Providing timber and woody biomass from national forests is important not only in 

support of restoration efforts, but is also critical to rural communities and economies. The 

agency sold nearly 2.9 billion board feet of timber—a small increase over last year’s output 

despite an exceptionally challenging fire season and associated disruptions. A combination of 

IRR funding, appropriations, and permanent and trust funds were used to accomplish this work. 

Additional output was achieved by close integration with hazardous fuels projects where both 

fire risk reduction and timber output could be accomplished together.

In FY 2015, the agency accomplished 2,181,283 MMBF with Forest Product and IRR funds, 

plus an additional accomplishment of 434,754 MMBF using other permanent and trust funds. 

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration funded volume was 251,368 MMBF for a total of 

2,867,405 MMBF or about 99 percent of our timber volume sold target. Total acres harvested 
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was 204,763 with the majority (113,854 acres) completed by commercial thinning. The agency 

has made significant strides with our stewardship contracting efforts, which now represent about 

28 percent of the overall timber sale program. In addition, the volume outputs per contract 

doubled from FY 2010 to FY 2015 while the acres per contract increased by 50 percent. Much 

more detail about the stewardship contracting program may be found in the special exhibits 

section of this budget request.

In addition to the severe fire season and associated disruptions, a number of sale offerings had no 

bids with (approximately 250 MMBF unsold by the end of the fiscal year), and we continue to 

see planning objections and litigation that also affect our ability to deliver on planned activities. 

In recent years, the program has contributed approximately 42,000 jobs and $2.7 billion annually 

to the national economy. As we work to increase the volume of board feet sold, we expect to 

have an even greater impact on local economies.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Forest Products program is highly integrated with several other programs to achieve the 

agency’s strategic goals of fostering resilient, adaptive ecosystems to mitigate climate change 

and to mitigate wildfire risk. The program uses timber sale contracts as a least-cost means to 

achieve forest management objectives on the national forests. These objectives include reducing 

wildfire risk, watershed restoration, and wildlife habitat maintenance and improvement. The 

program promotes the removal of small diameter material which can be used as a bio-energy 

source. Timber sales and special permits provide sustainable product in a manner that responds 

to the Nation’s demand, while moving forest resources toward desired conditions. Revenues 

from forest product sales return funds to the U.S. Treasury and help offset the costs of national 

forest management.

Stewardship contracting, also funded within this program, facilitates the accomplishment of 

various resource management objectives, including reduced fuels in the wildland urban interface, 

improved forest health, and enhanced wildlife habitat, while meeting the economic needs of local 

and rural communities.

The program is delivered through the following activities:

Plan and Prepare Timber Sales - This activity involves development of the proposed action, 

identification of alternatives for consideration, and the National Environmental Policy Act 

analysis in determining how best to meet long term forest health and desired condition 

objectives. In addition to this environmental analysis, this work includes determining the 

volume and value of the trees to be removed; timber sale layout and design, and timber sale 

contract and permit preparation. Planning and preparing for special forest product sales is also 

part of these efforts. Benefits include using the timber sale process to meet a broad variety of 

forest resource objectives, including fuel hazard reduction, long term habitat condition and 

diversity objectives, and production of timber.

Administer Timber Sales - This activity includes the oversight of timber sale contracts, to ensure 

that terms and conditions are being fulfilled by the contractor and that desired condition 
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objectives are being met. Considerable coordination occurs with purchasers on annual operating 

plans, potential contract modifications, and financial transactions. This activity also includes the 

administration of personal use permits for firewood, Christmas trees, ornamentals, floral 

components, berries, and other products. Bookkeeping associated with timber sales includes 

such actions as issuing bills for collection, processing payments and refunds, maintaining bonds, 

and managing the accounting system records.

The program supports U.S. Department of Agriculture Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national 

forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate 

change, while enhancing our water resources. The program also supports the Forest Service 

strategic goal of sustaining our Nation’s forest and grasslands and delivering benefits to the 

public and this program’s activities are important to fostering ecosystems that are resilient and 

adaptive, providing abundant clean water, and creating or maintaining economic opportunities 

and jobs providing socioeconomic benefits to local communities and the Nation. 

Allocation and Integration - Funding allocations are based on criteria that consider regional 

capabilities and needs, including improving fire regime condition class, responding to forest 

insect and disease infestations, dependence of local industry on the supply of products from NFS 

lands, the value provided by the materials harvested, the unit cost of preparing timber sales, and 

performance. Close integration with other resource programs including hazardous fuels, 

vegetation and watershed, and wildlife and fisheries habitat management achieves multiple 

resource management objectives—such as reducing the risk of wildfire to communities, 

improved forest health, and improved wildlife habitat. A more iterative allocation process was 

initiated in FY 2015 between the regions and the Washington Office involving the broad suite of 

restoration resources to more effectively integrate restoration efforts, determine future 

capabilities and needs, and determine anticipated shifts in emphasis over time.

Program objectives are also accomplished through the use of a number of newer authorities, 

including the application of receipts from timber sales toward the accomplishment of resource 

work. In addition to appropriations, timber sales are funded through other special authorities, 

including the Salvage Sale Fund, the Timber Sale Pipeline Restoration Fund, the KnutsonVandenberg Fund, and the Stewardship Contracting Fund. All of these special funds receive a 

portion of the revenues received from timber sales.

Partnerships

Stewardship contracts and agreements are a means of managing natural resources in 

collaboration with local communities, providing opportunities to achieve land and natural 

resource management goals while promoting closer public-private working relationships. Using 

a broad range of activities, stewardship contracting enables the agency to contribute to the 

development of sustainable rural communities, restore and maintain healthy forest ecosystems, 

and provide a continuing source of local income and employment. Stewardship contracting 

facilitates the accomplishment of many resource management objectives, including reduced fuels 

in the wildland urban interface, timber stand improvement and improved forest health, and 

enhanced wildlife habitat.
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In FY 2015, the Forest Service entered into stewardship contracts on 166,317 acres, resulting in 

the sale of about 829 MMBF of timber volume. Stewardship contracting now comprises about 

28 percent of the overall timber sale program. As the use of stewardship contracting increases, 

timber sale contractors grow increasingly important in helping the agency achieve desired 

vegetation management objectives. 
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Vegetation and Watershed Management

Budget Line Item Vegetation & Watershed Management

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Vegetation & Watershed Management

Annual Appropriations $184,716 $184,716 $184,716 0 0%

Vegetation & Watershed Management Total 184,716 184,716 184,716 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 858 858 858 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 858 858 858 0 0%

Vegetation & Watershed Management

Vegetation & Watershed Management 184,716 184,716 184,716 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Vegetation & Watershed Management

Number of watersheds moved to an improved condition 

class 12 10 19 19 20 22

Acres treated annually to sustain or restore watershed 

function and resilience 2,533,121 2,906,018 2,900,000 3,100,979 2,900,000 2,900,000

Miles of stream habitat restored or enhanced 4,168 3,488 3,262 3,465 3,262 3,450

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $184,716,000 for Vegetation and Watershed 

Management the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. This funding level will allow the 

agency to continue the pace of ecological restoration similar to FY 2016 levels.

The Vegetation and Watershed Management program incorporates the lessons learned from the 

agency’s Integrated Resource Restoration (IRR) pilot. We will continue to work across 

landownerships and programs in an integrated fashion to achieve landscape scale outcomes and 

focus on work in site specific areas to address significant localized impacts to the ecosystem. 

Through integration with other programs, this budget provides a portion of the integrated funds 

necessary to help enhance 22 watersheds to an improved condition class, and treat 2,900,000

acres to sustain or restore watershed function and resilience.

The proposed FY 2017 program of work continues the emphasis on watershed restoration and 

moving watersheds to an improved condition class. It includes timber stand improvement as 

well as enhancing soil and water resources. Priorities will focus on reforestation and 

revegetation efforts in support of ecological restoration, post-wildfire recovery, enhanced carbon 

sequestration, and greenhouse gas mitigation. The agency will continue investment in 
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conservation actions essential to improve habitat for species of concern, with an emphasis on the 

greater sage grouse, to meet the goals of the recently signed Environmental Impact Statements 

and Land Management Plan Amendments. We will also invest in work aimed at protecting and 

enhancing habitat for key pollinator species, and reducing invasive plants and noxious weeds.

Specific priorities within each activity include:

Improve Forest Vegetation - The agency will continue to integrate accomplishment of high 

priority timber stand improvement (TSI) needs with opportunities for hazardous fuels reduction 

and community protection. We will also continue to accomplish program goals through 

stewardship contracts. The current needs for TSI to meet long term forest health and desired 

condition objectives exceed 2,200,000 acres. Benefits include improvement of stand density, 

composition and structure to meet forest health and habitat needs; reduction of hazardous fuel 

levels; and improved future product quality. The TSI also generates a sustainable supply of 

biomass for bio-energy production, including personal use firewood.

Establish Forest Vegetation - Priority will be placed on post-wildfire reforestation work to ensure 

soil stabilization and restoration of appropriate forest cover on impacted lands. These actions 

reduce the potential for severe erosion and flooding; improving the quality of water coming off 

the National Forest System (NFS) lands and is an important component of carbon sequestration. 

Approximately 1,125,931acres of NFS lands had been identified in need of reforestation at the 

start of FY 2015, a total driven higher by the extraordinary wildfire season that year.

Manage Rangeland Vegetation - The agency will continue rangeland vegetation improvement 

through enhanced grazing management achieved by implementation of grazing the National 

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) decisions. Funding will also contribute to the integrated 

monitoring of grazing allotment acres in support of completing grazing NEPA analyses. In 

conjunction with native vegetation activities, the agency will work to restore and improve habitat 

for the greater sage grouse and other sage-steppe-dependent species.

Maintain and Improve Soil and Water Resources - Work under this activity includes treatments 

to protect, maintain, improve or restore water or soil resources. Activities are guided by the 

agency’s water strategy and include emphasis on five areas of investment: surface water, soils, 

water rights and uses, riparian areas and wetlands, and ground water. These activity areas 

coordinate and implement various actions that support many beneficial ecosystem services 

fundamental to life, including clean water, sustainable water flows and levels, terrestrial and 

aquatic habitat, productive soils, stable hillsides, recreation, nutrient cycling, carbon 

sequestration, and primary productivity. Currently, about 48 percent of NFS watersheds are in 

need of enhancement because they are not fully functional. These investments will help 

maintain the core components of functioning ecosystems, enhance watershed resiliency in the 

face of climate change, and help meet the increasing demand for water resources.

Manage Noxious Weeds and Invasive Plants - The priority for the agency’s noxious weed and 

invasive plants program is prevention, early detection, eradication, and control of terrestrial 

noxious weeds. Invasive species management activities will be emphasized and integrated into 

ecosystem restoration projects and other projects to improve watershed condition and ecosystem 
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resiliency. Invasive weed treatments are an important part of the Sage Grouse Conservation 

efforts.

Manage Air Quality - This program will help sustain important Forest Service relationships with 

States and Environmental Protection Agency and other Federal agencies for managing and 

protecting air quality; monitoring the effects of air pollution on aquatic, terrestrial, and visibility 

related resources; managing the air quality effects of agency actions, including prescribed 

burning, and oil and gas leasing; and weather monitoring to support fire and smoke management 

activities. The relationships and monitoring network stewarded by this program are vital to 

mission critical activities related to climate change, water quality management, and compliance 

with the Clean Air Act.

Manage Native Vegetation - The focus for the native vegetation activity will continue to be 

supporting ecosystem restoration, and to provide food and habitat for native wildlife including an 

emphasis on pollinators and species such as the greater sage grouse. Greater emphasis will be 

placed on maintaining, planting and reestablishing native vegetation and seed collection. Other 

key elements of this program include enhancing nursery operations to produce more seedlings 

and seed banking emphasizing genetic adapted varieties for post fire restoration, enhancing 

pollinator habitat, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem resilience.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the agency continued to build on the lessons learned from the IRR pilot to more 

effectively integrate our efforts, work across landownerships, use the best available science, and 

increase collaboration with our partners. The primary outcome measure we use as a benchmark 

for our efforts is the number of watersheds moved to an improved condition class. The annual 

result is not only reflective of work implemented this year, but represents the culmination of 

integrated watershed-based work that started with the development of watershed restoration 

action plans. As we progress in our experience with the Watershed Condition Framework, we 

are learning that some watershed plans may need five to ten years to complete all the restoration 

actions required instead of the three to five years originally envisioned, due to the complexity 

and/or expense of watershed improvement and the focusing of available resources towards other 

priorities. Some watersheds simply have a longer list of required actions for their restoration 

plans which can drive up the time and expense required. It is also taking longer to complete the 

NEPA work on some projects—particularly where the watershed work is bundled together with 

other restoration treatments for the NEPA analysis.

To further accelerate watershed restoration both internally and externally and further stimulate 

water inspired human connections and investment in sustaining abundant, clean water and 

healthy aquatic habitat from our Nation’s watersheds; in FY 2015, we initiated efforts to convene 

leaders and existing and new partners to achieve national water quality, water supply, and 

aquatic habitat objectives through collaborative restoration actions on all lands.

FY 2015 was the first full year the Forest Service monitored implementation and effectiveness of

Best Management Practices (BMPs) to protect water quality for over 600 activities. To 

accomplish our strategic objective of providing abundant clean water, the Forest Service uses 

water quality BMPs to protect and maintain water resources on NFS lands. The BMPs, applied 
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by all Forest Service programs producing ground disturbing activities, are specific practices or 

actions used to reduce or control impacts to water bodies from nonpoint sources of pollution, 

most commonly by reducing the loading of pollutants, such as sediment, from such sources into 

storm water and waterways. The National Best Management Practice Program (NBMPP) 

provides National Core BMP and standardized monitoring protocols for all Forest Service 

programs to evaluate implementation and effectiveness of the National Core BMPs. BMP 

evaluations are completed by integrated teams of resource specialists and include assessments of 

whether implemented BMPs were planned, implemented, and effective at meeting water 

resource objectives. The NBMPP is the first systematic approach to BMP implementation across 

all national forests and grasslands and the first comprehensive approach to BMP implementation 

for the diverse range of activities that occur on national forests and grasslands.

A critical aspect of attaining our strategic goals of sustaining our Nation’s forest and grasslands 

and delivering benefits to the public is achieved through the work captured by the performance 

measure referred to as “acres treated annually to sustain or restore watershed function and 

resilience.” This measure is a composite that captures the “foot print” of our acre based 

treatments accomplished through a wide variety of restoration actions and programs, including 

activities supported by other budget line items. For the last three years, including FY 2015, we 

have accomplished 2.7 to 3.1 million acres of restoration treatments. In FY 2015, Vegetation 

and Watershed Program activities established 200,000 acres of forest vegetation, improved 

move than 220,000 acres of forest vegetation, improved 217,000 acres of for soil erosion and 

water quality, improved over 1 million acres of rangeland vegetation, and treated over 270,000 

acres for invasive plant species.

In response to the Presidential Memorandum, “Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health 

of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators,” (June 2014), the Forest Service has been actively 

participating in interagency working groups that resulted in a National Pollinator Health 

Strategy, a Pollinator Action Plan, and the “Conservation and Management of Monarch 

Butterflies: A Strategic Framework” (March 2015) that describes current research and restoration 

efforts, including partnerships and citizen science opportunities for managers and public entities.

We leveraged our investments to achieve important habitat work through a collaborative 

partnership with other agencies and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. In September of 

2015, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced a first round of grants totaling $3.3 

million from its recently launched Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund: 

http://www.nfwf.org/monarch/Pages/home.aspx. The 22 grants, which will be matched by more 

than $6.7 million in grantee contributions, will support the restoration of up to 33,000 acres of 

habitat in areas identified by experts as key to monarch recovery.

Program Description

Program Overview

In today’s Forest Service, successful ecosystem restoration requires an integrated approach to 

achieve multiple resource objectives at scales that are meaningful to ecologic function and 

economic and social expectations. Working at the landscape or watershed scale and involving 

multiple disciplines and partners is critical in systems where boundaries based on land 
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ownership, jurisdiction, and community interest are superimposed onto natural systems. As the 

agency has learned through the IRR pilot, national forests and grasslands are most successful 

when ecosystem restoration improves resilience of watersheds; restores and conserves quality 

fisheries and wildlife habitat and biodiversity of plant and animal communities; and ensures vital 

products and amenities such as clean water and recreational opportunities are available to 

society. Timely reforestation and restoration following high intensity wildfire is also important 

to maintaining forest and grassland ecosystems and deriving associated ecological, social, and 

economic benefits.

The Vegetation and Watershed Management program is a key element of forest and rangeland 

restoration and enhancement activities on NFS lands. The program funds restoration-related 

management activities and accomplishes program objectives through integrated and partnership 

opportunities. Benefits include improved wildlife and fish habitat; improved range and forest 

stand conditions; improved water quality, quantity, and timing of stream flows; cleaner air; and 

effective, long-term carbon sequestration.

This program is delivered through the following activities:

Improve Forest Vegetation - Includes release treatments through removal of competing 

vegetation; pre-commercial thinning to regulate stand density, composition, and structure; 

pruning treatments to reduce ladder fuels and improve future product quality; and fertilization 

treatments to maintain and improve soil quality. Benefits accomplished through integrated 

vegetation management include improved forest health and productivity; hazardous fuel 

reductions, improved forest resiliency to drought, insects, and disease; and wildlife habitat 

diversity. In addition, timber stand improvement provides excess biomass to support sustainable 

energy production (additional information may be found in the Biomass, Wood Products, and 

Wood Energy special exhibit).

Establish Forest Vegetation - Provides for maintaining appropriate forest cover on all 

forestlands. Activities include planting, seeding, and natural regeneration, and seed collection 

provides for annual tree seedling production. Other key elements of this program include 

nursery operations to produce high quality tree seedlings; seed banking; and genetic resource 

improvement of seed and planting stock to enhance growth, yield, and long-term forest health. 

Benefits include improved quality and yield of timber resource; restoration of forest vegetation 

impacted by disturbances such as wildfire, floods, and hurricanes; and the establishment of forest 

vegetation that is resilient to the effects of climate change.

Manage Rangeland Vegetation - Provides for rangeland vegetation improvement, rangeland 

resource status and trend monitoring, and wild horse and burro management. Rangeland 

vegetation improvement is accomplished through revegetation, mechanical treatments, 

prescribed fire, and structural improvements. Monitoring of rangeland vegetation is conducted 

to determine rangeland health in support of collaborative watershed restoration efforts, as well as 

to determine if implemented management actions are resulting in attainment of desired resource 

conditions. Data gathered through this monitoring is also used to prepare grazing NEPA 

analyses and for making subsequent decisions for allotment management, including 

implementation of adaptive management strategies that are incorporated into many decisions. 
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Wild horse and burro management is achieved through collaborative planning, population and 

resource monitoring, and population management.

Maintain and Improve Soil and Water Conditions – Guidance for these activities is provided by 

the Forest Service Water Strategy and the implementation of the Watershed Condition 

Framework. This program provides for conservation, maintenance and improvement of the soil 

and water resources that sustain healthy watersheds and ground water resources. This will be

accomplished through restoring wet meadow habitat, reducing soil compaction, reducing 

downward cutting of the streambeds, stabilizing stream banks, and treating sediment sources. 

Natural drainages are restored and sediment sources treated on abandoned roads left on the 

landscape that are no longer managed as a part of the transportation system. Water and soil 

conservation and maintenance are achieved by implementing best management practices 

(BMPs). Watershed conditions are assessed and compared with desired conditions to inform 

subsequent management activities to prioritize enhancement opportunities. This activity also 

includes managing water rights and adjudication processes to help sustain desirable flows.

Manage Noxious Weeds and Invasive Plants - Provides for the prevention, detection, 

containment, and eradication of invasive plant infestations across aquatic and terrestrial 

ecosystems. Benefits include control and prevention of new infestations of invasive plants on 

areas disturbed by natural events, restoration of ecosystem function on areas impacted by 

existing infestations, and public education and prevention of inadvertent introduction of new 

infestations through recreation or other land use activities.

Managing Air Quality - Provides for the protection of sensitive areas from air pollution effects 

and mitigating effects of management activities. Activities include review of State prepared 

regional haze implementation plans; review of Prevention of Significant Deterioration ; 

monitoring of air quality effects including visibility; lake and stream chemistry; and maintenance 

and operation of remote weather stations. These activities are the basis for agency responses to 

hundreds of applications annually for private sector development of energy related industries. In 

addition, this long-term data record will contribute to assessing impacts of climate change to 

natural resources. The program manages about 1,500 remote, surface-based weather observation 

stations nationally for development of national fire danger ratings. Weather forecasts are 

provided in support of fire and smoke management activities. Program activities are also 

necessary to ensure compliance with the Clean Air Act.

Manage Native Vegetation - Provides for reestablishing and maintaining healthy plant 

communities and curbing the spread of invasive species. Activities include seed gathering and 

production, plant materials selection, site preparation, and seeding or planting disturbed areas. 

Other key elements of this program include support of nursery operations to produce high quality 

native vegetation seedlings and seed banking. Native plant species provide the keystone 

elements for ecosystem restoration and provide numerous benefits. They add beauty to the 

landscape and preserve our natural heritage; provide food and habitat for native wildlife 

including pollinators and species such as Sage Grouse; protect water quality by controlling soil 

erosion and moderating floods and droughts; and help fend off invasive plants. Because they are 

adapted to a local region, they tend to resist damage from freezing, drought, common diseases, 

and herbivores if planted in that same local region.
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The Vegetation and Watershed Management program supports U.S. Department of Agriculture 

Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, 

and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our water resources. Our strategic 

plan charts a path to sustaining our Nation’s forest and grasslands and delivering benefits to the 

public and this program’s activities are important to fostering ecosystems that are resilient and 

adaptive, providing abundant clean water, and creating or maintaining economic opportunities 

and jobs providing socioeconomic benefits to local communities and the Nation.

Allocation and Integration

Allocations to the field are developed using criteria specific to each activity, although activities 

that can be used to accomplish similar work may be evaluated together. The results of applying 

allocation criteria for each activity are evaluated against capability information submitted by the 

regions which may result in distribution adjustments. Examples of allocation criteria include: 

total need identified by the regions, previous accomplishment levels, unit costs, and high priority 

restoration needs created by fires and other disturbance events. Adjustments may also be made 

based on evaluation of program delivery across budget line items to ensure integrated program 

implementation. Examples include evaluating the Hazardous Fuels program needs and budget 

distribution in consideration of watershed improvement needs. Another example is integrating 

rangeland vegetation monitoring with grazing NEPA analysis.

Partnerships

The Forest Service has entered into partnership agreements with several organizations (e.g.

American Forests, the National Arbor Day Foundation, and National Garden Clubs) and 

businesses to increase the amount of NFS lands receiving reforestation treatments following 

wildfires and other disturbances. These partnerships have increased our capacity to conduct 

restoration through sizeable contributions of matching funds and in-kind support from external 

partners. (See Special Exhibit on Partnerships for more detailed information.)

In addition, the agency works with Federal, State, and non-governmental partners to maintain 

and improve watershed health. Partnerships have been established to lessen the potential of fire 

impacts to important municipal watersheds and restore these watershed conditions. Partnerships 

have been established with private industry, resulting in additional watershed restoration 

accomplishments.

Successful partnerships and collaborative efforts have led to the improvement of millions of 

acres of terrestrial habitat, and thousands of miles of streams for imperiled, common, and 

economically significant species throughout the Nation. Our partnerships bolster landscape 

restoration efforts that ensure we continue to provide ecosystem services such as clean water 

from NFS lands—which provide the drinking water supply for approximately one-fifth of U.S. 

communities.
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Minerals and Geology Management

Budget Line Item Minerals and Geology Management

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Minerals and Geology Management

Annual Appropriations $76,423 $76,423 $75,069 -$1,354 -2%

Minerals and Geology Management Total 76,423 76,423 75,069 -1,354 -2%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 485 485 485 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 485 485 485 0 0%

Minerals and Geology Management

Administer Minerals Operations 27,290 27,290 20,581 -6,709 -25%

Process Minerals Applications 19,880 19,880 19,015 -865 -4%

Manage Geologic Resources & Hazards 6,005 6,005 5,470 -535 -9%

AML Safety Risk Mitigated 7,199 7,199 11,110 3,911 54%

Manage Environmental Compliance 1,852 1,852 995 -857 -46%

Manage Environmental Restoration 14,197 14,197 17,898 3,701 26%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Minerals and Geology Management

Number of mineral operations administered 10,019 10,175 10,000 13,239 8,000 10,000

Number of mineral applications processed 5,865 5,722 7,000 8,733 7,000 7,000

Number of leasable energy minerals actions processed. 144 161 270 166 270 250

Number of AML safety risk features mitigated to "no 

further action" 604 503 486 422 468 432

Number of administrative units where audits were 

conducted 18 19 17 14 17 17

Number of contaminated sites mitigated 42 66 42 55 42 42

Number of geologic hazards managed 340 237 300 305 300 300

Number of geologic resources managed 662 677 600 596 600 650

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $75,069,000 for Minerals and Geology Management, 

a decrease of $1,354,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Of this funding, $4,500,000 will be 

used to support abandoned mine lands inventory efforts addressed below. 

This level of funding will allow the program to support the Nation’s energy and mineral resource 

demands while minimizing the risk to individuals, providing jobs, and protecting the National 

Forest System (NFS) watersheds and resources. The program will emphasize: 

• meeting statutorily required non-discretionary workload obligations;
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• responding to requests for energy development in areas of ongoing growth or high 

potential for such development;

• implementing best management practices to protect water, aquatic, and riparian 

resources in mineral operations and ground disturbing activities; and

• managing geologic hazards that pose a threat to health, safety, and infrastructure. 

At this funding level, the agency will administer a similar number of mineral operations, process 

new applications, and perform abandoned mine land mitigation at a similar pace as projected in 

the FY 2016 President’s Budget. Discretionary programs, including partnerships, geologic and 

groundwater support for watershed improvements, and mineral materials sales, will continue for 

only high priority projects. Administration of mineral and energy operations will be focused on 

priority projects to minimize the risk of environmental damage, and projects involving legal or 

other special requirements. Processing requests for new oil, gas, coal, geothermal, and other 

mineral leases, processing plans of operation for locatable minerals, and priority disposals of 

mineral materials, will continue as funding allows. Priority will be placed on management of 

environmental restoration at hazardous material sites on NFS lands, emphasizing cleanup for 

long-term watershed protection and preservation as well as mitigation of hazards that present an 

imminent threat to human health and the environment or that have legal ramifications.

Priority will also be given to activities with statutory requirements, and to those that support 

local communities, provide jobs, and support restoration and protection of our landscapes. The 

program will emphasize environmental review of nondiscretionary activities related to valid 

existing rights, such as proposed operations for locatable minerals development, oil and gas 

drilling applications, related infrastructure needs, and proposals for exploration or production 

operations on mining claims, mineral leases, and non-Federal mineral rights under NFS lands.

Other priorities will include inspection and monitoring of new and ongoing critical mineral 

operations, providing professional expertise to ensure watershed health and public safety, and 

managing geologic hazards and important geologic resources, especially those with statutory 

direction for management such as paleontological resources and caves.

Specific priorities within each activity will include:

Administer Mineral Operations - The FY 2017 President’s Budget funds the 

administration of an estimated 10,000 new and ongoing mineral operations to ensure 

compliance with operating plans and environmental standards for the protection of 

surface resources. The program will emphasize administering those activities in sensitive 

areas or those that otherwise have a higher risk of adverse impact to public health and 

safety, and surface resources.

Process Mineral Applications - The FY 2017 President’s Budget funds the processing of 

an estimated 7,000 mineral applications and plans. The actual number of applications 

received may vary significantly due to market influences which directly affect demand 

for mineral resources from NFS lands. We plan to maintain our capacity in this area and 

emphasize the energy component of this activity by processing industry applications on 

existing leases and on non-Federal mineral rights under NFS lands and completing 

priority analyses. For Federal mineral resources, this will help us to make decisions on 
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the availability of NFS lands for leasing of oil and gas, coal, and geothermal resources 

from NFS lands, in support of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Manage Geologic Hazards and Resources - The FY 2017 President’s Budget funds the 

identification and management of an estimated 300 geologic hazards and 650 geologic 

resources. Identifying and managing geologic hazards is critical in protecting the safety 

and health of employees and the public, minimizing or mitigating costly damage to 

infrastructure, and sustaining soil and water resources. Managing geologic resources is 

necessary for conservation and interpretation of special and unique features, including 

paleontological resources and caves, for purposes of ecological sustainability, education, 

scientific discovery, and public enjoyment.

Abandoned Mine Land - Safety Risk Features Mitigated - The FY 2017 President’s 

Budget funds the mitigation of an estimated 432 abandoned mine sites. The Abandoned 

Mine Land program specifically focuses on mitigating safety risk features and related 

activities associated with abandoned mines that are likely to cause serious injury or death 

in high use areas and high-priority watersheds. 

Manage Environmental Compliance - The FY 2017 President’s Budget funds 17 

environmental compliance audits, ensuring that employee and public health and safety 

are protected through agency compliance with environmental laws and regulations. 

Manage Environmental Restoration - The FY 2017 President’s Budget funds restoration 

activities on 42 hazardous material sites on NFS lands. Cleanup of contaminated sites is 

critical for the long-term protection of surface and groundwater quality, and contributes 

to overall public and ecological health.

Abandoned Lands Mines Inventory - As mentioned above, $4,500,000 of the funding 

requested in the FY 2017 President’s Budget for Minerals and Geology Management will 

be used for abandoned land mines inventory activities. This funding will help allow the 

Forest Service to provide an overview of existing Federal and State inventories of 

abandoned mine lands (on Federal, State, and private lands), noting any gaps that exist in 

providing a comprehensive overview; an outline of the factors that are taken into 

consideration in prioritizing the risk associated with abandoned mine lands properties; 

and an identification (with risk explanations) of the top ten highest priority sites within 

each agency’s jurisdiction. Using this data, the Forest Service will work with other 

relevant agencies to prepare a joint statement supporting the Administration’s Hardrock 

Abandoned Mine Lands Fee proposal.

Past Performance

Our national forests and grasslands play an essential role in providing critical mineral and energy 

resources to the Nation. In addition to energy development, the Minerals and Geology program 

also directly supports the Nation’s economy while protecting geological resources, and 

supporting environmental and public safety goals. 

In addition to being critical components of local economies, providing high-paying jobs and 

contributing to city, county, or State taxes, developed or proposed operations may contribute 
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critical and strategic minerals to the economy, such as Rare Earth Elements, used in defense and 

green technologies. Continued development and administration of these types of minerals will 

contribute to the overall success of the energy sector and meet energy demands in the country.

The Forest Service Minerals and Geology Management program is positioned to meet the energy 

needs of the Nation by emphasizing processing energy-mineral related leases for oil and gas, 

coal and geothermal resources, and processing development applications on these leases. Further 

the program emphasizes processing proposals to access non-Federal (private) mineral estate with 

energy minerals (principally oil and gas). 

Program Description

Program Overview

The Minerals and Geology Management program works to foster and encourage private 

enterprise in the development of economically sound and stable industries, and in the orderly and 

economic development of domestic resources to help satisfy industrial, security, and 

environmental needs. This program also provides significant contributions to meeting the 

Nation’s energy and mineral requirements while providing jobs and protecting NFS watersheds 

and resources. The Minerals and Geology Management program provides the technical 

foundation and direction for management of geologic hazards and the management and 

protection of geologic resources. Additionally, this program mitigates the effects of abandoned 

mines and other contaminated sites on NFS lands, and conducts environmental compliance 

audits to ensure our operations are in compliance with environmental laws. 

Minerals and Energy on NFS lands

Production of coal, oil, gas, and geothermal energy resources from NFS lands in FY 2014 

provided the equivalent energy to power nearly 8 million American homes for a year. Energy 

and mineral production from NFS lands contributes almost $8 billion annually to the Nation’s 

economy. In addition to over $584 million in revenues returned to the Treasury, States, and 

counties; in FY 2014, mineral and energy development on the national forests and grasslands 

supports on average approximately 56,000 jobs each year, often in rural communities where 

employment opportunities are limited27. Of the total receipts received through energy and 

minerals production on NFS lands, depending on the land status (acquired or public domain) 75 

percent or 50 percent is returned to the Treasury. The remaining 25 percent or 50 percent is 

returned to the States or counties where production occurred.

As the Nation’s economy continues its economic recovery, we anticipate a commensurate 

increase in industry interest for mineral resources from Federal lands. In FY 2014, every 

appropriated dollar invested in the Forest Service minerals and geology budget returned $7.71 to 

the Treasury from leasable mineral revenues alone. The increases in demand will require the 

agency to carefully allocate its appropriated funding to meet those demands in a manner that 

ensures the resources on our national forests and grasslands are protected and restored.

 27 FY 2014 Energy & Mineral Production Information for National Forest System Lands, August 31, 2015.
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Energy and mineral production on NFS lands falls into the following four categories:

Energy production from Federal leases on NFS lands - Over 5.6 million acres underlying 

NFS lands are currently leased for oil, gas, coal, and geothermal operations. In FY 2014, 

37.5 million tons of coal was produced from NFS lands, there were an estimated 4,200 

Federal oil and gas wells on NFS lands, and production of geothermal energy on NFS 

lands contributed 259 million kilowatt-hours of electrical generation capacity. The 

returns to the Treasury from annual lease rentals, royalties on production, and bonus bids 

were $584 million, of which $384 million came from coal, and $181 million came from 

oil and gas.

Energy exploration and production from non-Federal minerals underlying NFS lands -

Non-Federal, mostly private, mineral interests are associated with close to 11 million 

acres of NFS lands. In addition to activities associated with Federal minerals described 

above, close to 15,500 oil and gas wells and a few other types of mineral development 

operations are associated with these private mineral interests on NFS lands. Small 

business interests conduct the majority of these operations. Each oil and gas well can 

directly contribute to up to 115 jobs through the life of the well, with about three 

additional indirect jobs associated with each direct job, totaling up to 460 jobs for each 

well.

Solid leasable minerals (non-energy) - Production of solid non-energy leasable minerals 

on NFS lands include phosphate, lead, zinc, and copper and in 2014 generated royalties 

of $19 million. Ongoing exploration projects for other valuable mineral deposits are 

occurring across the country.

Mineral production from NFS Lands - At any given time, the agency administers 

operations on approximately 160,000 mining claims, and manages approximately 2,600 

mineral material permits and/or sale contracts. In 2014, the eight largest hard rock mines 

on NFS lands produced resources with an estimated value of $1.6 billion. Mineral 

material sales (e.g., sand and gravel) vary from year to year but in FY 2015, 4.0 million 

short tons, at a value exceeding $2.9 million, were produced. A large portion of the 

material is provided as free use to other government agencies or for in-service use. The 

portion that was sold generated $2.4 million in revenue.

Geologic Resources and Geologic Hazards on NFS lands 

Geologic resources, such as groundwater, cave systems, paleontological resources, geomorphic 

features, and outcrops, directly and indirectly support recreation, watershed sustainability, and 

sensitive ecosystems. Management of some geologic resources—groundwater, caves, and 

paleontological resources—is nondiscretionary, with statutory and regulatory direction requiring 

special designation, management, and/or protection. Geologic resources directly and indirectly 

serve and support communities (e.g., groundwater contribution to water supplies and special 

features supporting tourism-based local economies), are critical to sustaining unique and 

valuable flora and fauna (e.g., groundwater-dependent ecosystems and caves), and are 

scientifically important to our understanding of earth processes and materials. Geologic 
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resources require specialized expertise and strategies for management, conservation, and 

protection. 

Geologic hazards are natural conditions or processes, such as floods, landslides, avalanches, 

earthquakes, volcanoes, and naturally occurring hazardous minerals and gases (e.g., asbestos and

radon) that present a risk or have the potential to threaten life, health, property, or other natural 

resources. Hundreds of sites, especially those in areas with high recreational value and use, 

require specialized technical assessment, continuous monitoring, and/or mitigation to minimize 

threats to life, health, and infrastructure from geologic hazards.

Abandoned Mine Lands, and Environmental Compliance and Protection 

Analysis of available data indicates there may be 27,000 to 39,000 abandoned mines on NFS 

lands, of which approximately 18,000 to 26,000 are abandoned hardrock mines. Of these 

hardrock mines, an estimated 9,000 to 13,000 are past producers of valuable minerals and are 

therefore more likely to require environmental cleanup or safety mitigation work. Since 1998, 

the agency has mitigated more than 5,000 safety hazards at abandoned mines and cleaned up 

hazardous substances at more than 450 sites, with more than 100 cleanups in progress. 

Additionally, the agency conducts environmental compliance audits of approximately 20 percent 

of its administrative units annually. The agency emphasizes training and pollution prevention as 

a means to both achieve and maintain environmental compliance.

The Minerals and Geology Management program is delivered through six activities: 

Administer Mineral Operations - Provides for the inspection, oversight, and monitoring 

of approved mineral operations on NFS lands. Administration ensures compliance with 

approved plans, and with State and Federal environmental laws and regulations, for the 

protection of public health and safety.

Process Mineral Applications - Provides for the review and approval of plans for 

proposed mineral activities, including exploration and development of hardrock minerals 

under the authority of the Mining Act of 1872; coal, oil, gas, and geothermal exploration 

and production under the various mineral and geothermal leasing acts; and contracts for 

the extraction of mineral materials such as sand and gravel, by the public and local, State, 

and Federal agencies under the Materials Act of 1947. Also, this activity provides for 

necessary work to make lands available for leasing by the Department of the Interior.

Manage Geologic Resources and Hazards - Identifies and assesses geologic resources 

under specific statutory and regulatory requirements for management and protection. 

Develops strategies and procedures for management consistent with statutory and 

regulatory direction. Provides assessments of geologic settings and processes for land 

management planning, provision of services, environmental protection and restoration, 

and cost-effective management of roads, recreation sites, and other infrastructure. 

Program delivery activities include inventory and management of geologic resources 

such as caves and karst areas, paleontological resources, groundwater, and groundwaterdependent ecosystems for protection, study, and appropriate use. 
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The program also includes the identification and assessment of geologic settings and 

processes for hazardous conditions and potential risks to public health and safety. 

Potentially hazardous settings and processes include landslides, debris flows, karst 

collapse features, earthquake zones, volcanoes, tsunamis, flooding, and naturally 

occurring hazardous minerals and gases (e.g., asbestos and radon). The activity works 

collaboratively with other staffs, agencies, and professionals to develop mitigations for 

geologic hazards. 

Mitigate Abandoned Mine Lands Safety Risk Features - Provides for the inventory, 

assessment, and mitigation of abandoned mine safety hazards and associated 

environmental damage. This work includes closing underground mine openings and 

vertical shafts; re-contouring open pits, trenches, and associated roads; and removing or 

stabilizing abandoned buildings, and equipment. Wherever feasible, work in this activity 

minimizes or mitigates adverse effects on dependent wildlife and abandoned mine landsassociated cultural and historic resources.

Manage Environmental Compliance - This activity funds audits and our compliance 

program that assesses Forest Service compliance with environmental statutes and trains 

field personnel on compliance and pollution prevention. This activity ensures that 

employee and public health and safety are protected through agency compliance with 

environmental laws and regulations.

Manage Environmental Restoration - This activity provides for the inventory, assessment, 

cleanup, long-term operation and maintenance, and monitoring of sites where there is a 

release, or threat of release, of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant on NFS 

lands. Restoration occurs at both abandoned mine lands and non-abandoned mine lands 

sites and involves Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability 

Act (CERCLA) and non-CERCLA authorities. Cleanup projects are typically initiated 

under requirements of CERCLA, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or the 

Clean Water Act. This restoration helps minimize or eliminate threats to human health 

and the environment.

The Minerals and Geology Management program supports U.S. Department of Agriculture

Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, 

and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our water resources. The Minerals 

and Geology Management program supports the Forest Service strategic goal of sustaining our 

Nation’s forests and grasslands by ensuring that mineral operations on the NFS lands are 

conducted in an environmentally sustainable manner. We achieve Forest Service goals of 

delivering benefits to the public, by ensuring abundant clean water and strengthening 

communities through the social and economic benefits of responsible mineral development.

Allocation and Integration

Allocation criteria for the Minerals and Geology Management program includes projected 

workload in response to new and ongoing mineral planning, exploration, leasing, development, 

production and reclamation activities; number of abandoned mine lands safety features requiring 

mitigations, as well as severity of and probability of human contact to abandoned mine hazards; 
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projected need for inventory, interpretation, and protection of geologic resources; projected need 

for assessment and mitigation of geologic hazards; number of required environmental audits; and 

number of nationally prioritized environmental cleanup projects. Adjustments may be made 

between regions based on regional capability data to respond to new issues or emerging mineral 

development trends and markets.

Integration with other resource programs is an agency priority that facilitates environmentally 

sound mineral development while maintaining and restoring healthy watersheds. This 

integration is designed to ensure compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations 

and to minimize impacts on natural resources. Integration with other programs also maximizes 

the achievement of diverse resource objectives that are compatible with program activities, such 

as interpretation of culturally significant sites, restoration of water quality, public and employee 

safety, and protection of threatened and endangered species. 

Partnerships 

The Forest Service works in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to manage 

Federal energy resources and minerals on the national forests and grasslands. We are also 

developing partnerships with geologic and hydrologic organizations to help raise awareness of 

the importance of applying responsible geologic principles to manage geologic hazards and 

geologic resources on NFS lands throughout the Nation. 

The Forest Service, the BLM, and industry form partnerships through the issuance of various 

mineral leases. Industry provides capital, and expertise, while the agencies provide lands on 

which to explore and develop mineral and energy resources in an environmentally sound manner 

for the Nation.

The Forest Service is also developing partnerships with geologic and hydrogeologic geosciencerelated organizations to help raise awareness of the importance of applying geologic principles to 

ensure sound and sustainable management of geologic resources and safe management of 

geologic hazards on NFS lands. In addition, these partnerships will help improve awareness of 

the role of NFS lands in supplying groundwater and surface water to meet societal needs. 

Cooperative partnerships with other government agencies and non-profit organizations also 

supplement appropriated funds to inventory and assess geologic resources and restore streams 

and watersheds. 

The Forest Service is entering a partnership with mining associations through a Memorandum of 

Understanding addressing the need to mitigate abandoned mine lands safety hazards by closing 

underground mine openings and vertical shafts; re-contouring open pits, trenches, and associated 

roads; and removing or stabilizing abandoned buildings, and equipment.

Agency emphasis within the environmental compliance and protection and abandoned mine 

lands activities includes cost recovery and efficient and effective use of partnerships including, 

but not limited to, Environmental Protection Agency, States, non-profit groups, and Tribes to 

restore and remediate abandoned mine lands and disturbed ecosystems. Costs of restoration 

work may be recovered when the potentially responsible party is identified.
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Landownership Management

Budget Line Item Landownership Management

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Landownership Management

Annual Appropriations $77,730 $77,730 $71,440 -$6,290 -8%

Landownership Management Total 77,730 77,730 71,440 -6,290 -8%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 527 527 527 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 527 527 527 0 0%

Landownership Management

Adjust Land Ownership 14,769 14,769 13,575 -1,194 -8%

Protect Land Ownership Title 7,773 7,773 7,145 -628 -8%

Locate Land Boundaries 22,542 22,542 20,720 -1,822 -8%

Administer Energy, Communication and Land Use 

Authorizations 21,764 21,764 20,000 -1,764 -8%

Process Land Use Proposals 10,882 10,882 10,000 -882 -8%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Landownership Management

Acres of land adjustments to conserve the integrity of 

undeveloped lands and habitat quality 23,566 7,383 16,816 73,762 7,500 26,900

Number of land use authorizations administered to 

standard 28,887 19,236 19,000 19,557 17,600 17,000

Number of land use proposals and applications processed 4,047 4,310 4,310 4,395 4,000 4,000

Miles of landownership boundary line 

marked/maintained to standard 2,322 2,377 2,400 2,514 2,500 2,070

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The President’s FY 2017 Budget includes $71,440,000 for Landownership Management, a 

decrease of $6,290,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The decrease in funds will result in 

approximately 400 fewer miles of boundary marked and maintained, which may exacerbate the 

40,000 estimated title claims and encroachments already on the National Forest System (NFS) 

lands. It is also likely that the decrease in Landownership Management funding will prohibit 

many units from developing and hiring new realty specialists to replace the many current 

specialists expected to retire soon, leaving significant gaps in expertise at the field level. These 

funds will continue supporting the real estate aspects of the restoration of resilient ecosystems, 

maintenance and expansion of access to public lands, and support for economic and 

infrastructure development for communities. Special emphases include facilitating the 
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development of energy transmission infrastructure and communications sites in an 

environmentally responsible manner. 

With the announcement of the Forest Service 2015-2020 Strategic Plan, the Landownership 

Management program contributes primarily to two key goals within the plan, Sustain our 

Nation’s Forests and Grasslands, and Deliver Benefits to the Public. This program area will lay 

the foundation for all natural resource management activities by surveying and locating public 

lands; maintaining all records associated with public ownership; granting authorizations for the 

use and development of NFS lands for communication sites, energy transmission corridors, 

community and agricultural water supplies, and roads and highways; and protecting the NFS 

from encroachments and trespass. This program will also facilitate land exchanges and other 

ownership adjustments that are critical to protecting sensitive lands while enabling community 

development and protection.

Within the broad spectrum of Landownership Management, the following program activities are 

critical to meeting public needs and expectations: Administer Energy, Communication, and 

Land Use Authorizations; Adjust Land Ownership; Protect Land Ownership Title; Locate Land 

Boundaries; and Process Land Use Proposals. Agency priorities for FY 2017 within each 

activity areas are as follows:

Administer Energy, Communication and Other Land Use Authorizations and Process Land Use 

Proposals

The FY 2017 President’s Budget provides funds for the administration of special use permits on 

NFS lands, which authorize 205 different categories of land use. This funding includes 

$8,000,000 for the evaluation of new proposals and the inspection, oversight, and monitoring of 

non-recreation infrastructure-related special use authorizations. 

In response to internal and external concerns, we have initiated and will continue to implement a 

comprehensive set of actions to improve the business processes around the special uses 

program. Focus areas include: (1) streamlining needed analyses the National Environmental 

Policy Act (NEPA) and non-NEPA), (2) creating digital tools for permit availability, application 

and tracking, (3) overhauling the internal business processes and data management system for 

permits, (4) implementing creative solutions to fill vacant positions in the field, and (5) 

modernizing the training for program staff. These changes will help ensure that local managers 

apply a consistent, streamlined, and efficient approach to issuing permits.

While this is a vast undertaking, here are a few specific examples. First, we are reviewing 

agency NEPA process along with categorical exclusions to determine if simplification and 

efficiencies can be implemented for permits on existing infrastructure. We initiated a project in 

FY 2016 and will continue develop activities into FY 2017 to develop an electronic permit 

application system that utilizes new technologies to improve customer service. Secondly, we 

launched a multi-year effort in FY 2016 to redesign the data system that stores information for 

permits, payments, and permit monitoring. Finally, we are prototyping an innovative Web site 

that will provide a single source of information for applying for and tracking permits for the 

public. We expect these changes to improve both customer service and program management.
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Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licensed hydropower facilities are one of the largest 

sources of renewable energy produced on the NFS and have an installed capacity of over 18,000 

megawatts of power. In FY 2017, we anticipate participating in planned Commissionadministered license proceedings and responding to new proposals sufficient to meet all

Commission-instituted deadlines. The Forest Service develops and submits Federal Power Act 

Section 4(e) conditions that include appropriate mitigation of project effects. Mitigation 

activities include fish protection upstream and downstream, integrated management of 

campgrounds along project reservoirs, provision of recreational flow releases, and protection of 

cultural resources potentially affected by project operations.

Adjust Land Ownership

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposal includes funds to exchange ownership of NFS and 

private lands. Through Land Adjustment we convey or exchange public lands which have lost 

their national forest character, are isolated from other Federal lands, and/or are heavily 

encumbered with private uses. Land ownership adjustment is carried out principally through 

conveyances, rights-of-way acquisitions or exchange of public lands for private lands of equal 

value. In FY 2017, we will exchange or convey public lands where we have willing partners and 

opportunities to improve public access, conserve open space where its loss threatens 

sustainability of national forests and grasslands, and protect healthy forested lands and 

watersheds. These changes in ownership will also enable us to better meet the needs of 

neighboring communities and landowners, reduce intermingled ownership and boundary 

maintenance, facilitate road maintenance, and minimize trespass and encroachment. 

Supporting Oil and Gas Development on the Dakota Prairie Grasslands, North Dakota

In FY 2015, a highly skilled and diverse strike team resolved a critical backlog of authorizations of national 

importance. For context, the four or five counties in this region have some of the highest oil production in the 

world. The team consolidated numerous authorizations into three master permits, amalgamated over 500 

hundred amendments into these three permits, and resolved the backlog of actions for several expired 

authorizations. As a result of collaborative efforts with industry and the region, these projects will put more 

than $60 million into local communities (such as through salaries, rentals, equipment, and processing of permits 

and authorizations) helping stabilize the local economy, advancing economic development, and supporting 

high-paying jobs. In addition to providing essential services to the rural population in the area, these projects 

also provide the basic infrastructure required to sustain and grow the local economy in the future.
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Protect Land Ownership Title

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes funds for resolving critical land title claims, 

encroachments, trespass, and other unauthorized uses on NFS lands. Priority will be given to 

those cases which involve major resource damage to NFS lands, litigation, legislation, and Tribal 

land claims. Resolution of these claims secures and protects the interest, rights, and title to the 

land and resources of the United States, while protecting the bona fide rights of the 

claimants. An automated tool, Title Claims and Encroachment Management System (TCEMS), 

has been deployed to aid land and resource managers in the tracking, documentation, processing, 

and resolution of the estimated 40,000 title claims and encroachments on NFS lands. Tools 

contained in the application provide District and Forest personnel with resources necessary to 

redeem the Forest Service statuary responsibility to resolve real and personal property claims, 

and to protect public interests of National Forest System lands by either removing encroachment 

or by authorizing the uses of NFS lands. By FY 2017, we anticipate completing our inventory of 

an estimated 40,000 title claims and encroachments on the NFS and, with that information, we 

will resolve real and personal property claims to protect public interests on the land and support 

restoration.

Locate Land Boundaries

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes funds to mark and maintain NFS property lines as part 

of priority restoration, watershed protection, and other resource management projects. 

Encroachments and trespass on NFS lands continue to grow due to increasing development in the 

rural landscape and the rapidly expanding wildland-urban interface. Marking and maintaining 

property lines is essential to all types of resource management. Clearly identifying NFS 

boundaries also provides landownership protection, security, and title defense. Leaving property 

lines unmarked and unmaintained can result in expensive and protracted litigation and loss of 

Unicoi Turnpike/Trail of Tears Exchange Adds to National Trail and Eliminates 

Special Use Permit, Cherokee NF

This exchange with the Towee Falls Baptist Church in Tennessee enabled us to 

acquire a section of the Unicoi Turnpike/Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. One 

of the oldest Traces in North America, the Turnpike was used as a principle route in 

the Cherokee Removal of 1838. The acquired section connects Unicoi Gap with Ft. 

Armistead, a Removal Period fort which remains archeologically intact. The Fort 

will be designated as a National Historic Landmark. The new property adjoins the 

Trails in its original roadbed and forested setting. In return, the Towee Falls Baptist 

Church acquired ownership of the cemetery on which it had long held a special use 

permit on the Cherokee National Forest.
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public lands and public trust. To maximize cost efficiencies, we prioritize cooperative and joint 

land surveys with other agencies through challenge cost-share and other agreements.

In FY 2017 we expect to fully implement the Record Boundary Management program completed 

in FY 2016. The program enables more efficient record keeping of NFS boundaries, and the data 

will allow program and project managers to integrate boundary condition information into 

resource and restoration project management decisions.

Past Performance

The Forest Service is responsible for managing the public estate of more than 193 million acres 

of national forests and grasslands to support mission critical objectives and public and economic 

benefits, and to carry out legal mandates. In FY 2015 actual target was a significant increase 

than past years because of one project, which consists of conveying nearly 70,000 acres of 

Tongass National Forest to the Sealaska Corporation, please refer to the heading Land 

Adjustment to receive additional information. In FY 2015, we focused on maintaining and 

opening public access, completing exchanges or conveyances required by law, addressing the 

special uses backlog, and populating and implementing a new database to track more than 30,000 

title claims and encroachments on the NFS.

Energy, Communication, and Land Use Authorizations

In FY 2015, we accomplished or initiated multiple improvements to expand energy, 

communications and other services to businesses and communities, improve customer service, 

and ensure appropriate fee collections and returns to the U.S. Treasury. Such activities included 

growing national partnerships, improving and streamlining internal processes, implementing a 

strike team to address the special use authorization backlog, and conducting inspections of 

existing special use authorizations. Some of these actions are described in further detail, below. 

National Partnerships to Serve Customers

This past year, we nurtured two national relationships and implemented laws and regulations to 

increase returns to the U.S. Treasury. First, we worked closely with the Heritage Program and 

the National Forest Homeowners Association to implement the new recreation residence 

guidelines following the passage of the Cabin Fee Act in December 2014. The law and the new 

guidelines, met by overwhelming approval by the National Forest Homeowners Association

membership, simplify and stabilize fees, create a simpler and less costly program to administer, 

provide a fair and reasonable return for the tax payer, and ensure the longevity of this popular 

recreation program and a long-term source of revenue for the Forest Service. Recreation 

residences will eventually return to the Federal Government more than $30 million in retained 

fees. We also nurtured and grew our national relationship with PG&E and Southern California 

Edison. The cost recovery and collection agreements, and fees, from the renewed permits will 

garner approximately $8 million dollars over the next four years in the Pacific Southwest Region 

alone. 

Streamlining Processes to Improve Service

In FY 2014 and 2015, we cooperatively embarked on a multi-year initiative with Recreation to 

streamline business processes and improve customer service. Staff began to develop national 
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core competency training to better educate our employees and build a cohesive special uses team 

to best serve the future public. We also continued developing electronic forms to track incoming 

requests for land use proposals, currently submitted through a paper application 

process. Electronic application submission will inform Forest Service staff about outstanding 

work loads, enable us to track the number of proposals going through our screening process, and 

will help us keep current and potential customers informed of progress of their proposal.

Expanding Service While Maximizing Revenue

In the area of communications sites management, we generated 57 new communication site 

management plans that identify authorized services that benefit our vendors and the public as 

well as the management needs to ensure public safety and protect natural resources. We also 

completed 301 communications use authorization inspections. These inspections revealed 

numerous unauthorized facilities and resulted in $158,200 in previously unreported/missing 

annual rent due to the U.S Treasury.

Increasing Domestic Energy Production and Local Revenue

In FY 2015, we assembled a temporary Special Uses Strike Team to support oil and gas 

development on the McKenzie Ranger District of the Dakota Prairie Grasslands in North Dakota, 

pulling together a highly skilled and diverse set of personnel from around the country to resolve 

a critical backlog of authorizations of national importance. For context, the four or five counties 

in this region have some of the highest oil production in the world. This effort consolidated 

numerous authorizations into three master permits and amalgamated over 700 hundred 

amendments into these three permits. The team also resolved the backlog of actions for several 

expired authorizations. As a result of our collaborative efforts with industry and the region, 

these projects will put more than $60 million into local communities (such as through salaries, 

rentals, equipment, and processing of permits and authorizations) helping stabilize the local 

economy, advancing economic development and supporting high-paying jobs. In addition to 

providing essential services to the rural population in the area, these projects also provide the 

basic infrastructure required to sustain and grow the local economy in the future. The projects 

provide a reliable communication platform which could be used in emergency situations as well 

as reliable electricity deployment for the local community and the oil and gas fields. In addition 

to addressing public demand, development of this team enabled Forest Service staff to share and 

best management practices and supporting succession planning within the Special Uses program. 

Land Adjustment

Land adjustment, primarily conducted through land exchanges and conveyances, is one of many 

tools we have to support other resource objectives, and is often a multi-year process. In FY 

2015, we exchanged or conveyed nearly 74,000 acres. Nearly 70,000 of these acres are from a 

legislatively mandated conveyance on the Tongass National Forest to the Sealaska Corporation. 

The balance, nearly 4,000 acres spread across multiple forests, represent opportunities where 

land adjustment aligned with agency management objectives and provided public benefit, such 

as improved recreational access to NFS lands for neighboring communities and the public. The 

cost and size of such exchanges and conveyances vary and can take up to four years to complete, 
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though the average case length is 18 months. Variability associated with cost, acres and time 

make it difficult to predict what we will complete and report in a given fiscal year. 

In one FY 2015 case, the National Forests in Florida successfully completed a multi-party land 

exchange in which Columbia County and Plum Creek Timberlands, L.P. received an easement to 

build a third of a mile of railroad on the Osceola National Forest, and the Forest received an 

easement for approximately five miles of the Florida National Scenic Trail on Plum Creek land. 

The easement exchanged supports a 14-county collaborative effort to commerce, jobs, and 

economic development in a rural area of northeastern Florida.

Management of Boundaries and the Public Estate

Properly marked and maintained boundaries and clear title ownership reduce trespass and 

encroachments, ensure public access to the national forests and grasslands, and enable land 

managers to carry out resource priorities on the ground. Without accurately located and marked 

boundaries we cannot fully manage the public estate; for example, fuels projects may not be 

completed to the wildland urban interface or can inadvertently include private lands or roads.

Title claims, encroachments and trespass on NFS lands, often resulting from unmarked and 

unmaintained boundaries, threaten the loss of open space, increase the risk of invasive species, 

cause loss or damages to public resources, and reduce access to public lands. So far we have 

reported nearly 25 percent of an estimated 30,000 trespass and encroachments, including 

abandoned vehicles, buildings, and roads, on the NFS into the Title Claims and Encroachments 

Management System. This system will help us inventory, track, and monitor title claims and 

encroachments work/cases. Once fully populated and operational, the Title Claims and 

Encroachments System will help inform decisions to determine where best to invest staff time 

and resources on title and encroachment resolution as well as land adjustment, such as 

conveyances or exchanges, towards addressing significant threats to resource management. 

In FY 2015, we provided training and outreach on to nearly 650 staff on the local, regional, and 

national levels, including staff in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Department of 

Defense. The Intermountain Region Boundary Title Management group took training a step 

farther and implemented a training team to educate and prepare their line officers and field 

employees to use the system. This training was well received with many positive reviews from 

the trainees. 

In FY 2015, began beta testing of an automated Record Boundary Management (RBM) program 

using the Automated Lands Project platform and data. As described earlier, when fully 

implemented, the RBM program will digitally display the current condition of marked and 

maintained boundary lines. These data will allow program and project managers to integrate 

boundary condition information into resource and restoration project management decisions.

Program Description

Program Overview 

Through direct land management practices, the Landownership Management programs enable 

the Forest Service to protect and enhance Federal lands within or adjacent to NFS boundaries 
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and are critical to for us to effectively carry out agency strategic goals of sustaining our Nation’s 

forests and grasslands and delivering benefits to the public. These resources support the delivery 

of products and services that contribute to the Nation’s ecological, physical, social and economic 

well-being, and enable us to enforce laws on access and use that are essential to the long-term 

survival of the national forests and grasslands, the protection of natural resources, and public 

safety. 

Sustaining Our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands

Ecological resilience relies upon sustained, accurate boundary verification, marking and 

protection. Lands and realty staff identify and provide the legally defensible boundaries and 

records that are essential to implement any type of land management activity, from timber sales 

to habitat management to exploration for energy or gas production. With the certainty of marked 

and maintained boundaries, we are able to maximize treatments and resource removal, such as

hazardous fuels treatments and timber harvest and sales. Marking and maintaining our 

boundaries and protecting the legal title of the NFS also helps us manage our costs and optimize 

the use of taxpayer funds. 

Not administering permits or identifying boundaries can result in expensive and time-consuming 

litigation when ownership is unclear, and loss of public lands, as well as damage or destruction 

of special areas, plants, fish, and wildlife. A strategic and accountable program within boundary 

management, title claims and encroachments will result in a public estate that is well managed 

and protected for the use and enjoyment of the American public.

Through boundary management, we also ensure the protection of special management areas such 

as wildernesses, national monuments, national scenic and historic trails, and wild and scenic 

rivers for outdoor recreation and solitude. We also ensure legal protection of watersheds that 

serve as natural reservoirs for water supplies, and provide a range of other economic and 

ecological value to the region, the public and the ecosystem. Conserving these areas for resource 

preservation, scenic, and historical values contributes to the ecological as well as economic and 

social well-being of communities.

Delivering Benefits to the Public

Landownership Management directly enables essential public services such as emergency 

communications, broadband, radio, cellular service, as well as transportation and clean water, 

through special use authorizations; allows us to work with communities to exchange, convey, or 

acquire land to support agency goals as well as community growth and development; and ensures 

that we protect our natural resources while carrying out land and resource management priorities. 

Administering rights-of-ways and authorizations for roads and local transportation services 

allows individuals to access recreation, commute to and from their homes, and conduct business 

supportive of local and national economies.

Landownership Management is critical to effectively carry out agency strategic goals of 

sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands and delivering benefits to the Public. Examples 

include administering more than 19,000 transportation authorizations to ensure public local 

access through the NFS, identification and administration of renewable energy development and 
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energy corridors (approximately 15,000 miles of powerlines), management of more than 1,500

communications sites, and management of 14,000 cabin lots for private use and residence. We 

typically issue between 5,000 and 7,000 authorizations each year, including both new proposals 

and reauthorizations. 

More specific uses and activities we facilitate for the benefit of the American public include: 

• Acquiring priority land to protect critical resources and to increase public recreation 

opportunities.

• Authorizing the use of NFS lands for power lines, fiber optic lines, and communication 

sites such as cell phone towers to provide electricity and communication infrastructure to 

cities and communities.

• Authorizing the use of NFS mountain tops for many types of communications, including 

emergency services, which are critical to rural and urban America, particularly in the 

West.

• Authorizing the use of NFS lands for pipelines to carry natural gas and oil.

• Ensuring that Federal Energy Regulatory Commission administered hydropower projects 

are managed to provide significant public benefits of energy and are designed to protect 

and restore rivers and streams; provide suitable fish and wildlife habitat and support 

water-based recreation.

• Exchanging and conveying lands to support community growth and development and to 

support forest land and resource goals and objectives.

• Conveying administrative sites to allow us to realign and enhance our asset portfolio.

• Determining the market value of lands purchased, exchanged, or conveyed.

• Authorizing road access across NFS lands to a private subdivision within a national 

forest.

• Accepting donations of land to protect important resources, including archaeological or 

historical sites.

• Maintaining records of NFS land areas, transactions, status, permitted uses, and 

easements.

• Securing public road and trail access across private land to public NFS lands.

The program is delivered through the following activities: 

Administer Energy, Communication and Other Land Use Authorizations, Process Land Use 

Proposals – This activity allows the program to administer approximately 47,200 land use 

authorizations for a wide variety of purposes, including rights-of-way for roads, pipelines, 

communication and navigation sites, and electric transmission and distribution facilities. Such 

permitted uses on NFS lands directly support jobs, and builds community resilience, particularly 

in rural communities where the agency is a major landowner. The program funds inspection, 

oversight, and monitoring of existing non-recreation special use authorizations to ensure 

compliance with the terms and conditions of the authorization while ensuring the health and 

safety of the public; protection of the environment; compliance with Federal, State, and local 

laws and regulations; and protection of the interests of the United States. 
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This activity provides for evaluation of new proposals to occupy and use NFS lands for nonrecreational purposes. Included are proposals for roads, communications sites, hydropower 

facilities, oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines, and other energy related uses to 

facilitate the delivery of reliable energy resources and communication links.

Adjust Land Ownership – The exchange of ownership of NFS and private lands improves: public 

access, conservation of open space where its loss threatens sustainability of national forests and 

grasslands, and protection of healthy forested lands and watersheds. Adjusting land ownership 

improves the efficiency of land management, allows the agency to better meet public access 

needs, reduces intermingled ownership and boundary maintenance, eases fire protection and law 

enforcement control, facilitates road maintenance, and minimizes trespass and encroachment 

cases. It allows the agency to convey to private ownership lands which have lost their national 

forest character, are isolated from other public ownership, and/or are heavily encumbered with 

private uses. In addition, adjusting land ownership secures access across private lands necessary 

to reach NFS lands for resource management and public recreational use. Land ownership 

adjustment is carried out principally through exchanges, conveyances, and rights-of-way 

acquisitions. Case processing involves site analysis, title review, legal description verification, 

and appraisal and deed execution.

Protect Land Ownership Title – This activity funds title defense and resolution of land title 

claims, Tribal claims, trespass, encroachments, other unauthorized uses, land sales, and grants 

and selections. It includes title claim identification, inventory, and investigation. This activity 

also includes managing the land status record system, which provides legally defensible 

boundaries and accurate, complete landownership records of NFS lands.

Locate Land Boundaries – This activity provides professional land surveying services, including 

property boundary surveys, locating and marking NFS property lines and administrative 

boundary lines, boundary and property corner maintenance and perpetuation, legal land 

description preparation and review, land title research, expert witness testimony, and geospatial 

and geodetic services, in order to protect the title, land ownership, and use of the public estate. 

The Forest Service has 276,000 miles of property line, of which approximately 33,700 miles (12 

percent) are currently marked to Forest Service standards. 

This program supports USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working 

lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our 

water resources. The Landownership Management program also supports the Forest Service 

strategic goal of sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands through the fostering of healthy 

ecosystems, mitigation of wildfire risk, and conservation of open space.

Allocation and Integration 

Funds are allocated to the regions based on regional program capability, core operations support, 

and national priorities. The allocation process considers past performance and future needs 

regarding boundary management, landownership adjustments, land use authorization processing 

and administration, and title protection.

Partnerships 
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The agency cooperates with governments and landowners at every level, including many other 

Federal agencies, such as the BLM, the National Park Service, and the Department of Defense; 

State agencies; interagency working groups; local and Tribal governments; non-Federal 

exchange parties; and private landowners. The program identifies and secures cost-share and 

partnership opportunities in order to enhance management of public lands, eliminate or reduce 

redundant efforts, and leverage funds to secure high-priority resource lands for public access and 

resource protection.
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Law Enforcement Operations

Budget Line Item Law Enforcement Operations

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Law Enforcement Operations

Annual Appropriations $126,653 $126,653 $131,630 $4,977 4%

Law Enforcement Operations Total 126,653 126,653 131,630 4,977 4%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 765 765 765 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 765 765 765 0 0%

Law Enforcement Operations

Enforce Laws & Regulations 83,591 83,591 86,874 3,283 4%

Investigate Crime 43,062 43,062 44,756 1,694 4%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Law Enforcement Operations

Percent of cases referred for adjudication 8.1% 7.1% 7.0% 7.4% 7.0% 7.2%

Number of documented law enforcement incidents per 

10,000 forest visits 6.3 6.4 6.0 5.9 6.0 6.0

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President's budget proposes $131,630,000 for Law Enforcement & Investigations 

(LEI), an increase of $4,977,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. $5,600,000 will be used

to address illegal marijuana grow site reclamation. Of the total amount for site reclamation, up

to $4,100,000 will be used for surge operations. This entails law enforcement officers from

around the Nation participating in marijuana eradication operations, predominantly in 

California; thereby, surging our number of officers in specific locations for on-the-ground 

activities. Up to $1,500,000 will be used for marijuana grow site clean-up and reclamation.

Primary activities associatedwith clean-up and reclamation will be the removal of irrigation

pipes, the removal and disposal of hazardous materials (rodenticide, herbicide, etc.), and the

removal of storage sheds.

The additional investment will also enhance general law enforcement operations used to combat 

illegal activities of drug trafficking organizations on National Forest lands, improving safety of 

visitors, and protecting the landscape from the damaging impact of drug related activities. The 

investment would enhance LEI patrol and investigation function needed to reduce immediate 

threats to water quality due to hazardous chemicals used by drug production activities and 

maintain the LEI resources necessary to support clean-up and restoration of marijuana cultivation 
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sites. The investment would also enhance the law enforcement capacity required to maintain our 

cooperative agreements with Tribal, State, and local law enforcement. LEI will continue to

participate in focused multi-agency operations and maintain its leading role in Campaign Against 

Marijuana Planting (CAMP) operations statewide.

LEI will continue to prioritize responses to emergency and life-threatening situations and 

continue crime prevention efforts with the National Sheriff’s Association through the use of 

cooperative law enforcement agreements. In support of the National Fire Plan, LEI will continue 

to prioritize arson investigations.

Specific priorities within each activity include:

Enforce Laws and Regulations - The FY 2017 President’s Budget request of $86,873,920

funds uniform patrol presence to protect natural resources, Forest Service employees, and 

the public and respond to safety incidents and violations of laws and regulations. 

Investigate Crime - The FY 2017 President’s Budget request of $44,756,080 will fund 

criminal and civil investigations for arson, drug possession, theft, and assaults. Drug 

Trafficking Organizations have been identified as the key producer of marijuana on NFS 

lands. Drug Trafficking Organization activity has been confirmed on 72 national forests 

in 21 States.

In FY 2017, LEI estimates that 7.2 percent of cases will be referred for adjudication and there 

will be approximately 6 documented law enforcement incidents per 10,000 forest visits.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, there were 5.9 documented law enforcement incidents per 10,000 forest visits, 

compared to a target (desired outcome) of 6 or fewer. Many of these incidents were critical 

emergency incidents involving threats to the safety of the public, our employees, or property and 

resources. Also in FY 2015, 7.4 percent of all criminal cases were referred for adjudication 

compared to a target of 7.0 percent. Many of the adjudicated cases included serious felony 

violations of law such as assault, controlled substance violations, theft and damage of 

government property, and significant civil cases. In FY 2015, there were 872,986 Marijuana 

plants eradicated. 

Program Description

Program Overview

The Forest Service LEI program is charged with providing a safe environment for the public, our 

employees, and protecting the Nation’s natural resources on approximately 193 million acres of 

NFS lands in 44 States. The program accomplishes this by enforcing laws and regulations and 

investigating crimes. Increasing population growth in the wildland-urban interface, increasing 

popularity of NFS lands for motorized recreational use, and illegal occupancy of NFS lands 

cause significant impacts to NFS lands and resources and increase risks to public and employee 

health and safety.
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The LEI program provides a highly visible uniformed patrol presence and rapid emergency 

responses to incidents affecting the public and employees visiting or working on NFS lands. LEI 

conduct regular and recurring patrols. The LEI staff responds to crimes and conducts complex 

criminal and civil investigations ranging from minor infractions to serious felonies such as 

homicide, rape, assaults, and threats against the public and employees, domestic disputes, 

robbery, drug production and trafficking, domestic terrorism, destruction of government 

property, theft of archaeological resources, gang activity, and fire investigations. 

The LEI staffs also frequently respond to catastrophic natural or manmade disasters at the local, 

regional, and national level, and commonly provide immediate emergency response in support of 

catastrophic wildland fire incidents on public lands. LEI is often the first law enforcement 

responder in these incidents and responsible for the safety of firefighting personnel and 

equipment, the evacuation of visitors and residents, and the protection of property. The LEI 

program is also a rapidly deployable national law enforcement asset under the Federal 

Emergency Management Agency Emergency Support Function #13- Public Safety and Security. 

Approximately 80 percent of marijuana grown on Federal public lands is grown on NFS lands. 

The LEI program is the lead organization combating this threat to public lands. LEI’s efforts to 

address illegal cannabis production, the associated severe environmental damage, and the 

significant safety risk Drug Trafficking Organizations pose to public lands is a central tenet of 

the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy National Drug Control Strategy’s 

goal to Disrupt Domestic Drug Trafficking and Production and to Eradicate Marijuana 

Cultivation. 

This program performs the following two activities:

Enforce Laws & Regulations - Includes uniformed patrol presence resource protection 

patrols and response to public and employee safety incidents and violations of laws and 

regulations. Common incidents on national forests include theft, assault, alcohol and drug 

use, unauthorized motor vehicle use, illegal occupancy, and trespassing. 

To protect NFS resources and visitors, Forest Service law enforcement officers carry 

firearms, defensive equipment, make arrests, execute search warrants, complete reports 

and testify in court. They establish a regular and recurring presence on a vast amount of

public lands, roads, and recreation sites. The primary focus is the protection of natural 

resources, protection of Forest Service employees and the protection of visitors. 

Investigate Crime - Covers criminal and civil investigations of both internal and external 

cases such as felony arson, drug possession, smuggling and manufacturing, thefts, and 

assaults. 

Drug Trafficking Organizations have been identified as the key producers of marijuana 

on NFS lands with activities confirmed on 72 national forests and in all regions except 

Region 10. Illegal ground importation and trafficking on or near NFS lands of 

immigrants, drugs, weapons, and other contraband, and illegal exportation of weapons 

and illicit cash profits create ongoing and imminent threats to the personal safety of 

employees and the visiting public. Special Agents plan and conduct investigations 
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concerning possible violations of criminal and administrative provisions of the Forest 

Service and other statutes under the United States Code. These normally plainclothes 

officers carry concealed firearms and other defensive equipment, make arrests, carry out 

complex criminal investigations, and prepare investigative reports and present cases for 

prosecution to U.S. Attorneys.

The LEI program supports USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private 

working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while 

enhancing our water resources. Additionally, this program supports the Forest Service strategic 

goals of delivering benefits to the public through connecting people to the outdoors. 

Allocation and Integration

Funding allocations support core operations and address priority needs, based on competitive 

regional criteria including number of visitors and acreage of NFS lands. In addition to public 

safety, priority is placed on responding to activity by Drug Trafficking Organizations.

Partnerships

The LEI program maintains a partnership with Federal, State, and local law enforcement 

agencies and other programs by building strong relationships with State and local cooperators, 

and Federal agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency; Federal Bureau of Investigation; 

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Office of the United States Attorney, 

the Federal Court System; and other Federal land management agencies. In addition, the LEI 

program uses approximately 500 Cooperative Law Enforcement Agreements, which utilize State 

and local cooperators to assist and augment patrols on NFS lands to enhance LEI patrol coverage 

and to ensure public safety. However, in many remote areas or areas with diminished local law 

enforcement, LEI often provides the only law enforcement personnel available.
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Valles Caldera

Budget Line Item Valles Caldera National Preserve

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Valles Caldera National Preserve

New Budget Authority $3,364 0 0 0

Program Level 0 0 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 1 0 0 0

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act designated the Valles Caldera National 

Preserve (Preserve) as a unit of the National Park Service. Transfer of the Preserve to the 

National Park Service occurred in FY 2015. As a result, there will be no balance remaining in 

this fund in FY 2017.

Past Performance 

In December 2014, the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act designated the Preserve as a 

unit of the National Park Service and transferred administration of the Preserve to the Secretary 

of the Interior. FY2015 was a transition year for the Preserve with the National Park Service 

assuming full responsibility on October 1, 2015.

Authorities

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, Sec. 3043 (H.R. 3979 EAH, 113th 

Cong.), December 12, 2014. This Act abolishes the Valles Caldera Trust and designates the 

Valles Caldera National Preserve as a unit of the National Park System. 

Valles Caldera Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. 698v-4, 698v-6). (P.L. 106-248, [title I, Sec. 106, 

Sec. 108], July 25, 2000, 114 Stat. 603 and 607; as amended by P.L. 109-132, [Sec. 2 (b)-(d)], 

119 Stat. 2570). This Act authorized the Valles Caldera Trust to receive and collect funds in 

support of the management and administration of the Preserve. This included the authority to 

assess fees for admission to, the use, and occupancy of the Preserve. In addition, it allowed the 

Trust to solicit and accept donations of funds, property, supplies, or services for the purpose of 

management of the Preserve.
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Capital Improvement and Maintenance

Capital Improvement and Maintenance

Appropriation Capital Improvement and Maintenance

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Capital Improvement and Maintenance

Annual Appropriations $360,374 $364,164 $343,280 -$20,884 -6%

Capital Improvement and Maintenance Total 360,374 364,164 343,280 -20,884 -6%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 1,967 1,967 1,967 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 1,967 1,967 1,967 0 0%

Capital Improvement and Maintenance

Facilities 71,600 71,390 71,600 210 0%

Roads 168,094 172,094 150,000 -22,094 -13%

Trails 77,530 77,530 78,530 1,000 1%

Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement 3,150 3,150 3,150 0 0%

Legacy Roads and Trails 40,000 40,000 40,000 0 0%

Supplemental, Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 

2013 (P.L.113-2) 0 0 0 0 0%

Capital Improvement and Maintenance Overview

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $343,280,000 for Capital Improvement and 

Maintenance, decrease of $20,884,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

The President’s Budget proposes significant investments in facilities, particularly through the 

Roads and the Legacy Roads and Trails program in support of the agency’s strategic plan for 

sustaining our Nation’s forest and grasslands and delivering benefits to the public. Managing 

our primary capital investments that directly support local governments (Roads and Facilities) 

will support continued economic interface between counties and cities, will connect villages with 

cities, will ensure safe public access to public lands, and will allow for safe and efficient 

infrastructure connectivity (e.g. fiber optic cables, utility lines). The Forest Service 

transportation system provides mission critical access for recreational, administrative, resource 

management, and commercial purposes. The transportation system also provides access to and 

among rural and gateway communities, contributing to community vitality and economic 

development. Infrastructure maintenance and improvement enables the Forest Service to supply 

goods and services to the American public, while helping meet critical natural resource needs. 

This proposal also includes investments in Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure 

Improvement as we prioritize the reduction of our maintenance backlog and associated future 

costs. The focus will be on facilities that pose serious threats to public health or safety, a natural 

resource, or to the ability of the Forest Service to implement its mission. Future costs savings 

include estimated cost reductions for utility payments, maintenance and repair, and other 

operational savings. These investments will also greatly reduce the risk of catastrophic failure 
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Capital Improvement and Maintenance

for a number of our high hazard dams, bridges, and highly utilized facilities; mitigating threats to 

public life/health/safety and the environment.

The agency will place a high priority on providing mission enabling infrastructure that is rightsized, environmentally sustainable, and safe for all users. A key objective of the program will be 

to reduce the agency footprint through the strategic consolidation and elimination of underused 

facilities as well as to promote and practice sustainability in our building operations, making our 

buildings more energy efficient and environmentally sound.

We will continue to focus our roads program on the key outcomes of access, restoration, and 

safety. The National Forest Road System is an integral part of the rural transportation network. 

It provides escape routes in the event of wildland fire or other emergency situations, and 

emergency access for first responders. This system also supports recreation visitors who bolster 

local economies through expenditures in and around the National Forest System (NFS) lands. 

Maintaining this system is necessary to continue to provide this access, to meet Highway Safety 

Act requirements, and to protect the quality of critical water supplies provided by NFS lands to 

communities.

Our agency priority is to provide safe and healthful environments for all users that are in 

compliance with all applicable regulations and codes. Funds will be prioritized to provide 

infrastructure that supports safe public, administrative, and recreation uses. Priority for Facilities 

funding will be placed on repairing and improving those facilities, including buildings, water and 

wastewater systems, dams, and recreation sites, that are used by the public and are critical to 

supporting agency mission and operations.
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Capital Improvement and Maintenance

Facilities

Budget Line Item Facilities

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Facilities

Annual Appropriations $71,600 $71,390 $71,600 $210 0%

Facilities Total 71,600 71,390 71,600 210 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 311 311 311 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 311 311 311 0 0%

Facilities

Maintain Facilities 55,369 55,369 55,369 0 0%

Improve Facilities 16,231 16,021 16,231 210 1%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Facilities

Facilities condition index 88.0% 84.3% 82.0% 86.0% 82.0% 82.0%

Percent of administrative facilities with "Good" or "Fair" 

condition rating 57.0% 60.8% 57.0% 60.1% 58.0% 58.0%

Percentage of recreation facilities with a "Good" or 

"Fair" condition rating 73.0% 77.2% 76.0% 77.3% 75.0% 74.0%

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $71,600,000 for the Facilities program, an increase of 

$210,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The economic well-being of the gateway 

communities of the national forests and grasslands depends heavily on the visitors that use the 

developed recreation sites supported by at least half of the Facilities program budget. At this 

funding level we will prioritize funding for critical health and safety maintenance at our 

developed recreation sites and at our fire, administrative, and other facilities. In addition, we 

will continue to emphasize a reduction in our overall facility footprint and the importance of 

maintaining National-level agency facilities. 

The Facilities program will play a key role in meeting sustainability requirements and realizing 

utility cost savings. In FY 2017 we will make tangible progress toward the requirements in the 

far-reaching new Executive Order 13693 (March 2015). This executive order set several goals 

for 2025 that rely on Facilities, including total energy usage, renewable and clean energy usage, 

potable water usage, net-zero energy and net-zero water buildings (which use no more than they 

generate annually), sustainable existing buildings, and greenhouse gas emissions. For example, 

we are identifying the top energy consuming facilities through Utility Bill Clean-up efforts, and 

will target investments and leverage third-party financing to realize significant utility cost 
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reductions. Additionally, we are partnering with the National Renewable Energy Lab to identify 

candidate facilities for installing cost-effective renewable energy systems (including biomassfueled systems). Also, by 2017, we expect that 22 percent of our buildings over 5,000 gross 

square feet will meet the Guiding Principles for High Performance Sustainable Buildings. These 

efforts complement operational changes which are coordinated through the Office of 

Sustainability and Climate Change.

In FY 2017, we will explore opportunities to include feedback on customer satisfaction for 

recreation sites and facilities within and through the Forest Service digital strategy effort. In a 

related effort, we will review best industry practices in both private and public sectors in order to 

develop public facing standards and performance measures to help track information internally 

and share information externally about the quality and availability of our recreation sites and 

opportunities. We will also continue to assess the safety aspects of our developed sites locations

under current and future conditions. For example, we will assess the need to relocate recreation 

facilities from areas that are projected to be increasingly prone to flash flooding. 

Past Performance

Forest Service Facilities enable employees to carry out our mission and strategic goals to sustain 

the national forests and grasslands, deliver benefits to the public, and apply knowledge both 

internally and globally. In FY 2015, we initiated an effort to increase dam safety and minimize 

impacts to surrounding communities, expanded the accessibility of our developed recreation sites 

in order to better serve the public, provided guidance to the field to reduce our infrastructure 

footprint and associated costs, and expanded sustainability and energy conservation efforts to 

reduce adverse impacts on the environment. Below is some more information on these efforts as 

well as two examples of major Facilities projects completed in FY 2015.

Increasing Community Safety near Dams 

In FY 2015, we continued an ongoing effort to update Emergency Action Plans and associated 

inundation maps for 31 Forest Service-owned high-hazard potential dams and update an 

additional 5 inundation maps for high-hazard potential dams. Inundation maps display critical 

areas that could be affected by a dam failure or operational incident. Residents of areas that 

could be affected by a dam failure or operational incident have a risk of loss of life, and damage 

to property from a failure or operational incident. Emergency Action Plans help protect lives and 

reduce property damage.

Upper Sherando Dam on the South River was designed and constructed by the U.S. Department 

of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in 1958. The dam was 

originally under an operation and maintenance agreement, which has expired and the dam is now 

considered to be under Forest Service ownership. The dam benefits landowners downstream by 

reducing flooding occurrences, periods of denied access to their property, and sedimentation of 

their property. The County, State, and the general public benefit from the reduction of flooding 

occurrences and potential damage to roads and bridges downstream from the dam. The dam was 

damaged during a major storm event in 2003, requiring major repairs. A 2011 Rehabilitation 

and Assessment report indicates that in order to meet current Virginia State Dam Safety and 

NRCS criteria for a High Hazard structure, improvements to the auxiliary spillway are required 
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to increase capacity. In addition, 

downstream from Upper Sherando 

Dam is Lower Sherando Dam, 

another High Hazard dam, whose 

current spillway capacity is only 20 

percent of that necessary to meet 

Virginia State Dam Safety and 

NRCS criteria for High Hazard 

Dams. George Washington and 

Jefferson National Forest has 

requested $3.5 million to complete 

improvements on both Upper 

Sherando and Lower Sherando 

Dams.

Increasing Accessibility for 

Outdoor Recreation

With approximately 10,000 developed recreation sites on the National Forest System (NFS) 

lands, we support a broad spectrum of outdoor recreation opportunities in America’s great 

outdoors, and we are committed to inclusive participation in recreation opportunities for all 

people, regardless of age or ability. In FY 2015, we achieved a record, ensuring that more than 

27 percent of our recreation site capacity is accessible, and increased our number of accessible 

recreation buildings to more than 8,400 an increase of 400 since FY 2004. We leveraged 

Facilities dollars with other funds, such as recreation fee collections and or Capital Improvement 

& Maintenance funds, to open more recreation opportunities for all visitors to enjoy including 

those with disabilities, seniors, large family groups, and families with young children and 

strollers. The Forest Service provides the largest number, and widest range, of accessible 

recreation facilities in the country.

Reducing our Physical and Environmental Footprint 

The Forest Service is investing to improve the performance of its facilities in terms of 

sustainability, energy and water conservation, and cost-effectiveness. In FY 2015, almost 21 

percent of our existing buildings over 5,000 square feet met the Federal Guiding Principles for 

High Performance and Sustainable Buildings. This exceeds the Executive Order (E.O. 13514) 

mandate of 15 percent by FY 2015. The Pacific Southwest Region, for example, implemented 

36 Sustainable Operations Microgrant Projects in FY 2015 with an emphasis on energy and 

water. Annual cost savings from these projects are estimated to total nearly $59,000, with a

payback period of two years, and a 391 percent return on investment in five years. Resource 

savings from these projects include over 9.1 million gallons of water and over 42,000 kilowatthours of energy. In a specific, local example, the Willamette National Forest replaced an 

existing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning unit with a much more efficient heat pump and 

air handler, replaced 400-Watt outdoor floodlights with 150-Watt LEDs, and replaced two old 

water heaters with heat-pump water heaters, which are twice as efficient. In these ways, we 

reduced utility costs, and led by example in reducing energy use, water use, and greenhouse gas 

emissions. 

View from the top of Upper Sherando Dam, a High Hazard Dam located at 

the Sherando Lake Recreation Area on the George Washington and Jefferson 

National Forest in Virginia. This dam enhances recreation opportunities and 

protects property owners and infrastructure downstream from flooding.
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Major Facilities Projects

In addition to efficiencies in energy use and reductions in our physical footprint, each year we 

complete major infrastructure projects proposed and funded through previous appropriations. 

Below are two examples of projects completed in FY 2015. 

In FY 2015 the Northern Region completed the first of three phases of remodeling and 

reconstruction of Fort Missoula’s Building 26 to serve as the Regional Office in Missoula 

Montana and moved 80 employees into the building including the Regional Forester staff. 

Building 26 was originally constructed in 1909 during Fort Missoula’s second re-construction 

period and is one of two twin, Mission-style, concrete, U.S. Army barracks buildings (the other 

is used as the Lolo National Forest Supervisors Office). In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corp 

added the east wing additions to both barracks. This project not only preserves and utilizes a 

significant building located in a Historic District, meeting all Section 106 requirements; it also 

reduces the Regional Office footprint by about 50 percent and reduces costs.

When Phase II and III of the remodeling and reconstruction are completed over the next two 

fiscal years, Building 26 will house all of the approximately 225 staff of the Northern Region 

Regional Office. This will allow the Regional Office to vacate a high cost lease of 

approximately $1.9 million per year, which will in turn reduce cost pools. Thirty year life cycle, 

costs will be reduced by 65 percent for a total savings of approximately $24 million, and the 

design and construction payback period is only about five and a half years. The building will 

utilize numerous energy reduction technologies and is anticipated to meet a Green Globes—2 

globe rating or better. Operation and maintenance costs and utilities for B26 will result in a net 

overhead reduction of $1.6 million per year, and it is estimated that approximately $8 million 

dollars of deferred maintenance will be eliminated upon completion of all phases.

In FY 2015 the Inyo National Forest completed a $270,800 project to rehabilitate the water 

system in the town of Mammoth Lakes, reducing costs and saving millions of gallons of water 

annually for multiple constituencies. The town of Mammoth Lakes’ water system is served by a 

single 6 inch service meter that contains more than two miles of pipeline and over 90 service 

connections, is more than 50 years old, and has no drawings identifying the location of the lines, 

valves, and drains. The water system serves 15 residences, 2 barracks buildings, a storage 

garage, the Ranger Station, an interagency visitor center, and the Tourism Bureau building under 

permit to the town of Mammoth Lakes. It also serves three Forest Service owned/ 

concessionaire operated campgrounds with a total of 144 campsites sites. The Inyo National 

Forest implemented the project in response to several water leaks discovered in the system. The 

leak repair and box improvement became a high priority for the region due to the drought in 

California and violation notices issued by the State. The Inyo National Forest used a Forest 

Service crew to locate lines and coordinate system outages to systematically identify and repair 

leaks with minimal disruption of services and at no additional cost to the government. The effort 

required close coordination with the above mentioned partners, employees, residents, and visitors 

for each outage. The Forest adjusted the project scope twice as the team identified additional 

leaks. The leak repair efforts will save 3.8 million gallons of water annually, water savings that 

helped the Mammoth Lakes Community Water District meet the State required reductions in 

water usage for 2015, and enabled the Inyo to continue to serve the needs of the community of 

Mammoth Lakes – its residents, its businesses, and its visitors – for years to come. 
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Program Description

Program Overview

Forest Service Facilities are 

essential to carry out our mission 

to care for the land and serve 

people and to achieve our strategic 

goal of delivering benefits to the 

public by connecting people to the 

outdoors. The Facilities program 

is one of the only portions of our 

budget that provides foundational 

support to each of our strategic 

goals and objectives.

Approximately half of the 

Facilities budget supports 

recreation infrastructure with the 

other half supporting essential infrastructure needed for restoring resilient landscapes, managing 

wildland fire and emergency response efforts, and conducting and delivering cutting edge 

research in support of our mission. 

The public often experiences the Forest Service by participating in recreational opportunities 

available on publicly managed national forests and grasslands. Outdoor recreation participation 

provides physically challenging exercise, development of lifelong skills, and a connection to the 

wonders of nature. Outdoor opportunities and experiences promote physical, mental, and 

spiritual health; enhance community identity and sense of place; help bond family and friends; 

and foster citizen stewardship of the Nation’s forests and grasslands. In many instances, lifelong 

conservation values develop from outdoor recreation experiences. 

The Facilities budget directly funds the maintenance of developed recreation sites; major 

construction and capital improvement for all fire operations, administrative, research, recreation, 

and other types of infrastructure; decommissioning when appropriate; and planning and design of 

all facilities. This program includes the maintenance, capital improvement, and management of 

over 16,000 administrative buildings, 9,575 water/wastewater systems, more than 10,000

developed recreation sites and 500 Forest Service owned dams located across the United States 

and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Sustaining Our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands

Facilities funds help ensure that our employees have the physical infrastructure they need to 

carry out natural resource objectives to sustain our Nation’s forests and grasslands for 

generations to come. These funds help support the planning and design, major capital 

improvement, consolidation, and when appropriate, the decommissioning of administrative 

buildings, work centers, warehouses, and other buildings to house the staff, tools, and equipment 

needed to achieve our mission. 

Building 26 Phase 2 Construction - Ongoing

New ADA compliant sidewalk has been installed.
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The Forest Service strives to promote and practice sustainability in all aspects of its facility 

operations and capital improvements, including making our buildings and equipment more 

energy and water efficient, striving for net-zero energy sites where practicable, and reducing 

waste whenever possible. New building construction projects for regional offices, supervisor’s 

offices, district offices, visitor centers, and research offices or laboratories, are registered and 

certified using either the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and 

Environmental Design rating system (minimum Silver certification), Green Globes (minimum 

Two Green Globes certification), or other third party certification systems. We encourage all 

Forest Service construction projects to be designed and constructed with domestically harvested 

wood products, ideally from locally sourced National Forest System lands, wherever feasible and 

practical.

Managing the natural role of fire while protecting resources, life and property from adverse 

impact of fire is a significant challenge in the changing landscape and environment in which we 

work. As part of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, maintaining and 

improving fire related facilities is critical to executing a safe, effective, and efficient response to 

wildfire. Facilities funds support wide range of fire related assets, including airtanker bases, 

lookouts, heliports, smokejumper centers, hotshot crew facilities, supply depots, fire caches, and 

fire management centers. These critical infrastructure assets enable the agency’s emergency 

management (Incident Command) structure, our wildland fire preparation, risk reduction, and 

response to wildland fire and its effects.

Delivering Benefits to the Public

Approximately half of the Facilities budget directly supports developed recreation sites, which 

contribute significantly to the approximately 143,000 full- and part-time jobs and more than $10 

billion that outdoor recreation generates to the communities surrounding national forests and 

grasslands. Developed recreation infrastructure supports the estimated 147 million visits that 

occur annually on NFS lands as attracting visitors to our campgrounds, bathhouses, picnic areas, 

boat launches and other developed sites.28 These assets connect the recreating public to the 

outdoors and contribute to the resilience of neighboring communities through many economic 

benefits associated with outdoor recreation, including jobs and commerce produced by tour 

operators and vendors such as lodging, fuel, food, and other supplies desired by outdoor 

recreation visitors. 

We also strive to make the direct benefits of our public lands – improved health, social 

connections, and quality of life – available to all Americans. Primarily through Facilities 

program funds, we are making recreational facilities on the national forests and grasslands more 

accessible to everyone, including seniors, families, and the estimated 57 million Americans with 

disabilities.

Communications facilities and equipment located on NFS lands are an integral part of the 

Nation’s telecommunications infrastructure, and provide essential support for operations of 

wildland firefighting; Homeland Security; emergency services; and hydroelectric, gas pipeline 

 28 National Visitor Use Monitoring Summary Report – 2014
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Capital Improvement and Maintenance

and electric transmission facilities that support the Nation’s prosperity. Facilities funds 

contribute to long-term maintenance and improvement of this infrastructure.

Applying Knowledge Globally

There are currently over 800 facilities owned and operated in support of the agency’s Research 

and Development mission, contributing to the development and delivery of knowledge and 

innovative technologies to improve the health and use of the Nation’s forests and grasslands -

both public and private. These facilities include state of the art laboratories, offices, warehouses, 

greenhouses, and quarters and are often co-located with major universities and our other research 

partners. Our facilities also do not just support research; some facilities themselves are utilized 

as part of long-term research projects. An example of this are the numerous weirs located at the 

Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, one of the original Long-Term Ecological Research sites 

established by the National Science Foundation. Many weirs date back to the 1930’s at the 

founding of the Coweeta Experimental Forest when the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed 

these structures to measure water flow.

 

Figure 1: Active projects at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, further our understanding of 

wood product applications, from manufacturing liquid nanocellulose to testing glue-laminated timber.

The Forest Service operates the Technology and Development Program that has facilities centers 

at two locations - San Dimas, California, and Missoula, Montana. The Technology and 

Development program is focused on applying technology and equipment design to improve 

business practices and keep employees safe while working in a forest environment. These 

facilities include testing and evaluation, space for review and examination of products that 

currently exist in the marketplace, and for the design and development of new and unique 

products. Technology and Development serves a critical role in assisting Fire and Aviation 

Management to outfit firefighters to perform their duties in a safe, cost effective manner in 

facilities. The program t works collaboratively with the General Services Administration and 

updates and maintains specifications for 200 of the most common products firefighters use, such 

as personal protective clothing, fire shelters, fire retardant testing, drip torches, and fire hoses. 
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Using the Technology and Development specifications, the General Services Administration

solicits and awards contracts for these items at well below open market prices.

The Technology and Development facilities support a wide variety of projects and programs for 

the Forest Service and other USDA agencies and external partners. Some examples of facilities 

related products under development include: 

• Building Management Guidelines – Provide how-to information for annual maintenance 

of facilities, including opening and closing facilities, historic preservation requirements,

and how to make Forest Service buildings “firewise.”

• Sustainable Demolition/Disposal – Guidebook to meet new requirements for recycling 

materials from demolished building. Lessons learned from units that have experience 

with sustainable demolition and disposal.

• Guidelines for Facilities Realignment – Provide objective analysis tools and techniques 

for determining which facilities are needed for mission requirements and which can be 

excessed, based on lessons learned from other agencies that have gone through major 

facilities reductions.

The Facilities program consists of two primary activities, the maintenance and improvement of 

facilities:

Maintain Facilities – Maintenance is the act of keeping fixed assets in acceptable 

condition. It includes repairs, preventive maintenance, and replacement of parts and 

structural components. Maintenance projects funded within this activity have costs 

exceeding $250,000 and the work pertains to recreation developed sites (such as 

campgrounds and day-use sites) and fire, administrative and other facilities. Maintenance 

excludes operation costs. The maintenance of facilities is essential to reduce energy and 

water consumption across the agency, and to create a sustainable network of facilities that 

meet Forest Service needs while reducing their environmental and climate impact.29 

Improve Facilities – Capital improvement projects for fire, administrative and other and 

recreation sites are included in this activity. Capital improvements include construction 

of new facilities, alteration of existing facilities to change function, and expansion of 

facilities to change capacity to meet needs that are different from the original intent. 

Improvements are often required to expand public service capability or recreational 

opportunities. In many cases, capital improvements eliminate deferred maintenance.29

Allocation and Integration

Allocations to the field are based on workforce, visitor demand and major project proposals, and

reflect needs identified through facility master plans.

Fire, administrative and other facilities are also funded through the Facilities Maintenance 

Assessment funds (see Special Exhibit - Facilities Maintenance Assessment) and the Operation 

 29 Forest Service Handbook 6509.11g Chapter 40, 40.5 – Definitions
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and Maintenance of Quarters Fund (see Permanent Appropriations Chapter). In addition to 

appropriated funds, annual maintenance and repairs to recreation facilities are also funded 

through other special authorities, including the Timber Sales Pipeline Restoration Fund and the 

Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. Through the use of these funds the Forest Service 

is able to operate and maintain many of its recreation facilities that might otherwise have been 

closed due to increasing costs.

Partnerships

The agency accomplishes valuable facility work by leveraging funds for completing these 

activities through partnerships. Volunteers, concessionaires, and other partners are engaged to 

enhance recreation experiences and help maintain nearly 70 percent of recreation sites. The 

agency currently has over 30,000 recreation special use authorizations which offer a great 

opportunity for partnership to support the millions of annual visits to NFS lands.

The Forest Service also emphasizes the need to co-locate with other Federal agencies through the 

Service First initiative, resulting in shared facilities that lower operation costs and increase 

collaboration between organizations. Service First is a partnership authority among four 

agencies, including the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land 

Management, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service.
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FY 2017 Facilities Major Projects List

(dollars in thousands)

Agency-wide Critical Infrastructure Support Total Cost

Recreation Maintenance (Projects Under $500,000) $39,189

Fire, administrative and other (FA&O Maintenance) (Projects $250,000 - $499,000) 2,397

Capital Improvement (Projects Under $500,000) 1,060

Critical Infrastructure Support Projects 14,440

Planning and Design for Future Projects 1,687

Washington Office (Maintenance and Improvement) 3,300

Albuquerque Service Center Business Management (Maintenance and Improvement) 8,274

Project Management and Implementation Support 1,179

Total for Agency-wide Critical Infrastructure Support $57,086

Region/ 

Station/ 

Area

State Project Name and Type Unit

Deferred 

Maintenance 

Eliminated

Project Cost

National Priority Projects

R01 ID Interagency Natural Resource Center- Phase 2 Idaho Panhandle

National Forests $1,432 $2,200

R06 OR Redmond Air Center Facility Improvements 

Phase 2

Deschutes

National Forest 2,159 1,000

National Priority Total $3,591 $3,200

National Demolition & Disposal Projects

R08 KY Daniel Boone NFs Forest-wide 

Decommissioning Daniel Boone NF $871 $150 

R05 CA ANF Camp 16 Demolition & Cleanup Angeles NF - 500 

National Demolition & Disposal Total $871 $650

Regional Priority Projects

R01 ID Interagency Natural Resource Center - Phase 1 Idaho Panhandle 

NF $ 1,432 $1,800 

R02 WY Saratoga Bunkhouse - Phase 1 Medicine Bow & 

Routt NFs - 500 

R02 CO Difficult Campground Rehabilitation White River NF 346 800 

R04 ID Stanley Lake Rec Complex Reconstruction Sawtooth NF 230 1,000 

R05 CA Mammoth Water System Repairs Inyo NF 606 1,240 

R06 WA Klahowya Campground Water & Wastewater 

System Improvements Olympic NF 250 615 

R08 AR Blanchard Springs Caverns Rehabilitation -

Phase 1

Ozark-St. Francis 

NF 300 600 

R09 NH Dolly Copp Campground Reconstruction -

Phase 2 

White Mountain 

NF 1,921 1,283 

SRS NC RTP Park Forest Science & Assessment Center 

- Phase 1

Southern 

Research Station 1,099 1,700 

RMRS MT Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute 

Renovation

Rocky Mountain 

Research Station 373 600 

SRS NC Whitehall Quarantine Laboratory for Invasive 

Species Research

Southern 

Research Station 40 525 
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Region/ 

Station/ 

Area

State Project Name and Type Unit

Deferred 

Maintenance 

Eliminated

Project Cost

Regional Priority Subtotal $6,597 $10,663

Total – National, Demolition & Disposal, and Regional Facilities Projects Funding $11,059 $14,513

TOTAL FY 2017 FACILITIES MAJOR PROJECTS $71,599
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Roads

Budget Line Item Roads

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Roads

Annual Appropriations $168,094 $172,094 $150,000 -$22,094 -13%

Roads Total 168,094 172,094 150,000 -22,094 -13%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 988 988 988 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 988 988 988 0 0%

Roads

New Road Construction 8,405 0 6,550 6,550 0%

Operations & Maintenance 141,199 145,454 126,840 -18,614 -13%

Reconstruction of Existing Roads 18,490 26,640 16,610 -10,030 -38%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Roads

Miles of passenger car roads receiving maintenance 34,281 36,824 34,000 35,028 32,000 30,000

Miles of high clearance system roads receiving 

maintenance 14,111 14,550 11,000 15,360 10,000 12,000

Miles of road reconstruction and capital improvement 2,037 2,539 2,000 2,272 2,000 2,000

Percent of road and trail rights-of-way acquired that 

provide public access through easement acquisitions or 

land adjustments 90.0% 90.0% 85.0% 90.0% 85.0% 80.0%

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $150,000,000 for the Roads Program, a decrease of 

$22,094,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. This funding is essential to maintain existing 

vehicle travel corridors in good condition in support of the agency’s goals for restoration and 

climate change mitigation. At this funding level we will be improving 100 fewer miles of road 

and maintaining 3,000 fewer miles of trail than in FY 2016. We are principally focus on 

managing and protecting investments made in the existing transportation system; maintaining a 

safe passenger car road system; and supporting accelerated restoration projects, timber sales, and 

stewardship contracts. Well-maintained roads reduce accidents, and minimize ecological 

impacts. 
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The National Forest Service Road System also provides the only source of access to some 

communities and residents, or serves as secondary evacuation routes during emergencies (e.g., 

fire, hurricanes). Most of the work on high clearance roads will focus on ecological restoration 

and protection and will be completed through our integrated vegetation, forest products, 

hazardous fuels, and wildlife programs; Timber Sale Purchasers; Stewardship Contracting; and 

other program and partnership funds. Additionally, we will address maintenance within and 

around National Monuments and National Recreation Areas to help ensure that the public can 

access and enjoy these iconic places.

In FY 2017, we will continue our focus for the roads program on three key outcomes: access, 

restoration, and safety. 

Our focus on access will include implementation of the Minimum Roads System analysis (Sub 

Part A of the Travel Management Rule) in national forests and grasslands will continue in 2017 

to move us toward a sustainable road system that is safe, environmentally sound, and more 

resilient to climate change while still meeting the access needs for land management, recreation, 

and community connections.

Our focus on restoration will include Best Management Practices for Water Quality and 

Watershed Condition Assessments and Watershed Restoration Action Plans as described below.

• Best Management Practices (BMPs) for Water Quality – There are 11 National Core 

BMPs specific to road management activities which have been formulated to avoid, 

minimize, or mitigate adverse effects to soil, water quality, and instream riparian 

resources. The Forest Service is committed to the implementation of these BMPs in 

order to ensure high quality water is available to the public as well as fish and wildlife 

populations. BMP monitoring programs will provide us the opportunity to observe our 

successes as well as to make adjustments to the BMPs if necessary. 

• Watershed Condition Assessments and Watershed Restoration Action Plans – Properly 

maintained road surfaces and drainage systems are critical components of watershed 

protection and restoration, not only reducing adverse effects to water resources, but also 

restoring hydrological functions and improving fish and wildlife habitat connectivity at 

road-stream crossings. This restoration work also supports the Administration’s 

Executive Order 13653 to address infrastructure preparedness and resiliency to the 

impacts of climate change. 

Our focus on safety will include the Plan of Corrective Action and the Transportation Safety 

Program as described below.

• Plan of Corrective Action - We will continue to implement the Plan of Corrective Action 

as agreed with Federal Lands Highways to bring the bridge program into full compliance

with the National Bridge Inspection Standards. We will focus on complying with 23 

metrics (we are now in compliance with 17 metrics) that include the improvement of the 

quality of bridge inspections, database integrity, inspection procedures, and quality 

control. 

• Transportation Safety Program - Ensuring public safety is a critical part of our roads 

program and we will continue our focus on passenger car roads and necessary safety 
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work. Identifying transportation safety needs, conducting safety assessments and audits 

in high priority locations, and making safety improvements are essential to reduce severe 

crashes that cause fatalities and injuries on National Forest System (NFS) roadways; 

enhance visitor mobility, accessibility, and overall experience; and conserve natural, 

historical, and cultural resources. 

Our priority work will focus on achieving these outcomes and aligning our performance 

measures in support of these outcomes. We will continue to use existing performance measures 

such as miles of road maintained; and will track outcome-based measures for roads begun in 

2016, specifically:

• percentage of existing road systems in alignment with minimum road system;

• number of watershed restoration action plans where all identified road work has been 

completed;

• percentage of passenger car roads with a Safety Condition rating of good or fair; and

• percentage of bridges identified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

Past Performance

Through the operation and maintenance of a safe, efficient road system, our National Forest

Road System enables us to sustain our Nation’s forests and grasslands and deliver benefits to the 

public. 

The Forest Service is committed to preventing watershed and habitat degradation associated with 

roads. We are working to reduce the size of our road system, while still providing sufficient 

access to NFS lands, and we are working to ensure that our remaining roads do not add sediment 

to streams or block the movement of aquatic organisms through stream crossings. These 

improvements make the road system more resilient, as they not only provide for aquatic 

organism passage, but the improved roads are also better able to survive extreme storm events.

Sustaining our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands

The Roads program supports ecological restoration not only by providing access for watershed 

restoration projects, but also through the maintenance and reconstruction of the road itself. By 

ensuring that the road surface is stable, and that the drainage system functions properly, erosion 

of the road and concurrent sediment deposit in streams is reduced or eliminated. This work 

includes removing or replacing road-stream crossing to allow for aquatic organism passage, 

reconstruction to implement BMPs to reduce road sediment entering streams, decommissioning 

unneeded system and unauthorized roads and placing roads in long term storage for future use.

In FY 2015, we met our overall target for reconstruction and maintenance. The Forest Service is 

committed to preventing watershed and habitat degradation associated with roads. We are 

working to reduce the size of our road system, while still providing sufficient access to NFS 

lands, and to ensure that our remaining roads do not add sediment to streams or block the 

movement of aquatic organisms through stream crossings. These accomplishments make the 

road system more resilient, as they not only reduce erosio and provide for aquatic organism 

passage, but the improved roads are also better able to survive extreme storm events.
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Delivering Benefits to the Public

In order to ensure that appropriate access is available, we have been conducting travel analysis 

on every unit of the Forest Service over the past several years. Travel analysis is the process of 

identifying the risks and benefits associated with each road. These analyses will help to inform 

future decisions concerning road maintenance levels, which roads to keep and which to 

decommission. By FY 2015, all Forest Service units completed this analysis. Through the roads 

program, the agency has also provided access for vegetation management, fuel reduction and 

watershed restoration projects, as well as acquiring rights-of-way to provide access to NFS lands

where we did not previously have legal access. 

Public and employee safety is the agency’s top priority for the National Forest Road System. 

Both maintenance and reconstruction accomplishments contribute to the safety of our road 

system, and ensures that it meets applicable safety laws and standards. These activities also 

contribute to the preservation of the road and its appurtenances, thereby extending the life of the 

road and protecting the Government’s investment. On those roads where user comfort and 

convenience is a consideration, maintenance also provides a smoother ride for the public. 

Program Description

Program Overview

The primary objective of our Roads program is to operate and maintain a safe, efficient road 

system that meets the access needs of the public and the agency. Providing and maintaining both 

the condition and availability of the National Forest Road System is essential to sustain our 

Nation’s forests and grasslands and to deliver benefits to the public. 

The Roads program is essential for the management, protection, public use, and enjoyment of 

193 million acres of NFS lands. Virtually all agency and public activities on the national forests 

and grasslands lands require travel over the roads system, which consists of approximately 

370,000 miles of road, of which approximately 65,000 miles are managed for passenger cars. In 

addition the Forest Service has 6,200 road bridges. The deferred maintenance backlog on the 

passenger car road system is approximately $3 billion, including bridges.

The Forest Service’s transportation system:

• is the critical component in maintaining safe, enjoyable and sustainable public access for 

recreational activities, and supporting local recreation-dependent communities associated 

with NFS lands (outdoor recreation on these public lands supports about 205,000 jobs, 

contributing about $13.6 billion to the Nation’s gross domestic product each year);

• provides access for forest management activities including timber harvest and hazardous 

fuel reduction;

• provides access to a variety of resources such as minerals and oil and gas management

which annually generates hundreds of millions of dollars (typically ranging from $650 

million to $850 million) in rents, royalties, and bonus bids for the U.S. Treasury;
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• provides access for emergency responders and local residents in the event of a wildland 

fire or other emergencies;

• helps protect clean and abundant water produced from national forests by implementation 

of best management practices for water quality, and by improving aquatic habitat and 

hydrology at road-stream crossing; and

• is essential to achieving accelerated restoration goals, by allowing access to conduct 

priority vegetation management.

The below diagram shows the interdependency of the roads program and agency goals

Sustaining our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands

Through the Roads program we ensure that roads are available when and where they are needed 

for administrative use such as watershed restoration, fuel reduction, removal of timber and other 

forest products, grazing and mineral development. It also means that roads are available for the 

needs of the public for access to and through the NFS. This access is necessary for the support 

of adjacent rural communities whose economies are dependent on recreation and tourism, and 

resource management and development. 
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The Roads program supports ecological restoration not only by providing access for watershed 

restoration projects, but also through the maintenance and reconstruction of the road itself. By 

ensuring that the road surface is stable, and that the drainage system functions properly, erosion 

of the road and concurrent sediment deposit in streams is reduced or eliminated. This work 

includes removing or replacing road-stream crossing to allow for aquatic organism passage, 

reconstruction to implement BMPs to reduce road sediment entering streams, decommissioning 

unneeded system and unauthorized roads and placing roads in long term storage for future use.

Effective road maintenance is essential to protect the quality of waters originating from NFS 

lands, which provide the drinking water supply for approximately one-fifth of American

communities, and habitat for over 470 fish and 346 crayfish species, as well as more than 124 

Threatened, Endangered and Sensitive aquatic species. The condition of our roads has a direct 

effect on our ability to provide clean water. Deferring maintenance or not repairing roads after 

storm events allows sediment to enter streams and rivers thereby degrading water quality and 

jeopardizing the safety of users. 

Delivering Benefits to the Public

The National Forest Road System is the critical component in maintaining safe, enjoyable and 

sustainable access for all Forest Service programs and activities, including:

• Recreational activities, supporting local recreation-dependent communities associated 

with NFS lands.

• Forest management activities such as timber harvest, watershed restoration and hazardous 

fuel reduction, including those supporting biomass utilization, as well as a variety of 

other resources such as minerals and oil and gas.

• To maintain, reconstruct, and construct the National Forest Road System (NFRS), the 

Forest Service hires contractors that frequently supply jobs in rural areas. 

• Emergency responders and local residents in the event of a wildland fire or other 

emergency.

These programs and activities help support the nation’s economy and return funds to the 

Treasury. Outdoor recreation on NFS lands supports about 194,000 jobs, contributing about $10

billion to the Nation’s gross domestic product each year. Minerals and oil and gas management 

on NFS lands generates between $650 million and $850 million in rents, royalties, and bonus 

bids for the U.S. Treasury each year.

The NFRS provides critically important access for recreational, administrative, and commercial 

purposes, and it provides access to and between rural and gateway communities, contributing to 

community vitality and economic development. In some cases, these roads provide the only 

escape or access routes for forest users and local residents in the event of wildland fire or other 

emergency situations, including access for emergency responders. 

Maintenance and Improvement of our Roads System 
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All Forest Service units have completed a travel analysis of their road system in order to identify 

those roads that are likely needed for the protection, administration, and enjoyment of the NFS, 

as well as those roads that are likely not needed. This analysis informs agency decisions about 

which roads to keep, and which roads may be decommissioned or placed in long-term storage 

and will also help us to focus resources on maintaining and improving the safety and 

sustainability of our remaining roads and bridges. 

Maintaining and reconstructing roads helps to ensure that the road surface is stable, and that 

drainage systems function properly. This helps to reduce erosion and concurrent sedimentation 

of streams. Reconstructing road-stream crossings to allow for the passage of aquatic organisms 

expands aquatic habitat and improves the biological diversity of the watershed. 

Decommissioning unneeded roads reduces the ecological impact of our road system by removing 

roads from the landscape and restoring that ground to a more natural state. Roads that are not 

currently needed but may be needed in the future are placed in long term storage. These roads are 

closed to all traffic, including administrative traffic, for a period of at least one year. Most stored 

roads receive treatment similar to decommissioned roads in order to make them more resilient to 

storm events and minimize ecological damage. These treatments are customized by location, 

topography, and the expected duration of storage.

Work that supports public and employee safety and resource protection are priorities for these 

program funds. The agency is currently working to strengthen the Safety Management System 

for roads in partnership with the Federal Lands Highway Division of the Federal Highway 

Administration. 

The National Forest Road System currently has:

• 65,000 miles of road open for use by and maintained for passenger cars and other State 

highway legal vehicles (Maintenance Levels 3 through 5), making them subject to Highway 

Safety Act requirements. These roads provide public access for camping, recreation, 

administrative uses, and resource management and development activities.

• 203,000 miles of roads managed for high clearance vehicles (Maintenance Level 2), which 

provide access primarily for recreational, administrative, and resource management and 

development activities, and

• 102,000 miles of road that have been placed in long-term storage for future use (Maintenance 

Level 1) and are not maintained for traffic.

The terms “Construction” and “Maintenance” are used as defined by 23 U.S.C. 101. The Roads 

program is delivered through the following activities:

Operations and Maintenance – This activity includes the operation and maintenance of 

existing system roads, bridges, and other vehicle access areas such as parking lots. 

Operations include the inventory, classification, and mapping of the transportation

system, traffic monitoring, road management, travel management and transportation 

planning, which helps the agency identify opportunities to reduce the number of open 

roads and determine the appropriate service level for the remaining roads to obtain a 

sustainable transportation system. Maintenance includes actions necessary to preserve or 
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restore a road to its original service level and condition in order to provide acceptable 

service and achieve its expected life. This includes maintenance of the travel ways; 

roadside vegetation; drainage facilities; structures, including bridges; traffic control 

devices, including signs and gates; and engineering support for timber sale contracts that 

include required road maintenance by the timber purchaser. Engineering services include 

the design, cost estimates, contract preparation, and contract administration necessary for 

quality assurance and to assure applicable safety, environmental standards and BMP are 

met.

Reconstruction of Existing System Roads – Reconstruction includes the renovation and 

restoration of existing roads, bridges, or other vehicle access areas such as parking lots 

that have deteriorated due to the accumulation of deferred maintenance. Reconstruction 

also includes rights-of-way acquisition; changing the function of existing roads to 

accommodate different uses; increasing capacity of an existing road such as changing a 

single-lane road or bridge to a two-lane road or bridge; and safety improvements that 

correct or improve high hazard locations such as replacement of deficient bridges or 

culverts. Reconstruction also includes relocation of existing roads to prevent resource 

degradation, such as moving a road away from a stream, and other improvements to meet 

public and resource management needs. Engineering services are included in this activity 

for the design, cost estimates, contract preparation, and contract administration necessary 

for quality assurance and to assure applicable safety, environmental standards and BMP

are met.

New Road Construction – New road construction includes the construction of roads, 

bridges, and vehicle access areas to meet public and resource management needs; 

reclassifying unauthorized roads; and rights-of-way acquisitions. This activity results in a 

minor addition of miles to the transportation system where none previously existed. The 

primary focus of our roads program is the operation and maintenance of our existing 

roads system. However, in a few instances new road construction is needed in order to 

provide access for watershed restoration or vegetation management projects, including 

timber work. Engineering services are included in this activity for the design, cost 

estimates, contract preparation, and contract administration necessary for quality 

assurance and to assure applicable safety, environmental standards and BMP are met.

The Roads program supports U.S. Department of Agriculture Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our 

national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to 

climate change, while enhancing our water resources. We support the Forest Service strategic 

goal of delivering benefits to the public, such as providing abundant clean water, connecting 

citizens to the land, and strengthening communities. The Roads program also supports the Forest 

Service strategic goal of sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands through the fostering of 

healthy ecosystems, mitigation of wildfire risk, and conservation of open space. 

Allocation and Integration

In several of the past years, Congress has provided annual direction on the proportionate 

amounts of the Roads appropriation to be spent for construction and maintenance. When funding 

is allocated to the field, the agency uses a formula that implements this direction. The formula 
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considers land area, visitor use, timber volume offered on timber sale and stewardship contracts, 

and acres treated for hazardous fuels. 

The NFRS is an integral part of the rural transportation network and is operated and maintained 

to provide safe access for all resource program activities including terrestrial and aquatic 

ecosystem management programs such as Integrated Resource Restoration, Hazardous Fuels, 

Recreation, Heritage and Wilderness, and Trails. The NFRS supports public enjoyment of NFS 

lands by providing access to recreation sites, trailheads, and special areas. We focus allocations 

on the implementation of completed travel analyses. Coordination across multiple program areas 

is integral to successfully managing the NFRS to ensure the transportation system is adequate to 

meet those needs.

Partnerships

The Roads program supports partnership opportunities such as Collaborative Forest Landscape 

Restoration Program projects, cooperative agreements, work with States and counties through

the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, with local counties through Resource 

Advisory Committee agreements, and with Tribal governments. These partnerships leverage 

Roads program funds to provide connectivity between communities and Federal Lands, complete 

decommissioning and resource restoration work, and to help communities reduce hazardous fuels 

by providing access to remove the material for biomass use opportunities.

The National Forest Roads and Trails Act of 1964 (P.L. 88-657, 16 U.S.C. 535) authorizes the 

cooperative construction and maintenance of our road system. Under this authority, the Forest 

Service enters into Cooperative Road Construction and Use Agreements with the owners of large 

tracts of lands intermingled with NFS lands. The Forest Service also enters into Cooperative 

Forest Road Agreements with public road authorities, such as States and counties, where public 

lands access, local residential access, and local commerce needs coincide.
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Trails

Budget Line Item Trails

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Trails

Annual Appropriations $77,530 $77,530 $78,530 $1,000 1%

Trails Total 77,530 77,530 78,530 1,000 1%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 579 579 579 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 579 579 579 0 0%

Trails

Maintain Trails 69,777 69,777 70,597 820 1%

Improve Trails 7,753 7,753 7,933 180 2%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Trails

Miles of system trails maintained 50,915 53,128 54,500 55,673 55,000 55,000

Miles of system trail improved 1,018 1,368 1,100 1,300 1,300 1,300

Percentage of system trails that meet national quality 

standards 22.0% 23.3% 25.0% 22.1% 25.0% 27.0%

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $78,530,000 for Trails, an increase of $1,000,000 

from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

The National Forest System (NFS) inventory of over 157,000 miles of trails offers one of the key

means of achieving the agency’s Strategic Plan objective of “connecting people to the outdoors”. 

In FY 2017, we will implement the Forest Service National Strategy for Sustainable Trails. This 

is scheduled for publication in FY 2016 with an emphasis on providing a highly valued, relevant, 

and sustainable system of NFS trails. With this increase of funding, it will further leverage and 

expand partnerships by exploring and implementing innovative solutions for closing the gap 

between needed and available resources. The key focus areas will include making adjustments 

to the trail system; reducing the deferred maintenance backlog; implementing increased process 

efficiencies for accessing and leveraging volunteers, partners and non-appropriated resources and 

funding; and developing and providing an expanded and integrated system of skill development 

and training for agency personal and volunteers.

In FY 2017, aligned with the National Trail Strategy, the NFS Trails Program will integrate and 

implement several of the Forest Service’s high-priorities:
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• Modernization of our recreation special uses program

• Increased capacity and focus on our community service and volunteer programs 

• Renewal of strategy to implement digital innovation

• Implementation of citizen access through our system of recreation roads and trails 

• Leverage of demonstration projects in key special places

Within the Trails program, we will increase and improve citizen access through our system of 

NFS trails and roads; leverage demonstration projects in key special places including National 

Scenic and Historic Trails; and enhance and expand digital access to information about NFS 

trails. This will include continued Travel Management planning and implementation focused on 

aligning and providing an appropriate and integrated spectrum of high-quality citizen access. In 

addition to the continued update of Motor Vehicle Use Maps which designate trail use by nonsnow motor vehicles, by FY 2017 this will also include the initial designation via Over Snow 

Vehicle Use Maps of over-snow vehicle use on trails. Emphasis will continue to be placed on 

completing, protecting, and showcasing National Scenic and Historic Trails. The 21st Century 

Conservation Service Corps will continue to provide enhanced and expanded opportunities to 

work with partners to address trails maintenance needs and provide improved citizen access to all 

NFS trails, including congressionally designated trails. In FY 2017, the majority of all national 

forests will have externally published NFS Trail centerline data for use by the public and other 

external information providers, and will be focused on preparing and externally publishing 

additional trail information to provide enhanced trail descriptions and travel management 

information for motorized and non-motorized trail uses. 

Measuring Performance

In FY 2017, we will increase the “Percent of System Trails Meeting Standard” as an overall 

indicator of the condition of trails. This measure reflects the percentage of NFS trails that meet 

National Quality Standards, consistent with the maintenance cycle identified for each trail. We 

will work to bring at least 27 percent of NFS trails to the national standard. The new National 

Trails Strategy will potentially result in the revision, replacement, or supplement to the other two 

previous performance indicators of Miles of Trail Maintained and Miles of Trail Improved with a 

goal of providing increasingly relevant, useful and readily reportable performance metrics. 

Public Safety and Backcountry Access

Investments in NFS trails will continue a focus on improving public safety and backcountry 

access for wildland fire and natural resource management, addressing deferred maintenance 

backlog, supporting physical fitness, and supporting a range of recreational opportunities, 

including those in wilderness areas. Communities adjacent to public lands and individuals 

whose livelihoods are tied to public lands also benefit from investments in trails. With 50 

million visitor days of non-motorized and motorized use each year, NFS trails contribute 

substantially to the nearly $13.6 billion that recreational visits to national forests contribute 

annually to the U.S. economy. The vast majority of outfitters and guides (approximately 5,000) 

who work on the NFS lands depend on trails that are safe, well-maintained and available to the 

public. Trail investments will also create opportunities to employ youth, to develop skills among 

temporary and seasonal employees, and to expand contract work. With increasing demand for 

low-cost recreation opportunities, additional investments are needed to sustain and expand the 

economic return to the Nation from NFS trails.
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Past Performance

In FY 2015, Trails and Recreation staff worked cooperatively across the agency and with outside 

partners to maintain and make accessible as many of our trails as possible; increase capacity and 

ensure safety for employees, volunteers, and partners who help maintain the trails; and embark 

on efforts to both develop a collaborative management framework and improve digital access to 

the National Forest System (NFS) Trails. Trails physically connect people and communities 

with the outdoors and other public lands; thus draw millions of visitors each year and engage 

volunteers and service partners. 

The Forest Service works with partners, volunteer groups and communities in the maintenance of 

NFS trails. In FY 2015, volunteers and partners contributed to 1.2 million hours for trail 

maintenance to NFS trails. This represents 28 percent of all 2015 volunteers and service hours 

reported for non-wilderness trails work and wilderness trails work, respectively 889,303 hours

and 317,572 hours. Trail maintenance provides opportunities for agency employees and 

communities to work together to protect and maintain our network of trails. We work 

collaboratively with trail partner organizations to identify specific trail projects for which the 

partner will provide volunteers, and the Forest Service provides oversight and employee crews.

To further support our volunteers, partners, and employees, we are advancing new policy to 

increase capacity and safety in trail maintenance. In FY 2016, we will publish a proposed 

policy, the National Saw Program-Sawyer Evaluation and Certification in the Federal 

Register. The proposed directive (i.e., FSM 2358)—a cooperative effort between Trails, 

Wilderness, Fire and Aviation, and Safety staffs –creates a national sawyer qualification 

credential to help ensure consistency and accountability across the NFS lands. This strategy 

encompasses a multi-year saw policy initiative that will help us ensure the safe use of chainsaws 

and crosscut saws for all Forest Service employees, volunteers, partners, and sawyer training 

consultants who work on NFS lands, and will ultimately expand our capacity to maintain the 

National Trails System.

In FY 2015, we continued to develop the National Framework for Sustainable Trails. The intent 

of the Framework is to collaborate with national partners to define the necessary actions to create 

a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable National Trails System. We expect to 

finalize the Framework in FY 2016. The Trails program has been active in an agency-wide 

effort to develop a comprehensive digital strategy, including incorporating trails information into 

the Interactive Visitor Map. This map provides visitors with trip-planning information on the 

variety of recreational opportunities available on the national forests, grasslands and other areas, 

as well as how to access these opportunities. The map presents authoritative roads, trails, and 

recreation site information on National Forest System lands throughout the country.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Forest Service National Trails System includes over 157,000 miles of trails, including 

portions of National Scenic and Historic Trails. Approximately 32,000 miles of trails are located 

within designated wilderness areas. Investments in trails create safe and sustainable public 
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access, support a range of economic activities, and prevent extensive resource damage on the 

NFS. The Trails program is vital to connect people with each other, their community, their 

heritage, and their public lands. Visitors recreating on NFS Trails contribute millions of dollars 

directly and indirectly to local economies, and trails maintenance volunteers leverage substantial 

amounts of direct and in-kind contributions to trail management. 

The NFS trails accommodate roughly 50 million visits of non-motorized and motorized travel 

and activities including hiking, hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing, cross-country skiing, 

snowmobiling, and off-highway vehicle use each year. The Trails program offers a vast range of 

recreation opportunities to the American public, directly supporting the America’s Great 

Outdoors and the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” Initiatives.

National Scenic and Historic Trails (NSHTs) administered by the Forest Service, include the 

Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, Florida National 

Scenic Trail, Nez Perce (Nee Mee Poo) National Historic Trail, Arizona National Scenic Trails, 

Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, and portions of 15 others, such as the Appalachian 

National Scenic Trail. This administration is accomplished in coordination with other Federal 

public land agencies (see the Special Exhibit on NSHTs for further details.)

Trails programs are delivered through the two activities, “Improvement” and “Maintenance” as 

defined by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (GPO # 041-001-00462-9). The 

maintenance and improvement of system trails ensures trails are accessible, adequately designed, 

safe, and environmentally responsible as described below:

Maintain Trails - This activity includes the maintenance and operation of system trails 

and trail bridges. Maintenance activities include the actions necessary to preserve or 

restore a trail to its originally intended condition in order to provide acceptable service 

and achieve the expected trail lifespan. Work includes clearing encroaching vegetation 

and fallen trees and the repair, preventive maintenance, and replacement of trail signs, 

tread and surfacing, water drainage, trail bridges, and other trail structures. Trail 

maintenance also provides trail accessibility and promotes ecosystem health by protecting 

soil, vegetation, and water quality.

Improve Trails - Provides for the planning and design, new construction, alteration and 

expansion of system trails, trail bridges, and trail structures, such as barriers, culverts, 

fencing, and wildlife viewing platforms.

The Trails program supports U.S. Department of Agriculture Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our 

national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to 

climate change, while enhancing our water resources. The Trails program primarily supports the 

Forest Service strategic goal to deliver benefits to the public, such as through connecting citizens 

to the land and strengthening communities. The maintenance and management of trails also 

helps sustain our Nation’s forests and grasslands by minimizing trail user impacts on watersheds 

and other natural and cultural resources. Trails also contribute to community safety, as NFS 

trails are used by fire and other emergency personnel for wildfire suppression or other 

emergency response efforts. 
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Allocation and Integration

Funding is allocated based on the existing miles of NFS trails, regional capability, and 

management of National Scenic and Historic Trails. In addition to maintaining a base-level 

ability to maintain trails in all of the national forests and grasslands, a portion of the Trails 

funding creates jobs for youth and others in rural areas by leveraging resources. Projects that 

leverage the most non-Federal dollars and create the most jobs are high priorities. Trail 

maintenance and improvement is also funded by Capital Improvement and Maintenance, 

Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement, Integrated Resource Restoration, and 

some permanent appropriations.
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Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement

Budget Line Item Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure 

Improvement

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement

Annual Appropriations $3,150 $3,150 $3,150 0 0%

Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure 

Improvement Total 3,150 3,150 3,150 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 1 1 1 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 1 1 1 0 0%

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes $3,150,000 for Deferred Maintenance and 

Infrastructure Improvement, the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

In FY 2017, we will make strategic investments in critical infrastructure essential to ensure the 

health and safety of the public, our employees, and the Nation’s natural resources; improve 

public access to significant sites; maintain assets which contribute to local jobs and economies; 

and work to address our maintenance backlog. Potential benefits of the Deferred Maintenance 

and Infrastructure Improvement program include increased visitor access by reconstructing trails 

and facilities within our national monuments; economic benefits to surrounding communities 

associated with continued and increased visitation at major sites; maintaining and upgrading 

utilities to serve the public at our visitor centers; protecting our natural resources from 

contamination; protecting and rehabilitating critical watersheds; and cost savings by 

decommissioning dams and other underused facilities. The agency can realize annual savings by 

avoiding future costs such as utility payments, maintenance and repair, and other operational 

savings.

As an agency which manages a large, diverse, and geographically widespread portfolio of 

facilities, we have a long list of deferred maintenance projects, infrastructure improvement 

needs, and demolitions planned. In FY 2017, we will emphasize project priorities developed in 

FY 2016 by continuing to identify and prioritize projects for coming fiscal years. Throughout 

FY 2016 and FY 2017 we will complete a more comprehensive and thorough inventory of the 

backlog to identify projects that serve large population centers and provide economic benefits for 

the communities.

Projects we will focus in FY 2017 include the following:

Blanchard Springs Caverns on the Ozark-Saint Francis National Forest
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Blanchard Springs Caverns (BSC) is the premier living cave in the United States. The 

caverns are one of 25 major visitor centers in the National Forest System receiving more 

than 60,000 visitors and contributing $16 million per year in economic benefits to the 

community. The BSC Visitor Center supports and provides direct access to the Caverns 

by a 216 foot elevator ride down into the Caverns. The Visitor Center facilities are at 

least 40 years old and the elevators are approaching 50 years old. A regional assessment 

identified significant life safety, deferred maintenance, upcoming cyclical replacement 

needs, and accessibility deficiencies at the caverns. The agency addressed immediate life 

safety needs and has funded planning and design work to address all needs. The elevator 

controls, electrical system, and emergency power systems are beyond their expected life 

and are failing. The systems are highly interconnected and difficult to replace 

individually. Power quality issues caused by both the utility and the elevator are 

damaging the HVAC system and the caverns communication systems. Blanchard 

Springs Caverns Rehabilitation Phases 1-3 will replace the elevator controls, HVAC 

system, power distribution system, emergency power systems, alarm systems, improve 

accessibility, and repurpose existing space to better serve current needs of visitors.

Blanchard Springs Caverns

Visitors enjoying Blanchard Springs Caverns on the Ozark-Saint Francis National Forest.

Chimney Rock National Monument, San Juan National Forest

Chimney Rock is one of America's newest National Monuments. The monument 

encompasses 4,726 acres, preserving hundreds of prehistoric sites that dot the landscape 

around the twin spires known as Chimney Rock and Companion Rock. The site is 

recognized as an important archaeological resource dating to the Pueblo II era (roughly 

900 -1150 A.D.). Over 100 sites and structures have been identified within the 

Monument boundaries, and many more are believed to exist. Architectural structures 

include pit houses, great kivas, and great houses. Today Chimney Rock is one of the best 

recognized archaeoastronomical resources in North America, with alignments with the

summer solstice, equinoxes, the northern lunar standstill, and Crab Nebula. 

With the designation as a National Monument, Chimney Rock is experiencing a sharp 

increase in visitation, which has a positive economic impact on the surrounding 

communities. The Great House trail is steep and crosses the top of a prehistoric site. 
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This trail needs maintenance and a short portion of re-route to mitigate erosion and to 

move the trail away from the prehistoric site. This work will be accomplished by the 

Youth Conservation Corps. The archeological features are experiencing some stone 

movement, and other erosion and this project will stabilize these critical sites. As a 

newly designated National Monument, there is a pressing need for an entrance sign and 

flag pole, common to nearly all National Monuments. Increased visitation is also 

impacting the two functionally obsolete composting toilets. This project will replace the 

upper parking lot toilet and the lower visitor area toilet with accessible toilets. Chimney 

Rock has a mild winter climate which is conducive to winter visitation. With more 

visitors during the season when tours are not operating, the entrance needs a barrier fence 

constructed to prevent unauthorized access. 

Since the Monument is closed to vehicle access during this time of year due to big game 

migration, a lower parking area is required. In addition, the current parking area is 

inadequate to meet the needs of the visiting public during the operating season so it will 

be expanded. The road to the Chimney Rock sites and the current parking areas need 

heavy maintenance, which will be completed with this project. The current interpretive 

signs are faded, out of date, and need to show National Monument status. These signs 

will be replaced. Other work that needs to be completed includes crack and chip seal 

current parking lots, replace curb on the accessible trail, and construct an accessible trail 

near the visitor entrance. With the recent release of the Chimney Rock Management 

Plan, the San Juan National Forest is expecting to see a sharp increase in visitation to 

Chimney Rock. The work described is not only beneficial to the visitors, it is necessary 

to provide for a safe and accessible visitation experience. The Chimney Rock project will 

enhance visitor access and experience, improve accessibility, and protect the national 

treasures located there for future generations. 
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Chimney Rock Great House

Winona Reservoir Dam Decommission, Daniel Boone National Forest

This project completely removes a 400-linear feet by 42-foot high dam on a perennial 

blue-line30 stream. This reservoir and dam was constructed in 1959 as part of an oil 

extraction operation. The dam is considered high hazard by Federal Emergency 

Management Agency and the State because failure may result in loss of life to people 

downstream. The reservoir has limited recreational value and use. 

The original main stream channel will be restored along with multiple tributaries. The 

land area that has been flooded will be returned to its natural condition. This will 

improve over 1.33 square miles of land in this watershed and at least 12 acres of land 

directly impacted or flooded by the dam.

Removal of the dam is essential because a dam failure would result in loss of life; loss of 

property; release of toxics soil containments; and emergency response, repair and 

mitigation. This project will save money by eliminating $16,000 annually and $250,000 

of deferred costs spent on condition inspections and reporting requirements; annual 

mowing, brushing and road maintenance; and deferred costs to fix dam problems.

In addition, this project creates the opportunity to restore up to 100 acres of land while 

creating stream habitat and restoring natural stream flows; revegetating areas to reduce 

soil erosion which will benefit aquatic species; and creating foraging habitat for bats, 

birds, and small mammals.

 30 Blue-line stream means that a stream appears as a broken or solid blue line (or a purple line) on a USGS 

topographic map.
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Past Performance

The Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement program supports the entire portfolio 

of infrastructure assets in helping connect the public to the outdoors by providing safe, 

environmentally conscious and resilient infrastructure for public access and enjoyment of our 

National Forest System lands, and for our employees to carry out the agency’s mission. This 

program focuses on existing assets in need of maintenance, repair, or rehabilitation through two 

major activities - deferred maintenance and infrastructure improvement. Projects achieve the 

dual objectives of eliminating carried deferred maintenance costs and making improvements to 

the existing infrastructure which may strategically alter or enhance its function; increase 

capacity; improve energy efficiency, sustainability, and cost effectiveness; or maintain or 

improve public service. 

We continually assess the use and condition of our assets to determine maintenance or 

improvement needs, and to ensure that our portfolio is safe for all users. This is done through the 

mitigation of health and safety threats, reducing the risk of catastrophic infrastructure failure, and 

ensuring compliance with all necessary physical security and environmental regulations and 

policies. 

Below are two examples of FY 2015 projects and the benefits they provide the public:

Double Lake Recreation Area was built in 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and 

includes family camping units, group camping, picnicking units, a picnic shelter, a beach with 

swimming area and a concession stand with bathhouse. Located within an hour of Houston, 

Texas, Double Lake is a popular destination for the area’s large Latino population, a typically 

underserved minority community. The National Forests and Grasslands in Texas (NFGT) have 

invested $1.7 million in the Double Lake Recreation Area over the last five years. Projects 

included the CCC bathhouse, concession/bathhouse building at the day use area, fee station, and 

wastewater infrastructure. In the latest project, NFGT invested $423,000 in Deferred 

Maintenance funds and $280,000 in Facilities funds for a capital replacement of the sewage 

system. Previously, the system experienced three spills from the sewage main lift station, all of 

which were reported to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. With proper maintenance, 

this system will be able to serve the recreation needs of this urban community, while ensuring 

both public safety and the protection of natural resources, for 30 to 50 years into the future.
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Sewage Station before Renovation

The sewage station and control panel were in use long beyond their expected service life. They failed repeatedly 

and needed to be replaced.

Sewage Station after Renovation

 

The new sewage station saves the NFTG energy and maintenance costs. It includes three-phase sewage pumps 

which are more efficient and require less maintenance than the old single phase pumps. The new control panel 

includes an innovative system to automatically monitor and control the pumps, which reports on system failures 

related to mechanical or power problems, sending alarms and notifications directly to the NFTG offices via text 

messaging and email.

In FY 2015, the Tongass National Forest used $259,000 of Deferred Maintenance and 

Infrastructure Improvement funds to make repairs and improvements to the Petersburg Ranger 

District Duplex and accompanying garage buildings. The duplex building had previously been

rated to be in “poor” condition. This project brought the fire alarm system to current code, 

repaired roof leaks and repaired and replaced bathroom and kitchen casework and fixtures to 

remediate water damage and prevent further plumbing failures, eliminating $172,000 in deferred 

maintenance. In addition to addressing the deferred maintenance issues and protecting the 

existing infrastructure from further damage, this project enhanced accessibility of the buildings, 

updated interior finishes, and installed sustainable electrical and plumbing fixtures which will 
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conserve energy and reduce ongoing operations and maintenance costs. The duplex is used for 

both transitional “family” housing and on a short term basis to house private citizens in support 

of local events, such as the Alaskan Native Grand Camp Meeting held last year in Petersburg. 

Program Description

Program Overview

Through our Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement program, we repair and 

restore key infrastructure assets to ensure the safety of our staff and the public and to protect

natural resources. In addition to maintenance, repairs and restoration, we make improvements to 

our infrastructure to better serve the public, modernize assets, enhance accessibility and improve 

efficiency and sustainability. Activities include maintenance of recreation developed sites, waterwastewater systems, roads, trails, bridges on roads and trails, fire, administrative, and other 

facilities, as well as infrastructure capital improvements. Maintenance and Improvement of 

assets for this program is as described below. These assets have a backlog of over $5.1 billion 

dollars in maintenance needs, as of the end of FY 2014. The cost of addressing deferred 

maintenance varies each year, with fluctuating costs of inputs such as labor and building 

material.

Maintain Facilities - Maintenance is the act of keeping fixed assets in acceptable condition. It 

includes repairs, preventive maintenance, and replacement of parts and structural components. 

Maintenance projects funded within this activity have costs exceeding $250,000 and the work 

pertains to recreation developed sites (such as campgrounds and day-use sites) and Fire, 

Administrative and Other (FA&O) facilities. Maintenance excludes operation costs. The 

maintenance of facilities is essential to reduce energy and water consumption across the agency, 

and to create a sustainable network of facilities that meet Forest Service needs while reducing

their environmental and climate impact.31 

Improve Facilities - Capital improvement projects for FA&O and recreation sites are included in 

this activity. Capital improvements include construction of new facilities, alteration of existing 

facilities to change function, and expansion of facilities to change capacity to meet needs that are 

different from the original intent. Improvements are often required to expand public service 

capability or recreational opportunities. In many cases, capital improvements eliminate deferred 

maintenance.31

The Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement program supports the USDA 

Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, 

and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our water resources. This program 

also supports the Forest Service strategic goal of delivering benefits to the public through 

connecting people to the outdoors.

 31 Forest Service Handbook 6509.11g Chapter 40, 40.5 – Definitions
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Allocation and Integration

Project proposals for this program are submitted by the Regions and selected at the national level 

by the agency’s Asset Management Review Board. Criteria for project selection includes the 

total amount of deferred maintenance eliminated, and the total critical health and safety needs 

addressed by the project, particularly in areas heavily used by the public and agency employees. 

Condition assessment surveys drive management decisions regarding construction, use, 

maintenance or decommissioning, and disposal of assets.

In addition to Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement, other programs and 

authorities are available to reduce deferred maintenance, including Integrated Resource 

Restoration; Capital Improvement and Maintenance, Facilities, Roads, and Trails programs; and 

Permanent Appropriations including the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Fund, Roads 

and Trails for States Fund, and Operations and Maintenance of Quarters Fund. Through the use 

of these funds, the agency is able to direct additional resources that address the significant 

backlog of deferred maintenance on the agency’s infrastructure.

Partnerships

The program has leveraged funds through partnerships with non-profit organizations and 

volunteers. Additional leveraging has been accomplished through concessionaire programs, user 

maintenance fees, and other partner-based work. These partnerships will continue to be 

maintained through the Facilities, Roads, and Trails programs.
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Legacy Roads and Trails

Budget Line Item Legacy Roads and Trails

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Legacy Roads and Trails

Annual Appropriations $40,000 $40,000 $40,000 0 0%

Legacy Roads and Trails Total 40,000 40,000 40,000 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 88 88 88 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 88 88 88 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Legacy Roads and Trails

Miles of roads decommissioned 1,490 1,415 1,600 1,299 2,000 2,000

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $40,000,000 for Legacy Roads and Trails, the same 

level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. This funding is essential to decommissioning, repairing, 

or upgrading deficient roads and trails to mitigate detrimental impacts to sensitive ecosystems 

and watersheds. We will prioritize work which supports accelerated restoration projects, timber 

sales, and watershed protection. The work will focus on ecological restoration and protection 

and will be completed through our integrated vegetation, forest products, hazardous fuels, and 

wildlife programs, Timber Sale Purchasers; Stewardship Contracting; and other program and 

partnership funds. Additionally, we will address maintenance within and around National 

Monuments and National Recreation Areas to help ensure that the public can safely access and 

enjoy these iconic places.

The Legacy Roads and Trails program incorporates the lessons learned from the agency’s 

Integrated Resource Restoration (IRR) pilot and continues to work across landownerships and 

programs in an integrated fashion to achieve landscape scale outcomes balanced with work in 

site specific areas to address significant localized impacts to the ecosystem along with support of 

other important program elements. Through integration with other programs, this budget 

provides a portion of the integrated funds necessary to move 22 watersheds to an improved 

condition class, treat 2,900,000 acres to sustain or restore watershed function and resilience, 

restore or enhance 3,000 miles of stream habitat, and decommission up to 2,000 miles of roads 

deemed no longer necessary.
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Past Performance

In FY 2015, the agency continued to build on the lessons learned from the IRR pilot to more 

effectively integrate our efforts, work across landownerships, use the best available science, and 

increase collaboration with our partners. The primary outcome measure we use as a benchmark 

for our efforts is the number of watersheds moved to an improved condition class. The annual 

result is not only reflective of work implemented this year, but represents the culmination of 

integrated watershed-based work that started with the development of watershed restoration 

action plans. The Legacy Roads and Trails Program is an important contributor to watershed 

restoration. As we progress in our experience with the Watershed Condition Framework, we are 

learning that some watershed plans may need five to ten years to complete all the restoration 

actions required instead of the three to five years originally envisioned, due to the complexity 

and/or expense of watershed improvements and the focusing of available resources towards other 

priorities. Some watersheds simply have a longer list of required actions for their restoration 

plans which can drive up the time and expense needed. It is also taking longer to complete the 

National Environmental Policy Act work on some projects—particularly where the watershed 

work is bundled together with other restoration treatments for the environmental analyses.

Operating a safe and efficiently sized road and trail system, designed and maintained to be 

minimally impactful on the environment, enables us to sustain our Nation’s forests and 

grasslands and deliver benefits to the public. 

The Forest Service is committed to preventing watershed and habitat degradation associated with 

roads and trails. We are working to reduce the size of our road system, while still providing 

sufficient access to National Forest System (NFS) lands, and we are working to ensure that our

remaining roads, as well as our trails, do not add sediment to streams or block the movement of 

aquatic organisms through stream crossings. These improvements allow the system to contribute 

to resilient ecosystems, as they not only provide for aquatic organism passage, but the improved 

roads and trails are also better able to survive extreme storm events.

Sustaining our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands

The Legacy Roads and Trails program supports ecological restoration not only by providing 

access for watershed restoration projects, but also through the decommissioning or maintenance 

and reconstruction of the roads and trails themselves. By ensuring a stable surface and a 

drainage system which functions properly, erosion and concurrent sediment deposit in streams is 

reduced or eliminated. This work includes removing or replacing stream crossings to allow for 

aquatic organism passage, reconstruction to implement Best Management Practices to reduce 

sediment entering streams, and decommissioning unneeded system assets. In FY 2015, we 

decommissioned 1,299 miles of roads.

Delivering Benefits to the Public

In order to ensure that appropriate access is available, we have been conducting travel analyses 

on every unit of the Forest Service over the past several years. Travel analysis is the process of 

identifying the risks and benefits associated with each road. These analyses will help to inform 

future decisions concerning road maintenance levels, which roads to keep and which to 
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decommission. As of FY 2015, all Forest Service units completed this analysis. The results of 

these analyses are now being used to set priorities for work in FY 2016 and FY 2017.

Public and employee safety is the agency’s top priority for the National Forest Road System. 

Both maintenance and reconstruction accomplishments contribute to the safety of our road and 

trails system, and ensures that it meets applicable safety laws and standards. These activities 

also contribute to the preservation of the roads and trails, thereby extending the life of the road 

and protecting the Government’s investment. 

Program Description

Program Overview 

The Legacy Roads and Trails program, established by Congress in FY 2008, provides for 

urgently needed road decommissioning, where inaction can lead to water quality issues in 

streams and water bodies which support threatened and endangered species (TES) or community 

water systems; removal or replacement of stream crossing structures that are barriers to aquatic 

organism passage; road and trail repair and maintenance and associated activities in 

environmentally sensitive areas; and repair and maintenance on roads and trails subject to recent 

storm damage. These roads and trails have been identified as priority projects due to their 

immediate impact on water resources and ecosystem function. Operating a safe and efficiently 

sized road and trail system, designed and maintained to be minimally impactful on the 

environment, enables us to sustain our Nation’s forests and grasslands and deliver benefits to the 

public. Work accomplished through this program plays an integral part in restoration work 

carried out by complimentary programs such as Forest Management, Hazardous Fuels, and 

Vegetation and Watershed Management.

The Legacy Roads and Trails program is delivered through the following activities: 

Maintain Passenger Car Roads, Maintain High Clearance and Closed Roads, and Maintain 

Trails - These activities include the maintenance of the traveled roads and trails; drainage 

facilities; and structures, including bridges in environmentally sensitive areas. Maintenance is 

intended to enhance water quality, restore aquatic passage, and protect NFS resources from roadrelated damage. Maintenance may include substantial reconstruction work. 

Decommission Roads - Road decommissioning activities include restoring lands occupied by

roads to a more natural state. Roads to be decommissioned include both system roads and 

unauthorized roads that exist on NFS lands that are adversely affecting TES or community water 

systems. Decommissioning of roads is normally not an allowable use of appropriations under 23 

U.S.C. 205; however, Congress has included language in annual appropriations bills authorizing 

use of Capital Improvement and Maintenance funds for road decommissioning. 

Improve Roads and Improve Trails - These activities include the replacement of bridges or major

culverts that are barriers to aquatic organism passage, and road and trail surfacing for erosion 

protection (where surfacing was not provided under original construction). 

This program supports the U.S. Department of Agriculture Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our 

national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to 
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climate change, while enhancing our water resources. The agency’s strategic plan charts a path 

to sustaining our Nation’s forest and grasslands and delivering benefits to the public and this 

program’s activities are important to fostering ecosystems that are resilient and adaptive, 

providing abundant clean water, and creating or maintaining economic opportunities and jobs 

providing socioeconomic benefits to local communities and the Nation. The proposed FY 2017 

program of work continues the emphasis on watershed restoration and moving watersheds to an 

improved condition class. 

Allocation and Integration

Estimated acreage of impaired watershed in conjunction with the relative amounts of critical 

resource deferred maintenance on roads and trails are two criteria which are used to allocate 

program funds. Adjustments may be made between regions based on capability information 

submitted by the regions and any unexpected storms resulting in critical damage unlikely to be 

reimbursed by the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief for Federally Owned 

Roads program. 

Roads and trails in NFS lands play an integral part in the rural transportation network. They are 

operated and maintained to provide safe access for public enjoyment of NFS lands to recreation 

sites and special areas as well as for resource program activities including terrestrial and aquatic 

ecosystem management programs such as Forest Products, Hazardous Fuels, Recreation, and 

Vegetation and Watershed Management. Implementation of completed travel analyses also 

plays a role in allocations. Integration of resources and efforts across multiple staff program 

areas, such as recreation, fisheries, and hydrology is essential to successfully managing the road 

and trail system to ensure the work accomplished meets the environmental needs established 

under this funding category. 

Partnerships

The Legacy Roads and Trails program leverages road and trail work with partnership funds and 

in-kind contributions. Partnerships include volunteers, youth organizations, watershed groups, 

wildlife and fisheries organizations, Tribes, and private landowners. The program also supports 

partnership opportunities such as Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program projects, 

cooperative agreements, and work with States and counties. These partnerships leverage Legacy 

Roads and Trails program funds to provide connectivity between communities and Federal lands, 

complete decommissioning and resource restoration work, and to help restore and protect 

watersheds.
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Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition

Appropriation Land Acquisition

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Land Acquisition

Annual Appropriations $47,500 $63,435 $65,653 $2,218 3%

Land Acquisition Total 47,500 63,435 65,653 2,218 3%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 54 54 54 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 54 54 54 0 0%

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition 47,500 63,435 65,653 2,218 3%

Appropriation Acquisition of Lands for National Forests 

Special Acts

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests Special Acts

Annual Appropriations $950 $950 $950 0 0%

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests Special Acts 

Total 950 950 950 0 0%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 0 0 0 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0 0%

Appropriation Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land 

Exchanges

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges

Annual Appropriations $216 $216 $216 0 0%

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 

Total 216 216 216 0 0%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 0 0 0 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0 0%
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Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Land Acquisition (Appropriation)

Number of acres acquired or donated (Discretionary 

funds) 62,133 54,230 35,548 17,272 27,823 22,539

Number of acres acquired or donated (Mandatory funds) 0 0 0 0 0 41,699

Priority acres acquired or donated that reduce the 

conversion of forests, grasslands, and aquatic and 

riparian ecosystems to incompatible uses in order to 

improve and maintain ecological conditions for federally 

listed and candidate species, species of concern and 

species of interest (Discretionary funds) 20,954 51,644 26,661 11,805 20,868 16,944

Priority acres acquired or donated that reduce the 

conversion of forests, grasslands, and aquatic and 

riparian ecosystems to incompatible uses in order to 

improve and maintain ecological conditions for federally 

listed and candidate species, species of concern and 

species of interest (Mandatory funds) 0 0 0 0 0 33,359

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $65,653,000 in discretionary funding for Land 

Acquisition, an increase of $2,218,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. An additional 

$62,347,000 of mandatory funding is proposed to be transferred from the Department of the 

Interior (DOI) for a combined total of $128,000,000. Acquisitions address public support for the 

conservation of public lands for enjoyment and use by the public. The amounts requested 

include the authorized levels for the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture and will focus 

only on the highest priority acquisitions.

Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) 

The Administration’s strategic approach to using LWCF acquisition funds includes the request 

for $21,728,000 in funds to support the “Collaborative Landscape Planning” (CLP) projects. 

This interagency program brings the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture together with 

local stakeholders to identify large natural areas where LWCF funds can achieve the most 

important shared conservation goals in the highest priority landscapes. Funds are targeted to 

landscapes where the agencies can collaboratively respond to locally supported planning efforts 

to stabilize at risk ecosystems and protect critical ecosystems before fragmentation occurs. 

Conserving large-scale landscapes provides multiple resource and economic benefits to the 

public. These projects improve recreational opportunities and access, reduce wildfire risk, 

protect habitat for at-risk and game species, protect drinking water, enable more effective land 

management, and create jobs on and off our national forests and grasslands. All proposed land 

acquisition projects will reduce expenditures associated with a wide variety of land management 

activities, including boundary management. Protecting contiguous landscapes also improves 

access for fire suppression while expanding public access to diverse recreational resources on 

public land not previously available to the public.
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Fiscal year 2017 marks the fifth year for the CLP initiative. The Forest Service with its partner 

agencies has seen tremendous on the ground benefits as a result of significant, sustained 

investment in several critical landscapes. In FY 2017, after a rigorous merit-based evaluation 

process, the Forest Service and DOI jointly identified seven high priority landscapes to focus 

funding: Hawaii’s Islands Forests at Risk ; the northern Rockies High Divide; Rivers of the 

Chesapeake; the National Trails System; Florida-Georgia Longleaf Pine; Southern Blue Ridge; 

and Pathways to the Pacific. 

Following a significant investment in FY 2016, the Forest Service proposes a second large pulse 

of investment in the High Divide collaborative which seeks to protect animal and fish migration 

corridors that link Yellowstone National Park from its border in Idaho to the Frank Church 

Wilderness in Montana, and provides public access to Federal lands in those States. High Divide 

counties rely on outdoor recreation opportunities for local resident and more than 3.8 million 

annual visitors support a $320.1 million recreation tourism local economy. Together, the two 

years of investments (FY 2016 and proposed FY 2017) will stabilize and achieve the Forest 

Service’s existing recreation, working land and wildlife objectives for this landscape. 

The Forest Service recommends its largest investment to date for the Pacific Crest National 

Scenic Trail as part of the National Trails Collaborative. Together with funding provided in FY 

2016, these investments will make significant strides towards protecting critical sections of the 

trail in California that benefit thousands of recreational day hikers and through hikers alike, 

while protecting important habitats.

Since 2013, acquisitions for the Florida-Georgia Longleaf Pine initiative have helped solidify the 

connection between the Osceola National Forest in Florida and the Okeefenokee National 

Wildlife Refuge in Georgia, protecting the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Mary’s Rivers 

and greatly improving outcomes for wildfire management and suppression. The proposed FY 

2017 acquisition will complete the current land acquisition component of the Osceola’s historic 

longleaf pine restoration efforts. 

New to the CLP in FY 2017, the Southern Blue Ridge collaborative seeks to protect the unique 

biodiversity of the Blue Ridge Mountains, running from Virginia to Georgia, while expanding 

access to Federal land for hunting and fishing, and improving trail access, including connections 

to the Appalachian Trail. The Forest Service is proposing a significant first investment that will 

target multiple tracts focused on watershed protection, increasing public access and enhancing 

recreational opportunities. In the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in 

Virginia, projects in both the Blue Ridge region of the Forest and the region that drains into the 

Chesapeake Bay will support water quality; the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee seeks to 

complete an 850 acre acquisition that will bridge 137,000 acres of public land; and the Pisgah 

National Forest in North Carolina will protect mountain streams for fish habitat and improve 

access for fishing.

Also new to the CLP discretionary list is a sustaining investment to acquire key tracts in the 

Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area as part of the Pathways to the Pacific CLP. The 

Columbia River is the largest North American river flowing to the Pacific Ocean and drains large 
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portions of Oregon and Washington. Once a stronghold for salmon and steelhead, the CLP 

focuses on stabilizing imperiled species and advancing recreation and tourism goals of the local 

communities.

Core Forest Service Acquisitions

The request includes $27,975,000 for core Forest Service acquisitions which are focused on 

acquiring the highest priority lands that advance agency goals for improving recreational 

opportunities of all kinds, restoring resilient ecosystems, and increased hunter/angler access. 

Often, acquisition of a single parcel can provide significant large-scale benefits by fixing an 

access problem, or connecting key linkages so that watersheds and ecosystems remain intact. 

Preventing incompatible development can greatly enhance the effectiveness of management on 

surrounding public lands. These tracts can also be the key to significantly increasing the 

availability of existing Federal lands to the public. Core acquisitions in the Greater Yellowstone 

project in Wyoming complement the High Divide collaborative by acquiring important parcels in 

Wild and Scenic River corridors. Acquisitions on the Superior National Forest in Minnesota 

consolidate inholdings adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness protecting 

existing trails. 

The National Panel that evaluates projects for acquisition places special emphasis on a handful of 

small core projects that provide access or fix access problems. An example is the Carson Mining 

Claims project in Colorado which would protect legal access to one mile of the Colorado Trail 

and Continental Divide Trail and two miles of motorized access along the Continental Divide, by 

acquiring a handful of mining claims, narrow strips of land that if blocked, can shut down access 

to huge areas. The Chugach National Forest seeks to protect part of the Iditarod National Historic 

Trail which would also permanently secure public access to over 1,000 acres of public land. The 

White Mountain National Forest has an opportunity to secure access to thousands of acres of 

public land where currently there is no access with a relatively small acquisition of 815 acres. 

This acquisition greatly expands access for hunting and fish, as well as popular hiking and 

snowmobile trails. 

Recreational Access/ Critical Inholdings

Land acquisition funds are used to secure access for the American public to their Federal lands. 

Agencies use funding to meet public recreation access needs by working with willing 

landowners to secure rights-of-way, easements or fee simple lands that provide public access or 

consolidate Federal ownership so that the public has large, intact areas to hike, hunt and fish. 

While collectively, over 90 percent of line-item land acquisition funding supports projects that 

will provide public access, the Forest Service sets aside a separate line item, totaling $4.7 million 

in FY 2017—for acquiring recreational access parcels that secure or improve access, both 

motorized and non-motorized, to important recreation resources such as hunting and fishing 

opportunities, hiking and climbing routes, and snowmobile and Off-Road Vehicle trails. The 

Forest Service recognizes the critical need to improve access to areas that have high demand for 

hunting, fishing and other types of recreation. An example is the Zeke’s Meadow project on the 

Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Montana. The Forest used recreational access funds 

for phase one of an 800 acre acquisition in an area popular for elk hunting, 15 miles of trail into 
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the Sapphire Wilderness Study Area and access to trout stream for fishing on Moose Meadow 

Creek.

Similarly, the agency uses critical inholding funds to acquire smaller tracts to prevent 

incompatible development in areas with special or congressional designations such as 

Wilderness, or to prevent development from cutting off access or harming critical habitats. In FY 

2017, the Forest Service will use $2 million to address critical inholding needs. While some of 

the projects are modest in acreage, they have large impacts. For example, in 2015 the Forest 

Service acquired a 33-acre inholding in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest that ensured 

permanent public access. 

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests Special Acts; and Acquisition of Lands to Complete 

Land Exchanges

The request includes $950,000 for acquisitions authorized under National Forests Special Acts. 

These funds will be used to acquire lands necessary to protect watersheds, minimize soil erosion, 

and rehabilitate specified National Forests in Nevada, Utah, California, and Arkansas. The 

request includes $216,000 for Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges.

Past Performance

The Forest Service acquires inholdings, large and small, to consolidate fragmented lands in order 

to connect important landscapes and habitats, and provide recreational access for the public. In 

FY 2015, we completed a total of 52 projects with willing landowners, including 38 purchases 

and 14 donations. While the total value of lands purchased value nearly $42 million the Forest 

Service spent less than $700,000 in administrative costs to acquire all lands, purchased or 

donated, and leveraged nearly $3 million in landowner contributions and $1.3 million in donated 

land value from partner contributions. These combined projects added more than 17,000 acres to 

the National Forest System (NFS), greatly expanding public access to outdoor recreation. Our 

projected target for FY 2015 is significant lower than the actual target for FY 2015 because of 

many factors, such as the current market, the timing of collaboration efforts with partnerships of 

potential land being donated or purchased, or if a seller decides not to sell. More than 96 percent 

of the acres acquired in FY 2015 are available for recreation use.

The majority of the acquisition projects meet multiple goals and all of the acquisitions respond to 

stakeholder priorities. For example, the Forest Service recently completed an historic acquisition 

on the Carson National Forest in New Mexico. The Miranda Canyon acquisition protected 5,000 

acres that include the headwaters of the Rio Grande River and the entire Miranda watershed. 

The acquisition was in direct response to the local Taos County Commission’s interest in 

protecting the land from residential development planned for the site that threatened drinking 

water for the Taos Pueblo and other residents. With support from the Forest Service and the 

New Mexico Congressional delegation, the Trust for Public Land purchased the land, and held it 

until the Forest Service could complete purchasing the tract over four years. The Carson 

National Forest is a popular recreation destination for people coming from Taos, Santa Fe, and 

Albuquerque. The Miranda Canyon acquisition will open new areas to the public and connect 

trails for mountain biking and cross country skiing, and protect five miles of the Old Spanish 

Trail that connected California and New Mexico in the 1800s.
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Land Acquisition

Program Description

Program Overview

The Land Acquisition program achieves many complementary objectives. Reducing fragmented 

lands and connecting important lands, waters, and access within NFS is essential for the creation 

of resilient landscapes and communities facing a changing climate. Acquisitions are prioritized 

based on their ecological and social benefits such as recreational access, tourism, and economic 

support of gateway communities as well as support from local community groups, elected 

officials, and other governmental agencies. Acquired lands support Forest Service goals for 

restoration, recreation and access, habitat for wildlife, including threatened and endangered 

species, and water quality and quantity protection. The Forest Service is also working to reduce 

management costs by consolidating and connecting important areas within its orders. 

Fragmented development within forest boundaries can complicate fire suppression, insect, and 

disease challenges, which increases management costs to both the agency and neighboring 

communities. Fragmented ownership can also disrupt historic access when new owners shut 

down roads that previous owners kept open. Forest Service land acquisitions have broad support 

by stakeholders at the local level due to their potential to decrease management costs and barriers

and attract more visitors who want to recreate in a safe, accessible environment. 

Land acquisition is just one land adjustment tool the agency has to promote the long-term health 

and sustainability of the national forests and grasslands. The program is delivered through the 

following activities:

Land Acquisition Management – This activity covers expenses to complete land 

acquisitions and donations, including costs associated with employing technical 

expertise, and due diligence work such as title search, appraisals, land acquisition 

surveys, and legal document preparation. Acquisition management funds also cover 

administrative costs associated with high-priority land exchanges when the land to be 

acquired meets LWCF criteria.

Land Purchase – Funds pay for the costs of purchasing lands.

Cash Equalization – This activity provides for a cash payment needed to equalize values 

in a land exchange when the value of the non-Federal land exceeds the value of the 

Federal land, up to 25 percent of the Federal land value.

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts – These funds are used to acquire 

lands necessary to protect watersheds, minimize soil erosion, and rehabilitate specified 

national forests in Nevada, Utah, California, and Arkansas. 

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges – This program provides for the 

acquisition of lands with funds collected from the exchange or sale of the NFS lands with 

State, county, or municipal governments, public school authorities, or other non-Federal 

parties, allowed under various authorities.

Land Acquisition supports the U.S. Department of Agriculture Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our 

national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to 
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Land Acquisition

climate change, while enhancing our water resources. Land Acquisition program supports the 

Forest Service strategic goal of sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands through the 

fostering of healthy ecosystems, mitigation of wildfire risk, and conservation of open space. 

Additionally, we achieve Forest Service goals of delivering benefits to the public, such as 

providing abundant clean water and strengthening communities. Also, through donations, U.S. 

acquires properties, which provide for access to existing public lands, and which directly 

contribute to the goals and objectives of the 2015-2020 Forest Service Strategic Plan. 

Allocation and Integration 

Core land acquisition projects funded through LWCF are selected using a two-stage process. 

First, Forest Service regions review and rank projects according to the Strategic Land 

Acquisition Rating System SLARS. Top regional projects are submitted to agency headquarters, 

where they compete nationally against other projects proposed by other Forest Service regions. 

Criteria tie the selection process to the LWCF Act, and the agency’s Strategic Plan goals and 

objectives are used to identify and prioritize acquisitions to maximize public benefit. 

Congressionally approved project funds are allocated to the benefiting regions as soon as all 

parties are ready to close on the sale of the property. Acquisitions may be funded through other 

means such as Sisk Act funds or revenue raised through sales or exchanges. Information about 

the SLARS and the national criteria are available on the Forest Service Web site at 

http://www.fs.fed.us/land/staff/LWCF/index.shtml. The processes used to identify and 

recommend funding for the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) are 

described elsewhere in this section.

Acquisition management funding is allocated to the regions using criteria based on workload, 

including prior year accomplishments and new current fiscal year funded projects. Cash 

equalization funds are accessed at the time an individual land exchange is ready to close.

Partnerships

Forest Service land acquisition has been a partnership based program for over 30 years. Our 

work with partners on important conservation acquisitions funded by the LWCF has protected 

key strategic lands that provide a diversity of benefits to the public. Most partners are non-profit 

organizations with missions that include protecting public land for public purposes. These 

partners support agency priorities and when they work with us the Forest Service mission is their 

mission. 

The FY 2017 proposed acquisition list is in many respects a compendium of years of 

collaboration and on-going dialogue with partners. Partnerships provide more than funding and 

logistical support for acquisitions. They are essential for communication, learning and 

innovation, helping us be responsive and deliver results. The land acquisition program relies on 

partnerships and relationships with local, State, Federal, Tribal, corporate and nongovernmental 

organizations, and individuals. These partners often work with us on multiple programs such as 

the CFLRP, watershed protection and restoration, and the Forest Legacy Program.

Key partnerships supporting Forest Service land acquisition projects include the Idaho Coalition 

of Land Trusts for the High Divide; the Apalachicola Regional Stewardship Alliance and the 
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Land Acquisition

Florida Wildlife Federation for the Florida Georgia Longleaf Pine Initiative; and the partnership 

for the National Trails System for the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trails proposal. Core 

acquisition projects such as the Swan Valley acquisitions in Montana are supported by the 

Missoula County Commission and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. In North Carolina the 

Forest works with several local land trusts including the Land Trust for Central North Carolina, 

the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, and the Foothills Conservancy. Other 

supporters and partners include The Nature Conservancy, the Wilderness Land Trust, the Teton 

Regional Land Trust and the Western Rivers Conservancy, the Trust for Public Land, Trout 

Unlimited, and The Conservation Fund. This list does not capture the totality of national and 

local partners that help make strategic land protection possible in the national forests and 

grasslands, but it does show the diversity of relationships the Forest Service has built over time. 

Working with numerous partners, the land acquisition program leverages a significant amount of 

non-Federal funding each year. Funding and other project support from partners for due 

diligence such as landowner outreach, title work, appraisal, and environmental analysis, can 

provide 20 to 40 percent of administrative funding each year for projects. Partners can also 

donate land value when they sell land to the Forest Service, called a “bargain sale.” For example 

in FY 2015, the Forest Service completed four bargain sale acquisitions on National Forests in 

Montana. The combined value of these acquisitions was over $2.3 million. Partners contributed 

over $1 million in value toward these acquisitions reducing the Federal cost 45 percent.

Collaborative Landscape Planning 

Land Acquisition in FY 2017 builds on efforts started in FY 2013 to strategically invest in 

interagency landscape-scale conservation projects while continuing to meet agency-specific 

programmatic needs. The Department of the Interior and the Forest Service collaborated 

extensively to develop a process to more effectively coordinate land acquisitions with 

government and local community partners to achieve the shared conservation goals. 

The FY 2017 CLP projects have been evaluated by a Technical Advisory Committee according 

to merit-based criteria in the following categories: 

Process - Ensure proposals are built through Federal agency and local stakeholder 

collaboration and make efficient use of Federal funding.

Outcomes - Ensure Federal resources are targeted to achieve important biological, 

recreational, cultural, and socio-economic outcomes.

Urgency - Ensure funding is focused on outcomes that may be lost today if no action is 

taken or that are particularly achievable today.

Contribution to National Priorities - Ensure local proposals are important contributors to 

the highest priority national conservation goals.

Investing now in these ecologically important and threatened landscapes will ensure they remain 

resilient in the face of development pressures and global climate change and are made available 

to the public in the near term. 
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Land Acquisition

U.S. Forest Service – Land Acquisition

FY 2017 Land and Water Conservation Fund Prioritized List

Administrative Funds Funding Request

Acquisition Management $8,500,000 

Cash Equalization $750,000 

Small Parcel Acquisitions Funding Request

Sportsmen/Recreational Access $4,700,000 

Critical Inholdings/Wilderness $2,000,000 

Priority

Order Project Name State Unit Funding Request

1 CLP: High Divide ID

Sawtooth National 

Recreation Area $2,800,000

2 CLP: High Divide ID Caribou-Targhee $330,000

3

Greater Yellowstone Area WY Bridger-Teton $2,850,000

4 Sierra Nevada 

Checkerboard CA El Dorado/Tahoe $1,200,000 

5 CLP: National Trails CA

Pacific Crest National 

Scenic Trail $4,905,000 

6 Minnesota North woods MN Superior $3,500,000 

7 CLP: Florida/Georgia 

Longleaf Pine Initiative FL Osceola $3,850,000 

8 Swan Valley MT Flathead $4,000,000

9 Hoosier Upland Natural 

Treasures IN Hoosier $1,600,000

10 Admiralty Island National 

Monument Cube Cove AK Tongass $4,000,000

11 CLP: Southern Blue Ridge VA

George Washington 

and Jefferson $2,280,000 

12 CLP: Southern Blue Ridge TN Cherokee $3,400,000 

13 CLP: Southern Blue Ridge NC Pisgah $1,850,000

14 North Carolina Threatened 

Treasures NC Uwharrie $360,000

15 South Carolina Coastal 

Legacy SC Francis Marian $1,600,000

16 Pacific Northwest Streams OR Rogue River-Siskiyou $1,450,000

17 CLP: Chesapeake Bay VA/WV

George Washington 

and Jefferson $1,000,000

18 Wood Parcel (The Wedge) CO Arapaho/Roosevelt $500,000

19 Three Mile OR Siuslaw $390,000
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Land Acquisition

 

Priority

Order Project Name State Unit Funding Request

20 Upper Ammonoosuc NH White Mountain $675,000

21 Carson Mining Claims CO Rio Grande/Gunnison $900,000

22 Historic Portage Pass Trail AK

Chugach

$650,000

23

Washington 

Cascades/Yakima River 

Watershed WA

Okanogan-Wenatchee $1,500,000

24 Sanhedrin CA Mendocino $2,800,000

25 CLP: Pathways to the 

Pacific WA

Columbia River Gorge 

National Scenic Area $400,000

26 CLP: Pathways to the 

Pacific OR

Columbia River Gorge 

National Scenic Area $913,000

Subtotal Discretionary Funding $65,653,000

Sportsmen/Recreational Access $4,000,000

Critical Inholdings/Wilderness $2,000,000

27 Wasatch Watersheds -

Bonneville Shoreline Trail UT Uinta-Wasatch-Cache $3,000,000

28 Swan Valley MT Flathead $2,000,000

29 Clearwater Blackfoot 

Project MT Lolo $5,000,000

30 CLP: National Trails TN

Appalachian National 

Scenic Trail $1,700,000

31 CLP: National Trails GA

Appalachian National 

Scenic Trail $450,000

32 Ozark Mountain Streams 

& Rivers

MO

Mark Twain $1,000,000

33 Wisconsin Northwoods WI Chequamegon-Nicolet $2,700,000

34 Reed Tract AR Ouachita $1,000,000

35 CLP: Florida/Georgia 

Longleaf Pine Initiative FL Osceola $4,000,000 

36 Wassen Creek OR Siuslaw $3,500,000 

37 Sanhedrin CA Mendocino $12,000,000

38 CLP: Southern Blue Ridge GA

ChattachoocheeOconee $4,400,000

39 CLP: Southern Blue Ridge NC Pisgah $3,000,000 

40 Cube Cove AK Tongass $10,300,000

41 Appalachian Foothills OH Wayne $2,297,000 

Subtotal Mandatory Funding $62,347,000

Total Funding $128,000,000
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Other Appropriations

Other Appropriations

Range Betterment Fund

Appropriation Range Betterment Fund

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Range Betterment Fund

Annual Appropriations $2,320 $2,320 $2,320 0 0%

Range Betterment Fund Total 2,320 2,320 2,320 0 0%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 6 6 6 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 6 6 6 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Range Betterment Fund

Number of range structural improvements 339 222 300 219 300 200

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $2,320,000 for Range Betterment, the same level as 

the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. This funding will allow us to place emphasis on addressing the 

backlog of structural and non-structural improvements prescribed in grazing allotment National 

Environmental Policy Act decision documents. These improvements will protect and/or improve 

water quality, soil conditions, and vegetative health while conserving threatened or endangered 

plant and animal species. Restoration of ecologically beneficial plant diversity through the 

treatment of invasive plants will continue to be a priority for non-structural rangeland 

improvement work. This work, in combination with improvements funded by the Grazing 

Management budget line item, helps maintain healthy rangelands that deliver economic benefits 

to rural communities and the Nation. The mix of work will vary from year to year from 

structural to non-structural improvements.

Past Performance 

The structures constructed or improved through this program help manage the movement of 

animals to provide for proper range management and maintain or improve plant health, such as 

fences and livestock watering facilities. The non-structural rangeland improvement activities, 

such as noxious weeds and invasive plants treatments and brush control, reduce fire risk on 

rangelands by limiting plant densities and/or by changing species composition. These activities 

also are important to maintain water quality and soil health. The mix of activities conducted in 
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Other Appropriations

FY 2016 included completing 126 range structural improvements, performing rangeland 

vegetation improvement work on 157,261 acres, and treating noxious weeds on 3,782 acres. The 

agency performance more vegetation improvement work in FY 2015—over 25,000 more acres—

than in FY 2014 and fewer structural improvement.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Range Betterment Fund program helps sustain the Nation’s forests and grasslands by 

fostering healthy, resilient rangeland ecosystems. The structures constructed or improved are 

essential to grazing permittees for effective livestock management. Grazing activities are vital to 

rural economies with grazing on NFS lands contributing approximately 19,500 jobs and almost 

$900 million to the Nation’s economy each year. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act 

of 1976, (43 U.S.C. 1751) P.L. 94-579, as amended by the Public Rangelands Improvement Act 

of 1978 (43 U.S.C. 1751(b) (1) P.L. 95-514, authorizes the Range Betterment program and it 

authorizes the allocation of one-half of grazing receipts from National Forest System (NFS) 

lands in the 16 Western States for rangeland rehabilitation, protection, and improvements on the 

NFS lands from which the receipts were collected. Allocations have historically been at one-half 

of the receipts level. This program supports all of the same economic activities associated with 

the Grazing Management program, but at a more limited scale.

The Range Betterment Fund program will support the U.S. Department of Agriculture Strategic 

Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and 

made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our water resources. Additionally, the 

Range Betterment Fund program also supports the Forest Service strategic goal of delivering 

benefits to the public through strengthening communities.

Allocation and Integration

Funds are allocated proportionately to the regions where receipts are collected. Activities 

performed to improve forage, change vegetative composition, control patterns of use, provide 

water, stabilize soil and water conditions, and provide habitat for livestock and wildlife include, 

but are not limited to: construction of water developments to aid in livestock distribution, 

building fences to protect sensitive resources, and treatment projects to alter soil and vegetation 

conditions on NFS lands. These activities enhance or stabilize vegetative conditions, improve 

water quality, maintain riparian areas and stream banks while conserving threatened or 

endangered plant and animal species. Funds may also be used to treat noxious weeds that are 

present as a result of permitted livestock grazing.

Partnerships

Grazing permittees are significant and important partners in the implementation of rangeland 

betterment projects. Program funds are often leveraged with in-kind contributions to enhance 

livestock management. These partnerships also provide a foundation for involving a variety of 

special interest organizations such as cattlemen’s associations, resource conservation 

organizations, and land trusts further enhancing opportunities for rangeland betterment.
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Other Appropriations

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Forest and Rangeland Research

Appropriation Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Forest 

and Rangeland Research

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Forest and 

Rangeland Research

Annual Appropriations $45 $45 $45 0 0%

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Forest and 

Rangeland Research Total 45 45 45 0 0%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 0 0 0 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0 0%

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $45,000 for Gifts, Donations, and Bequest for 

Research, the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the Forest Service received donations from individuals and businesses for research 

work units and other organizational sub-units to further their research and development 

programs. The funds were used to purchase supplies and equipment and to offset travel to 

training and seminars.

Program Description

Program Overview

This special account serves for acceptance of gifts, donations, and bequests for deposit that are 

used to establish or operate any forest and rangeland research facility. These gifts or donations 

can be received from outside sources, such as individuals and businesses.
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Other Appropriations

Management of National Forest Lands for Subsistence Uses

Appropriation Management of National Forest Lands for 

Subsistence Uses 

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Management of National Forest Lands for Subsistence 

Uses 

Annual Appropriations $2,500 $2,500 $2,441 -$59 -2%

Management of National Forest Lands for Subsistence 

Uses Total 2,500 2,500 2,441 -59 -2%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 10 10 10 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 10 10 10 0 0%

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $2,441,000 for Management of National Forest Lands 

for Subsistence, a decrease of $59,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. With this proposed 

funding, the Forest Service will continue to meet its responsibilities under the 1980 Alaska 

National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) and provide vital employment in isolated 

rural communities where opportunities are severely limited. The proposed funding level will

also enable the Forest Service to continue to fund approximately 40 seasonal employees that 

collect fish and wildlife population data. The data is used to inform the establishment of annual 

harvest levels and is essential for keeping fish and wildlife populations strong.

Past Performance

The Management of National Forest Lands for Subsistence Uses Program plays a vital role in 

sustaining the health of rural Alaskan communities by ensuring healthy fish and wildlife 

populations are available to provide a reliable food supply for residents, and maintaining vital 

employment in remote reaches where opportunities are limited.

To ensure the program is supporting rural communities, the Forest Service has implemented a 

number of critical monitoring and management actions. Activities associated with this work 

were accomplished using both Management of National Forest Lands for Subsistence Uses funds 

and other National Forest System funds that complement the objectives of this program. In FY 

2015, the Forest Service completed 18 regular-cycle management analyses to determine current 

population and appropriate harvest levels for fish and wildlife species, and to determine 

appropriate management actions to provide for subsistence uses on the national forests in Alaska. 

The Forest Service also analyzed and implemented 21 special actions to address immediate 

conservation and subsistence use issues.

Together with the Department of the Interior, the Forest Service also continued to expand 

consultation on all facets of the Federal subsistence program, including annual rulemaking, with 

all Alaska Tribes and Native Corporations in order to comply with presidential and secretarial 
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Other Appropriations

policy direction and to be respectful of the current and historical role of native Alaskans in 

managing for their customary and traditional subsistence uses.

In FY 2015, the agency oversaw 11 salmon stock assessments, one comprehensive assessment 

for the eulachon (a small anadromous fish), and four population surveys for subsistenceharvested wildlife species. Most monitoring was implemented through contracts and 

agreements, which supported about 40 local jobs in rural communities with tribal organizations. 

These assessments continue to be vital to effective management of subsistence uses, while 

providing for conservation of 

harvested species.

In FY 2015, Forest Service law 

enforcement issued nine violations 

and two warnings specific to 

subsistence uses. Due to Law 

Enforcement Officer and Forest 

Service subsistence program 

manager efforts in user education, 

these numbers are significantly 

down from previous years.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Alaska National Interest Lands 

Conservation Act (ANILCA) (16 

U.S.C. 3101) provides rural 

Alaskan residents a subsistence 

priority to harvest fish and wildlife 

on Federal lands over sport and 

commercial uses. ANILCA 

authorizes the Secretary of 

Agriculture to issue regulations 

relevant to the taking of fish and 

wildlife on public lands in the State 

of Alaska. ANILCA envisioned 

that the State of Alaska would 

manage for this rural priority, as 

was the case for 10 years. 

However, the statute was found to conflict with the Alaska State Constitution, which prohibits 

granting subsistence priority to only rural residents. As a result, the Federal government 

assumed responsibility for subsistence management on Federal public lands in 1990 and 

expanded its responsibility to Federally-reserved navigable waters in Alaska in 1999.

The Subsistence program is delivered through the following activities:

Salmon Assessment for Subsistence Management

On lands managed by the USDA Forest Service (Southeast and 

South-central Alaska) to date, over $25 million has been invested 

to complete 83 projects in the Subsistence Fisheries Resource 

Monitoring Program. Nearly $13 million of that total has been 

direct contracts with Tribal governments to perform this work. At 

its peak, the Forest Service work supported over 65 jobs in rural 

Alaska. In 2015, this program supported 40 jobs in rural Alaska 

communities with chronically high un-employment rates. 

Monitoring projects build capacity in Tribal governments to 

conduct increasingly complicated and labor intensive projects and 

participate in regulatory decision-making by the State and Federal 

governments regarding fisheries issues.

In FY 2015, 11 salmon stock assessments (including 4 salmon 

harvest surveys) were accomplished with the majority of projects 

directly funding Tribal governments through service contracts.
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Other Appropriations

Regulatory – This activity includes an annual cycle of rule promulgation for harvesting fish 

and wildlife, in-season actions to address immediate conservation issues, and administration 

of harvest permits to manage use. The Alaska Regional Forester serves on the inter-agency 

Federal Subsistence Board, and is delegated to act for the Secretary of Agriculture for all 

aspects of the Federal interagency program. Federal subsistence hunting and fishing 

regulations must be reviewed annually to ensure a sustained supply of wild food resources 

and that a harvest priority is provided for rural residents on Federal lands. Annually, the 

Forest Service, through the Board, addresses up to 70 proposed changes to existing 

regulations and responds to more than 3,000 requests for harvest permits.

Information Gathering – This activity includes fish and wildlife monitoring necessary for 

regulatory purposes and to ensure the conservation of fish and wildlife. Most monitoring is 

implemented through contracts and agreements, providing local jobs in rural communities 

with tribal and other local organizations. Collection and analysis of critical information is 

used to substantiate which regulatory changes should be implemented, and justification for 

those which cannot be supported. Monitoring information can also lead to emergency actions 

to curtail harvest in-season, to assure conservation of viable populations.

Law Enforcement and Education – This activity includes enforcement of Federal regulations 

for the taking of fish and wildlife on 22 million acres, approximately 75 waterways and 

navigable lakes, and areas of Prince William Sound. It also includes education of subsistence 

users and others to reduce the need for enforcement action. Enforcement of Federal 

subsistence hunting and fishing regulations requires protecting the subsistence priority and 

conserving healthy fish and wildlife populations.

Employment and Capacity Building – The subsistence program provides vital employment in 

isolated rural communities, many are Tribal communities, where opportunities are severely 

limited. Local residents are hired to monitor fish and wildlife populations which are essential 

for adjusting harvest regulations and sustaining fish and wildlife populations. Monitoring 

projects build capacity in Tribal governments to conduct increasingly complicated and labor 

intensive projects and participate in regulatory decision-making by the State and Federal 

governments regarding fish and wildlife issues.

The Management of National Forest Lands for Subsistence supports the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private working lands are 

conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our water 

resources. The Management of National Forest Lands for Subsistence also supports the Forest 

Service strategic goals of delivering benefits to the public, provide abundant clean water, and 

strengthen communities.
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Wildland Fire Management

Wildland Fire Management

Appropriation Wildland Fire Management

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Wildland Fire Management

Annual Appropriations $2,333,298$2,386,329 $2,451,445 $65,116 3%

Wildland Fire Management Total 2,333,298 2,386,329 2,451,445 65,116 3%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 12,259 12,259 12,259 0 0%

Recovery Act FTEs 0 0 0 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 12,259 12,259 12,259 0 0%

Wildland Fire Management

Preparedness 1,145,840 1,082,620 1,082,620 0 0%

Suppression 708,000 811,000 873,904 62,904 8%

Hazardous Fuels 361,749 375,000 384,126 9,126 2%

Research and Development 19,795 19,795 19,795 0 0%

Joint Fire Science Program 6,914 6,914 0 -6,914 -100%

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands 0 0 0 0 0%

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 0 0 0 0 0%

State Fire Assistance 78,000 78,000 78,000 0 0%

Volunteer Fire Assistance 13,000 13,000 13,000 0 0%

Wildland Fire Management Overview

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $2,451,455,000 for Wildland Fire Management 

(WFM), an increase of $65,116,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Through WFM 

programs, the Forest Service protects life, property and natural resources on the 193 million acre 

National Forest System (NFS) and an additional 20 million acres of adjacent State and private 

lands through fee or reciprocal protection agreements. 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget continues to call for a fundamental change in how wildfire 

suppression is funded to reduce fire risk, manage landscapes more holistically, and increase 

resiliency of the Nation’s forests and rangelands and the communities that border them. The cost 

of fire management has grown from 16 percent of the agency’s budget in 1995 to - for the first 

time in the agency’s 110-year history - to over 50 percent of the budget in 2015. It is subsuming 

the agency’s budget and jeopardizing our ability to successfully implement our full mission. The 

number and severity of fires has grown in recent years as has the frequency of catastrophic fires 

that risk life and property. At the same time, the wildland-urban interface (WUI) has continued 

to expand. These factors have contributed to the growing cost of suppression. Since 2000 

suppression costs have exceeded amounts provided in annual appropriations every year with only 

two exceptions, requiring the Forest Service to transfer funds from other programs to cover those 

costs. The lost momentum of critical restoration programs as fire transfers deplete the budget by 

up to $700 million annually is felt across critical programs nationwide and exacerbates the 

frequency and intensity of fires in subsequent years. Left unchecked, the share of the budget 
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Wildland Fire Management

devoted to fire in 2025 could exceed 67 percent, equating to reductions of nearly $700 million 

from non-fire programs compared to today’s funding levels. That means that in just 10 years, 

two out of every three dollars the Forest Service gets from Congress as part of its appropriated 

budget will be spent on fire programs.

The FY 2017 President’s Budget continues to propose a fiscally responsible funding strategy that 

considers catastrophic wildland fires as disasters, to be funded in part by budget authority 

provided through a wildfire suppression cap adjustment which is outside the discretionary 

appropriation of the agency. In FY 2017, the President’s Budget continues to propose 

discretionary funding for wildland fire suppression at a level that provides for suppression of 99 

percent of fires within the Forest Service discretionary program, represented by 70 percent of the 

10-year average of fire suppression spending. In addition, up to $864 million would be available 

under the disaster funding cap adjustment to meet suppression needs above the base 

appropriation. This strategy provides increased certainty in addressing growing fire suppression 

funding needs, better safeguards non-suppression programs from transfers that have diminished 

their effectiveness, and allows us to stabilize and invest in programs that will more effectively 

restore forested landscapes, treat forests for the increasing effects of climate change, and prepare 

communities in the WUI for future wildfires. However, while the cap adjustment proposal helps 

to stabilize the rapidly increasing portion of the Forest Service’s budget that is going towards fire 

suppression, the amount of funding requested for suppression is still tied to the 10-year average, 

which has been steadily increasing over the last decade and increased again in FY 2017, resulting 

in the $63 million increase in Suppression above the FY 2016 Enacted Budget.

The agency has made great progress in its continued focus on risk based decision making when 

responding to wildfires, and in FY 2017 will continue this important work to better inform 

decision makers on the risks and tradeoffs associated with wildfire management decisions. In 

FY 2016 the Forest Service will continue to work with risk practitioners from other Federal 

agencies to forge the path forward of continuous improvement and learning on how risk 

management is practiced in wildland fire management to solidify the concept of shared risk, a 

central tenant of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, which establishes a 

shared vision between Federal and non-Federal entities for managing wildland fires. 

The WFM program also recognizes the importance of integrating fire as a critical natural process 

in land and resource management plans and activities, managing wildfire across landownership 

boundaries, and applying the best available science.

The FY 2017 President’s Budget also furthers efforts to focus on hazardous fuels treatments with 

an increased funding request that will enable us to work in the WUI on the highest priority acres 

in areas that are identified in community wildfire protection plans or equivalent plans, with

hazardous fuels treatments targeted on reducing the risk of catastrophic fire on 1.8 million WUI 

acres.
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Preparedness

Budget Line Item Preparedness

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Preparedness

Annual Appropriations $1,145,840$1,082,620 $1,082,620 0 0%

Preparedness Total 1,145,840 1,082,620 1,082,620 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 7,180 7,180 7,180 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 7,180 7,180 7,180 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Preparedness

Percent change from the 10-year average for the number 

of wildfires controlled during initial attack. -0.1% 1.3% 0.2% -2.4% 0.2% 0.2%

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President's Budget proposes $1,082,620,000 for Preparedness, the same as the FY 

2016 Enacted Budget. This funding reflects the full costs of readiness resources and program 

management. As directed by Congress in the FY 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act, a 

detailed table of actual and proposed estimated spending on fire operations, including aviation 

resources is included as a Special Exhibit. 

The Preparedness program ensures agency capability to protect life, property, and natural 

resources; while responding to wildfires in an appropriate, risk informed, and effective manner 

consistent with land and resource management objectives. Firefighter and public safety are the 

primary considerations for all operations. In FY 2017, the agency will continue emphasizing

strategies to increase operational efficiency, including: 

• predictive services analysis of the potential for strategic deployment of firefighting 

resources during fire seasons;

• risk-informed, performance-based fire suppression;

• web-based wildfire decision support tools;

• development, enhancement, and integration of technology applications;

• centralized management of aviation assets; and

• modernizing the firefighting airtanker fleet.
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Resource Summary FY 2015 to FY 2017

Resource

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016

Enacted

FY 2017

Estimates

Firefighters (FFTR) – Total is inclusive of categories below 10,000 10,000 10,000

Type I Interagency Hot Shot Crews (20-person) 67 crews

1,340 FFTR 

67 crews

1,340 FFTR 

67 crews

1,340 FFTR 

Other Firefighters 7,940 7,940 7,940

Smoke Jumpers 320 320 320

Prevention Technicians 400 400 400

Engines 900 900 900

Heavy Equipment – Dozers, Tractor Plow Units, Tenders 210 210 210

Helicopters

Type 11 34 Up to 34 Up to 34

Type 2 33 33 33

Type 32 46 46 46

Airtankers

Legacy Airtankers3 6 Up to 6 Up to 6 

Next Generation Airtankers3 7 Up to 14 Up to14

Excess US Coast Guard aircraft converted airtankers C-130 H 0 Up to 1 Up to 1

Single Engine Airtankers 1 Up to 1 Up to 1

Scoopers 1 Up to 1 Up to 1 1 Includes only agency owned/leased or exclusive use contracted assets.

2 Includes only helicopters whose primary purpose is wildland fire response.

3 Numbers reflect maximum number of aircraft allowed under the contracts.

The FY 2017 President’s Budget will fund up to 20 airtankers under exclusive use contracts. 

This includes legacy airtankers and next generation large airtankers. We will also fund one

agency-owned C-130H aircraft transferred from the US Coast Guard. The 2014 National 

Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) transferred seven C-130H aircraft from the U.S. Coast 

Guard to the Forest Service. These aircraft will initially be transferred to the U.S. Air Force for 

retrofitting and installation of a retardant delivery system. The agency will also be working in 

FY 2017 to award a contract to acquire a new large airtanker in compliance with the FY 2015 

Appropriations bill. The aircraft could take up to three years to be delivered after the contract is 

awarded. The Forest Service will exercise a Call When Needed contract or leverage 

cooperators/partners for additional airtankers, if necessary. The agency will also phase out the 

legacy airtankers as the next generation large airtankers become available, thereby maintaining 

18 to 28 contracted and agency-owned next generation large airtankers as identified in the Large 

Airtanker Modernization Strategy. 

The NDAA provided the U.S. Air Force with $130 million to retrofit all seven C-130H aircraft 

and $5 million per plane for the installation of retardant delivery systems. The Forest Service 

will pay for operation and maintenance of the C-130Hs within our requested budget by 

implementing programmatic efficiencies that will decrease our costs and maintain or increase our 

operational capability. Programmatic efficiencies include implementation of optimized 

dispatching analysis; streamline of our information technology (IT) investments through the 

Wildland Fire IT initiative; and decrease programmatic administrative costs by managing 

aviation assets under national contracts, streamline hiring processes, centralize training 

opportunities, and share fire leadership positions between administrative units.
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Past Performance

During the 2015 fire season we experienced above average wildfire activity in Alaska, 

California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Northern Rockies; while the remainder of the country 

experienced average or below average activity. Several times during August 2015, there were 

over 27,000 firefighters including State, local, private, and Federal resources supporting wildfire 

incidents (a record number). For 24 days, from August 13 through September 5 the National 

Preparedness Level (PL) was 5, the highest level, which means all available ground and air 

resources were committed to priority fires. Alaska was at PL 5 for 24 days, the Pacific Northwest 

was at PL 5 for 23 days, Northern California was at this highest preparedness level for more than 

26 days, and the Northern Rockies were at PL 5 for 16 days. We mobilized more Type 1 

Incident Management Teams (IMTs) – those that manage the most complex incidents - than we 

have since 2007. There were more large fires where multiple IMT's managed a singular incident 

since 2008. We also had 5 Area Command assignments, where they oversee the management of 

multiple complex incidents generally in the same area that are each being handled by other IMTs 

and 11 National Incident Management Organization (NIMO – special teams for management of 

complex wildland fire) assignments.

Maintaining this high level of activity required significant financial resources and affected the 

health and well-being of our firefighters. Regardless of the intensity or severity of the fire 

season, the Forest Service utilizes a risk-based approach to all wildfires to ensure an appropriate, 

risk informed, and effective response. We are continuing to improve and enhance our predictive 

capabilities and decision support tools to enable us to make the best decisions on every wildfire 

event.

Initial attack success is dependent on several factors including weather, location of the wildfire, 

values at risk and management objectives. The agency’s initial attack success rate – the percent 

of fires that were suppressed before they reached 300 acres in size – was 95.2 percent in FY 

2015, which is 2.45 percentage points higher/lower than the 10-year average.

Wildfire is an essential and natural element of many of the ecosystems within the National Forest 

System. The Forest Service strives to make decisions that minimize the negative impacts of 

wildfire to life and property, and ensure the highest level of safety for our firefighters, while 

restoring wildfire to landscapes as a natural and beneficial change agent when practical. The 

Forest Service is continuing to analyze better ways to articulate and measure this balance. For 

example, in FY 2015 we continued to utilize tools within the Wildland Fire Decision Support 

System (WFDSS) to provide fire managers with the ability to identify, in real time, the 

likelihood wildfire will affect valuable resources. By focusing on risk, the intersection of threat 

(fire spread) and values at risk of loss, fire managers assure suppression resources are being

employed for the right reasons in the right places, thus improving the agency’s ability to 

demonstrate the value of suppression to the public, Congress and government oversight agencies. 

In FY 2015, we continued to implement the 2012 Large Airtanker Modernization Strategy by 

having up to 16 next generation airtankers (a mix of exclusive use and call-when-needed assets) 

flying wildfire response operations, including one C-130H that was procured via the 2014 

National Defense Authorization Act from the Coast Guard. These next generation airtankers 

flew a considerable number of missions, which complemented the efforts of our ground-based 
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firefighters. The expanded capability and increased retardant delivery capacity enabled more 

effective responses to wildfires. 

In late FY 2015, we also executed the Next Generation Airtanker 2.0 contract bringing another 7 

airtankers into the fleet, for a total of 13 large airtankers on exclusive use contract. In FY 2015,

we also continued the Aerial Firefighting Use and Effectiveness (AFUE) study to determine how 

next generation airtankers can best work with our other firefighting resources and improve our 

overall response capabilities. We anticipate preliminary results in late 2016 and will continue 

implementation of the Large Airtanker Modernization Strategy in FY 2016 and FY 2017.

The Forest Service has established a new wildfire review process where we look at significant 

fires as they are burning – and evaluate them after the fire season. This process help us learn the 

impacts of decisions, dig deeper into what happened on these significant fires, and ensure we 

continue to learn as we face increasingly difficult fire seasons. 

Program Description

Program Overview

Wildland fire is a natural and necessary component of restoring and maintaining most of the 

ecosystems managed by the Forest Service. Because of climatic shifts and above normal fuel 

loads, fire seasons are becoming longer and fires are more severe causing, in some cases, 

extraordinary damage to the landscape. In the West, climate change and other factors have 

contributed to hotter, drier, and longer fire seasons, on average 60 to 70 days longer than in the 

prior decade. For example, the seven worst fire seasons since 1960 have occurred since 2000.

The wildland-urban interface (WUI), where there are higher densities of both people and 

infrastructure, is of particular concern as nearly 65 million acres of WUI are adjacent to or near 

national forests and grasslands. To protect private investments in the WUI and sustain the 

natural landscape in the face of climate change, the need for emergency response and qualified 

personnel to provide that response has increased rapidly over the past few decades. 

The Forest Service utilizes the Preparedness program to maintain a fire organization having the 

capability to ensure timely, appropriate, risk informed, and effective response operations to all 

wildland fires. The Preparedness program provides for fire management assets that protect 

National Forest System, other Federal, state, and private lands from damaging wildfires, 

reducing threats to life and values at risk commensurate with land management objectives in the 

context laid out in the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive 

Strategy). 

Preparedness supports other vital elements of a comprehensive wildland fire management 

program like planning, prevention, education, development of information technology and 

decision support systems, training and education, development and advancement of firefighting 

technology, and organizational learning through program analysis and review. We have 

developed several initiatives surrounding fire adapted communities practices including the Fire 

Learning Network, Fire Adapted Communities, Ready Set Go! and the Wildland Fire 

Assessment Program the Preparedness program helps to support. 
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A robust Preparedness program is essential to reducing the costs of wildland fire. Forest Service 

analysis has demonstrated that for every $1.00 that is reduced in Preparedness funding, we can 

expect an increase of $1.70 in Suppression costs. Therefore, it is important we maintain 

adequate resources through the Preparedness program, or risk substantial increases in firefighting 

costs and more devastating losses to life, property, and the environment.

Managing wildland fire requires partnerships across the Federal family and across jurisdictional 

lines. Successful firefighting has evolved into a robust, coordinated, multi-jurisdictional effort. 

Leveraging the skills of several agencies has increased wildfire firefighting capacity of the

nationwide, reduced response times, and increased technological improvements giving us better 

insights into prevent fires, and improve resource deployment when fires occur. These successful 

relationships are critical to fire response in the 21st century. 

The Preparedness program is a core component of implementing the Cohesive Strategy, which is 

a national collaborative effort between wildland fire organizations, land managers, and policymaking officials representing Federal, state and local governments, Tribal interests, and 

nongovernmental organizations. The Cohesive Strategy builds on the successes of the National 

Fire Plan and other foundational documents and aims to address the Nation’s wildland fire 

challenges holistically across all lands and jurisdictions. 

The Cohesive Strategy identifies three key areas that present the greatest challenges and the 

greatest opportunities for making a positive difference in addressing our national wildfire issues:

• restoring and maintaining fire resilient landscapes, 

• creating fire-adapted communities, and

• effectively responding to wildfire.

The Forest Service, along with many partners, has embraced a holistic approach to achieving the 

Cohesive Strategy’s goals of creating resilient landscapes, promoting fired-adapted communities, 

and ensuring efficient and effective response to wildfires. Recognizing the type of fire we see on 

the landscape is an outcome of land management actions and inactions and community decisions, 

the Cohesive Strategy provides a framework to address multiple objectives simultaneously 

within and among the goals.

The Cohesive Strategy is more than a report, it is a commitment to the doctrine as stakeholders 

we all share in the responsibility for managing our lands. This national commitment ensures the

protection of our nation’s natural, Tribal, and cultural resources; and makes our communities 

safe and resilient for future generations. The Cohesive Strategy provides a framework to address 

some of our most challenging issues – whether they are fire, invasive species, water supply, 

threatened and endangered species, community planning, or other land management issues – and 

recognizes all stakeholders must do their part to be engaged and work collaboratively to address 

these challenges.

The Preparedness program supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests 

and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, 

while enhancing our water resources. The Preparedness program also supports the Forest 
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Service strategic goal of sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands through the mitigation of 

wildfire risk.

Allocation and Integration

Preparedness funds are allocated to regions based on predicted fire activity and anticipated 

wildfire workloads. The placement and associated funding allocations of specific resources 

considers logistical and mobilization efficiencies. The agency’s overall readiness capability and 

resource geographical placements have been established through various fire planning and 

budgeting analyses. However, as the fire season develops and ongoing risk is assessed, national 

and local resources are repositioned to ensure timely and effective responses. Predictive services 

and other relevant data sources are used to analyze potential seasonal fire activity to guide 

strategic placement of resources.

The Forest Service continues its strategy to deploy, assess, and improve our decision support 

systems to develop our Preparedness budget requirements. A new system is under development, 

the Wildland Fire Investment Portfolio System (WFIPS), which will help wildland fire managers 

better understand the complex relationships that exist in managing wildland fire. The WFIPS

program will provide an improved capability to simulate fire occurrence at the national scale and 

to assess the effects of different levels of fuels treatments on fire behavior. It will also provide 

enhanced firefighting dispatching algorithms to understand how increased or decreased levels of 

assets can influence fire outcomes for cost and size. This will facilitate better-informed budget 

development processes and increase the understanding of the influences of critical fire 

management components on fire outcomes and investment levels. We expect that WFIPS will 

be operational in early 2017.

Partnerships

The Preparedness program has numerous partnerships with other Federal agencies and States 

which include protection agreements, collaborative research efforts, and development of an 

interagency fire planning and budgeting analysis system. The agency also collaborates with 

cooperators, including the National Association of State Foresters and the DOI for training, 

planning, equipment use contracts, and interagency fire coordination centers. In addition, the 

agency has an agreement with the Department of Defense (DOD) to provide support in fire 

suppression through the Modular Airborne Firefighting System (MAFFS) program. The DOD 

provides C-130 aircraft equipped with MAFFS units as surge capacity for aerial firefighting 

when requested by the Forest Service. MAFFS are portable fire retardant delivery systems that 

can be inserted into military C-130 aircraft to convert them into large airtankers when needed. 

The MAFFS program is a 40-year long joint effort between the Forest Service and the DOD. 

The Forest Service owns the MAFFS equipment and supplies the retardant, while the DOD 

provides the C-130 aircraft, pilots, and maintenance and support personnel to fly the missions.

The Forest Service sponsors and participates in interagency training exercises. Municipal, state, 

and other fire, emergency, and medical professionals are actively recruited for incident training 

drills. The experience and education provided to the participants strengthens job performance 

and communication throughout the U.S. emergency response community. .
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Within our prevention program we also have extensive partnerships with many groups to deliver 

core prevention programs, including the Fire Learning Network and Fire Adapted Communities 

Network of TNC and the Watershed Center, the Ready, Set, Go! program in association with the 

International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the Wildland Fire Assessment Program with the 

National Volunteer Fire Council.
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Suppression

Budget Line Item Suppression

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Suppression

Annual Appropriations $708,000 $811,000 $873,904 $62,904 8%

Suppression Total 708,000 811,000 873,904 62,904 8%

Suppression Cap Adjustment 0 0 864,096 864,096 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 3,105 3,105 3,105 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 3,105 3,105 3,105 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Suppression

Percent of fires not contained in initial attack that exceed 

a Stratified Cost Index (SCI) 36.4% 32.0% 24.0% 24.8% 24.0% 24.0%

Three-year average percent of fires not contained in 

initial attack that exceed a Stratified Cost Index (SCI) 27.1% 29.6% 26.0% 29.3% 26.0% 26.0%

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $873,904,000 for Suppression within discretionary 

limits, an increase of $62,904,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget, and $864,096,000 as a 

budget cap adjustment.

The President’s Budget continues to propose a cap adjustment as a new approach to budgeting 

for wildland fire suppression. This will minimize the risk of fire transfers and provide greater 

stability and certainty of funding to other programs that support critical forest and rangeland 

management needs. A joint analysis between the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior 

(DOI) found two percent of fires are responsible for 30 percent of suppression costs. The 

remaining 70 percent of costs are generated by the other 98 percent of fires. Therefore, this 

request proposes funding 70 percent of the 10-year average for suppression, currently calculated 

at $1.248 billion (see Table 1), and within the discretionary spending limits ($873,904,000). The 

proposed cap adjustment would fund the remaining 30 percent of the 10-year average as well as 

any costs accrued above the 10-year average (which are currently funded through fire transfers) 
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equal to the high end of the 90 percent confidence interval predicted by the outyear forecast32. 

For FY 2017, the total proposed cap adjustment is $864 million (see Table 2).

As directed by Congress in the FY 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act, a detailed table of 

actual and proposed spending on fire operations, including aviation resources, is included as the 

Special Exhibit, Fire, Preparedness, and Suppression Costs.

Table 1 – Forest Service Suppression Obligations FY 2006-FY 2015*

(dollars in thousands)

Fiscal Year

Net Nominal 

Suppression 

Obligations

GDP 

Inflator

[2009=1.00]

GDP 

Deflator

[2015=1.00]

Adjusted 

Obligations

[2015=1.00]

Rolling

10-year 

Average

2006 $1,280,419 0.9408 0.8528 $1,501,444 $956,977

2007 1,149,654 0.9643 0.8741 1,315,253 1,063,229

2008 1,193,073 0.9971 0.9038 1,320,026 1,152,176

2009 702,111 1.0000 0.9065 774,569 1,179,486

2010 578,284 1.0141 0.9192 629,093 1,096,460

2011 1,055,736 1.0351 0.9383 1,125,194 1,118,552

2012 1,436,614 1.0567 0.9578 1,499,833 1,101,514

2013 1,356,535 1.0730 0.9726 1,394,716 1,110,179

2014 1,195,955 1.0893 0.9874 1,211,216 1,140,678

2015 $1,713,000 1.1032 1.00 $1,713,000 $1,248,434

* Suppression obligations from FY 2005-FY 2011 have now been adjusted to remove cost pool and exclusive 

use aviation contract costs that should have been charged to Preparedness. This provides the ability to 

compare analogous numbers after rebaselining occurred for the obligations for FY 2012 and beyond.

In Table 1 above, the net nominal suppression obligations are inflated to constant 2015 dollars to 

calculate the rolling 10-year average. This is accomplished by using the Gross Domestic Product 

(GDP) inflator and the GDP deflator together to calculate a factor that is then applied to the 

nominal suppression obligations to adjust them to constant 2015 dollars. The nominal 

suppression obligations are then divided by the GDP deflator to get the adjusted obligations (i.e., 

obligations converted to constant 2015 dollars), which are used to calculate the rolling 10-year 

average. The rolling 10-year average for a particular fiscal year is calculated by adding the 

adjusted obligations from that fiscal year to the previous nine years and dividing by 10.

 32 Abt, K.L., J.P. Prestemon, and K. Gebert. 2009. “Wildfire suppression cost forecasts for the US Forest Service”. Journal of 

Forestry 107(4):173-178. Note: models have been and are continuously being updated since publication of this article, and 

only changes that result in improved fit statistics are used for the forecasts.
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Table 2 – FY 2017 Forest Service Suppression Expenditure Forecast and Confidence 

Interval (CI)

(dollars in thousands)

Projected

Median total 

Forest Service 

expenditure

Projected

Lower 90 

Percent CI

Projected

Upper 90 

Percent CI

70% of the 10-

year Average

FY 2017

Proposed Cap

Adjustment

FY 2017 $1,173,000 $604,000 $1,738,000 $873,904 $864,096

Funds within the budget cap adjustment will only be accessible for wildland fire suppression 

operations if a declaration has been issued by the Secretary of Agriculture that one or more of the 

following conditions are met:

• a fire has required an emergency Federal response based on significant complexity, 

severity, or threat posed to human life, property, or resource;

• the fire covers 1,000 acres or more;

• a fire is within 10 miles of a major urban area (defined as 50,000 inhabitants or more); or

• the cumulative costs of wildland fire suppression operations will exceed all of the 

amounts previously appropriated within 30 days.

Suppression is an “all-lands” program that funds activities to suppress wildland fires on or 

threatening National Forest System (NFS) lands, other Federal lands, and 20 million acres of 

non-Federal lands under fire protection agreements. Funding for Suppression enables the agency 

to respond to unplanned wildland fire incidents which threaten lives, property, and resources. 

Wildfires continue to become larger and more difficult to suppress due to the effects of a 

changing climate, persistent drought and hazardous fuels conditions, and the increased size and 

complexity of housing developments adjacent to the wildland-urban interface (WUI). 

Recognizing the costs associated with WUI suppression activities, the Forest Service will 

continue to aggressively pursue risk management measures including:

• focusing hazardous fuels funding for treatments in the WUI,

• using risk-informed, performance-based suppression strategies,

• clarifying roles and responsibilities in the WUI,

• using appropriate cost-share agreements, and

• deploying decision support tools.

The Forest Service and DOI are committed to restoring the resilience and diversity of fireadapted ecosystems on the landscape, consistent with public safety needs. The agencies will 

identify, establish, and maintain necessary governance and risk management protocols that will 

guide program management and incident response by applying resources to reduce unnecessary 

risk to firefighter safety and contribute to the long-term resiliency of fire-adapted ecosystems.
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The Forest Service will expand efforts to manage wildfires to meet land management objectives. 

We will make a concerted effort to allow fire to return to the landscape when these fires will 

improve the health of the forest and when risks to safety and communities make doing so 

appropriate. Phase III of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Strategy (Cohesive Strategy) 

involved the development of models that will better inform decision-makers and allow them to 

understand the risks and trade-offs associated with wildland fire management decisions more 

fully.

Past Performance

During the 2015 fire season we experienced above average wildfire activity in Alaska, 

California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Northern Rockies; while the remainder of the country 

experienced average or below average activity. Location is the most important variable 

contributing to significance, severity, and cost of any wildfire. It is important to look beyond 

national statistics and focus on regional and local data to understand the FY 2015 fire season. 

Wildfires occurring in California present unique challenges, given the population and 

infrastructure density. Generally fires that threaten communities or other values at risk are more 

costly than those in more remote areas. This is particularly the case in California, because every 

fire occurring there inevitably affects large population centers and requires extensive firefighting 

resources to manage, translating to disproportionately high suppression costs compared to other 

areas of the country. In FY 2015 we had eight wildfires in California that cost in excess of $25 

million and one fire that cost nearly $80 million. There was only one fire in this cost range in 

other parts of the country in FY 2015. The continued severe drought in California magnified the 

challenges presented by high fuel loads and dry conditions, so any wildfire that occurred there 

had the potential to become a catastrophic event. Managing wildfires under these extreme 

conditions required substantial firefighting resources and full coordination amongst the entire 

wildland fire community, including our state, local, and private partners.

The Pacific Northwest also experienced above average wildfire activity in FY 2015 and was at 

Preparedness Levels 4 and 5 (the highest) for a total of 47 days (PL 4 for 24 days and PL 5 for 23 

days). There were a total of 56 mobilizations of Type 1, 2 Incident management teams, Area 

Commands and NIMOs with one or more teams in place for 109 consecutive days from June 12 

to September 28. Of the record number of 27,000 firefighters that were active nationally, over 

11,000 were on fires in the Pacific Northwest alone. This is the second year in a row that the 

Northwest experienced extreme fire activity.

The FY 2015 fire season set records for total acres burned - over 10 million across all 

jurisdictions - as well as the number of firefighters deployed to support response operations -

nearly 30,000 - and total expenditures for the Forest Service at $1.713 Billion. From August 13 

through September 5 (24 days) the National Preparedness Level (PL) was 5, the highest level, 

which means all available ground and air resources were committed to priority fires. Of the 

Forest Service’s nine regions, five reached a regional PL 5 - four of them simultaneously in 

August.

To help analyze suppression costs on wildfires the agency uses an efficiency measure that 

compares actual to expected suppression costs via a Stratified Cost Index (SCI). The SCI is a 

set of predictive models based on historical large fire data from 1995 to 2004. This data set 
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provides a baseline for comparison. The SCI estimates suppression costs for each fire utilizing 

several factors associated with suppression costs. In real time, the SCI compares an individual 

incident’s expenditures to historical fires with similar characteristics (including fuel type, slope, 

elevation, and total housing value), increasing cost awareness and providing a basis for fire 

incident budgeting. Nationally, the SCI provides data we can evaluate for the entire fire season and 

trends to compare year-to-year. The percentage of incidents not contained in initial attack that exceeded 

the SCI in FY 2015 was 24.8 percent—a decrease from 32 percent in FY 2014.33

Two of the main factors that may influence wildfire management cost outcomes are long-term 

ecological conditions and changing climatic conditions, neither of which are currently modelled 

within SCI. These factors can cause our management strategies to change for fires of similar 

characteristics that occur in different years since the potential outcomes can be drastically 

different. SCI is a good indicator of cost alignment with previous similar incidents, but it is not 

an absolute measure of efficiency, effectiveness, or overall performance. We continue to 

develop new performance elements and improve the SCI calculation to enable us to more 

thoroughly analyze how our wildland fire management response decisions affect response 

outcomes.

In FY 2015, we continued to implement risk management and fiscal accountability initiatives to 

help ensure that we have appropriate, risk informed, and effective responses to all wildland 

fires. We also continued refining how large and complex wildfires are managed, focusing on 

improving risk management protocols and striving to increase incident management efficiency. 

Wildfire management decisions, including suppression activities, are made with the support of a 

robust system of checks and balances and in collaboration with affected partners. The final costs 

of any wildfire are the outcome of these decisions and are commensurate with identified values 

at risk, public and employee safety.

In FY 2015, NIMO teams, which are composed of our most senior and experienced fire 

managers, actively engaged national forests and local communities in risk assessment and the 

development of risk-informed decision-making process. With an emphasis on preparation, preseason engagements were held throughout the country in the winter and spring. Cooperators, 

partners and stakeholders were invited to assess the wildfire risk to their communities and take 

proactive measures in preparation for the upcoming fire season. When the fire season began, fire 

managers used the latest decision support tools, emerging technology, and localized knowledge 

to make decisions and measure the probability of success of those decisions to reduce risk while 

more effectively managing cost. The pre-season engagements led by the NIMO teams served as 

the basis for interagency risk informed decisions as the fires began to sweep across the west. 

Serving in a broad capacity from Agency Administrators to Incident Commanders supporting 

fire operations at the National and Regional level, NIMO teams staffed several complex 

incidents, and supported units struck by the tragic loss of firefighters. The Forest Service will 

continue these efforts in FY 2017.

The Forest Service places top priority on sound financial management and accountability in 

wildfire management programs. We are instituting a new fire review process where we look at 

 33 Further analysis has shown that the figure shown in the FY 2016 Budget Justification for the FY 2014 SCI, 27%, was 

incorrect.
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significant fires as they are burning – and evaluate them after the fire season. This process helps

us learn the impacts of our risk based decisions, dig deeper into what happened on these

significant incidents; and ensure we continue to learn as we face increasingly difficult fire 

seasons.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Suppression program provides the primary source of funding for wildfire response 

operations. The Forest Service is known for its excellence in emergency response and works in 

coordination with other Federal agencies, state, Tribal and local government partners to protect 

life and property against wildfire and other natural disasters. This program also protects the 

health of our forests and watersheds from the impacts of fires so that forests maintain their 

capacity to sequester and store carbon, mitigate climate change, and deliver benefits such as 

clean water, wildlife and fish habitat, and recreation opportunities. The Suppression program 

helps to restore and maintain resilient landscapes through management of naturally ignited, 

unplanned wildfires on NFS lands and to accomplish resource management, ecological 

restoration, and fuels reduction goals where appropriate.

This program provides resources to efficiently respond to wildland fires on or threatening NFS 

lands and other Federal and non-Federal lands under fire protection agreements through a risk 

management decision-making framework in the context of the Cohesive Strategy. The program 

funds firefighter salaries and equipment in direct support of wildfire incidents, aviation asset 

operations, incident support functions, and wildfire management administration.

We also provide suppression resources to Department of the Interior incidents on a reciprocal 

non-reimbursement basis. In addition, the Suppression program funds personnel and resources 

for the following activities:

Attainment of Resource Benefits - Management of naturally ignited, unplanned wildland 

fires on NFS lands to accomplish resource management, ecological restoration, and fuels 

reduction goals consistent with the revised guidance for the implementation of the Federal 

wildland fire policy and land management plan direction.

Burned Area Emergency Response - Post-fire actions on NFS lands to prevent or minimize 

unacceptable erosion and loss of soil productivity, deterioration of water quality and 

downstream damage, changes to ecosystem function, establishment of non-native invasive 

species, and degradation of cultural and natural resources.

Severity - Increasing readiness and response capability when predicted or actual burning 

conditions are extraordinary or are deemed imminent. This capability is also used during 

early or extended fire seasons.

Non-Fire Incident Response - Supports the Department of Homeland Security and the 

Federal Emergency Management Agency through Forest Service participation in the National 

Response Framework and other activities authorized by the Stafford Act (42 U.S.C. 5121, as 

amended).
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The quality of decision-making on a fire incident determines outcomes of safety, cost, 

relationships, and environmental effects. All fires are managed in accordance with risk 

management protocols that emphasize firefighter and public safety and determine the most 

effective response to protect values at risk and manage NFS lands. The Forest Service utilizes 

the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) in managing wildfires. This system is 

structured to provide access to a suite of data and decision support tools and to document firemanagement decisions and long-term operational plans when needed. Managers use WFDSS to 

assess management options with regard to risk and tactical implementation strategies on wildland 

fires.

Allocation and Integration

The Forest Service allocates funds from the Suppression account only for active incident 

response. Wildland fire management is extremely complex and each fire is unique. Each 

incident is immediately evaluated and an incident risk analysis is completed. Costs for managing 

the fires will depend on the complexity and duration of the incident.

Partnerships

The Suppression program is a key component of implementing the Cohesive Strategy. The 

Cohesive Strategy, developed in FY 2010 - with the final phase completed in April of 2014 - is a 

national collaborative effort among wildland fire organizations, land managers, and policymaking officials representing Federal, state and local governments, Tribal interests, and 

nongovernmental organizations that builds on the successes of the National Fire Plan and other 

foundational documents.

The Cohesive Strategy is broad and national in scope meant to address wildland fire issues 

across the Nation. Together with partners, the Forest Service identified three key areas that 

present the greatest challenges and the greatest opportunities for making a positive difference in 

addressing our national wildfire issues:

• restoring and maintaining fire resilient landscapes,

• creating fire-adapted communities, and

• effectively responding to wildfire.

The wildland firefighting community is an interagency, inter-jurisdictional partnership because 

wildland fire crosses all boundaries. The Forest Service maintains strong partnerships with other 

Federal agencies, States, local government entities, and contractors. Mutual-aid response 

agreements are often at the State level, but may be created at the local level. The Forest Service 

encourages our wildland firefighters to cross train with State and local forces to be familiar with 

their communications, equipment, and capabilities if and when a complex multi-party response 

incident occurs. These local partnerships are essential to ensure protection of life, property, and 

resources through appropriate, risk informed, and effective operations.
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Hazardous Fuels

Budget Line Item Hazardous Fuels

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Hazardous Fuels

Annual Appropriations $361,749 $375,000 $384,126 $9,126 2%

Hazardous Fuels Total 361,749 375,000 384,126 9,126 2%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 1,818 1,818 1,820 2 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 1,818 1,818 1,820 2 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Hazardous Fuels

NFS acres of fuels mitigated in the WUI 0 0 0 0 0 1,000,000

Acres of Fuels Mitigated on NFS Lands 0 0 0 0 0 1,300,000

Percent of treated acres identified in Community 

Wildfire Protection Plans or equivalent plans. 85.4% 77.3% 90.0% 83.3% 80.0% 80.0%

Acres of wildland-urban interface (WUI) high-priority 

hazardous fuels treated 1,736,927 1,725,077 1,725,000 1,577,188 1,800,000 1,800,000

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $384,126,000 for Hazardous Fuels, an increase of 

$9,126,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funding of this program is a critical part of the 

Forest Service’s toolbox to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, improve water quantity and

quality, and increase carbon sequestration.

With this increase, the Forest Service will treat 1,800,000 acres of the highest priority areas in 

the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Fuels treatment cost per acre can be up to four times more 

expensive in the WUI than in non-WUI areas, because most work is done mechanically or by 

hand crews. In FY 2017, the Forest Service will also continue its partnership with the USDA 

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) by selecting additional projects under the Joint 

Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership to mitigate fire risk on Federal and non-Federal land. 

The Forest Service will also continue to focus on the most strategic acres for treatment, which 

are often the most expensive because they require mechanical treatment or a combination of 

mechanical treatment and prescribed fire. 

In FY 2017, the Forest Service will continue to improve program management effectiveness. 

We will invest in improved national and regional risk assessment and decision support tools and 

will replace the Hazardous Fuels Priority Allocation System with an updated risk based approach 

that identifies areas where the probability of fires is high, expected fire severity is high, and 
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important values such as homes, communities or water infrastructure are vulnerable in order to 

more effectively invest resources where there is the greatest expected return on investment. The 

program investment will also allow us to strengthen partnerships with State forestry agencies and 

local communities to conduct fuels treatments on adjacent non-Federal lands and prioritize 

treatments on Federal lands identified in Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs).

In FY 2017, the Forest Service is improving our performance measures to better reflect desired 

outcomes. The current acres treated measure reflects work completed, but not a change in 

landscape conditions. The Forest Service wants to better capture not only where the Forest 

Service is treating acres, but where are increasing resilience and reducing risk. More meaningful 

reporting will help us focus on the where the most important work is needed to accomplish these 

goals. The measures the Forest Service has developed will track where fuels treatments have 

been completed and also that the implementing unit has certified that the fuels are in the desired 

conditions. These measures – Acres of Fuels Mitigated on NFS Lands and NFS acres of fuels 

mitigated in the WUI – will be the primary measures we use for setting targets and ensuring 

accountability in treating hazardous fuels to increase landscape resiliency and reduce fire risk. 

The Forest Service is transitioning to these measures in FY 2016 and expect them to be fully 

implemented in FY 2017. For continuity and tracking overall activity, we will continue to track 

all of the acres treated, but in the future will not use those measures to target our work. These 

new measures will report lower levels of accomplishments, but the work effort will remain 

similar. However, the Forest Service will be better capturing the true outcome on the ground. 

Projects completed using Hazardous Fuels funds will support the goals of the National Cohesive 

Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy) by focusing on:

• strategically protecting communities (and associated lives, property, and public 

infrastructure) which are at the highest risk from damaging wildfire;

• providing a safer environment for wildland fire management operations; and

• supporting communities that are working to achieve Firewise standards, have identified 

acres to be treated in CWPPs or equivalent plans, and have made an investment in 

implementing local solutions to protect against wildland fire. 

This request includes $38,000,000 to fund nationally competitive projects that reduce the risk to 

communities and firefighters and increase the resilience of the forests. These funds will be 

targeted to areas of high risk near communities that are actively working on reducing their local 

fire risk.

In FY 2017, this program will continue to support the USDA Wood to Energy Initiative and 

other efforts to stimulate the use of woody biomass – spending up to $15,000,000 in Hazardous 

Fuels funds to do so. Under the Wood Innovations Grant Program, the Forest Service will 

provide technical and financial assistance to projects so their proponents can leverage external 

funding, secure financing, and successfully compete for Rural Development’s loans and grants. 

Funding will also support other facets of the Wood to Energy Initiative, including technical and 

financial assistance to facilitate conversion to wood energy in communities, air quality 
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improvement through development of better combustion technology, and expanding the use of 

wood into new markets. Please refer to the Special Exhibit on Biomass and Bioenergy for 

further details.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the Hazardous Fuels program treated more than 2.3 million acres on National Forest 

System lands and adjacent lands both inside and outside the WUI. We targeted the highest 

priority areas for treatment, focusing on those areas where there are highly valued resources such 

as communities, where fire potential is high, and where risk can be most effectively mitigated. 

Assessments of fuel treatment effectiveness show that 88 percent of treatments were effective in 

changing fire behavior and/or helping to control wildfire in FY 2015. The Hazardous Fuels 

program helps to protect communities, lives, property, and public infrastructure, and important 

assets that are at the highest risk for damage from wildfire. The program strives to provide an 

environment where wildland fire can be managed more safely and effectively, and to create 

healthy landscapes that help maintain our Nation’s natural resource wealth and provide places 

for the public to visit. 

Of the total acreage treated for hazardous fuels in 2015, the Forest Service field-verified that 

more than 436,000 acres burned by naturally ignited wildfires moved ecosystems toward specific 

desired conditions for forests and grasslands based on land management objectives identified in 

Land and Resource Management Plans or other planning documents. We used tools such as 

satellite imagery and burn severity mapping, as well as site-specific data to assess the effects of 

each fire. Naturally-ignited fires that benefit ecosystems continue to be an important part of the 

total Hazardous Fuels program, and the acres treated each year vary with fire season activity. 

We reported these acres as part of the total Hazardous Fuels program accomplishment in FY 

2015, as we have done in previous years. However, in future years these acres will be reported 

as part of two of our new Forest Service Strategic Plan measures - the percent of naturally 

ignited wildfire acres with resource benefits measure as well as the risk index, rather than as part 

of the fuels accomplishment measures. 

In FY 2015, the Forest Service focused on evaluating the risk to communities and monitoring the 

effectiveness of fuels treatments to ensure we addressed the highest priority acres where risk 

could be reduced the most. The Hazardous Fuels program began developing and testing new 

performance measures designed to assess outcome-based results. Four new performance 

measures are being piloted and tested in 2016, and we expect them to be fully operational in FY

2017. Two of these measures will be focused on accounting for acres of fuels treated, both within 

the WUI and outside of the WUI, where the result is that acres are in the desired condition as it 

relates to fuel risk (Acres Mitigated-WUI and Acres Mitigated-All). It often takes multiple fuels 

treatments on the same acre – usually with different methods (mechanical fuels removal and then 

controlled burning, for example) to bring a landscape back into the desired condition reducing 

risk so wildfire can play a more natural role. While all of these intermediate treatments are 

important, we will continue to track them for continuity purposes, and we believe these new 

measures are a better reflection of where we have achieved desired fuel mitigation outcomes on 

the landscape. 
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We will also begin reporting a new performance measure to assess the extent we are using 

wildfire to produce beneficial outcomes – both ecologically and in terms of risk mitigation. This 

measure: Percent of naturally ignited wildfire acres with resource benefits reflects both the 

condition of our landscapes, as resilient landscapes should result in more beneficial fire effects, 

and also our proactive efforts to use wildfire as a management tool. The measure is an indicator 

of how well agency leadership applies wildfire management and fire ecology principles to 

achieve desired conditions and leverage advantageous circumstances. 

Lastly, we will pilot a new measure, Wildfire Risk Index, an index of relative ‘Fire Risk’ based 

on the likelihood of a large fire negatively impacting highly valued resources. We will establish a 

national baseline of the index in 2016. Annually, we will re-calculate the index and determine if 

overall national risk is reduced. Changes that could affect the index include fuel treatments, 

wildfire, forest management, vegetation growth, increased wildland urban interface, insects and 

disease, and increased fire-adapted communities. This measure is a way to examine the extent to 

which our local efforts impact the larger national picture by addressing mitigating fuels in places 

where risk is high and where risk can be effectively reduced.

In FY 2015, we also expanded partnerships with our Federal, state and private partners to reach 

across boundaries and address risk on a landscape scale. For example, the Forest Service and 

NRCS continued the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership. In FY 2015, 15 new 

partnership efforts, along with the 13 projects that were begun in 2014, collaboratively 

implemented mitigation activities on federal and non-Federal land to reduce wildfire threats to 

communities and landowners, protect water quality and supply for communities and industry, 

and improve habitat quality for at-risk or ecosystem surrogate species. For example, in 

Arkansas, across the Ouachita and Ozark-St. Francis National Forests, in FY 2015 this program 

resulted in 5,919 acres of hazardous fuels reduction; 36,735 acres of terrestrial habitat 

restoration; 24,000 acres treated for invasive species with a goal of improving habitat quality for 

at-risk species; and 6,171 ccf of timber volume sold. Through program investments in FY 2015 

for the Joint Chiefs’ effort, over 59,000 acres of National Forest System lands were treated for 

hazardous fuels reduction, 30,000 acres were treated for invasive species, 102 stream miles of 

aquatic habitat were improved, 100,820 acres of terrestrial habitat were restored or enhanced, 

and 40,051 ccf of timber volume were sold. 

Because hazardous fuel funding was increased in 2015, we were also able to fund 75 additional 

projects that were selected in locations where risk of wildfire was high, communities were 

actively engaged, and in some cases, merchantable volume could also be produced. These 

projects are focused on reducing fire risk to communities, although most projects are integrated 

in nature and also result in wildlife, water, and economic stability benefits. For example, on the 

Klamath National Forest, partnerships with the Karuk tribe, Fire Safe Councils, the Mid-Klamath 

Watershed Council, Salmon River Restoration Council and NRCS have resulted in numerous 

implementation-ready projects and treatments on some high priority Federal and private lands, 

including fuel breaks, thinning, broadcast burning, and improved fire response infrastructure 

such as water tanks and ingress/egress routes. Implementation of these kinds of innovative 

projects was accelerated through this funding mechanism.

We also worked closely with communities to identify their priority areas for treating hazardous 

fuels. Over 80 percent of the acres that we treated in the WUI were identified in areas covered 
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by a CWPP or an equivalent plan. The Forest Service continues to focus on targeting fuels 

treatments in those communities that are working to prepare for wildland fire, including by 

having a CWPP in place. We also work in cooperation with communities at risk to provide 

assistance and expertise in preparing such plans.

Wood Innovations – Wood Energy and Wood Products

In FY 2015, State and Private Forestry awarded almost $9 million in Wood Innovation grants to 

stimulate widespread use of forest byproducts for renewable energy, wood products, and 

innovative wood building materials to support management of National Forest System lands and 

elevated hazardous fuels conditions. These federal funds leveraged $22 million in partner 

investments resulting in a total investment of $31 million. 

We also implemented a new model to more efficiently identify and promote wood utilization 

opportunities across the country by establishing 20 Statewide Wood Energy Teams and five 

Statewide Wood Utilization Teams. Beyond leveraging significant matching funds and 

implementing successful projects, this model is proving to be very successful in substantially 

increasing the number and diversity of organizations across all public and private sectors that are 

collaborating to promote these critical markets. For example, over the last two years since the 

California Forest Biomass Working group established a Statewide Wood Energy Team, meeting 

participation in the working group has increased by 70 percent. The working group has members 

from government agencies, businesses, non-profits, Tribes, and other organizations that help 

promote wood utilization opportunities. 

Another innovative Forest Service initiative has been actively supporting the introduction of 

cross laminated timber (CLT) into the domestic marketplace. The Forest Service has assisted 

companies to assess the feasibility of producing CLT; supported architects, engineers, and 

developers to learn how to use CLT and helped launch a successful national Tall Wood Building 

Contest. In September 2015 two winners of that contest we announced: one will be a 10-story 

condominium in New York City and the other will be a 12-story mixed use building in Portland, 

Oregon. All of these actions are contributing to a potentially dramatic penetration of CLT as a 

building material into the domestic commercial building market. 

Our continued focus on wood energy and wood products will result in secure, sustainable, 

renewable energy sources; strong rural economies; and more acres of hazardous fuels treated 

with less air pollution. Since 2005, this program has awarded over $54 million to over 200 grant 

recipients across the country, including small businesses, non-profits, Tribes, and state agencies. 

Program Description 

Program Overview

The Hazardous Fuels program restores forest health and resilience, and reduces wildfire risks. 

Our Nation’s ability to protect its forest and grassland resources is now at risk due to drought, the 

impacts of climate change, increasingly severe wildfires, and uncharacteristically large outbreaks 

of insects and disease. Such stresses and disturbances are impacting forests, grasslands, and 

watersheds on an unprecedented scale, causing millions of dollars in damage and limiting the 

ability to obtain economically viable products from our forests. By making strategic investments 
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in fuels treatments we reduce severe effects of wildfire in areas of high risk. Reducing long-term

risk requires setting priorities, acceptance of short-term risk, and greater collective investment. 

Healthy, resilient landscapes have greater capacity to adapt to and withstand natural disturbances 

and large scale threats to sustainability, especially under changing and uncertain future 

environmental conditions such as those created by climate change. Hazardous fuels are treated 

using a wide range of tools with the goals of reducing the spread, intensity, and severity of 

wildfire in order to protect values at risk; restoring and maintaining the resilience of natural 

systems by reducing high fuel loads so that when wildfires do occur their ecological impacts are 

positive or neutral; and providing strategic opportunities to increase our capability to manage 

wildfire for resource benefits. In a changing climate, the managed reduction of hazardous fuels 

is critical to our ability to protect the American public, provide for firefighter safety, and 

conserve our nation’s natural resources.

Many ecosystems are “fire-adapted” and need periodic fire disturbance to be healthy and 

resilient. The Hazardous Fuels program works to re-introduce fire onto the landscape, to help 

restore fire’s natural ecological role, and to increase opportunities for natural ignitions to achieve 

resource benefits.

The Hazardous Fuels program helps protect communities (and associated lives, property, and 

public infrastructure) and important assets at the highest risk from damaging wildfire, provide an 

environment where wildland fire can be managed more safely and effectively; and create healthy 

landscapes providing many social, ecological and economic benefits to the American public. 

The Hazardous Fuels program reduces the quantity of living and dead vegetation in forests, 

woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands through prescribed burning, mechanical treatments, and 

other methods to protect communities (and associated lives, property, and public infrastructure) 

and important assets. The program protects those communities at the highest risk from 

damaging wildfire; provides an environment where wildland fire can be managed more safely 

and effectively; and creates healthy landscapes that help maintain our Nation’s wealth and 

provide places for the American public to visit and enjoy nature.

Hazardous fuels are treated using a wide range of tools with the goals of:

• reducing the spread, intensity, and severity of wildfire in order to protect lives and values 

at risk;

• restoring and maintaining the resilience of natural systems by reducing high fuel loads so 

that when wildfires do occur their ecological impacts are positive or neutral;

• providing strategic opportunities to increase our capability to manage wildfire for 

resource benefits; and

• increasing options for safe and efficient wildfire management tactics that reduce the 

spread and impact of damaging wildfire.
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While hazardous fuels projects can emit greenhouse gases, they also mitigate potentially greater 

quantities of emissions from uncharacteristic wildfire. Whether through prescribed fire or 

mechanical treatments, hazardous fuels management requires skilled workers, and this serves as 

an important source of jobs, especially in rural communities.

Fuels treatment effectiveness assessments are completed for every wildfire that starts in or 

intersects with a fuels treatment area in a way that measures success and evaluates the program. 

These assessments increase the understanding of the effects of hazardous fuels treatments on fire 

behavior, fire severity, and fire suppression effectiveness and help direct program improvements 

that increase success. These assessments have also shown that fuel treatments sufficiently 

modify fire behavior to prevent loss of private property and provides a safer working 

environment for fire management personnel. The agency is improving data availability by 

incorporating spatial data for fuel treatments into the Wildland Fire Management Decision 

Support System to help support wildfire incidents and inform risk management decisions. 

The Hazardous Fuels program is a key component of implementing the Cohesive Strategy and 

will contribute providing successful outcomes in restoring and maintaining resilient landscapes, 

creating fire adapted communities, and responding to wildfires by funding projects that restore 

forest landscape health and reduce wildfire risks to communities. Hazardous fuels reduction is 

often the most effective way to protect community values, restore forest and grassland health, 

improve firefighter and public safety, and potentially reduce large fire suppression costs. 

Hazardous fuels treatments that provide strategic locations for suppression activities can increase 

our ability to manage wildfires within those boundaries to achieve ecological and risk reduction 

benefits.

Wood Energy

The Hazardous Fuels program currently funds biomass grants through the Wood Innovations 

grant program, formerly known as the “Woody Biomass Utilization Grant” program. Since 

FY 2005, the Hazardous Fuels program has provided funding to help build capacity for biomass 

utilization in support of fuels reduction and landscape restoration. These funds are implemented 

in coordination with USDA Rural Development programs resulting in greater overall 

investments beyond the Forest Service budget. Using biomass residues from hazardous fuels 

treatments for renewable energy, instead of burning it in open piles, improves rural economic 

vitality, increases national energy security, reduces energy costs, and improves air quality. 

Expanding markets and demand for wood products, such as wood construction materials, can 

increase the market value for traditionally low-value wood, and in turn can offset hazardous fuels 

treatment costs. 

Collaborative Forest Restoration Program

The Hazardous Fuels program will provide approximately $3 million to fund the Collaborative 

Forest Restoration Program in New Mexico in FY 2017. The Collaborative Forest Restoration 

Program provides grants to diverse stakeholder groups for projects that develop, demonstrate, 

and evaluate ecologically sound forest restoration techniques and small diameter utilization 

projects on Federal, Tribal, state, county, and municipal lands. Projects promote healthy 

watersheds, reduce the threat of high intensity wildfires, and improve the function of forest 
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ecosystems. A Federal Advisory Committee evaluates grant proposals and provides funding 

recommendations to the Forest Service.

The Hazardous Fuels program supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests 

and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, 

while enhancing our water resources. The Hazardous Fuels program also supports three Forest 

Service strategic goals: sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands by fostering resilient, 

adaptive ecosystems to mitigate climate change; and mitigating wildfire risk, as well as 

delivering benefits to the public by providing abundant clean water benefits.

Allocation and Integration

The Forest Service is developing a national risk assessment to inform our allocations to the field. 

This quantitative risk assessment calculates and maps the probability of wildfire and the 

expected intensity of wildfire should it occur. It then examines the expected impact of wildfire 

on important values at risk, especially residential developments, municipal water supplies, 

infrastructure, and ecological values. Priority is given to treating fuels where risk is high, where 

expected fire intensity is high, and where values are at risk. The Forest Service will prioritize 

investments in hazardous fuels treatment in high risk areas with CWPPs or equivalent plans and 

where communities have made an investment in mitigating risk.

Partnerships

In addition to the integrated efforts within the Forest Service, we use our authorities and the 

Hazardous Fuels program to work with outside partners to address wildland fire threats on other 

Federal, State, and private lands to:

• conduct fuel treatments on adjacent non-Federal lands,

• partner with local communities in the development of CWPPs,

• coordinate fuels treatment programs with NRCS and the Department of the Interior 

agencies, and

• conduct treatments on National Forest System lands in cooperation with 

nongovernmental organizations.

Expanded partnerships and collaborative efforts increase treatment efficiencies and allow the 

agency to reduce costs, treat additional areas, and reduce the risk to communities. For example, 

national application of the Good Neighbor Authority will allow States to conduct hazardous fuels 

treatments on National Forest System land when performing similar activities on adjacent state 

or private land.

Under the USDA Wood to Energy Initiative, USDA Rural Development, State agencies (e.g., 

Forestry, Energy, Economic Development), nongovernmental organizations, and the private 

sector have created partnerships through cooperative agreements funded by the Forest Service to 

expand wood energy opportunities in participating States. In 2013, USDA entered into a 
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Memorandum of Understanding with the Biomass Power Association, the Biomass Thermal 

Energy Council, the Pellet Fuels Institute, and the Alliance for Green Heat to expand wood 

energy use in the United States.

The budget also funds institutes established in the Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire 

Prevention Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-317) to enhance our capacity to execute practical sciencebased forest restoration treatments that will reduce the risk of severe wildfires and improve the 

health of dry forest and woodland ecosystems in the Interior West.
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Research and Development

Budget Line Item Research and Development

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Research and Development

Annual Appropriations $19,795 $19,795 $19,795 0 0%

Research and Development Total 19,795 19,795 19,795 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 105 105 105 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 105 105 105 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Research and Development

Customer satisfaction index score for R&D 79 79 79 76 79 76

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes

$19,795,000 for the National Fire Plan Research 

and Development (R&D) program, the same as 

the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The proposed 

budget will support fire research informing

management actions to reduce the negative 

impacts of wildland fire. Investments will 

continue to focus on partnerships leveraging

Forest Service funding.

Past Performance

Scientists evaluated surface wildland fuels and 

vegetation composition and structure before and 

after mechanical and fire-only treatments over 

eight years across 11 national forests in 

California. Eight years after treatment, total 

surface fuel loads returned to 67 to 79 percent 

and 55 to 103 percent of pretreatment levels 

following fire-only and mechanical treatments 

respectively.

Smoke Affects Communities

Forest Service scientists conducted research to gain a better 

understanding of meteorological conditions near Bend, OR 

as part of an effort to increase the pace and scale of forest 

restoration burning while protecting air quality in the 

nearby communities. To better understand when and how 

these smoke intrusions occur, scientists deployed a range 

of monitoring equipment around the region to measure 

atmospheric conditions. Scientists used a high-resolution 

smoke model to measure the likelihood of smoke transport 

into populated areas. They are now refining the approach 

to reduce the uncertainty in predictions. This will allow for 

a higher level of confidence when predicting whether 

smoke from a prescribed burn is transported into 

commuities.
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In general, mechanical treatments were found to be more effective. However, results suggest 

combining mechanical treatments with prescribed fire would be beneficial to maintaining 

landscape resilience. This information may be used by land managers and practitioners when 

preparing planning documents for the National Environmental Policy Act process.

Researchers analyzed how different constraints on forest thinning influence opportunities to 

reduce wildfire risks across the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. The findings 

demonstrated mechanical treatments are particularly constrained on the three of the National 

Forests (NFs) (Modoc NF, Lassen NF, and Plumas NF) that are first in line to revise their 

management plans, so judicious use of fire will be critical for restoring those landscapes. The 

researchers developed an application that can be used to identify areas that require mechanical 

treatment prior to using prescribed fire as well as areas that may be restored using prescribed fire 

only. Managers can use the tool to identify strategic areas where mechanical treatments could 

facilitate reintroduction of beneficial fire.

Wildland fire management faces unprecedented challenges in the 21st century caused by the 

effects of climate change, more people and structures in the wildland-urban interface, growing 

costs of wildfire management, and more high-impact fires. Given these growing challenges, 

conventional fire management approaches are unlikely to be effective in the future. Forwardlooking approaches are needed.

Forest Service researchers convened a working group of seven leading futurists and two wildfire 

professionals to develop specific recommendations that can be summarized around five general 

themes: (1) the level of uncertainty about external developments and future conditions that will 

set the context for wildland fire management is significantly greater than is currently recognized; 

(2) traditional fire prevention and suppression approaches will prove unsustainable; (3) 

recommendations for a new fire resilience approach as an alternative to traditional approaches; 

(4) all of the major strategies needed to implement this approach are already familiar to wildfire 

managers; and (5) there are strong short-term barriers to adopting the fire resilience approach, 

but panelists believe its adoption is nearly inevitable between now and mid-century.

Program Description

Program Overview

The program conducts research to support management of fire-affected landscapes to sustain 

forest health, reduce the risk of damaging wildland fires in the context of changing social and 

physical environments, and ensure public and firefighter safety. It supports vital wildland fire 

management and research activities for the benefit of land managers, policy makers, and the 

citizens of the United States. This research provides the foundation for the development and 

delivery of information, products, and tools to respond to fires safely and effectively, help 

communities and homeowners mitigate fire risk, restore resilient landscapes, and support 

integrated, risk-based management.

The National Fire Plan R&D program is managed under a strategic plan outlining five areas: (1) 

core fire science, (2) ecological and environmental fire science, (3) social fire science, (4) 

integrated fire and fuels management research, and (5) science application. The goal of National 
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Fire Plan R&D program is to provide knowledge and tools that managers can use to reduce the 

negative impacts and to enhance the beneficial effects of fire and fire management for society 

and the environment. These investments help fire managers, policy makers, and citizens to make 

scientifically sound wildfire and fuels management decisions; wisely invest fuel and fire 

expenditures to minimize the negative social, economic, and ecological impacts of fire; avoid 

environmental damage when dealing with fuel and fire risk problems; and develop effective 

community programs to speed the adoption of fire-safe construction and landscaping practices.

Overall, the National Fire Plan R&D program has implications for many highly important issues 

related to forested landscapes, including protection of timber and other natural resources; 

maintenance of recreation opportunities; protection of communities, people, and wildlife in the 

wildland-urban interface; creation of resilient landscapes; and climate change mitigation and 

adaptation. The results of this research help guide suppression efforts, demonstrate and account

for the effectiveness of hazardous fuels treatments, inform the allocation of funding for fuels 

management and restoration, and identify opportunities to utilize biomass from thinning 

treatments.

Allocation and Integration

Wildland Fire Strategic Program Area and Portfolio teams made up of Washington Office staff 

and research station representatives evaluate and recommend allocations of National Fire Plan 

R&D funds annually. The teams enhance integration and collaboration across stations on 

research focused in four major areas, including firefighting, rehabilitation and restoration, 

hazardous fuels reduction, and community assistance.

Partnerships

Partnerships with users and other research organizations are a fundamental component of Forest 

Service fire research. These partnerships include Federal agencies, a number of national forests, 

90 U.S. colleges and universities, 30 nongovernmental organizations, more than 50 State and 

local governments, industry partners, and international organizations.
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Joint Fire Science Program

Budget Line Item Joint Fire Science Program

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Joint Fire Science Program

Annual Appropriations $6,914 $6,914 0 -$6,914 -100%

Joint Fire Science Program Total 6,914 6,914 0 -6,914 -100%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 2 2 0 -2 -100%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 2 2 0 -2 -100%

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes zero Wildland Fire Management funding for the Joint 

Fire Science Program (JFSP), a decrease of $6,914,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

However, $3,000,000 of Forest and Rangeland Research Inventory and Monitoring funds will be 

used to support fire science research authorized by the Joint Fire Science Program, resulting in 

an effective decrease of $3,914,000 when the transfer is taken into account.

The funding supports JFSP collaboration with the Department of the Interior. The program 

utilizes grants, contracts and cooperative agreements to develop science and technology products 

for the fire community. The tools developed help to track the effects of vegetation management 

for hazardous fuels reduction; to support resilient landscapes and communities; and for related 

work to mitigate wildfire impact on water quality, atmospheric emissions, and other natural 

resources and ecosystem services.

Past Performance

Past fire exclusion practices have contributed to the development of landscapes that are highly 

susceptible to uncharacteristically severe wildfire. An urgent challenge for land managers today 

is to reduce fire risk through various strategies, including prescribed burning, without harm to 

ecological diversity, valued resources or people. 

The JFSP supported the development of methods and tools aimed at incorporating the traditional 

ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples into standard science-based fire management. 

JFSP-supported researchers are also developing tools that provide a framework for organizing 

and sharing tribal knowledge with nontribal scientists and managers. 

Indigenous knowledge and western science come from such different cultural traditions that 

blending them is not straightforward. Current partnerships among Tribal leaders, agency Tribal 

land managers, and other stakeholders promise to move landscapes closer to a resilient condition.

Fire managers do not have easy access to the information needed to assess and communicate the 

confidence levels associated with fire weather forecasts and thus the fire behavior predictions 
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that depend on them. JFSP supported researchers produced a set of intuitive, easily 

understandable model performance assessments that provide users with real-time information 

about meteorological model uncertainty and overall performance of predictions of fire weather 

variables used in predictions of fire risk. 

The system is web-based and includes: (1) color contour displays of sustained ignition 

probability at 1-km resolution for the western United States; (2) color contour displays of key 

meteorological parameter forecasts; and (3) information about confidence in the meteorological 

forecasts, time-series plots, and statistics that provide model-to-model and model-to-observation 

comparisons. These products aid decision makers in enhancing the safety of firefighters and the 

public, positioning resources, making go/no-go decisions on prescribed burns, determining when 

managed wildfire might be used to meet resource management needs, and determining the local 

certainty of fire weather forecasts.

Program Description

Program Overview

The JFSP is an interagency fire research and development partnership between the Department 

of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture. The JFSP contributes to sound decisionmaking and project implementation through credible research tailored to the needs of fire and 

vegetation managers, communities, and wildfire responders. Research projects complement 

other Federal research programs, such as those carried out by the Forest Service, National 

Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Department of Defense. Synthesis of research 

findings and targeted delivery to managers are essential components of the program. 

The JFSP supports research, tool development, and science application related to specific 

emphasis areas defined by Congress. These areas include: (1) fuel inventory and mapping; (2) 

fuel treatment scheduling and risk assessment; (3) fire effects and fire behavior; monitoring and 

evaluation; (4) restoration of fire-adapted ecosystems; (5) post-fire stabilization, rehabilitation, 

and restoration; (6) remote sensing; and (7) developing and integrating research information for 

local land managers. Land managers use results from JFSP projects to plan and implement fuels 

treatments, support fire management decisions, restore lands affected by fire, and meet 

regulatory requirements. More information can be found at http://www.firescience.gov.

Allocation and Integration

Funding priorities and policies are set by the JFSP governing board with representatives from the 

Department of the Interior and the Forest Service. Proposals are accepted for topics determined 

annually by the governing board. Allocations are determined by the board following a 

competitive peer review of submitted proposals. The reviews are conducted by land managers, 

technical specialists, and scientists, resulting in approximately 20 percent of proposals funded.

Partnerships

The JFSP is a partnership-based program. The governing board has representatives from the 

Forest Service and five Department of the Interior agencies. The program office is staffed with 

personnel from both the DOI and the Forest Service. The JFSP collaborates with other 
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governmental and nongovernmental entities including more than 90 colleges and universities. In 

all, the JFSP has engaged with nearly 200 organizations in its research.
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State Fire Assistance

Budget Line Item State Fire Assistance

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

State Fire Assistance

Annual Appropriations $78,000 $78,000 $78,000 0 0%

State Fire Assistance Total 78,000 78,000 78,000 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 49 49 49 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 49 49 49 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

State Fire Assistance

Communities assisted (number) 3,986 10,141 12,500 16,859 12,500 12,500

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $78,000,000 for the State Fire Assistance (SFA) 

program, level with the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

At this funding level, the program will continue to be a critical part of the Forest Service’s 

toolbox to reduce the risk of wildland fire to communities, residents, property, and firefighters. 

The efforts of State, local, and private landowners are key to reducing these risks and help to 

leverage the parallel efforts of Federal wildland fire agencies. SFA helps ensure these important 

partners have the capacity and tools they need to prepare for, respond to, and mitigate fire risk in 

the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) and other critical areas. 

The agency will focus on assisting communities to become fire adapted by conducting hazardous 

fuel mitigation projects, planning and preparing for wildland fire, creating defensible space in 

and around communities, and obtaining equipment to respond to and mitigate fire. States will 

report data on an annual basis to document accomplishments in these focus areas. Additionally, 

program reviews will be conducted on an annual, rotating basis among Forest Service regions to 

determine program effectiveness. 

To ensure funds are focused on the highest priority projects, the agency will continue to issue 

program direction encouraging states to focus program funds on areas and communities that are 

working to become fire adapted, as contemplated in the National Cohesive Wildland Fire 

Management Strategy. A portion of funding will continue to be allocated for competitive 

projects that help create more Fire Adapted Communities through the completion of community 
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wildfire protection plans (CWPPs) and hazardous fuel reduction projects. Competitive projects 

are selected through a rigorous application process managed by the State Foresters in 

consultation with the Forest Service. Proposed projects are screened by an expert panel and 

ranked prior to final project selections.

The SFA program supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our national forests and private 

working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while 

enhancing our water resources. The SFA program also supports the Forest Service strategic goal 

to sustain our nation’s forests and grasslands through the mitigation of wildfire risk.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the SFA program focused on mitigating the risk of wildland fire in communities, 

particularly those communities taking an active role in preparing and planning for wildland fire. 

In the West, 84 percent of the WUI is yet undeveloped; however, since 1990, 60 percent of new 

homes nationwide in the United States were built in the WUI.34 The Forest Service works

proactively with these communities to help them become more fire adapted and resilient in order 

to lessen the impacts of wildland fire. This proactive approach is integral to reducing 

suppression costs and to ultimately restoring wildlands to functionality and fire-resiliency. In FY 

2015 the SFA program provided $5.2 million of funding to support 2,998 risk assessments and 

fire management planning projects in 2,293 communities. 

Another key component of mitigating risk, especially in the rapidly-developing WUI, is 

prioritizing and treating hazardous fuels at the landscape scale. For example, research shows that 

the $300,000 spent on mitigation work prior to the Waldo Fire in Colorado helped to avoid over 

$77 million in losses from the fire.35 The SFA program provides Federal assistance in treating 

fuels on state and private lands, which make up most of the WUI. In FY 2015, SFA provided 

$15.9 million for hazardous fuels treatments in the WUI, directly paying for the treatment of 

148,020 acres of hazardous fuels and leveraging treatment of another 126,368 acres with in-kind 

partner support. These projects lowered risk in 1,534 communities. In addition, over 10,160

SFA prevention and education programs conducted in FY 2015 benefitted 8,440 communities. 

In FY 2015, SFA also focused on preparedness of state and local firefighting resources, to enable 

them to effectively address all hazard events, as well as respond to wildland fire situations, 

including those on Federal lands. Close to 65 million acres of WUI are adjacent to or near 

National Forest System lands and local firefighters are often the first on the scene of a wildland 

fire. In FY 2015, the SFA program supported over $15.9 million in preparedness activities and 

$12.4 million in suppression operations. In addition, SFA funded the training of 127,186

firefighters and invested nearly $6 million in the purchase, maintenance, and rehabilitation of 

needed firefighting equipment for state agencies. In total, SFA assisted 16,849 communities in 

FY 2015.

 34 Headwaters Economics. Reducing Wildfire Risks to Communities; Solutions for Controlling the Pace, Scale and Pattern of 

Future Development in the Wildland-Urban Interface. Fall 2014. http://headwaterseconomics.org/wphw/wpcontent/uploads/paper-reducing-wildfire-risk.pdf. 35 Quarles, Leschak, Cowger, Worley, Brown and Iskowitcz. Lessons Learned from Waldo Canyon: Fire Adapted Communities 

Mitigation Assessment Team Findings. 2013. 

http://www.fireadapted.org/~/media/Fire%20Adapted/Images/News%20Images/Waldo-Canyon-Rpt-FINAL-shrunk%203.pdf. 
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The Forest Service FY 2015 Fire-Adapted Communities program, a component of the Cohesive 

Strategy designed to reduce risks in WUI areas, also received significant support through SFA 

funding. Examples of these national level partnerships and agreements include: 

• support of the International Association of Fire Chief’s Ready, Set, Go! programs 

with1,500 fire departments in 48 States, www.wildlandfiresg.org; 

• support of The Nature Conservancy’s and the Watershed Center’s Fire Adapted 

Communities Learning Network with 17 hubs nationwide built upon multi-jurisdictional 

collaboration at the local level, http://facnetwork.org;

• support of The Nature Conservancy Fire Learning Network, a coalition of hundreds of 

partners in 30 landscapes across the country, covering more than 66 million acres. These 

partners work together in regional collaborative networks, and work locally to promote 

the resiliency and restoration of fire-adapted ecosystems across the country. 

• support of the National Fire Protection Association’s Firewise program with 1,028 

recognized Firewise Communities, www.Firewise.org ;

• the wildfire prevention campaign with the Ad Council;

• the fire adapted communities public awareness campaign with the Ad Council, 

http://fireadapted.adcouncil.org: 

• expanding partnerships with national, state, and local organizations and nongovernmental organizations that leverage funding and support for fire-adapted 

communities, including the Institute for Business and Home Safety and a growing 

number of insurance companies;

• development of the Wildland Fire Assessment Program training through the National 

Volunteer Fire Association to help volunteer fire departments in the WUI areas conduct 

needed assessments.

The partners involved in these efforts work through their own organizations and collectively to 

accelerate the adoption and utilization of the best practices for helping communities become 

more fire adapted. One example of the compounding power of partnerships is the new Fire 

Department Learning Exchange which developed in 2015. This is a partnership between the 

International Association of Fire Chiefs, Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network, and the 

Forest Service to mentor fire departments on best management practices for fire adaptation 

implementation on the ground. The first two fire departments involved in this exchange include 

Austin, Texas and Boise, Idaho and two initial exchange visits have taken place between the 

departments. 

There have been initial Fire Department Learning Exchange visits between the Boise Fire 

Department in Idaho and the Austin Fire Department in Texas. These exchanges have resulted in 

learning regarding prescribed fire and fuels reduction efforts, public outreach strategies, 

evacuation planning, wildland urban interface codes and regulations, and how to improve 

outreach and education initiatives. Specifically, the Boise Fire Department was inspired by the 

Austin Fire Department Wildfire Division approach and the Boise Fire Department is now to 

planning to use prescribed burning in targeted areas in the near future. In another example, 
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Austin Fire Department gained a better understanding of alternative fuels reduction practices

from the Boise Fire Department, including the utilization of grazing in ecologically sensitive 

areas where traditional approaches like mechanical fuels reduction or prescribed fire would not 

be feasible. Austin Fire Department is now hoping to move forward with a local initiative to 

replicate the program. The fire departments are meeting with other program leaders to refine the 

model to help other departments to gain from such learning exchanges. 

Funding to States through SFA fluctuates from year-to-year depending on the type and costs of 

the individual projects that the States choose to implement. For example, States with relatively 

expensive priority projects generally accomplish fewer projects and therefore assist fewer overall 

communities. States that spread the funds across a larger number of communities to accomplish 

less expensive priority projects assist a greater total number of communities. The Forest Service 

strongly encourages States to focus their efforts on the objectives of the Cohesive Strategy: the 

creation of fire adapted communities, landscape restoration, and wildfire response, while also

focusing funds on areas covered by CWPPs or equivalent plans.

Program Description

Program Overview

The SFA program provides financial assistance through partnership agreements with State 

Foresters for fire management activities. SFA funds are directed toward helping communities 

become fire adapted by conducting hazardous fuel mitigation projects, planning and preparing 

for wildland fire, creating defensible space in and around communities, and obtaining equipment 

to respond to and mitigate fire. This program maximizes cross-jurisdictional partnerships to help 

homeowners and communities in fire-prone areas take responsibility for fire protection. Helping 

communities become more fire adapted reduces the risk and cost of large wildfires. More than 

46 million homes in the United States, representing 40 percent of the nation’s housing units, are 

located in fire-prone WUI areas, and this number is expected to climb in coming years. The SFA 

program’s focus on the Fire Adapted Communities approach helps communities take more 

responsibility for their wildfire risk and implement appropriate actions to address safety of 

residents, homes, neighborhoods, businesses and infrastructure, forests, parks, open spaces, and 

other community assets. Creating more fire adapted communities reduces suppression and 

structural protection costs without compromising firefighter or civilian safety, enabling 

communities to safely accept fire as a part of the surrounding landscape. 

The SFA program funding helps Federal, state, and local agencies implement a pre-fire strategy 

and delivers a cohesive suppression response to wildfire. This program emphasizes pre-fire 

planning in the WUI and hazardous fuels mitigation near communities at risk of catastrophic 

wildfire in order to create communities more adapted to fire. Training funded by SFA, also part 

of the Fire Adapted Communities strategy, builds capacity to provide effective initial attack 

response to wildfire. The first responders on almost 75 percent of wildfires are local fire 

departments or state agencies. Additionally, the SFA program helps increase capacity to assist 

other Federal, State, and local agencies to provide aid to impacted communities affected by nonfire emergencies such as hurricanes and floods.
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Allocation and Integration

Working with the National Association of State Foresters, the Forest Service developed an 

allocation methodology that allocates SFA funding to the State Foresters to assist them in 

improving wildfire response, creating fire adapted communities, and restoring and maintaining 

landscapes. A base level of funding is provided to the State Foresters to maintain and enhance 

coordination and communication with Federal agencies, as well as supply needed performance 

data. Funding allocations take into consideration the number of wildland fires, amount of homes 

and area within the WUI, treatment cost per acre, and the amount of non-Federal land. The 

allocation methodology utilizes principles which include having the Cohesive Strategy and 

Forest Action Plans’ goals and priorities shape the selection of variables and data that are utilized 

in the methodology, using data that is easy to obtain and update, and keeping the methodology as 

simple and transparent as possible. The methodology does an excellent job of allocating funding 

to those areas of the nation where the largest need exists for mitigation and suppression efforts 

based on current wildfire data sources. State Foresters make determinations about how best to 

direct funding to target the highest priority needs in their State, as suggested in their State Forest 

Action Plans and through other strategic documents. A percentage of these funds are also used 

on a competitive basis for hazard mitigation projects. 

Partnerships

The SFA program is delivered through partnerships with States, local agencies, local 

communities, and other organizations such as Fire Safe Councils and funds are leveraged on at 

least a 1:1 basis. These groups can then participate actively in protecting their communities from 

wildland fire and ensuring adequate resources are available for wildland fire response.
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Volunteer Fire Assistance

Budget Line Item Volunteer Fire Assistance

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

Volunteer Fire Assistance

Annual Appropriations $13,000 $13,000 $13,000 0 0%

Volunteer Fire Assistance Total 13,000 13,000 13,000 0 0%

Annual Appropriations FTEs 0 0 0 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0 0%

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Target Actual Target Target

Volunteer Fire Assistance

Volunteer fire departments assisted (number) 4,172 11,018 8,500 9,318 8,500 8,500

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $13,000,000 for the Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA) 

program, level with the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funding of this program is a critical part of 

the Forest Service’s ability and capacity to reduce the risk of wildland fire to communities, 

residents, property, and firefighters. 

The program will provide matching financial assistance to 8,500 rural communities with less 

than 10,000 people per community to build and maintain fire suppression capacity by creating 

new, or strengthening existing, volunteer fire departments. The Forest Service will work with 

States to help ensure funds are focused on the highest priorities and in areas with communities 

that are working to become fire adapted. States will also continue to report how program funds 

were utilized by eligible volunteer fire departments on an annual basis. Additionally, program 

reviews will be conducted on an annual rotating basis among Forest Service regions to determine 

program effectiveness.

The VFA program supports the USDA Strategic Goal 2 to ensure our Nation’s forests and 

private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while 

enhancing our water resources. The VFA program also supports the Forest Service strategic goal 

of sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands through the mitigation of wildfire risk.

Past Performance 

Where little or no fire protection is available, the VFA program assists in organizing, training, 

and equipping communities to provide for their basic protection. There are over 26,000 rural and 
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predominantly volunteer fire departments nationwide. In recent years, fewer citizens are 

available or willing to serve in this volunteer capacity and small rural communities often lack the 

resources to properly equip and train these firefighters. Rural fire departments represent the first 

line of defense in addressing fires and other emergencies in rural areas and communities and they 

provide nearly 80 percent of initial attack on wildland fires in the United States – including fires 

on Federal lands. Without the cooperation of rural fire departments we would be unable to 

provide the level of fire response needed to keep fires near communities small. 

In FY 2015, our investments in VFA were targeted to areas of highest risk and greatest need by 

States to assist volunteer fire departments. VFA funds were utilized in 9,318 communities to

train 22,272 firefighters; expand or organize 20 fire departments; and purchase, rehabilitate and 

maintain $8.1 million in equipment. The number of volunteer fire departments assisted 

fluctuates annually depending on the types and cost of individual projects the States choose to 

implement. For example, if a State’s priority projects are relatively expensive then they 

accomplish fewer projects and assist fewer overall communities. However, if the State spreads 

the funds across a larger number of communities to accomplish priority projects that are less 

expensive, they are able to assist a greater number of communities. 

The Forest Service strongly encourages the States to focus their efforts on the objectives of the 

National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy: creation of fire-adapted communities, 

landscape restoration, and wildfire response. 

Program Description

Program Overview

Through the VFA program, the Forest Service provides technical and financial assistance 

(through the States) to local volunteer fire departments serving communities with a population of 

10,000 or less to protect state and private forestlands threatened by wildfire. The VFA program 

is delivered through the State Foresters and supports local fire preparedness and suppression 

efforts by providing grants for equipment, training programs, and technical assistance in 

organizing or expanding volunteer fire departments. More than 1.5 billion acres in the United 

States are privately owned or owned by state and local governments and basic fire protection on 

these lands is the responsibility of state and local entities. Loss of human lives, natural 

resources, crops, homes, facilities, and other rural businesses by fires can displace people, 

eliminate jobs, and further depress rural communities due to loss of community tax bases. The 

VFA Program helps to enhance stability of rural areas by reducing these losses. 

Volunteer fire departments that protect communities of less than 10,000 inhabitants from 

wildfire are eligible for this program, and the VFA program assists them in becoming better 

prepared to respond to wildfire. Local fire agencies are often the first to respond to wildfire, but 

lack the financial and technical resources to obtain the equipment and training necessary to 

ensure safe and effective wildfire response. Volunteer fire departments also play a key role in 

educating their constituents about fire adaption and the need for mitigation, along with meeting 

expanded fire protection needs within the wildland-urban interface in the context of the National 

Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy. Through this education and outreach, local 
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communities are better prepared to face the challenges of a changing climate, including longer 

and more severe fire seasons.

Grants are matched dollar-for-dollar by the recipients to maximize the value of Federal 

investment. Program funding helps Federal, state, and local agencies deliver a uniform and 

coordinated suppression response to wildfire by training, equipping, and organizing volunteer 

fire departments. Through this program, the Forest Service provides support that better enables 

local communities in rural areas to prepare for, mitigate, and respond to natural and humancaused fires prior to the fires spreading to lands managed by other jurisdictions. All of these 

initiatives work together to create more fire-adapted communities, an important Forest Service 

effort that will reduce the risk, cost, and impact of wildfires.

Allocation and Integration

Working with the National Association of State Foresters, the Forest Service developed an 

allocation methodology for allocating funds that takes into account the number of volunteer fire 

departments, state wildland fires, Forest Service wildland fires, and communities with a 

populations of less than or equal to 10,000.. The allocation methodology utilizes principles

which include having the Cohesive Strategy and Forest Action Plan’s goals and priorities shape 

the selection of variables and data that are utilized in the methodology, using data that is easy to 

obtain and update, and keeping the methodology as simple and transparent as possible. State 

Foresters determine which volunteer fire departments within their State should receive priority 

for VFA funding, utilizing their State Forest Action Plans and other strategic documents.

Partnerships

The VFA program directly supports local fire suppression initial attack efforts by providing 

technical assistance grants for training and fire department development. The program supports 

volunteer fire programs throughout the country in rural areas with populations of less than 

10,000 people.
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FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund 

Appropriation FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve 

Fund

 (dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Percent of 

Program 

Changes

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund

Annual Appropriations $303,060 $823,000 0 -$823,000 -100%

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund Total 303,060 823,000 0 -823,000 -100%

Annual Appropriation FTEs 0 0 0 0 0%

Total Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0 0%

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes no funding for the Federal Land Assistance, 

Management, and Enhancement (FLAME) Act account, a decrease of $823,000,000 from the FY 

2016 Enacted Budget. The Budget provides Suppression funding equal to 70 percent of the 10-

year average, which reflects the level of spending associated with suppressing approximately 99 

percent of wildfires. In addition, the Budget includes up to $864,096,000 to be available under a 

disaster funding cap adjustment to meet suppression needs above the base appropriation. 

Past Performance

The Forest Service received authorization and funding in the FLAME account in FY 2015. 

During the 2015 fire season we experienced above average wildfire activity in California, the 

Pacific Northwest, and the Northern Rockies while the remainder of the country experienced 

average or below average activity. The most significant fire activity occurred in August, during 

which there were several times where nearly 30,000 firefighters were supporting wildfire 

incidents. We reached the highest preparedness level of 5 nationally for 24 days, which means 

all available ground and air resources were committed to priority fires. Maintaining this high 

level of activity required significant financial resources and, as such the Secretary of Agriculture

issued a declaration in August that all funds in the FLAME account be transferred due to the 

imminent exhaustion of funds within the Suppression account. 

The Forest Service will issue an annual report that describes the obligations and expenditures of 

amounts transferred from the FLAME account in FY 2016, as required by the FLAME Act. 

Program Description

Background

The FLAME Act of 2009 was authorized in P.L. 111-88, as part of the Department of the 

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010. 
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Program Overview

The FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund is a separate Treasury account and distinct 

appropriation providing funds to cover fires escaping initial attack (response) that are sufficiently 

large and complex or when the Suppression account is expected to be completely obligated. It is 

intended to address the impacts of increasing wildfire suppression costs and their effects on other 

agency programs. These funds are available to the Secretary of Agriculture to be transferred into 

the Suppression account.

 
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Permanent Appropriations

Permanent Appropriations

(dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Brush Disposal

New Budget Authority $9,671 $9,000 $9,000 0

Program Level 9,125 9,000 9,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 73 73 73 0

Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied 

Research

New Budget Authority 0 60 60 0

Program Level 3 46 46 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Timber Salvage Sales

New Budget Authority 38,178 20,000 20,000 0

Program Level 29,626 30,000 30,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 250 250 250 0

Timber Sales Pipeline Restoration

New Budget Authority 5,386 5,386 5,386 0

Program Level 4,509 5,000 5,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 26 26 26 0

Forest Botanical Products

New Budget Authority 2,120 2,120 2,120 0

Program Level 1,662 2,000 2,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 19 19 19 0

Stewardship Contracting

New Budget Authority 13,599 14,000 14,000 0

Program Level 9,256 14,000 16,000 2,000

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Recreation Fees, Forest Service

New Budget Authority 78,652 66,925 67,925 1,000

Program Level 64,476 64,075 64,075 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 533 533 533 0

Timber Purchaser Election Road Construction

New Budget Authority 2,000 2,000 2,000 0

Program Level 142 1,000 1,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Operation and Maintenance of Forest Service 

Quarters
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Permanent Appropriations

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

New Budget Authority 8,606 7,100 7,100 0

Program Level 8,317 8,100 8,100 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 23 23 23 0

Roads and Trails for States

New Budget Authority -34,620 16,000 17,000 1,000

Program Level 0 0 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Land Between the Lakes Management

New Budget Authority 4,355 4,355 4,355 0

Program Level 3,512 4,200 4,200 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 5 5 5 0

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Rental Fee

New Budget Authority 356 600 600 0

Program Level 634 600 600 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Restoration

New Budget Authority 0 0 0 0

Program Level 0 0 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Quinault Special Management Area

New Budget Authority 1 2 2 0

Program Level 10 5 5 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Valles Caldera Fund

New Budget Authority 513 0 0 0

Program Level 105 0 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Restoration of Forest Lands & Improvements

New Budget Authority 208,907 210,124 210,124 0

Program Level 61,071 99,000 86,000 -13,000

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 134 134 134 0

Commercial Filming and Still Photography Land 

Use Fee Retention

New Budget Authority 696 544 544 0

Program Level 404 630 630 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 9 9 9 0

Organizational Camps Programs

New Budget Authority 665 600 600 0
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Permanent Appropriations

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Program Level 469 700 700 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 5 5 5 0

Cost Recovery (Administration of Rights-of-Way)

New Budget Authority 6,627 5,200 5,200 0

Program Level 4,925 4,700 4,700 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 40 40 40 0

Licensee Program Smokey Bear

New Budget Authority 113 113 113 0

Program Level 54 54 54 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Licensee Program Woodsy Owl

New Budget Authority 12 12 12 0

Program Level 0 0 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Forest Service Go Green Program (Conservation) 

New Budget Authority 110 110 110 0

Program Level 26 26 26 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Conveyance of Administrative Sites 

New Budget Authority 4,011 9,400 0 -9,400

Program Level 3,606 6,000 6,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 5 5 5 0

Site-Specific Lands Acts

New Budget Authority 1,140 2,400 0 -2,400

Program Level 4,262 3,900 3,900 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 2 2 2 0

Payment to States

New Budget Authority 340,726 301,159 77,150 -224,009

Program Level 318,326 306,654 77,150 -229,504

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 8 8 8 0

Permanent Funds New Budget Authority 691,824 677,210 443,401 -234,809

Permanent Funds Program Level 524,520 559,690 319,186 -240,504

Permanent Funds Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) 1,132 1,132 1,132 0
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Brush Disposal

Budget Line Item Brush Disposal

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Brush Disposal

New Budget Authority $9,671 $9,000 $9,000 0

Program Level 9,125 9,000 9,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 73 73 73 0

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Estimate Actual Estimate Estimate

Brush Disposal

Acres of harvest related woody fuels treated 73,813 63,420 70,000 73,863 70,000 70,000

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $9,000,000 for the Brush Disposal 

fund, level with the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funding will be used to treat an estimated 70,000 

acres of woody debris resulting from timber harvesting on the national forests.

Past Performance

The disposal of unmerchantable material upon completion of timber harvest not only reduces 

hazardous fuel loading, but it is necessary for maintaining, improving forest health conditions. 

In some instances this treatment facilitates site preparation for tree planting or seed dispersal. In 

FY 2015, 73,863 acres were treated to remove woody debris associated with timber harvesting 

on national forests, about 16 percent higher than last year. The ability to dispose of unwanted 

slash and debris generated by commercial timber sales depends on availability of the units for 

treatment, weather and fuel conditions, smoke management prescriptions, and geographical 

location. Brush disposal treatments where prescribed fire is the preferred alternative requires 

optimal environmental conditions to achieve desired objectives and must follow strict burning 

parameters and guidelines.

Authorities

The Brush Disposal Act of August 11, 1916, as amended (16 U.S.C. 490). This Act authorizes 

the Secretary of Agriculture to require purchasers of national forest timber to deposit the 

estimated cost to dispose of brush and other debris resulting from their cutting operations.
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Program Description

Program Overview

This program provides for the disposal of unmerchantable brush and other debris resulting from 

timber harvest operations. Timber harvest activities create logging slash which, when left 

untreated, can increase the risk of fire, impair reforestation, and contribute to the buildup of 

insect populations. Logging slash can be mechanically treated by scattering, chipping, or 

crushing down with logging equipment and allowed to decay. The treatment selected depends 

upon the amount of debris generated, as well as the relative fire hazard created. Slash can also 

be subjected to broadcast burning or collected into piles and burned during non-hazardous 

weather conditions.

Timber sale operators can perform the required work, or they can request that the agency 

complete this work by depositing funds to cover these costs. Brush Disposal funding comes 

from deposits required of timber purchasers and is used only on timber sale areas.

Allocation and Integration

The allocation of Brush Disposal funds responds to each region’s assessment of budget authority 

required to accomplish necessary treatments. These treatments are integrated with hazardous 

fuel reduction treatments outside timber sale areas to achieve optimal progress toward agency 

forest health and fire hazard reduction goals.
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Permanent Appropriations

Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied Research

Budget Line Item Hardwood Technology Transfer and 

Applied Research 

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied 

Research 

New Budget Authority 0 $60 $60 0

Program Level $3 46 46 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $46,000 for the Hardwood 

Technology Transfer and Applied Research fund, level with the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The 

permit holder in 2013-2014 ceased operations and went out of business. A new permit 

holder/lessee is being sought for the mill and shop facilities. Funds received from fees will 

provide for the operation and maintenance of the Wood Education and Resource Center 

(WERC), which includes an office building, training annex, rough mill, and wood shop.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, no fees were collected from lessee rent. Currently, there is no permit holder/lessee 

for the WERC rough mill. Annual collections for this fund can vary for several reasons, 

including potential escalating monthly payments built into the special use permit, fee 

adjustments due to market and business conditions, vacant rental/lease space, and collection 

challenges. FY 2013 was the last year rent was collected, at a level of $5,000.

Authorities

P.L. 106–113, div. B, §1000(a)(3) [Title III, §332], Nov. 29, 1999, 113 Stat. 1535, 1501A–197. 

Title 16 – Conservation; Chapter 36 - Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning, 

Subchapter II – Research; Sec. 1650 - Hardwood technology transfer and applied research. This 

Act provides authority for the Wood Education and Resource Center to conduct technology 

transfer and development, training, dissemination of information, and applied research in the 

management, processing and utilization of the hardwood forest resource. The Act authorizes the 

generation of revenue and funds to be deposited into a special fund in the U.S. Treasury, known 

as the Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied Research fund, which shall be available until 

expended, without further appropriation, in furtherance of the purposes stated in the Act 

including upkeep, management, and operation of the Wood Education and Resource Center and 

the payment of salaries and expenses.

Program Description
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The Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied Research fund allows for funds to be collected 

from leasing the wood shop and rough mill under a special use permit. The fund is used to pay 

for utilities, salaries, repairs and maintenance expenses. While the majority of the funds are 

generated from lessee rent, a portion of the funds may be derived from machine/timeshare rentals 

for start-up wood businesses and workshop fees.
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Permanent Appropriations

Timber Salvage Sales

Budget Line Item Timber Salvage Sales

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Timber Salvage Sales

New Budget Authority $38,178 $20,000 $20,000 0

Program Level 29,626 30,000 30,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 250 250 250 0

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Estimate Actual Estimate Estimate

Timber Salvage Sales

Volume of salvage timber sold (million board feet 

(MMBF)) 329 409 300 376 300 300

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $30,000,000 for the Timber 

Salvage Sales fund, level with the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The funding will be used to 

analyze, prepare, and offer new salvage sales while administering salvage timber sales awarded 

in the recent past. Salvage sale treatments primarily follow recent fire and insect outbreaks. In 

FY 2017 the Forest Service expects to sell approximately 300 million board feet (MMBF).

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the agency sold 376 MMBF from timber salvage sales, slightly less than the FY 

2014 total, which included additional salvage volume from the Rim Fire area in California and 

from natural mortality within the Big Thorne stewardship contract in Alaska.

Authorities

The National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 472a (h)). This Act authorizes the 

Secretary of Agriculture to require purchasers of salvage timber to make monetary deposits in a 

designated Treasury fund to cover the costs for sale preparation and administration, and the 

engineering design and administration of any needed roads necessary for the harvesting of 

salvage timber. Funds are available until expended.
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Program Description

Program Overview

Salvage sales permit the timely removal of fire or insect damaged and diseased trees to aid in 

developing healthy and resilient forest stands. The Timber Salvage Sale program collects 

revenues from the sale of timber from dead and dying trees to prepare and administer future 

salvage timber sales, including the provision of engineering support. These revenues are 

deposited into the Timber Salvage Sale fund and are available to immediately respond to timber 

salvage opportunities. The removal of fire-damaged, diseased and insect-infested timber through 

timber sale contracts is a valuable tool to reduce the potential for catastrophic wildland fires and 

other hazards associated with dead or dying trees. Timely salvage sales also help maximize the 

recovery of timber product value that would otherwise be lost. Through the collection of 

Knutson-Vandenberg Act funds, timber salvage sales can also provide for restoration of an 

affected area.

Allocation and Integration

Timber Salvage Sale funds are allocated based upon the amount of cash available in regional 

salvage accounts and the relative need for treatment each fiscal year. In addition to the Timber 

Salvage Sale fund, timber sales are funded through regular appropriations and other special 

authorities, including the Timber Sale Pipeline Restoration fund, the Knutson-Vandenberg fund, 

and the Stewardship Contracting fund. All of these funds may receive a portion of the revenues 

received from timber sales.

Partnerships

Effective implementation of this program requires partnership with local timber industries, since

timber processing infrastructure located close to the national forests facilitates salvage timber 

sales. Without this infrastructure, these sales may not be economically viable, and removal of 

this material not possible.
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Timber Sale Pipeline Restoration

Budget Line Item Timber Sales Pipeline Restoration 

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Timber Sales Pipeline Restoration 

New Budget Authority $5,386 $5,386 $5,386 0

Program Level 4,509 5,000 5,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 26 26 26 0

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Estimate Actual Estimate Estimate

Timber Sales Pipeline Restoration Fund

Volume of pipeline timber prepared (million board feet 

(MMBF)) 242 307 242 608 275 400

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $5,000,000 for the Timber Sales 

Pipeline Restoration fund, level with the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Specific program funding 

within this request is as follows:

Timber Sale Pipeline Sale Preparation – The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes funding for 

the timber sales pipeline preparation. The timber sale pipeline represents the queue of timber 

being prepared for future sales. Sales being prepared with this funding will contribute 

approximately 400 million board feet (MMBF) of timber volume sold towards the unified 

volume sold target displayed under the Forest Products budget line item.

Timber Sale Pipeline Recreation Backlog – The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes funding 

for the backlog of recreation maintenance projects. Emphasis will be placed on repairs to correct 

health and safety deficiencies, reductions in the backlog of deferred maintenance at priority 

recreation sites as identified in forests’ Recreation Facility Analyses, and maintenance of system 

trails. Specific use of these funds include addressing the backlog of trail maintenance on three 

national forests in the Southern Region, asbestos removal and an electrical upgrade to the 

Sylvania day use facilities in the Eastern Region, and the replacement of a historical facility in 

the Pacific Northwest Region.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, 608 MMBF of timber pipeline volume was prepared for offer in future fiscal years. 

Outputs associated with the recreation backlog projects are combined and reported under the 
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Permanent Appropriations

Capital Improvement and Maintenance, Facilities and Trails programs. Recreation projects 

included the decommissioning of recreation facilities on multiple national forests in the Southern 

Region and recreation facilities and trail improvements activities on several national forests in 

the Eastern Region.

Authorities

Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-134, Sec. 

101 (c), [title III Sec. 327], April 26, 1996, 110 Stat. 1321-206 and 207). The Secretary of 

Agriculture is authorized to collect and deposit revenues from a specific set of timber sales (i.e., 

sales released under P.L. 104-19, [title II, Sec. 2001(k)], July 27, 1995) for the purpose of 

preparing timber sales and addressing the backlog of recreation projects. Revenues from the sale 

of timber prepared using these funds are also deposited into this fund and are available for 

preparation of additional timber sales and recreation backlog projects.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Timber Sales Pipeline Restoration fund contributes to many land and resource management 

objectives, such as improving forest health, restoring wildlife habitat, and providing forest 

products to meet local and national needs. In addition, the fund helps to address health and 

safety issues in recreation facilities and on system trails, benefiting the recreating public by 

addressing maintenance issues that may cause harm or otherwise detract from the outdoor 

experience. These activities are aligned with the agency’s integrated watershed improvement 

goals and ensure forest and grasslands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to 

climate change.

The following programs are included in the Fund:

Timber Sale Pipeline Sale Preparation - Seventy-five percent of the Timber Sales 

Pipeline Restoration funds are used for the preparation of future non-salvage timber sales 

to restore the timber sales pipeline volume. This activity provides for the National 

Environmental Policy Act analysis to meet long-term forest health and desired condition 

objectives, determination of the volume and value of the trees to be removed, and timber 

sale layout and design necessary for future timber sales. Expenditures may also include 

the necessary planning and design for the associated timber roads.

Recreation Backlog - Twenty-five percent of the Timber Sales Pipeline Restoration funds 

are expended on backlog recreation facility projects and system trails. This activity 

includes maintenance and improvement of recreation sites, system trails, bridges, and 

trailheads.

Allocation and Integration

Funding is allocated to the field each year based upon the actual prior year collections from 

qualifying timber sales, with 75 percent of the net receipts collected in each region returned to 
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the region for additional timber sales pipeline preparation work, and the remaining 25 percent 

used for the recreation backlog.

In addition to this fund, timber sales are funded through the National Forest System, Forest 

Products budget line item as well as the Timber Salvage Sale fund and the Knutson-Vandenberg 

Trust Fund. Recreation facility and trail projects are also funded through the Capital 

Improvement and Maintenance, Facilities, Trails, and Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure 

Improvement budget line items, the Legacy Roads and Trails activity in Integrated Resource 

Restoration, and the Permanent Appropriation, Recreation Fees, Forest Service fund.

Partnerships

Effective implementation of this program requires partnership with local timber industries. 

Without the necessary infrastructure, timber sales might not be economically viable, and 

associated projects that contribute to resource management objectives could not occur.

The agency accomplishes valuable recreation facility and trails work by leveraging funds and inkind contributions through many partnerships. The Forest Service engages volunteers, 

concessionaires, and other partners to enhance recreation experiences and help maintain nearly 

70 percent of agency owned recreation sites. Trail crews are one of the primary means for the 

Forest Service to employ young adults and partner with local communities and interest groups.
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Permanent Appropriations

Forest Botanical Products

Budget Line Item Forest Botanical Products

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Forest Botanical Products

New Budget Authority $2,120 $2,120 $2,120 0

Program Level 1,662 2,000 2,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 19 19 19 0

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Estimate Actual Estimate Estimate

Forest Botanical Products

Sold value of forest botanical products (based on FY 

2013 collections) $1,450,419 $1,564,200 $2,046,000 $2,129,340 $1,700,000 $1,800,000

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $2,000,000 for the Forest Botanical 

Products Pilot Program fund, the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The Forest Service 

will use these funds to accomplish and further develop important projects and activities designed 

to ensure the viability and sustainability of forest botanical products while responding to the

significant demand for culturally important, medicinal, and the wide variety of other botanical 

products.

Past Performance

The total value of agency forest botanical products sold in FY 2015, based on collections, was 

over $2.1 million. Of the total collections during FY 2015, mushrooms ($444,959), 

limbs/boughs ($379,701), foliage ($291,998), and grasses ($215,054) were the predominant 

contributors- totaling over $1.3 million dollars in sold value. Beyond collections, the sale of 

these products provided jobs and revenue sources for local gatherers; thus, helping to maintain 

livelihoods and sustain local economies. 

Authorities

Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2000 (16 U.S.C. 528 note) 

(P.L. 106-113, div. B, Sec. 1000(a)(3), [Appendix C, title III, Sec. 339], Nov. 29, 1999, 113 Stat. 

1535, 1501A-199, as amended by P.L. 108-108,[title III, Sec. 335], Nov. 10, 2003, 117 Stat. 

1312, and P.L. 111-88, [title IV, Sec. 420], Oct. 30, 2009, 123 Stat. 2960). This Act authorizes 

the Secretary of Agriculture to charge and collect fees from persons who harvest forest botanical 
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products to cover at least a portion of the fair market value for the harvest of forest botanical 

products and a portion of the costs the agency incurs in administering the pilot program. Funds 

collected are deposited in a special fund in the Treasury. 

Extension of Forest Botanical Products Authorities; Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 

113-76). This Act extends until September 30, 2019, the original authorization enacted through 

Section 339(h)(1) of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 

2000 (enacted into law by section 1000(a)(3) of Public Law 106–113; 16 U.S.C. 528 note). This

authority will expire on September 30, 2019, unless it is reauthorized by Congress. However, all 

funds collected on or prior to September 30, 2019, will remain available for expenditure through 

September 30, 2020.

Program Description

Program Overview

This authority provides a mechanism for charging and collecting fees from persons who harvest 

forest botanical products. The term “forest botanical products” refers to any naturally occurring 

mushrooms, fungi, flowers, seeds, roots, bark, leaves, and other vegetation (or portion thereof) 

that grow on National Forest System lands. Fees collected are available to cover the costs 

associated with granting, modifying, or administering the authorization for harvesting, including 

the costs for environmental analyses. Work activities include inventory, analysis, sustainability 

determination for harvest levels, permit issuance and administration, and monitoring to facilitate 

the sale and harvest of forest botanical products. The objectives of this program are to maintain, 

enhance, or restore forest ecosystems to desired conditions, and to provide for the sale and 

harvest of forest botanical products in a sustainable manner that contributes to meeting the 

Nation’s demand for these goods and services.

Allocation and Integration

Under this authority, funds collected through FY 2019 are authorized for expenditure through FY 

2020, on the unit where the funds were collected. The Forest Botanical Products fund 

supplements the Integrated Resource Restoration program for the sale and administration of 

forest botanical products.
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Stewardship Contracting

Budget Line Item Stewardship Contracting 

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Stewardship Contracting 

New Budget Authority $13,599 $14,000 $14,000 0

Program Level 9,256 14,000 16,000 $2,000

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $16,000,000 for the Stewardship 

Contracting fund, an increase of $2,000,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The continued 

use of stewardship contracting supports the agency’s goal of creating jobs while restoring forest 

and watershed health. 

In stewardship contracting, when the value of the sale of forest products exceeds the cost of the 

service work to be performed on an Integrated Resource Timber Contract, the excess receipts are 

retained by the Forest Service and deposited in the Stewardship Contracting fund. These retained 

receipts are used to implement an array of resource restoration work. In FY 2016, the 

Stewardship Contracting funds will be used to complete resource work, including:

• improving, maintaining, and restoring forest and rangeland health;

• restoring and maintaining water quality;

• improving fish and wildlife habitat and reestablishing native plant species;

• reducing hazardous fuels that pose risks to communities and ecosystem values; and

• decommissioning roads.

The Agricultural Act of 2014 extended stewardship contracting as a permanent authority. This 

provides flexibility for the agency to accomplish collaborative restoration work at a landscape 

scale. The Forest Service has codified existing policy on stewardship contracting into regulation 

that is pending final approval. This will provide greater uniformity in the administration of the 

various contract and agreement mechanisms used by the agency to implement stewardship 

contracting projects. The rule will add a new Subpart I to the 36 CFR 223, Sale and Disposal of

National Forest System Timber, Special Forest Products, and Forest Botanical Products 

regulation.

Past Performance

Key accomplishments in FY 2015 utilizing the Stewardship Contracting funds include: 

• 6,569 acres of forest vegetation established,
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• 13,968 acres of wildland-urban interface (WUI) hazardous fuels treated,

• 24,276acres of non-WUI hazardous fuels treated, and

• 40,726 acres of terrestrial habitat enhanced.

Retained receipts deposited in the Stewardship Contracting fund may be used to accomplish a 

wide variety of activities through the stewardship contracting authority. The mix and level of 

accomplishments vary annually. This is due in part to the variability both in the resource work 

needed in the region where the receipts are collected and the cost of those activities. The 

performance accomplishments described above are a subset of the total accomplishments 

associated with the stewardship contracting authority. Appropriated funds from a variety of 

program areas may also be used to implement projects utilizing stewardship contracting 

authority. Further discussion of accomplishments associated with Stewardship Contracting can 

be found in the Stewardship Contracting Special Exhibit.

Authorities

The stewardship contracting authority authorizes the Forest Service, via agreement or contract, to 

enter into stewardship projects to perform services to achieve land management goals and to 

meet local and rural community needs. Department of the Interior and Related Appropriations 

Act, 1999 (16 U.S.C. 2104 note) (P.L.105-277, div. A, Sec. 101(e), [title III, Sec. 347], Oct. 21, 

1998, Stat. 2681-231, amended by Department of the Interior and Related Appropriations Act, 

2003, P.L. 108-7, div. F, [title III, Sec. 323], Feb. 20, 2003, 117 Stat. 275). Section 323 of P.L. 

108-7 supersedes the original authority granted to the Forest Service in section 347 of P.L. 105-

277. This authority was made permanent, pursuant to P.L. 113-79, the Agricultural Act of 2014.

Program Description

Program Overview 

Stewardship Contracting permits the Forest Service to apply the value of timber or other forest 

products from stewardship contracts as an offset against the costs to accomplish additional land 

and resource management objectives. If the offset value exceeds the value of the resource 

improvement treatments, those receipts are retained and deposited in the Stewardship 

Contracting fund and are available until expended for other authorized stewardship projects. 

Stewardship Contracting funds may be used for: 

• road and trail maintenance or decommissioning to restore or maintain water quality;

• work to improve soil productivity, or other resource values;

• prescribed fires to improve the composition, structure, condition, and health of forest 

stands or to improve wildlife habitat;

• removal of vegetation or other activities to promote healthy forests, reduce fire hazards, 

or achieve other land management objectives;

• restoration and maintenance of watersheds;

• restoration and maintenance of wildlife and fish habitat; and

• control of noxious and invasive weeds, and re-establishment of native plant species.

Allocation and Integration 
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Stewardship contracting retained receipts remain on the unit where the receipts were collected 

for use on other authorized stewardship projects. Funds can be used on other units after approval 

by the Regional Forester in the region where the receipts were collected.

Partnerships

Stewardship contracting allows for national, regional, and local-level partnerships and 

collaboration with local communities. Significant partnerships exist with national organizations, 

such as the National Wild Turkey Federation and The Nature Conservancy. These partnerships 

range from collaboration during stewardship project development to entering into stewardship 

agreements with the Forest Service. These collaborative partnerships have resulted in 

community support for stewardship projects and have helped the agency to move forward with 

projects without litigation costs and delays that often confront traditional timber sales and some 

hazardous fuel reduction projects.
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Recreation Fees, Forest Service

Budget Line Item Recreation Fees, Forest Service

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Recreation Fees, Forest Service

New Budget Authority $78,652 $66,925 $67,925 $1,000

Program Level 64,476 64,075 64,075 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 533 533 533 0

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Estimate Actual Estimate Estimate

Recreation Fees, Forest Service

Customer satisfaction with value for fee paid 84.0% 85.3% 85.0% 84.0% 84.0% 84.0%

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $64,075,000 for the Recreation 

Fees, Forest Service fund, the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

Specific priorities within each program include:

Recreation Fees, Forest Service Site Specific - The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes 

a program level of $45 million to conduct annual maintenance and repairs to recreation 

facilities, enhance visitor services such as interpretation and education, and provide for 

the presence of law enforcement and other uniformed employees in recreation areas

where fees are generated. The Forest Service will prioritize reducing deferred 

maintenance at high-priority fee sites and will improve the condition of the facilities for 

the public.

Recreation Fees, Forest Service Agency Specific - The FY 2017 President’s Budget 

includes a program level of $18 million to continue providing guidance from regional 

offices, grant money for projects at the forest level, and service as the contracting agency 

for the National Recreation Reservation Service for all Federal agencies. 

Recreation Fees, Forest Service Grey Towers National Historic Site Fees - The FY 2017

President’s Budget includes a program level of $75,000. Specific priorities within each 

activity will use recreation fees to support visitor services at Grey Towers National 

Historic Site that include, but are not limited to, interpretive and education programs that 
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perpetuate the conservation legacy of Gifford Pinchot and conference center programs 

and activities that foster leadership within the natural resource community.

Shasta-Trinity Marina Fees - The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level 

of $1 million. Fees collected from the marina special use permits are used for the direct 

operating or capital costs associated with issuance of the permits and provide services, 

protect resources, and meet the needs of the estimated 2.1 million annual visitors to the 

Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area. 

Past Performance

From 2005 to 2015, the Forest Service collected more than $696 million, cumulatively, in fee 

revenue under this authority. This total includes fee revenue from outfitters and guides. 

Annually, the Forest Service collects approximately $69 million in recreation fees. From 2005 to 

2015 the Forest Service has expended over $670 million to maintain and improve recreation sites 

and services for the American public, across the Nation. The Federal Lands Recreation 

Enhancement Act directs agencies to retain at least 80 percent of recreation fees to remain with 

the unit where collected. Forest Service policy is to retain 95 percent of the recreation fees on 

the national forest on which it was collected, to be reinvested back into recreation sites and 

services.

The recreation fee program has been successful in providing quality recreation facilities and 

services to the American public that recreate on Federal lands. National Visitor Use Monitoring 

surveys show that 94 percent of visitors are satisfied with their recreation experience and 85

percent are satisfied with the value received for the fee paid. The overall visitor satisfaction 

number has been steady to slightly increasing over the last several years.

Authorities

Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (16 U.S.C. 6806 and 6807) (P.L. 108-447, div. J, 

[title VIII, Sec. 807 and Sec. 808] Dec. 8, 2004, 118 Stat. 3388). This Act provides authority to 

implement a fee program for certain recreation sites on Federal lands. Fees collected from users 

of recreation facilities are used to pay for on-the-ground operation, maintenance, and 

improvements of recreation sites and services to maintain and enhance recreation opportunities, 

visitor experiences, and related habitat. Funds are available until expended. The Act directs the 

creation of Recreation Resource Advisory Committees to allow for public involvement in 

recreation fee programs. This authority was originally set to expire on December 8, 2014, but 

was extended through December 8, 2015, pursuant to P.L. 113-46, Continuing Appropriations 

Act, 2014, through December 11, 2015, pursuant to P.L. 113-164, Continuing Appropriations 

Act, 2015, through September 30, 2016, pursuant to P.L. 113-483, Consolidated and Further 

Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 and through September 30, 2017, pursuant to P.L. 114-53, 

Continuing Appropriations Act, 2016.

Section 422, Div. F, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-161; 121 Stat. 2159). 

This Act provides authority through September 30, 2014, for the Forest Service to retain permit 

fees collected for marinas on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest under the Term Permit Act and 

use the retained fees for the purposes in the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. These 
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purposes include repair, maintenance and facility enhancement, interpretation and visitor 

services, habitat restoration, and law enforcement. The fees may also be used for direct 

operating or capital costs associated with the issuance of a marina permit. This authority was 

originally set to expire on September 30, 2014, but was extended through September 30, 2019, 

pursuant to P.L. 113-76, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014. 

Program Description

Program Overview 

When recreation fees are collected by the Forest Service, 80 to 95 percent of the fees collected 

are deposited in the Recreation Fees, Forest Service fund and are spent on maintaining and 

improving the area, site, or projects that directly relate to visitor enjoyment, access, and health 

and safety. Work activities include: annual operation and maintenance, interpretation, signage, 

wildlife habitat restoration, resource preservation, and law enforcement. We execute a large 

amount of work in this program through contracts.

There are four programs within the Recreation Fees, Forest Service fund:

Recreation Fees, Forest Service Site Specific - We collect approximately $50 million 

annually to maintain and improve facilities and services for which the fees are 

collected. At least 80 to 95 percent of the fees collected are deposited in the 

Recreation Fees, Forest Service fund and are spent on the area, site, or projects that 

directly relate to visitor enjoyment, access, and health and safety. Work activities 

include: annual operation and maintenance, interpretation, signage, wildlife habitat 

restoration, outfitter and guide enhancement, resource preservation, and law 

enforcement. Five percent goes to the regional offices to support strategic program 

oversight, financial management, training, and grants to forests for 

improvements/special projects on the ground.

Recreation Fees, Forest Service Agency Specific - The Forest Service is the 

contracting agency for the National Recreation Reservation Service, part of 

Recreation.gov, an e-government initiative. The $120 million, interagency funded, 

contract supports reservations for all recreation facilities on public lands that allow 

reservations. One task of administering the contract is to manage the pass through 

account for the reservation fees for all agencies. Approximately $15 million that 

passes through this account are Forest Serviced collected fees. As more sites come 

on to the reservation system throughout the entire Federal public lands system, this 

account will continue to grow. 

Recreation Fees, Forest Service Grey Towers National Historic Site Fees - Recreation 

fees are used for annual operations and maintenance of the historic mansion and 102 

acre landscape; interpretive and education programs and projects that perpetuate the 

legacy of Gifford Pinchot for general public and youth; public programs that foster 

stewardship of natural resources; safety of the visitor and security of the resource; and 

support for the conference facility that provides conservation leadership development 
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programs and enhances the dialogues taking place within the natural resource 

community.

Shasta-Trinity Marina Fees - Fees received from the marina project provide funding 

needed in the Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area to meet critical health and 

safety standards, address portions of the maintenance backlog, provide for many 

noteworthy, innovative projects including high quality interpretive and environmental 

education programs, installation and maintenance of over 300 underwater obstacle 

markers and 100 safety-related floating directional signs, establishment and 

maintenance of the National Recreation Area Boating Safety Program, 

implementation and administration of the program’s Marina Standards, maintaining a 

floating toilet program, and the construction of accessible facilities to provide greater 

access for persons with disabilities. The goal of these projects is to meet the National 

Recreation Area’s intent, which is to showcase recreation opportunities in the agency.

Allocation and Integration

Recreation fees supplement discretionary appropriations such as National Forest System –

Recreation, Heritage and Wilderness; and Capital Improvement and Maintenance – Facilities and 

Trails budget line items. Outputs associated with this program are combined and reported under 

individual resource programs throughout the Forest Service appropriated accounts. A significant 

benefit from recreation fees is that these fees can roll over from one year to the next, so forests 

can save some money to tackle a costly capital improvement project later. Because 80 - 95 

percent of the recreation fee dollars stay at the forest where they were collected, the forest has 

the authority to direct spending to their priorities.

Partnerships

Recreation fees are used to fund volunteer projects and leverage grants and other challenge costshare dollars. These fees provide for the health and safety of visitors to national forest recreation 

areas and restore ecosystem damage caused by recreation use.

The Forest Service has chartered five Recreation Resource Advisory Committees, which include 

the Southern, Eastern, and Pacific Northwest Regions, and the States of California and Colorado. 

In cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, the agency participates in 12 additional 

advisory committees. Each committee is required to meet at least one time a year to review 

proposed changes to the recreation fee program. Chartering and sustaining these advisory 

committees, along with our other comprehensive public involvement efforts, demonstrates the

continued commitment to working with partners, visitors and other interested parties regarding 

recreation fees.
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Timber Purchaser Election Road Construction

Budget Line Item Timber Purchaser Election Road 

Construction 

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Timber Purchaser Election Road Construction 

New Budget Authority $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 0

Program Level 142 1,000 1,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $1,000,000 for the Timber 

Purchaser Election Road Construction, the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Program level 

and accomplishments in FY 2017 will depend upon the number of qualifying small businesses 

purchasing timber sales and the number of those businesses that do not have the capability to 

perform the required road work under those sales. This program provides funding for 

construction or improvement of specified roads and bridges supporting the timber harvest 

operations of small business operators.

Each year, the agency usually performs between one and 10 miles of high clearance road 

reconstructions and/or maintenance on behalf of timber purchasers depending upon the particular 

need that year.

Authorities

National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 472a(i)). The act authorizes the Secretary 

of Agriculture to use any receipts from the sale of timber for the construction of roads required 

under the timber sale contract.

Department of the Interior and Related Appropriations Act, 1999 (16 U.S.C. 535a (c)) (P.L. 105-

277, div. A, Sec. 101(e), [title III, Sec. 329], Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681-231, 2681-292). This 

act authorizes small business timber purchasers to elect to pay the Forest Service to construct or 

reconstruct any permanent roads or bridges required by the timber sale. The timber purchaser 

must be classified as a small business operator, and the total estimated reconstruction and 

construction cost in the timber sale contract must exceed $50,000.

Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-161, 

Sec. 6., div. F, [title IV, Sec. 423], Dec. 26, 2007, 121 Stat. 2150). The Forest Service shall 

allocate to the regions of the Forest Service, $15,000,000 from the current balance in the ‘‘timber 

roads purchaser election fund,’’ to remain available until expended.
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Program Overview

Program Descriptions

Timber Purchaser Election Road Construction - The Timber Purchaser Election Road 

Construction program supports the construction and reconstruction of any permanent road or 

bridge as required under the terms and conditions of a timber sale contract. When a small 

business timber purchaser is awarded a contract, the purchaser may elect to pay the Forest 

Service to construct or reconstruct specified roads in the timber sale contract area to a 

standard necessary to harvest and remove timber and other forest products. The agency then 

uses the funds to contract for the required road work and administer the contract. This 

program benefits small timber contractors who might otherwise be unable to bid on Forest 

Service timber sales, as well as provides for appropriate road improvements preventing soil 

degradation, stream sedimentation, or other damages.

Purchaser Election Vegetative Treatment - The Purchaser Election Vegetative Treatment 

funds support the following actives to improve forest health: vegetative treatments in timber 

stands at high risk of fire due to insect, disease, or drought; road work in support of 

vegetative treatments to support forest health objectives; and maintenance of infrastructure 

for the processing of woody fiber in regions where it is critical to sustaining local economies 

and fulfilling forest health objectives.
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Operation and Maintenance of Forest Service Quarters

Budget Line Item Operation and Maintenance of Forest 

Service Quarters

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Operation and Maintenance of Forest Service 

Quarters

New Budget Authority $8,606 $7,100 $7,100 0

Program Level 8,317 8,100 8,100 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 23 23 23 0

FY 2016 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $8,100,000 for the Operation and 

Maintenance of Forest Service Quarters program, the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget.

These funds maintain employee occupied living quarters in safe and healthy conditions. The 

program will emphasize improvements to water systems and health and safety issues.

Past Performance

Accomplishments under this program are recorded in the Capital Improvement and Maintenance 

- Facilities Section.

Authorities

Forest Service Quarters Operation and Maintenance 

(5 U.S.C. 5911, Other Provisions). This Act 

authorizes the collection of rental income from 

employees living in government owned or leased 

residences. Such rents and charges are deposited in 

a special Treasury fund and remain available for 

obligation for operation and maintenance of 

quarters until expended.

Program Description

Program Overview

Forest Service Quarters Operation and Maintenance 

(5 U.S.C. 5911, Other Provisions). This Act authorizes the collection of rental income from 

employees living in government owned or leased residences. Such rents and charges are 

deposited in a special Treasury fund and remain available for obligation for operation and 

maintenance of quarters until expended.

Operations and Maintenance of Quarters

Operation and Maintenance of Quarters allows 

the agency to provide adequate housing to 

employees, often at very remote locations where 

no other options are available.
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Roads and Trails for States

Budget Line Item Roads and Trails for States

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Roads and Trails for States

New Budget Authority -$34,620 $16,000 $17,000 $1,000

Program Level 0 0 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget program level is zero. The Forest Service proposes to transfer 

$17 million of unexpended collections under this authority to the General Fund of the U.S. 

Treasury in FY 2017.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the agency did not have any accomplishments from Road and Trails for States funds

because no funds were available.

Authorities

The Act of March 4, 1913, as amended (16 U.S.C. 501). This act authorizes ten percent of all 

National Forest Fund receipts received by the national forests during each fiscal year to be 

expended for the construction and maintenance of roads and trails within the national forests in 

the States from which proceeds are derived.

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110–161, div F, title III, Dec. 26, 2007, 121 Stat. 

2129). This act directed “That funds becoming available in fiscal year 2008 under the Act of 

March 4, 1913, (16 U.S.C. 501) shall be transferred to the General Fund of the Treasury and 

shall not be available for transfer or obligation for any other purpose unless the funds are 

appropriated. ”

Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-88, 

div. A, title III, Oct. 30, 2009, 123 Stat. 2940). This act directed “That funds becoming available 

in fiscal year 2010 under the act of March 4, 1913, (16 U.S.C. 501) shall be transferred to the 

General Fund of the Treasury and shall not be available for transfer or obligation for any other 

purpose unless the funds are appropriated.”

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 (P.L. 112-74). This act directed “That funds becoming 

available in fiscal year 2012 under the act of March 4, 1913, (16 U.S.C. 501) shall be transferred 

to the General Fund of the Treasury and shall not be available for transfer or obligation for any 

other purpose unless the funds are appropriated.”
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Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76). This act directed “That funds becoming 

available in fiscal year 2014 under the Act of March 4, 1913, (16 U.S.C. 501) shall be transferred 

to the General Fund of the Treasury and shall not be available for transfer or obligation for any 

other purpose unless the funds are appropriated.”

Program Description

Program Overview

Under this fund, ten percent of all National Forest Fund receipts, which is inclusive of both fees 

and other types of revenue, are used by the Forest Service without regard to the State in which 

the amounts were derived, to repair or reconstruct roads, bridges, and trails on National Forest 

System lands. Funds are directed towards correcting road and trail deficiencies that adversely 

affect ecosystems.

Beginning in FY 1999 and continuing in subsequent appropriation acts, the authority was 

expanded to allow the use of funds for the purpose of improving forest health conditions and 

repairing or reconstructing roads and bridges on NFS lands in the wildland-urban interface where 

there is an abnormally high risk of fire. The program reduces risk to human safety and public 

health and property and enhances ecological functions, long-term forest productivity, and 

biological integrity. Work previously funded under this program has been funded through the 

Legacy Roads and Trails line item.

The last fiscal year that the Forest Service was authorized to obligate new collections from the 

Roads and Trails Fund was in FY 2007.
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Land Between the Lakes Management

Budget Line Item Land Between the Lakes Management

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Land Between the Lakes Management

New Budget Authority $4,355 $4,355 $4,355 0

Program Level 3,512 4,200 4,200 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 5 5 5 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $4,200,000 for the Land Between 

the Lakes (LBL) Management fund, the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

Past Performance

In FY 2015 there were approximately 1.6 million visits to the LBL National Recreation Area, 

which is slightly up from previous years. LBL has historically covered 30 percent of its costs by 

receipts through the LBL Management fund authority, supporting a diversity of recreation, fish 

and wildlife, and environmental education activities. Fee collections were over $4,200,000 in 

FY 2015.

The LBL Management fund covers routine and inflationary increases to operational costs for the 

facilities that generate revenue.

Authority

Land Between the Lakes Protection Act of 1998 (16 U.S.C. 460lll-24) (P.L. 105-277, div. A, 

Sec. 101(e) [title V, Sec. 524], Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681-315). This Act establishes the LBL 

Management fund. In accordance with Title V of the Act, responsibility for the LBL National 

Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennessee transferred from the Tennessee Valley Authority to 

the Secretary of Agriculture.

Program Description

Program Overview

The LBL National Recreation Area provides public recreational opportunities; conserves fish 

and wildlife and their habitat; provides for a diversity of plants and animals; and offers 

opportunities for hunting, fishing, and environmental education. LBL hosts an average of 1.6

million visits annually from people all over the Nation and more than 30 foreign countries. LBL 

continues to demonstrate success with its camping reservation system, which allows visitors to 

register for camp sites before arrival.
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Section 524 of the Land Between the Lakes Protection Act established a special fund known as 

the LBL Management fund. All amounts received from charges, user fees, and natural resource 

use, including timber and agricultural receipts, are deposited into the fund. Funds are available 

for management of LBL, including payment of salaries and expenses.

Partnerships

LBL’s program of work provides the opportunity to partner with a number of regional and 

national conservation organizations, such as the National Wild Turkey Federation, Quail 

Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and Ducks Unlimited. Further, LBL’s volunteers, 

coordinated through the Friends of LBL partnership, log more than 116,000 hours of volunteer 

time on LBL projects annually. 
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Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Rental Fees

Budget Line Item Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Rental 

Fees 

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Rental Fees 

New Budget Authority $356 $600 $600 0

Program Level 634 600 600 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $600,000 for the Midewin National 

Tallgrass Prairie Rental Fees, the same as the 

FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funds are used to 

restore and manage prairie and wetland 

habitats on the Midewin National Tallgrass 

Prairie (MNTP).

Past Performance

The rental fee funds collected on the MNTP

are used to restore ecosystems and habitats 

for native prairie and wetlands. Restoration 

activities include: stream debris removal, 

demolition of old Army infrastructure, 

purchasing and planting native prairie seeds 

and plants, management of grassland bird 

habitat, control of invasive species on 

restoration sites, and purchasing 

miscellaneous restoration equipment and 

supply.

Authorities

The Illinois Land Conservation Act of 1995 

(16 U.S.C. 1609 note) (P.L. 104-106, div. B, [title XXIX, sec. 2915 (b), (c)], Feb. 10, 1996, 110 

Stat. 601-602). The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to issue agricultural special use

authorizations or grazing permits for purposes primarily related to erosion control, provision for 

food and habitat for fish and wildlife, or other resource management activities consistent with the 

purposes of the MNTP.

Program Description

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

Newly arrived bison explore their new home at the 

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Thanks to the 

dedication, work and support of the National Forest 

Foundation and many partners and volunteers, this scene 

from the past is now part of the future for Midewin.
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Program Overview

The Illinois Land Conservation Act of 1995 established the MNTP to be managed as part of the 

National Forest System. The act authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to issue agricultural 

special use authorizations and grazing permits. After appropriate payments to the State of 

Illinois and Will County, pursuant to the act of May 23, 1908, and section 13 of the act of March 

1, 1911 (16 U.S.C. 500), available receipts from rental fees may be used to cover the cost of 

ecosystem restoration, prairie improvements, and administrative activities directly related to 

those activities. These funds provide for maintenance of native plant communities and grassland 

bird habitat at the MNTP. The ability to collect funds from grazing and agricultural uses 

provides an essential financial resource to MNTP managers to continue to restore ecosystems 

and habitats in order to enhance biodiversity; promote scientific, environmental, and educational 

research; and develop best practices for land management.
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Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Restoration

Budget Line Item Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie 

Restoration 

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Restoration 

New Budget Authority 0 0 0 0

Program Level 0 0 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

No funds are included for this program in the FY 2017 President’s Budget.

Past Performance

There were no collections or expenditures for this account in FY 2015. To date, salvage 

opportunities anticipated by the legislation have not materialized. Less than $4,000 has been 

generated by the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (MNTP) Restoration fund over the past 10 

years. No expenditures have been made from this account since its creation in 1995.

Authorities

The Illinois Land Conservation Act of 1995 (16 U.S.C. 1609 note) (P.L. 104-106, div. B, [title 

XXIX, sec. 2915 (d), (e) and (f)], Feb. 10, 1996, 110 Stat. 602). The Secretary of Agriculture is 

authorized to charge reasonable user fees for the admission, occupancy, and use of the Midewin 

National Tallgrass Prairie, and may sell for salvage value any facilities and improvements which 

have been transferred under this Act. The Secretary may use amounts in the fund, in such 

amounts as are provided in advance in Appropriation Acts, for restoration and administration of 

the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Illinois Land Conservation Act of 1995 established the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

to be managed as part of the National Forest System. There are two separate funds: the 

agricultural rental fund that funds prairie restoration and the salvage fund that may be used for all 

other activities. Receipts from grazing fees, agricultural leases for row crops, sales of surplus 

equipment, and the salvage value proceeds from the sale of any facilities and improvements can 

be used to cover the cost of restoration of ecosystems; construction of a visitor center, 

recreational facilities, trails, and administrative office; prairie improvement; and operation and 

maintenance.
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Quinault Special Management Area Fund

Budget Line Item Quinault Special Management Area 

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Quinault Special Management Area 

New Budget Authority $1 $2 $2 0

Program Level 10 5 5 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $5,000 for the Quinault Special 

Management Area (QSMA) fund, the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The Olympic 

National Forest annually reviews the current deposits of the 10 percent of proceeds from the sale 

of forest products, and requests authority to use those funds for work performed on the QSMA.

Authorities

The Act of November 8, 1988 (P.L 100-638) (102 Stat. 3327). This Act established the Quinault 

Special Management Area from part of the Olympic National Forest, and it assigns responsibility 

to the Forest Service for managing its natural resources and distributing proceeds from the sale 

of forest products according to provisions of the Act.

The Act provides that 10 percent of the gross proceeds from the sale of forest products on the 

QSMA are transferred to this account and are available for administration of future timber sales. 

The Act also provides for the distribution of gross receipts from a special management area to 

compensate the Quinault Indian Tribe and the State of Washington for land that the Forest 

Service gave back to the Tribe. The distribution must be used for roads and schools.

Program Description

Program Overview

This program and budget line item for the QSMA is unique to the Forest Service. The QSMA is 

over 5,400 acres, as prescribed by law, which the Olympic National Forest manages for the 

Quinault Indian Nation. Specifically, the lands are defined under Section 2 of the 

aforementioned Act. All receipts from use of this land, including timber sales, firewood, 

botanicals, special use permits, and minerals, are divided with 45 percent going to the State of 

Washington, 45 percent to the Quinault Tribe, and 10 percent towards management of those 

lands by the Olympic National Forest. Quarterly, the Olympic National Forest processes the 

receipts and sends a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Tribal Chair, documenting the 

receipts that will be transferred to Bureau for disbursement to the Tribe.
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Valles Caldera

Budget Line Item Valles Caldera 

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Valles Caldera 

New Budget Authority $513 0 0 0

Program Level 105 0 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act designated the Valles Caldera National 

Preserve (Preserve) as a unit of the National Park Service. Transfer of the Preserve to the 

National Park Service occurred in FY 2015. As a result, there will be no balance remaining in 

this fund in FY 2017.

Past Performance 

In December 2014, the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act designated the Preserve as a 

unit of the National Park Service and transferred administration of the Preserve to the Secretary 

of the Interior. FY 2015 was a transition year for the Preserve with the National Park Service 

assuming full responsibility on October 1, 2015.

Authorities

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, Sec. 3043 (H.R. 3979 EAH, 113th 

Cong.), December 12, 2014. This Act abolishes the Valles Caldera Trust and designates the 

Valles Caldera National Preserve as a unit of the National Park System.

Valles Caldera Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. 698v-4, 698v-6). (P.L. 106-248, [title I, Sec. 106, 

Sec. 108], July 25, 2000, 114 Stat. 603 and 607; as amended by P.L. 109-132, [Sec. 2 (b)-(d)], 

119 Stat. 2570). This Act authorized the Valles Caldera Trust to receive and collect funds in 

support of the management and administration of the Preserve. This included the authority to 

assess fees for admission to, the use, and occupancy of the Preserve. In addition, it allowed the 

Trust to solicit and accept donations of funds, property, supplies, or services for the purpose of 

management of the Preserve.
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Restoration of Forest Lands and Improvements

Budget Line Item Restoration of Forest Lands and 

Improvements

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Restoration of Forest Lands and Improvements

New Budget Authority $208,907 $210,124 $210,124 0

Program Level 61,071 99,000 86,000 -$13,000

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 134 134 134 0

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $86,000,000 for the Restoration of 

Forest Lands and Improvements fund, a decrease of $13,000,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted 

Budget. These funds will provide for the rehabilitation of forest resources or infrastructure that 

has been damaged due to negligence or contract non-performance of other parties. The 

Restoration of Forest Lands and Improvements fund provides a mechanism to quickly bill, 

collect, and obligate funds necessary to restore damages to critical ecosystems and facilities so 

that repairs are not deferred or foregone.

Past Performance

Restoration of Forest Lands and Improvement funds are used to perform important restoration 

and rehabilitation activities or infrastructure repair due to contractor damage, negligence, or nonperformance. This can include a variety of activities that will vary from year to year depending 

upon the need. In FY 2015, activities included:

• 2,725 acres of wildland-urban interface (WUI) high priority hazardous fuels treated;

• 2,232 acres of hazardous fuels treated outside the WUI to reduce the risk of catastrophic 

wildland fire;

• 1,124 acres of forest vegetation established;

• 3,925 acres of forest vegetation improved;

• 1,579 acres of noxious weeds/invasive plant treatments;

• 232 acres of water or soil resources protected, maintained, or improved to achieve desired 

watershed conditions; and

• 79 miles of system trail maintained to standard.

Additional focus in several regions on identifying projects that could use these funds led to 

higher outputs than in FY 2014.
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Authorities

The Act of June 20, 1958 (16 U.S.C. 579c) (P.L. 85-464, Sec. 7, June 20, 1958, 72 Stat. 217). 

This Act authorizes establishment of a fund for improvement, protection, or rehabilitation of 

lands under the administration of the Forest Service. This fund receives monies from: (a) 

forfeiture of a bond or deposit by a permittee or timber purchaser for failure to complete 

performance of improvement, protection, or rehabilitation work required under the permit or 

timber sale contract; or (b) the result of a judgment, compromise, or settlement of any claim, 

involving present or potential damage to lands or improvements. Funds are available until 

expended to cover the costs of performing the required work. Any funds received in excess of 

the amount expended in performing the work shall be transferred to miscellaneous receipts.

Program Description

Program Overview

This authority protects the interests of the Forest Service by allowing the agency to address a 

variety of situations. When work under a permit or timber sale contract is not completed by a 

permittee or timber purchaser, they forfeit their bond or deposit. These funds then transfer to the 

Restoration of Forest Lands and Improvements fund, allowing the Forest Service to complete the 

needed restoration and rehabilitation work.

This authority also protects the interests of the American public from present or potential damage 

to National Forest System lands or improvements due to the actions of another party. This 

authority provides the Forest Service with the ability to use funds from a judgment, compromise, 

or claim settlement to address those damages.

Based on a Comptroller General's Decision (67 Comp. Gen. 276), collections may be used to 

reimburse the Forest Service for any restoration costs paid from Forest Service appropriations 

before the collections were received.

Allocation and Integration

The proposed FY 2017 program funding level is based on field projections of anticipated work.
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Commercial Filming and Still Photography Land Use Fee Retention

Budget Line Item Commercial Filming and Still Photography 

Land Use Fee Retention

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Commercial Filming and Still Photography Land 

Use Fee Retention

New Budget Authority $696 $544 $544 0

Program Level 404 630 630 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 9 9 9 0

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $630,000 for Commercial Filming 

and Still Photography Land Use Fee Retention, the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

Past Performance 

During FY 2015, the Forest Service collected $695,780 from commercial filming and still 

photography fees. These collections are retained at the national, regional and forest unit level, 

and units use the commercial filming collections to respond to film/photo requests in a timely 

manner and to proactively manage the program. More recently, these fees have been used to 

coordinate inter-regional or inter-forest requests for filming as a means of streamlining the 

authorization process and reducing the number of authorizations necessary for large landscape 

filming requests.

Authorities

The Act of May 26, 2000 (16 U.S.C. 460l-6d) (P. L. 106-206). This Act authorizes retention of 

fees collected for commercial filming and photography land use authorizations and obligation of 

the monies for maintenance of the filming site. Land use fees are based on a schedule to use and 

occupy National Forest System land for filming/photo activities. This fee is separate from the 

cost recovery fee to process applications and to monitor the authorization for compliance with 

the commercial filming permit. 

Program Description

Program Overview

Fees retained by the Forest Service in this fund are used to manage and respond to film/photo use 

requests an expedited manner. For example, forest units use these funds to assess popular 

film/photo locations in advance of requests and to develop and post information on film/photo 

procedures specific to the unit. Regional and national units use these funds to provide 
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management oversight, develop policy, and coordinate inter-regional or inter-forest film/photo 

requests prior to accepting a proposal as a formal application.

Allocation and Integration

In accordance with the Act of May 26, 2000, 90 percent of the fees collected remain at the forest 

unit where the fee is collected. These funds are used for managing the film/photo program and 

to defer costs associated with collecting the fee. The remaining 10 percent is used to provide 

management oversight, to develop policies, and to coordinate inter-regional or inter-forest 

film/photo requests. Of this 10 percent, five percent is retained at the Washington Office and 

five percent is retained at each Regional Office where the film/photo authorization is contained.

Partnerships

Many forest units work cooperatively with State film commissions to inform these entities of 

Forest Service film/photo processing procedures. The Forest Service is also engaged in 

coordination with the Department of the Interior (Bureau of Land Management, National Park 

Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) effort to develop a national fee schedule applicable 

to film and photo authorizations.
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Organizational Camps Program

Budget Line Item Organizational Camps Program

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Organizational Camps Program

New Budget Authority $665 $600 $600 0

Program Level 469 700 700 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 5 5 5 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $700,000 for the administration of 

the Organizational Camps Program fund, the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funds will 

be used to monitor organizational camp special use authorizations; conduct environmental 

analysis related to the organizational camp special uses program; maintain, recondition, renovate, 

or improve federally-owned facilities covered by organizational camp special use authorizations; 

complete environmental restoration projects; administer the special uses program; provide 

interpretive programs; and conduct other programs and projects deemed appropriate by the 

authorized officer.

Past Performance

During FY 2015, we collected $665,018 through the organizational camps program, which units 

used for program administration, monitoring special use authorizations, interpretive programs, 

environmental analysis and restoration activities related to organizational camps throughout the 

National Forest System (NFS).

Authorities

National Forest Organizational Camp Fee Improvement Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6231 et seq.) 

(P.L. 108-7). This Act defines an organizational camp as a public or semipublic camp developed 

by a nonprofit or government entity to introduce young people or people with disabilities to 

activities they might not otherwise experience and to educate them on natural resource issues. 

The Act establishes a land use fee system for organizational camps located on NFS lands and 

authorizes the Secretary to retain and spend these fees without further appropriation. The Act 

also exempts certain ministerial actions from the provisions of the National Environmental 

Policy Act.
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Program Description

Program Overview

Organizational camp fees are based on a percentage of the agricultural land value, adjusted 

downward for services provided to disabled individuals and at-risk youth. Fees collected are 

available until expended for program administration, monitoring special use authorizations, 

interpretive programs, environmental analysis and restoration activities, and similar purposes.

The Forest Service administers approximately 300 permits for organizational camps. Work 

activities include performing oversight, inspection, and monitoring of existing authorizations to 

ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of the authorization.

Organizational camps have a three-part fee system:

Land Use Fees – Fees are based on a percentage of the agricultural land value, adjusted 

downward for services provided to disabled individuals and at-risk youth. The land use fee may 

be offset by work performed pursuant to Section 3 of the Federal Timber Contract Payment 

Modification Act (16 U.S.C. 539f).

Facility Use Fees – If an organizational camp utilizes a federally-owned facility, a fee is assessed 

based on five percent of the value of the government owned improvements.

Fees based on other revenue – If permit holders earn revenue from activities other than providing 

youth services, a fee is assessed based on five percent of revenue.

Allocation and Integration

Retained land use fees supplement discretionary 

appropriations from the NFS Recreation, Heritage, and 

Wilderness program and from other budget line items. 

These revenues are an integral part of sustaining the 

agency’s special use programs. Outputs associated with 

these programs are reported as permits administered to 

standard.

Partnerships

Through the organizational camps program the Forest 

Service works with many partner organizations, such as 

the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, faith-based, and 

community-based groups to provide outdoor recreation 

programs and services for youth.

Enjoying Camp

Two boys enjoy a campfire at an 

organizational camp on a national forest.
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Cost Recovery (Land Uses)

Budget Line Item Cost Recovery (Land Uses)

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Cost Recovery (Land Uses)

New Budget Authority $6,627 $5,200 $5,200 0

Program Level 4,925 4,700 4,700 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 40 40 40 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $4,700,000 for the Cost Recovery 

(Land Uses) program, the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funds will be used to 

process lands special use proposals and applications in a timely manner, provide customer 

service, and administer authorizations for which we have no other statutory authority to recover 

or retain funds for the use and occupancy of National Forest System (NFS) lands. We will 

continue to implement the program to recover our costs for processing special use applications 

and monitoring for compliance with the authorizations. We will review progress to ensure 

consistent and cost-effective management, improve customer service, and reduce the backlog of 

permit applications. This authority ensures timely customer service, reduces the potential 

liability to the government associated with uses on NFS lands under an expired authorization, 

and enables the agency to accept new applications thereby expanding our support for local and 

regional economies.

In FY 2017, the Forest Service will continue working in cooperation with the Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM) to update our interagency flat fee schedule relative to applicable special use 

applications and authorizations. Working cooperatively with the BLM ensures interagency 

consistency for similar uses and works to assess fees that are appropriate.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the Forest Service processed over 8,400 applications for the use and occupancy of 

NFS lands and administered approximately 77,000 authorizations for a wide variety of uses on 

the NFS. Our FY 2015 financial records indicate a total of $6.6 million recorded in either 

advance collections or earned revenue on advances. However, some of the earned revenue was 

tied to agreements received in years prior to FY 2015. This revenue was for the processing and 

monitoring of approximately 1,800 new land use authorizations. Cost recovery helps ensure that 

we continue to make progress in administering authorizations. We have used our current 

authority to respond to numerous requests for use of NFS land for the purposes of transmitting 

electricity, oil and gas, and broadband communication, as well as responding to requests for 

major modifications to resort operations and numerous smaller private or commercial requests.
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Authorities

Numerous Federal statutes authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to assess and collect fees from 

applicants for, and holders of, special use authorizations. These fees pay for the agency’s 

administrative costs to process and monitor applications for such authorizations. These 

authorities include the Independent Offices Appropriations Act of 1952 (P.L. 82-137); Mineral 

Leasing Act of 1920, as amended (P.L. 66-146); and the Federal Land Policy and Management 

Act of 1976 (P.L. 94-579). In addition, specific legislation authorizing the implementation of 

each program within this account is as follows:

Special Use Application and Permit Monitoring Fees (Recovery of Costs). P.L. 106-113, Interior 

and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2000, Section 331 (113 Stat. 1501A-196 - 197), as 

amended by P.L. 108-447, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Division E, Section 345 (118 

Stat. 3105), P.L. 109-54, Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006, 

Section 425 (119 Stat. 555), P.L. 110-161 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 and P.L. 113-6 

Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013. This Act provides authority 

through September 30, 2013, to implement a pilot program to improve customer service to 

applicants and holders of special land use authorizations and reduce the agency’s backlog of 

expired authorizations.

Forest Service Administration of Rights-of-Way and Land uses; Consolidated Appropriations 

Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76). This act provides permanent authority to retain and spend fees as 

originally authorized under Section 331 of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies 

Appropriations Act, 2000 (as enacted into law by section 1000(a)(3) of Public Law 106–113; 16 

U.S.C. 497 note).

Program Description

Programs included in this fund are:

Cost Recovery Lands Major Projects - All recreation and non-recreation (land) uses that 

require more than 50 hours of agency time to process or monitor. Uses involving 

construction/reconstruction are deemed to be Major Categories for which the agency collects 

all appropriate administrative costs.

Cost Recovery Lands Minor Projects - Excluding recreation uses, all non-recreation (land) 

uses not subject to exemption or waiver that require 50 hours or less of agency time to 

process or monitor are deemed Minor Categories. These categories use a flat fee schedule 

established in four different tiers, subject to annual indexing.

Program Overview

Each year, the Forest Service processes between 6,000 and 9,000 applications for the use and 

occupancy of NFS lands and administers more than 80,000 authorizations for a wide variety of 

non-occupancy purposes, including energy-related uses, broadband and communication 

facilities, and campground management. Processing and authorizing these uses is an important 

component of facilitating the development and transmission of affordable and reliable energy 

and communication services, supporting national security, supporting economic development,
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and promoting the public health and safety of populations within or in proximity to national 

forests and grasslands throughout the Nation. Work activities include:

• Evaluating applications to use Federal land for other government use; commercial, and 

private requests to assure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, land use plans;

and the technical and financial capability of applicants to conduct use on NFS land.

• Conducting appropriate environmental, social, and economic analyses on requests to use 

NFS land pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act.

• Developing special use authorizations with appropriate terms and conditions that ensure 

protection of public health and safety and resource protection measures.

• Performing oversight and inspection of certain authorization activities associated with 

construction/reconstruction activities.

All determinations are subject to dispute, allowing the applicant or holder to question the validity 

of the estimated cost recovery fee in the initial determination. Disputes must provide written 

rationale and evidence as to why the estimated fee is in error, and suggest alternative fee 

estimations based in fact. Waivers of cost recovery fees are provided for local, State, or Federal 

governmental applicants and for recreation use authorizations taking 50 hours or less to process.

Allocation and Integration

Major Categories - For uses not subject to exemption or waiver, the Forest Service estimates 

actual expenses and works with the applicant or holder to determine if the costs are 

reasonable in accordance with the Federal Land Management and Policy Act of 1976 as 

amended or are required actual expenses in accordance with the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 

as amended.

Minor Categories - Uses subject to Forest Service cost recovery regulations (not exempt or 

waived) that require 50 hours or less of agency time to process or monitor are assessed a fee 

in accordance with a fee schedule published in the Federal Register.

Partnerships

We cooperate with many other Federal agencies, such as Department of the Interior agencies

including the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife 

Service; Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Army Corp of Engineers; interagency working 

groups; State, local, and Tribal governments; and partners such as the Western Utility Group and 

the National Forest Recreation Association. Partnership opportunities lead to streamlined

procedures in order to deliver consistent and clear direction.
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Licensee Program Smokey Bear

Budget Line Item Licensee Program Smokey Bear

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Licensee Program Smokey Bear

New Budget Authority $113 $113 $113 0

Program Level 54 54 54 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2016 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $54,000 for the Licensee Program 

Smokey Bear fund, the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funds will support special 

projects regarding Smokey Bear’s 75th Birthday preliminary preparations, as well as the national 

wild fire prevention awards program, and licensing agent/contractor services. This program 

supports national initiatives, local programs, and products that help increase public awareness 

with regard to wildfire prevention. 

Authorities

Fees for the use of the Smokey Bear character by private enterprises are collected under 

regulations formulated by the Secretary of Agriculture. They are available to further the 

nationwide forest fire prevention campaign (16 U.S.C. 580 p-2) (18 U.S.C. 711). 

Program Description

The Smokey Bear program supports national initiatives, programs, and products that help 

increase public awareness in regard to wildfire prevention. The licensee contractor manages the 

marketing and administration of the commercial license program and receives 35 percent of the 

royalties collected for its services. The national fire prevention program staff manages the 

licensing contract. Smokey Bear royalties also support the National Smokey Bear Award 

program and the national fire prevention public service campaign. The Chief of the Forest 

Service has discretionary authority to use money from royalties in special projects that support 

the Smokey Bear wild fire prevention message.
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Licensee Program Woodsy Owl

Budget Line Item Licensee Program Woodsy Owl

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Licensee Program Woodsy Owl

New Budget Authority $12 $12 $12 0

Program Level 0 0 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2016 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget program level is zero for the Licensee Program Woodsy Owl

fund, the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The reduction responds to the consistent low 

rate of royalty collections over the last three years. Royalty funds support national initiatives, 

local programs, and products that help increase public awareness about the importance of 

maintaining environmental quality. In FY 2017 royalty funds will support Woodsy’s

promotional campaign in social media outlets, water conservation messages, and the Woodsy’s

licensing contract. 

Authorities

Fees for using the Woodsy Owl character by private enterprises are collected under regulations 

formulated by the Secretary of Agriculture. They are available to promote wise use of the 

environment and programs that foster maintenance and improvement of environmental quality 

(16 U.S.C. 580 p-1) (formerly classified as 31 U.S.C. 488a, 488b-3, 488b-6) (18 U.S.C. 711a).

Program Description

The Woodsy Owl program supports national initiatives, programs, and products that help 

increase public awareness of activities and issues related to improvement and maintenance of the 

environment. The Conservation Education program identifies funding for the Woodsy Owl 

conservation program initiative to develop products, to manage the licensing program, and to 

enhance partnerships. One of these activities includes the management of the licensing program. 

The licensing contractor receives 35 percent of the royalties reported. In addition, during FY 

2017 a share of the licensing fund will be used to continue promoting Woodsy’s partnership with 

the Office of the Head Start. This will cover for the cost of materials and supplies that will be 

sent to Head Start classrooms upon request.
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Forest Service Go Green Program (Conservation)

Budget Line Item Forest Service Go Green Program 

(Conservation)

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Forest Service Go Green Program (Conservation)

New Budget Authority $110 $110 $110 0

Program Level 26 26 26 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $26,000 for the Forest Service Go 

Green program, the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget.

Past Performance

The funding level in this program depends on the proceeds collected. Total collections for this 

program have grown from $3,701 in the inaugural year of FY 2009 to a cumulative total of 

$229,317 as of September 20, 2014.

Authorities

The Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 2002, authorizes Federal agencies to 

receive and use revenue resulting from waste prevention and recycling programs. Such revenue 

shall be available until expended for the purpose of waste reduction, prevention, and recycling 

programs.

Accountable property is excluded from this program, which includes all capital leases and all 

owned personal property having an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more. Excess property, such as 

electronics and other personal property that is not considered accountable property, follows an 

initial screening by USDA agencies which determines if the property is eligible for donation, to 

be transferred to another government agency, or to be recycled. Other items excluded from the 

scope of this program are Forest Service and General Services Administration vehicles, which 

also have disposal/excess rules in place.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Forest Service promoted the implementation of the “Go Green” program on the national 

forests and grasslands in FY 2009 to help meet the agency’s recycling and waste reduction goals. 

Go Green funds are collected not only from recycling simple items such as cans, but also from 
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recycling abandoned vehicles and appliances which makes this funding essential for land 

management. This funding enables field units to also accomplish clean-up activities they 

otherwise might not be able to accomplish due to reduced budgets.

Since FY 2009, the implementation of the authority to collect revenue resulting from waste 

prevention and recycling programs has increased significantly. The funding level in this 

program depends on the proceeds collected. As information on Go Green is more widely shared, 

funding levels are expected to increase. Every dollar collected under this authority offsets 

funding from other programs.

In FY 2016, we anticipate our Go Green program will continue to grow given increasing 

awareness through our Sustainable Operations peer learning series and the agency’s Climate 

Change Scorecard Element 10.
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Conveyance of Administrative Sites

Budget Line Item Conveyance of Administrative Sites

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Conveyance of Administrative Sites

New Budget Authority $4,011 $9,400 0 -$9,400

Program Level 3,606 6,000 $6,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 5 5 5 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $6,000,000 for the Conveyance of 

Administrative Sites, the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. The Forest Service Facility 

Realignment and Enhancement Act (see Authorities below) expires September 30, 2016, and the 

program will be funded in FY 2017 with proceeds retained in FY 2016. Retaining proceeds from 

these conveyances has provided the Forest Service with funds for maintenance, rehabilitation, 

and construction for specified projects, while we continue to right-size the agency’s real property 

portfolio.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the agency collected property valued at $4,010,590 through land and facility 

conveyances reducing deferred maintenance costs. Outputs associated with this program are 

combined with and reported under individual resource programs in the National Forest System

(NFS), Land Acquisition, and Capital Improvement and Maintenance chapters.

Authorities

Forest Service Facility Realignment and Enhancement Act of 2005, (FSFREA), Title V of the 

Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 (P.L. 

109-54). This Act provided authority through September 30, 2008, to convey unneeded 

administrative sites and retain the proceeds for building maintenance, rehabilitation, and 

construction provided certain criteria contained in Title V are met. This authority was extended 

through September 30, 2011, pursuant to the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (P.L. 111-8). 

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 (P.L. 112-74, Title IV, Sec. 421). This Act amends 

Section 503(f) of the Forest Service Facility Realignment and Enhancement Act of 2005 (Title V 

of the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006, 

P.L. 109-54; 16 U.S.C. 580d note), as amended by section 422(1) of Public Law 111-8 (123 Stat. 

748), by extending authorization to September 30, 2016.

Revenues received from the sale of land or structures are deposited into the Sisk Act Fund and 

are available without further appropriation.
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Program Description

Program Overview

The Administration has made it a priority for Federal agencies to dispose of unneeded properties 

and make more efficient use of the Government’s real estate. This effort builds upon the 

Administration’s ongoing work to sell unneeded Federal properties.

The Administrative Site Conveyances Program provides for the realignment of the agency’s 

facility portfolio by providing an incentive for local managers to liquidate obsolete or 

underutilized assets and reinvest in assets that best support the agency’s mission. This authority 

provides the opportunity to efficiently address current and future needs, reduce annual lease

costs, and reduce the deferred maintenance backlog. In addition to operational benefits, the 

program provides substantial economic and social benefits. These include providing local 

communities with an additional tax base and opportunities for redevelopment to align with 

community plans and economic stimulus strategies. 

The Forest Service currently owns approximately 16,500 administrative and research buildings. 

A large number of these facilities do not meet the agency’s needs and are either underutilized or 

in need of maintenance in order to meet current health and safety standards. More than 60 

percent of Forest Service facilities are more than 30 years old and more than half have exceeded 

their design life. Without major and often costly renovations, these structures frequently fail to 

meet administrative needs due to inadequate space, improper location, high maintenance costs, 

and failure to meet current health, safety, and accessibility codes. Improving asset management 

allows the agency to fully utilize mission critical and mission dependent assets and manage those 

assets in the right condition and at the right cost. 

Work functions for this program include: notification, analysis, valuation, and realty case 

processing services; facility repairs, preventive maintenance and replacement of parts and 

structural components; construction of new facilities; alteration of existing facilities to change 

function; and expansion of facilities to meet the needs of changing mission critical functions.

Allocation and Integration

Proceeds from FSFREA projects compliment discretionary appropriations in the Landownership 

Management budget line item of the NFS appropriation and, Facilities and Deferred 

Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement budget line items of the Capital Improvement and 

Maintenance appropriation. The revenues generated from the sale of land and facilities play an 

integral role in enhancing the agency’s land and facility program. Outputs associated with this 

program are combined with and reported under other individual resource programs throughout 

the Forest Service appropriated accounts. The authority for obligation and expenditure of these 

funds is allocated to the regions based on the amounts collected from sales within that region.

Partnerships

The agency participates in partnerships with other Federal agencies through this program, 

including the General Services Administration who maintains a national memorandum of 

agreement with the Forest Service to fulfill the requirements of FSFREA, as well as Tribal 
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governments, local communities, local governments, and many private landowners. The 

program is enhanced by partnership opportunities that eliminate or reduce redundant efforts. 

Examples include leveraging funds to secure high priority resource lands for public access and 

resource protection or co-locating facilities with other Federal agencies and nongovernmental 

organizations to lower operational costs.
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Site-Specific Lands Act

Budget Line Item Site-Specific Lands Acts

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Permanent Funds

Site-Specific Lands Acts

New Budget Authority $1,140 $2,400 0 -$2,400

Program Level 4,262 3,900 $3,900 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 2 2 2 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $3,900,000 for the Site-Specific 

Lands Acts fund, the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. This program of work pertains to 

site specific acts passed by Congress pertaining to the sale of National Forest System (NFS) land 

and the use of retained receipts to make specific improvements. The proceeds from each of these 

transactions are used in strict accordance with the terms and provisions of the authorizing 

legislation. The collected receipts under these Acts are available without further appropriation.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, we collected $1.1 million from the conveyance of NFS lands. Funds were used 

towards Capital Improvement and Maintenance and Land Adjustment projects. 

Authorities

The Sisk Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 484a; P.L. 90-171). The Sisk Act is an exchange authority 

that allows certain parties to deposit cash, in lieu of land, to complete a land exchange. The 

funds are then utilized by the Secretary to acquire non-Federal properties. Subsequently, other 

authorities have specified that the Sisk Act account be utilized to hold other proceeds until 

expended, consistent with the legislation. Revenues received from the sale of land or structures 

are deposited into the Sisk Act Fund and are available without further appropriation for the 

purpose(s) specified in the statutes.

Program Description

Program Overview

This program enables the collection of receipts from the sale of NFS land pursuant to special acts 

passed by Congress. The proceeds are used for specific improvements to lands and facilities 

within the same national forest or State.

The legislated project may include work functions such as: notification, analysis, valuation, and 

realty case processing services; construction of new facilities; alteration of existing facilities to 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Permanent Appropriations

change function; and expansion of facilities to meet the needs of changing mission critical 

functions. Projects are identified annually through the legislative process. As a result, benefits 

and funds collected vary each year based on legislation.

Allocation and Integration

Conveyances under Special Legislation proceeds may compliment discretionary appropriations 

in the Landownership Management budget line item of the NFS appropriation and the Facilities 

and Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Improvement budget line items of the Capital 

Improvement and Maintenance appropriation. The revenues generated from the sale of land and 

facilities may contribute to enhancing the agency’s land and facility program. Outputs 

associated with this program are combined with and reported under other individual resource 

programs throughout the Forest Service appropriated accounts. The authority for obligation and 

expenditure of these funds are available without further appropriation.

Partnerships

The level of collaboration and partnerships that occurs through this program depends on the 

direction provided in each site specific act passed by Congress.
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Permanent Appropriations

Payment to States

Budget Line Item Payment to States

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 

Enacted

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

President's 

Budget

FY 2017 vs 

FY 2016

Payment to States Funds

National Forest Fund Payments to States Available, Title I & III

New Budget Authority $103,056 $71,499 $0 -$71,499

Program Level 103,097 90,099 0 -90,099

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Twenty-five Percent Payment 

New Budget Authority 0 10,000 50,000 40,000

Program Level 0 10,000 50,000 40,000

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Payments to States Supplemental

New Budget Authority 164,500 164,000 0 -164,000

Program Level 153,500 164,000 0 -164,000

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Payments to Minnesota Counties

New Budget Authority 6,150 6,150 6,150 0

Program Level 5,701 6,150 6,150 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Payments to Counties, Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act

New Budget Authority 39,000 21,000 21,000 0

Program Level 27,518 21,000 21,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Secure Payments for States (SRS), Title II

New Budget Authority 28,290 28,290 0 0

Program Level 28,290 220 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 8 8 8 0

Secure Payments for States/Repayment per DOT Reauthorization

New Budget Authority 230 0 0 0

Program Level 220 0 0 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 0 0 0 0

Payment to State Funds New Budget Authority $340,726 $301,159 $77,150 -$224,009

Payment Funds Program Level $318,326 $306,654 $77,150 -$229,504

Payment to States Funds Full-Time Equivalent (FTEs) 8 8 8 0
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Permanent Appropriations 

FY 2017 Program Changes 

National Forest Fund Payments to States Available, Title I & III 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes a mandatory reauthorization and a four-year phase-out 

through 2019 of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination (SRS) Act, as 

amended, starting in FY 2016. The President’s Budget proposes additional changes to 

administrative provisions of the SRS Act to enhance community involvement with title II 

program delivery and to strengthen economic opportunities provided by the SRS Act during the 

four-year phase-out period. 

Under the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) Act, the Forest Service deposits all receipts to be used for 

title I and title III payments into the National Forest Fund Payments to States Available account, 

from which payments are made. The FY 2017 President’s Budget projects a level of $0 for this 

account because SRS authorization expires in FY 2016. 

Twenty-five Percent Payments

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $50,000,000 for twenty-five percent payments, per 

the SRS Act, an increase of $40,000,000 from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Twenty-five 

percent payments under the 1908 Act are made one year in arrears based on receipts and credits 

specified in the authorizing legislation. 

Payments to States Supplemental

Under the SRS Act, the Forest Service first uses all forest receipts from the National Forest Fund 

receipt account to fund payments. If those receipts are insufficient, a transfer from the U.S. 

Treasury to supplement receipts is obtained for the amount required. The FY 2017 President’s 

Budget proposes $0 for supplemental funding to continue the payments because SRS 

authorization expires in FY 2016. 

Payments to Minnesota Counties 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget contains the mandatory Payments to Minnesota Counties of 

$6,150,000 as required by the authorizing legislation. 

Payment to Counties Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes $21,000,000 in Payments to Counties BankheadJones Farm Tenant Act based on receipts from activities on the national grasslands and from land 

utilization projects, a decrease of approximately $7 million from the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. 

Secure Payments for States (SRS), Title II

The FY 2017 President’s Budget request is zero for Secure Payments for States, as SRS authority 

expires in FY 2016. 
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Secure Payments for States Failure to Elect and Return to Treasury Option 

The SRS Act (16 U.S.C. sec. 7112) requires an eligible county that received a share of the SRS 

formula payment greater than $100,000 to submit its election to allocate its share among titles of 

the SRS Act not later than September 30 each year. An eligible county that failed to make a 

timely election was considered to have elected to expend 80 percent of the funds in accordance 

with the provisions of the 1908 Act. County elections are locked-in for the two year 

reauthorization under P.L. 114-10. The remaining funds become available to the Forest Service 

to carry out projects in the eligible county to further protection, restoration, and enhancement of 

fish and wildlife habitat, and other resource objectives consistent with the purposes of the SRS 

Act on Federal land and on non-Federal land where projects would benefit the resources on 

Federal land. In FY 2015, failure to elect funds, per 16 U.S.C. 7112(d)(3)(B)(ii), totaled 

$220,177. A county may also opt to return its SRS Act formula allocation, in whole or part, to 

the U.S. Treasury per U.S.C. 7112(d)(1)(C)(ii). In FY 2015 a total of $122,963 was returned to 

the U.S. Treasury. 

Program Overview 

National Forest Fund Payments to States Available, Title I & III 

The National Forest Fund Payment to States Available is an account where all receipts that are 

projected to be used for Title I and Title III payments under SRS are deposited. These funds, 

combined with a Payments to States U.S. Treasury transfer, are the source of payments to states 

under the SRS Act.

The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, as amended (16 

U.S.C. 500 note) (SRS) directs that title I funds be used to help fund county schools and roads. 

Title III may be used on county projects including activities under the Firewise Communities 

program, reimbursement for emergency services on national forests, and preparation of a 

community wildfire protection plan. The National Forest Fund Payment to States Available is an 

account where all receipts that are projected to be used for title I and title III payments under the 

SRS Act are deposited. These receipts, combined with the Payments to States Supplemental, are 

the source of payments to states under the SRS Act, most recently amended by P.L. 114-10 on 

April 16, 2015. 

Twenty-five Percent Payment

The term “twenty-five percent payment” means the payment to States required by the sixth 

paragraph under the heading of "FOREST SERVICE" in the Act of May 23, 1908. Twenty-five 

percent payments, authorized under the SRS Act, are annual payments to States on a 25 percent 

seven-year rolling average of revenues basis from the sale of goods and services by the national 

forests. The SRS Act directs that States shall use these payments for schools and/or roads 

projects. The SRS Act was amended on October 3, 2008, in P.L. 110-343, Division C, Title VI. 

P.L. 110-343 which, among other things, changed the payment formula. Instead of being based

on each year’s receipts, payments to the States are now based on a rolling seven-year average of

receipts (16 U.S.C. 500 note).
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Permanent Appropriations 

Payments to States Supplemental

Under the Secure Rural Schools Act, the Forest Service first uses all forest receipts from the 

National Forest Fund receipt account to fund SRS Act payments. If those receipts are 

insufficient, a request is made to U.S. Treasury to transfer the additional amount required to fully 

fund SRS Act formula payments. 

Counties that opted to not receive formula payments, under the SRS Act as reauthorized, do 

receive with few exceptions 25 percent of all moneys collected from the national forests in which 

the counties are located. Counties that elected to receive their share of a State’s SRS Act 

formula payment, receive payments under a formula based on several factors, including acreage 

of Federal land, previous payments, and per capita personal income. 

Payments to Minnesota Counties

This authority derives from the Thye-Blatnick Act of June 22, 1948, as amended (16 U.S.C. 

577g), Payment for Additional Lands Acquired in Northern Minnesota. This Act directed the 

Secretary of Agriculture to acquire resorts, cabins, and private lands within the Boundary Waters 

Canoe Area Wilderness and permanent residents were prohibited after 1974. Additionally, inlieu-of-tax payments were authorized to Cook, Lake, and St. Louis Counties for Federal 

wilderness land from any national forest receipts not otherwise appropriated. At the close of 

each fiscal year, the State of Minnesota is paid three-fourths of 1 percent of the appraised value 

of certain Superior National Forest lands in the counties of St. Louis, Cook, and Lake for 

distribution to those counties. The land value is reappraised every 10 years. New appraisals were 

last completed in 2008. 

Payments to Counties, Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act

This authority derives from title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act of July 22, 1937, as 

amended (7 U.S.C. 1012). This Act pertains primarily to national grasslands and land use 

projects. Annual payments are authorized to counties that contain Forest Service lands acquired 

under the Bankhead-Jones Act. Twenty-five percent of the revenues received during the year, 

excluding receipts from the sale of land, from each national grassland or land utilization project 

are paid to the counties in which such lands are located. The funds are restricted to uses that 

benefit public schools and roads. 

Secure Payments for States (SRS), Title II

The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (16 U.S.C. 500 note) 

originally authorized through FY 2006 as P.L. 106-393, provided choices to counties to either 

receive a guaranteed level of annual payments for roads and schools and other authorized 

purposes, as well as funding for specific resource improvement projects on the national forest 

where the county is located, or to receive payments under the Act of May 23, 1908. The Act was 

reauthorized through FY 2011 on October 3, 2008, in P.L. 110-343, Division C, Title VI. P.L. 

112-141 reauthorized the program through FY 2012 and P.L. 113-40 reauthorized the program

again through FY 2013. There was then a two year reauthorization for FY 2014 through FY 2015

under section 524 of P.L. 114-10. The most recent authorization, by P.L. 114-10, locks-in the

elections made by counties to be the same as for the FY 2013 payment.
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Payments to Communities 

Payments to Communities

FY 2017 Program Changes 

Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act: We support Congress 

reauthorizing the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 making 

payments through mandatory funding. The funding for extending the act is included in our 

Budget Justification, and we look forward to working with the Committees to develop the 

legislative proposal.

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes a mandatory reauthorization and a five-year phase-out 

through 2020 of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) Act starting in FY 2016 with a FY 2017 

payment of $279 million from a combination of receipts and supplemental mandatory 

appropriations. The SRS Act program includes funding for both the Forest Service and the 

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) SRS programs. The President’s Budget proposes 

additional changes to administrative provisions of the SRS Act to enhance community 

involvement with title II program delivery and to strengthen economic opportunities provided by 

the SRS Act during the four-year phase-out period. 

Payments to Communities Proposal – Funding Source36

(dollars in thousands) 

Funding 

Source FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018 FY 2019 FY 2020 

Mandatory $279,000 $251,000 $158,000 $122,000 $101,000 

This proposal—titled Payments to Communities—continues to split allocations between the 

three portions of the program from the previous authority emphasizing enhancement of forest 

ecosystems, restoration and improvement of land health, and water quality and an increase of 

economic opportunities for communities that are adjacent to national forests and select BLM 

lands. The types of work funded by each title are listed below:

Title I: Title I payments provide funding for county roads and schools. 

Title II: Title II payments fund projects that enhance forest ecosystems, restore and improve the 

health of the land and water quality; and protect, restore, and enhance fish and wildlife habitat. 

36 The Payments to Communities are estimates and are the sum of 1) prior year receipts derived from several 

collection sources and 2) mandatory funds from Treasury. The estimate also accounts for payments to communities 

that did not elect SRS formula payments and instead elected twenty-five percent payments. Due to this formula, 

estimates provided in this Chapter may sometimes be inconsistent with MAX.
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Payments to Communities

Title III: Title III payments are used by counties for activities under the Firewise Communities 

program, reimbursement for emergency services on national forests and preparation of 

community wildfire protection plans.

Past Performance

The SRS Act title II projects continued to enhance forest ecosystems, restore and improve the 

health of the land and water quality; and, to protect, restore and enhance fish and wildlife habitat. 

Examples of enhancements are maintenance or obliteration of roads, trails, and infrastructure; 

improvement of soil productivity; stream and watershed restoration; control of noxious and 

exotic weeds; re-establishment of native species; and finding economic uses to remove biomass 

and reduce wildfire fuels on national forests.

The SRS Act title II projects provide employment in rural communities and an opportunity for 

local citizens to advise the Forest Service, through participation in Resource Advisory 

Committees (RACs), on projects of mutual interest that benefit the environment and the local 

economy. In FY 2015, the Forest Service worked diligently to enhance the diversity of title II 

RAC membership while adhering to the 

specialized requirements for eligibility to 

serve on RACs. Achieving RAC quorums 

remained a challenge in FY 2015 due 

largely to small population size limits in 

many rural areas, internal requirements to 

have two applicants for each member 

opening, statutory requirements of the SRS

Act for required skills and interest

representation, and the complexities of 

navigating Federal Advisory Committee 

Act compliance.

Program Description

The Secure Rural Schools and Community 

Self-Determination Act of 2000 (SRS Act), 

P.L. 106-393, was enacted to provide for 

transitional assistance to rural counties 

affected by the decline in receipts, largely

from declining timber sales, on Federal 

lands. The last payment authorized under 

P.L. 106-393 was for 2006. Section 601 of Division C of P.L. 110-343 amended and 

reauthorized the SRS Act (P.L. 106-393) through 2011. P.L. 112-141 reauthorized the program 

through FY 2012, and P.L. 113-40 reauthorized the program through FY 2013. The SRS Act, as 

amended, retains the original title. The amended SRS Act was similar to P.L. 106-393, although 

it was structured to phase out payments.

On October 1, 2014, the SRS Act expired. With the expiration of the SRS Act, payments to 

communities reverted to payments under the Act of May 23, 1908. Subsequently the SRS Act 

Berkeley County/Francis Marion NF

SRS title II funds were used to restore and protect the 

integrity of the local rivers and streams by repairing this 

horse trail on the Francis Marion National Forest. Projects 

like this provide the public with the opportunity to 

collaborate on the management of national forests as well 

as local economic opportunities in the form of contracting 

jobs and increased recreation based economies.
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Payments to Communities 

was reauthorized by section 524 of P.L. 114-10 and signed into law by the President on April 16, 

2015. The two-year SRS Act funding extension (Section 524) was included with P.L. 114-10, 

the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. As required by P.L. 114-10, 

payments for FY 2014 (FY 2015 payment-year) were made to States within 45 days of

enactment. Because the SRS Act had not been reauthorized at the time the FY 2015 and FY 

2016 sequester orders were issued, the SRS payments were not reduced for sequestration. 

The SRS Act has provided more than fifteen years of transitioning payments to eligible states

and counties often with limited economic development opportunities, caused in part by large 

tracts of undevelopable adjacent Federal lands. The SRS Act has helped fund public schools and 

roads and provided predictably declining payments to states to transition to the 1908 Act 

payment. In addition, it has also created a forum for community interests to collaboratively 

participate in the selection of natural resource projects on the national forests, and assisted in 

community wildfire protection planning. For additional information on SRS and links to the 

actual legislation please visit: http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/pts/home . 

Title I—Secure Payments for States and Counties Containing Federal Land

The Act directs that the majority of the State Payment be used to help fund county schools and 

roads. This portion of the payment is commonly referred to as the title I payment and has 

averaged about 85 percent of the total State Payments to date. 

Title I of the SRS Act, as reauthorized, provided the new formula for the State Payment for FYs

2008 through 2011 with a one year reauthorization for FY 2012 and again in FY 2013. The FY 

2015 authorization, by P.L. 114-10, will last for two Fiscal Years, providing SRS payments in 

FYs 2015 and 2016. An eligible county’s adjusted share of the State Payment is determined by a 

complex calculation involving multiple factors including acres of national forest the county’s 

annual per capita personal income, and a seven-year rolling average payment. The formula 

reduces the total payments to all states by approximately five percent of the preceding year,

which began for 2012 and continued through the FY 2013 and FY 2015 reauthorizations. 

Title II—Special Projects on Federal Land

Prior to elections being locked through the current reauthorization of the SRS Act, eligible

counties had the option to allocate part of their share of the State Payment to SRS Title II for 

projects that maintain existing infrastructure or enhance the health of ecosystems on national 

forests, while supporting local economies. Title II provides for the establishment of RACs,

which are all formal Federal Advisory Act committees, to review and recommend projects. SRS

Act reauthorizations added to the duties of the committees and expanded the interests 

represented by members.

Title II projects enhance forest ecosystems, restore and improve the health of the land and water 

quality; and, protect, restore and enhance fish and wildlife habitat. For FYs 2008 through 2015, 

Title II funds totaled over $285 million for projects recommended in more than 300 counties. 
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Payments to Communities 

Title III—County Funds 

Funds allocated by a county under Title III may be used on county projects. Title III initially had 

six authorized uses: search and rescue, community service work camps, easement purchases, 

forest related educational opportunities, fire prevention and county planning, and community 

forestry. With subsequent SRS Act reauthorizations, Congress limited the use of Title III funds 

to three authorized uses: activities under the Firewise Communities program, reimbursement for 

emergency services on national forests, and preparation of community wildfire protection plans. 

As reauthorized, Title III now directs each participating county to certify annually that Title III 

funds were used for authorized purposes. For FYs 2008 through 2015, Title III funds totaled 

over $163 million. 

The Budget reflects a reauthorization and a four-year phase-out through 2020, starting in 2016, 

of the SRS Act with funding through mandatory appropriations. This SRS proposal continues 

the allocation split between the three portions of the program emphasizing enhancement of forest 

ecosystems, restoration, and improvement of land health and water quality and the increase of 

economic activity. 

Refer to the Payment to States section under the Permanent Appropriations chapter for more 

details on other formula-related payments. 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Trust Funds

Trust Funds

Budget Line Item Trust Funds

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Trust Funds

Cooperative Work, Knutson-Vandenberg

New Budget Authority $61,498 $40,800 $40,800 0

Program Level 210,901 65,900 65,900 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 431 431 431 0

Cooperative Work, Other

New Budget Authority 47,000 33,000 33,000 0

Program Level 88,000 48,000 48,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 204 204 204 0

Land Between the Lakes Trust Fund

New Budget Authority 92 0 0 0

Program Level 28 200 200 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 5 5 5 0

Reforestation Trust Fund

New Budget Authority 30,000 30,000 30,000 0

Program Level 32,000 30,000 30,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 162 162 162 0

Trust Funds New Budget Authority 138,590 103,800 103,800 0

Trust Funds Program Level 330,929 144,100 144,100 0

Trust Funds Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 802 802 802 0

.
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Trust Funds

Cooperative Work - Knutson-Vandenberg

Appropriation Cooperative Work - Knutson-Vandenberg

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Trust Funds

Cooperative Work, Knutson-Vandenberg

New Budget Authority $61,498 $40,800 $40,800 0

Program Level 210,901 65,900 65,900 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 431 431 431 0

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Estimate Actual Estimate Estimate

Cooperative Work, Knutson-Vandenberg

Acres of forest vegetation established 44,237 38,988 50,000 37,192 40,000 38,000

Acres of forest vegetation improved 18,643 22,306 39,000 21,659 35,000 25,000

Acres of lake habitat restored or enhanced 97 94 100 66 100 80

Miles of stream habitat restored or enhanced 4 35 10 20 10 15

Acres of hazardous fuels treated to reduce risk of 

catastrophic fire 91,073 89,157 27,500 55,102 80,000 60,000

Miles of high clearance system roads improved 1 3 6 0 6 3

Highest priority acres treated annually for noxious weeds 

and invasive plants on NFS lands 9,446 9,835 1,000 9,310 8,000 9,000

Acres of rangeland vegetation improved 491 93 321 11 120 75

Miles of roads decommissioned 12 1 10 2 5 3

Acres of watershed improvement 79 2,330 7,630 2,850 3,500 2,500

Acres of wildlife habitat (terrestrial) restored or 

enhanced 72,774 124,986 60,000 108,231 90,000 95,000

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.
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Trust Funds

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Estimate Actual Estimate Estimate

Cooperative Work, Knutson-Vandenberg - Regional 

Work

Acres of forest vegetation established 124 119 150 55 150 100

Acres of forest vegetation improved 1,714 504 1,000 1,186 600 750

Forestlands treated to achieve healthier conditions 3,450 2,174 2,000 6,505 2,000 3,400

Miles of stream habitat restored or enhanced 0 7 5 0 5 3

Volume of timber sold (hundred cubic feet (CCF)) 54,731 46,833 55,000 113,342 55,000 75,000

Miles of landownership boundary line 

marked/maintained to standard 16 13 15 0 15 5

Volume of timber sold (million board feet (MMBF)) 27 24 27 59 27 40

Acres of hazardous fuels treated to reduce risk of 

catastrophic fire 4,318 662 700 788 700 700

Acres of wildland-urban interface (WUI) high-priority 

hazardous fuels treated 2,959 597 500 600 500 575

Highest priority acres treated annually for noxious weeds 

and invasive plants on NFS lands 15 638 50 199 200 200

Acres of wildlife habitat (terrestrial) restored or 

enhanced 750 967 400 2,744 800 1,000

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $65,900,000 in the KnutsonVandenberg (K-V) program, the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. Funds will be used 

to conduct sale area improvement work on timber sale areas on national forests. Funds will also 

be used within timber sale areas to implement reforestation following timber harvest as well as 

other sale area improvements approved in the related environmental analyses. The request fully 

funds the required sale area improvement work planned for accomplishment in FY 2017. 

A total of $13,800,000 of the K-V program will be used for the K-V Regional Work program, 

the same as the FY 2016 Enacted Budget. This work will provide for vegetative treatments to 

meet forest health and resource restoration objectives. Activities include wildlife habitat 

improvement, control of insects, disease, and noxious weeds, community protection activities, 

and the maintenance of forest roads. An estimated outcome from these vegetation treatments is 

27.5 million board feet (MMBF) of timber volume sold. The timber volume sold from this fund 

is accounted for in the timber volume sold accomplishment displayed in the Forest Management

budget line item. 

Past Performance

Completion of K-V timber sale area projects is dependent upon the rate at which timber is 

harvested. Factors that influence the rate of harvest include weather and decisions made by the 

timber sale purchaser regarding which units are harvested. Work this past fiscal year was 

hindered by the transfer of K-V funds to fire suppression efforts late in the field season.
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Trust Funds

Authorities

The Act of June 9, 1930, (16 USC 576b) (P.L. 71-319, Ch. 416, June 9, 1930, 46 Stat. 527, as 

amended by P.L. 94-588, 1976, and P.L. 109-54, [Title IV, Sec. 412], Aug. 2, 2005, 119 Stat. 

551). The Act, known as the Knutson-Vandenberg Act, established a special fund to collect a 

portion of timber sale receipts to pay for reforesting the area from which the timber was cut. The 

Act was amended in 1976 to allow the Forest Service to use these funds for other sale area 

improvement activities. The FY 2006 Interior Appropriations Act amended this authority to 

allow for the expenditure of unused funds, not needed to accomplish work on the sale area, on 

other areas “...within the Forest Service region in which the timber sale occurred.” 

Program Description

Program Overview

The following programs are included in this fund:

Knutson-Vandenberg - This program uses funds derived from timber sale revenues to 

accomplish improvement work within the timber sale area. Planned resource project 

work is documented in the sale area improvement plans as determined by the project 

environmental analysis. The first priority for K-V program funds is reforestation of 

harvested areas. These funds can also be used to perform timber stand improvement and 

protection, and for the improvement of other resource values, including wildlife, soil, 

watershed, range, and recreation. 

Knutson-Vandenberg Regional Work - The FY 2006 Interior Appropriations Act 

expanded the authority to allow for the expenditure of unused funds, not needed to 

accomplish work on the timber sale area, on another area “...within the Forest Service 

region in which the timber sale occurred.” Unused collections are generated when actual 

costs are less than planned costs. This authority is used to accomplish watershed 

restoration; wildlife habitat improvement; control of insects, disease, and noxious weeds; 

community protection activities; and the maintenance of forest roads. The work can be 

performed through the use of contracts, forest product sales, and cooperative agreements. 

If forest product sales are used to accomplish these objectives, K-V Regional Work 

program funds may be utilized for timber sale planning, preparation, administration, 

engineering support, and land line location.

Allocation and Integration

The K-V program funding is allocated to the regions based upon cash collected on timber sale 

areas and the planned resource projects identified on approved sale area improvement plans. The 

K-V Regional Work program funds are allocated based upon cash availability, which includes 

unused collections when actual costs are less than planned cost. 

Partnerships

The K-V program has contributed to partnerships and productive working relationships with 

State fish and game agencies and organizations such as the Wild Turkey Federation, Quail 
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Trust Funds

Unlimited, and the Ruffed Grouse Society. These productive relationships and partnerships are 

critical in the identification and planning of some K-V funded projects.
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Trust Funds

Cooperative Work, Other

Budget Line Item Cooperative Work, Other

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Trust Funds

Cooperative Work, Other

New Budget Authority $47,000 $33,000 $33,000 0

Program Level 88,000 48,000 48,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 204 204 204 0

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $48,000,000 for Cooperative Work, 

Other, the same level as the FY 2016 Enacted budget. Fund distribution includes $30,000,000 for 

the Cooperative Work, Agreement Based program and $18,000,000 for the Cooperative Work, 

Non-Agreement Based program. This level is consistent with anticipated collections from 

partners and cooperators. The collections allow the agency to leverage appropriated funds to 

deliver a variety of treatments and services, which benefit Forest Service lands and other 

resource programs. 

Cooperative projects vary in size and scope each year depending on partner interest, objectives, 

and financial resources, and meet both agency and partner needs. Each agreement specifies the 

type of work to be done as well as the funds being donated. 

Past Performance

A variety of work activities are performed each year using funds deposited in advance by 

partners and cooperators. No targets are set because it is difficult to predict the mix of 

collections or the specific work that will be needed. Activities include wildlife habitat 

enhancement; recreation program activities; research; fire prevention and education; 

construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of roads, trails, and other improvements; scaling 

services; fire protection; and other resource purposes as authorized by law. 

Authorities

The Act of June 30, 1914 (16 U.S.C. 498). This act authorizes the acceptance of contributions 

for cooperative work in forest investigations, protection, management, and improvement of the 

National Forest System.

The Granger-Thye Act of April 24, 1950 (16 U.S.C. 572). This act authorizes cooperation with 

other parties to perform work for permittees, agencies, organizations, and persons for the kinds 

of work that the Forest Service is authorized to do on lands of the United States.
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The Roads and Trails Act of October 13, 1964 (16 U.S.C. 532-537). This act authorizes the 

construction of roads using cooperative financing from other agencies.

The Act of June 30, 1978 (16 U.S.C. 1643). This act authorizes the acceptance and use of 

donated funds for research activities.

The Act of October 10, 1978 (7 U.S.C. 2269). This act authorizes agencies within the USDA to 

accept donations for non-research activities.

The Act of June 6, 1968 (16 U.S.C. 693d). This act authorizes cooperation in the operation of 

the Robert S. Kerr Memorial Arboretum and Nature Center.

The Act of July 4, 1968 (16 U.S.C. 471h). This act authorizes cooperation in the operation of the 

Cradle of Forestry.

Title 31, United States Code, section 1321 (31 U.S.C. 1321). Section 1321 of Title 31 of the 

United States Code authorizes Trust Funds.

Program Description

Program Overview

The Cooperative Work, Other fund is used to collect deposits received from partners and 

cooperators for protecting and improving resources of the National Forest System (NFS) as 

authorized by cooperative agreements. The deposits are for a wide variety of activities that 

benefit and support programs in Forest and Rangeland Research, on NFS lands, and for other 

agency activities. 

Cooperative Work, Agreement Based – This is a direct project-to-customer relationship, 

typically involving long-term liability on the part of the Forest Service to perform work 

for the contributor. An example of this work are special use permits with collection 

provisions under the Granger-Thye fee offset where the Forest Service has a liability to 

perform work for the permit holder specially tied to the permit. These agreements should 

typically be accompanied by a collection agreement.

Cooperative Work, Non-Agreement Based – These deposits occur when the terms of the 

authorizing instrument, such as a permit or sale contract, allow for deposits from multiple 

contributors to be pooled and expended for the intended purpose. The majority of these 

pooled collections are not subject to refunds in accordance with the provisions of the 

respective authorizing instrument.

Cooperative deposits are received from a vast assortment of local, regional, and national 

organizations and individuals; State and other public agencies; industrial associations; and other 

private sources. The deposits are made under a variety of cooperative instruments that specify 

the mutual benefits of the work. Cooperative deposits leverage appropriated funds to increase 

effectiveness and complement the objectives of Forest Service appropriated resource 

management programs and cooperative research projects. These programs and projects may 

involve any aspect of forestry and vary widely in scope and duration. 
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Cooperative road maintenance deposits can be made by commercial users of the National Forest 

Road System in lieu of actually performing their commensurate share of road maintenance. 

These deposits are used in conjunction with the other road maintenance appropriations to provide 

maintenance of NFS roads by the Forest Service. 

Deposits for administering and protecting non-Federal land within or near the national forests 

can be made by owners of non-Federal lands that are intermingled with, or adjacent to, NFS 

lands. These deposits help landowners manage their lands in accordance with good forest 

management practices and provide for wildfire protection on State and private lands intermingled 

with Federal ownership.
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Reforestation Trust Fund

Budget Line Item Reforestation Trust Fund

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Trust Funds

Reforestation Trust Fund

New Budget Authority $30,000 $30,000 $30,000 0

Program Level 32,000 30,000 30,000 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 162 162 162 0

Performance Measure Accomplishment and Targets (1)

FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Estimate Actual Estimate Estimate

Reforestation Trust Fund

Acres of forest vegetation established 79,734 80,751 81,250 108,540 81,250 85,000

Acres of forest vegetation improved 33,727 27,177 35,450 26,489 31,000 27,000

(1) The Past Performance narrative below provides detailed information on aspects of program management, strategies, 

and/or improvements in relation to the accomplishments associated with the performance measures.

FY 2017 Program Changes

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $30,000,000, the same as the FY 

2016 Enacted Budget. Funds are used to analyze, prepare, and implement reforestation and 

forest vegetation improvement projects outside of timber sale areas on National Forest System

lands. The request will fund an estimated 85,000 acres of reforestation work and 27,000 acres of 

forest vegetation improvement activities. The FY 2017 program continues to prioritize 

reforestation treatments arising from unplanned disturbance events such as wildfires, insects, and 

diseases. In such places, timely reforestation is required to meet specified land management 

objectives. 

The agency will give high priority to reforestation treatments and forest vegetation improvement 

activities on lands where appropriated or Cooperative Work Knutson-Vandenberg funds are not 

available. Financing reforestation and forest vegetation improvement treatments ensures that 

appropriate forest vegetation is established on National Forest System lands within acceptable 

timeframes. Improvement treatments help to maintain and improve forest health conditions. 

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the agency accomplished 108,540 acres of reforestation and 26,489 acres of timber 

stand improvement through the Reforestation Trust Fund. Reforestation includes planting and 

field examination and certification of acres successfully regenerated to meet specified land 
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management objectives. This certification is completed the third year after plantation 

establishment, or five years after natural regeneration. The purpose is to demonstrate that the 

area is satisfactorily stocked with acceptable levels of live seedlings at the time of examination 

survey, and also to determine that there is no additional work required other than protection. The 

field examination and certification procedures are accomplished at lower unit cost than any other 

reforestation or timber stand improvement activities. This allows for implementation of timber 

stand improvement treatments, such as pre-commercial thinning on high priority areas to meet 

forest health, future stand development, and critical hazardous fuel reductions, while exceeding 

reforestation objectives.

Authorities

Reforestation, Recreational Boating Safety and Facilities Act of 1980, Title III, as amended (16 

U.S.C. 1606a(d)) P.L. 96-451. This act established the Reforestation Trust fund.

Program Description

Program Overview

A maximum of $30,000,000 is transferred to the Reforestation Trust Fund by the U.S. Treasury 

each fiscal year to reduce the backlog in reforestation and timber stand improvement work.

Reforestation activities include site preparation for planting or seeding of the appropriate tree 

species, site preparation to encourage natural regeneration, and certification of acres naturally 

regenerated without the need of site preparation. In addition, as part of the reforestation activity, 

various treatments are applied to improve initial seedling survival rates. Benefits of reforestation 

include restoration of forest vegetation on areas impacted by wildfire, floods, and hurricanes; 

increased carbon sequestration capacity; establishment of forest vegetation resilient to the effects 

of climate change; and improved habitat diversity for many wildlife species. More detailed 

information on related activities is presented in the Reforestation Special Exhibit. 

Timber stand improvement activities include release treatments through removal of competing 

vegetation; pre-commercial thinning to regulate stand density, composition and structure; 

pruning treatments that reduce ladder fuels, reduce the effects of pathogens (such as white pine 

blister rust) and improve future wood product quality; and fertilization treatments to maintain 

and improve soil productivity and enhance rapid stand development to improve carbon storage 

capacity. Benefits of timber stand improvement include improved forest health and productivity; 

hazardous fuel reductions; improved forest resiliency to the impacts of drought, insects and 

disease; and diversified wildlife habitat. In addition, timber stand improvement generates woody 

biomass that is available to meet renewable energy needs.

Allocation and Integration

Funds are allocated based on reforestation or timber stand improvement needs, which include 

reforestation needs created by wildfires and other natural events. Prior year accomplishments are 

also a factor. Allocation decisions consider the combined accomplishments from theVegetation 

and Watershed Management program, and the Reforestation Trust Fund program. These funds 

are used in conjunction with other vegetation management funds to provide an integrated, 
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effective means of accomplishing forest vegetation establishment, maintenance, or improvement 

of forest health conditions under a variety of ecological and biological settings. 

Partnerships

Partnerships in reforestation are critical for program accomplishments. Several key reforestation 

partners are American Forests, The National Forest Foundation, the Arbor Day Foundation, the 

National Garden Clubs, Batesville Casket Company, and individual donations under the Plant-ATree program.
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Trust Funds

Land Between the Lakes Trust Fund

Budget Line Item Land Between the Lakes Trust Fund

 (dollars in thousands)

 FY 2015 

Actual

FY 2016 

Enacted

FY 2017 

Estimates

Program 

Changes

Trust Funds

Land Between the Lakes Trust Fund

New Budget Authority $92 0 0 0

Program Level 28 $200 $200 0

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) 5 5 5 0

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget includes a program level of $200,000, the same as the FY 2016 

Enacted Budget. These funds will be invested in public education and regional promotion in 

cooperation with development districts, chambers of commerce, and State and local 

governments. The Land Between the Lakes (LBL) trust fund will use these funds to cover 

additional program elements of the Respect the Resource environmental education program. The 

funding will support environmental education and promotion endeavors that will enhance the 

long term sustainability of LBL. The trust fund will work to increase teacher recruitment, 

especially of new teachers, by including teachers in the programs offered and by helping them to 

cultivate skills that can be used in the classroom.

Past Performance

In FY 2015, the LBL trust fund expended $27,510 in support of public education and regional 

promotion activities. This included interpretive signage at the Golden Pond Overlook heritage 

site, South Bison Range, and the Elk & Bison Prairie to educate LBL visitors. Other endeavors 

included school grant fund to bring area students into the outdoor classroom and promotional 

projects with local entities. The trust fund is controlled directly by the Area Supervisor through 

the LBL Budget Staff.

Authority

Land Between the Lakes Protection Act of 1998 (16 U.S.C. 460lll-31) (P.L. 105-277, div. A, 

Sec. 101(e) [Title V, Sec. 531], Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681-317). This Act establishes the 

LBL Trust fund. In accordance with Title V of the Act, responsibility for the LBL National 

Recreation Area transferred from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to the Secretary of 

Agriculture. 
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Program Description

Program Overview

The LBL Protection Act called for LBL, an area in western Kentucky and Tennessee, to be 

managed as a unit of the National Forest System. Section 531 of the Act established a special 

interest-bearing fund known as the LBL trust fund, to be available for public education, grants, 

and internships related to recreation, conservation, and multiple-use land management as well as 

regional promotion in cooperation with development districts, chambers of commerce, and State 

and local governments. 

In accordance with the terms described in the Act, beginning September 30, 2000, the Tennessee 

Valley Authority began depositing $1 million annually into the fund for five consecutive years, 

for a total of $5 million. The Forest Service has allowed the principal balance to grow and much 

of the interest to compound, and LBL has now begun to use the interest earned on the fund for 

the purposes intended by Congress. This includes providing additional funding to further assist 

in the promotion and support of the successful school grant program for environmental 

education.

Partnerships

LBL’s program of work provides the opportunity to partner with a number of regional and 

national conservation organizations, such as the National Wild Turkey Federation, Quail 

Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and Ducks Unlimited. LBL’s volunteers, interns,

and apprentices, coordinated through the Friends of LBL partnership, log more than 116,000

hours of volunteer time on LBL projects annually.
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Special Exhibits

Special Exhibits

Special Exhibits

Contents

Bark Beetle Infestation in the West................................................................................... 385

Chief’s Reserve Fund.......................................................................................................... 393

Conservation Education..................................................................................................... 396

Cost Pool Totals................................................................................................................... 399

Deferred Maintenance and Asset Management............................................................... 407

Equal Access to Justice Act................................................................................................ 413

Facilities Maintenance Assessment ................................................................................... 420

Fire Transfers...................................................................................................................... 425

Fire, Preparedness, and Suppression Costs...................................................................... 427

National Scenic and Historic Trails................................................................................... 429

Office of General Counsel Reimbursement...................................................................... 437

Office of Tribal Relations................................................................................................... 438

Partnerships......................................................................................................................... 442

Reforestation ....................................................................................................................... 452

Region, Station, and Area Allocations.............................................................................. 456

Research and Development Threat Assessment Centers................................................ 479

Stewardship Contracting ................................................................................................... 488

Unobligated Balances.......................................................................................................... 496

USDA Working Capital Fund and Greenbook Charges................................................. 498

Working Capital Fund, Forest Service ............................................................................. 511

Working Capital Fund - Forest Service Fleet Management........................................... 512
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Bark Beetle Infestation in the West

Background

This exhibit is not required by Congressional direction but is included to report accomplishments 

for the Bark Beetle Infestation in the West program and to describe the impacts of the beetle

infestation in the western United States.

Overview

Current information indicates that tree mortality caused by western bark beetles has declined 

significantly since 2011. A cumulative total of 49.8 million acres were impacted by bark beetles 

in the western United States between 2000 and 2014, with 50% of this area attributed to a single 

species, the mountain pine beetle37. Recent declines in mortality notwithstanding, the impacted 

area is larger than our 10 smallest states combined, and the infestation will have effects on forest 

ecology, fire intensity and extent, and other management concerns for decades to come. 

Moreover, tree mortality caused by bark beetles has resulted in a release of carbon to the 

atmosphere that exceeded that of fire-caused tree mortality over the same period38. While the 

bark beetles discussed here are native to the United States and an important part of the ecology 

of our forests, the amount of tree mortality resulting from recent outbreaks is having many

undesirable social and ecological impacts. New outbreaks of certain species are occurring, and 

climate change is predicted to have various and uncertain effects on future outbreaks and 

subsequent tree mortality.

Of the 49.8 million acres recently impacted by bark beetles, 75% occurred on National Forest 

System (NFS) lands. During years of peak tree mortality, infestations grew at ~600,000 acres 

annually. While the bark beetles discussed here are native to the United States and an important 

part of the ecology of our forests, the amount of tree mortality resulting from recent outbreaks is 

having many undesirable social and ecological impacts. For example, in 2011, it was estimated 

that 100,000 bark beetle-killed trees fell daily in southern Wyoming and northern Colorado, 

posing a serious health and safety threat to forest visitors, residents, and employees39. It is likely 

that this number has increased in the intervening years as mortality accumulates.

On July 11, 2011, the Forest Service released the five-year Western Bark Beetle Strategy40, 

which described how the Forest Service was going to respond to the western bark beetle 

epidemic in Regions 1 through 6. The strategy focuses on the future and on the continued need 

to integrate and prioritize our response around three goals: human safety, forest recovery, and 

 37 Forest Health Protection (www.foresthealth.fs.usda.gov) 38 Hicke, J. A., Meddens, A. J., Allen, C. D., & Kolden, C. A. (2013). Carbon stocks of trees killed by bark beetles and wildfire 

in the western United States. Environmental Research Letters, 8(3), 035032

39 USDA Forest Service 2011Western Bark Beetle Strategy, http://www.fs.fed.us/publications/bark-beetle/bark-beetle-strategyappendices.pdf

40 USDA Forest Service 2011Western Bark Beetle Strategy,

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5338089.pdf 
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long-term forest resiliency. The strategy will be concluded in FY 2016, but many of the activities 

it established will continue, particularly in the Research and Development deputy area.

Agency Priorities and Actions

Protecting human health and safety is the Forest Service priority when allocating funds to treat 

forests. The decision to remove trees to mitigate the effects of the western bark beetle takes into 

consideration both the health and safety of the public, as well as that of Forest Service 

employees. Priorities include: treatment near roads, trails, and campgrounds that experience 

high public use; treatment in areas adjacent to communities and homes for protection from fire; 

and coordination of larger-scale projects with other governmental agencies and partners that 

identify and communicate risks to public safety and leverage treatments across boundaries. 

Additional priorities include recovery and forest resiliency. Effective recovery improves 

watershed health, wildlife habitat, and water quality; creates more resilient forests following 

infestation; and provides benefits above and beyond what would be expected if nature were 

allowed to take its course. Active forest management can increase the resiliency of forests not 

yet infested by bark beetles. Thinning young stands to decrease basal area and creating a 

diversity of age classes over time can mitigate potential catastrophic beetle losses. Species and 

age diversity are key elements of a forest’s resiliency to insects, disease, and wildfire. Managing 

for resiliency can reduce the environmental, health, and safety impacts of beetle infestation.

Research and Development Activities

The Forest Service has invested in the development of knowledge and management tools needed 

to guide the priorities described above. The Western Bark Beetle Research Group (WBBRG) is 

comprised of the Forest Service Research and Development (R&D) entomologists working on 

bark beetles in western forests. Research priorities were identified by the WBBRG and its 

stakeholders, who have helped to shape the R&D response41. As a result, research effort has been 

aimed at providing better strategies for mitigating tree hazards to people and community 

infrastructure; improving the ability of fuel and fire behavior models to map changes in fire 

hazards due to bark beetle infestations; developing models to predict outbreak potential in a 

changing climate; exploring management treatments for bark beetle control; and improving our 

understanding of the effects of increased vegetation diversity, thinning, and other disturbance 

agents on the population dynamics of various bark beetle species. A synthesis of the anticipated 

effects of climate change on the response and impacts of bark beetles in western North America 

was summarized by the WBBRG42.

Forest Service R&D performs critical research leading to the development and delivery of tools 

needed to reduce and minimize the impact of bark beetles across all landscapes and ownerships

in the western United States. Forest Service researchers are developing a compendium describing 

 41 Negrón, J.F., B.J. Bentz, C.J. Fettig, N.E. Gillete, E.A.Hansen, J.L. Hayes, R.G. Kelsey, J.E. Lundquist, A.M. Lynch, R.A. 

Progar, and S.J. Seybold. 2008. USDA Forest Service bark beetle research in the western United States. Looking towards the 

future. Journal of Forestry 106:325-331. 42 B.J. Bentz, J. Régnière, C.J. Fettig, E.M. Hansen, J.L. Hayes, J.A. Hicke, R.G. Kelsey, J.E. Lundquist, J.F. Negrón, and S.J.

Seybold. 2010. Climate change and bark beetles of the western US and Canada: Direct and indirect effects. BioScience 60: 602–

613.
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the impacts caused by the major bark beetle species in the western United States43. Between 

2012and 2014, Forest Service scientists in the WBBRG published 102 scientific papers and 

reports on the subject area of western bark beetle biology, ecology, and management. They also 

organized 11 meetings or symposia and gave nearly 170 presentations on the topic. In particular, 

the WBBRG published the most thorough synthesis of current knowledge about any bark beetle 

in North America44. This special issue published in Forest Science included 10 papers 

concerning different aspects of the biology, ecology, and management of mountain pine beetle: 

• Applied chemical ecology

• Voltinism and life history characteristics 

• Phoretic symbionts 

• Landscape dynamics 

• Forest development and carbon dynamics after outbreaks 

• Ecological consequences of outbreaks on wildlife 

• Interactions with fires and forest fuels

• Mountain pine beetle-killed lodgepole pine for the production of submicron 

lignocellulose fibrils 

• Management practices 

• Consequences of management decisions 

In the future, research efforts will focus on developing strategies to reduce the impact of new 

outbreaks and mitigate the negative affects arising from forest mortality that has already 

occurred. These efforts include: (1) strategies for mitigating tree hazards to people and 

community infrastructure; (2) improving the ability of fuel and fire behavior models to map fire 

hazards due to bark beetles; (3) exploring pest management treatments for beetle control; and (4) 

improving our understanding of the effects of increased vegetation diversity, thinning and, 

disturbance agents on the population dynamics of various bark beetle species.

 43 http://www.fs.fed.us/wwetac/projects/lundquist2.html 44 Negrón, J.F., and C.J. Fettig. 2014. Mountain pine beetle, a major disturbance agent in US western coniferous forests: A 

synthesis of the state of knowledge. Forest Science 60:409–413.
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Special Exhibits

Forest Service Funding for Biomass, Wood Products, Wood Energy, and the Wood 

Education and Resource Center

(dollars in thousands)

Budget Line Item

FY 2015

Actual

FY 2016

Enacted

FY 2017

Estimates

Biomass Production

Forest Products $4,250 $5,000 $5,000*

Integrated Resource 

Restoration 750 - -

Bioenergy & Biobased Products 

Research Research and Development 11,511 11,924 11,757

Wood Innovations: Wood Energy 

and Wood Products Markets Hazardous Fuels 8,450** 10,000** 10,000**

Geographically Target Wood 

Utilization Hazardous Fuels 775 2,500 2,500

Expanded Use of Wood in Green 

Building Hazardous Fuels 775 2,500 2,500

Wood Education and Resource 

Center (WERC)

Forest Stewardship, Urban 

Forestry, Forest Health, State 

fire Assistance and Hazardous 

Fuels*** 960 960 960

Total $27,471 $32,884 $33,717 *

This includes funding for the national target of 2.5 million green tons of biomass and funding for wood supply assessments. **Administered by Regions/Area with support from the Forest Products Laboratory. 

***A mix of funds is provided to the Wood Education and Resource Center to address hardwood industry issues related to 

the 35-state eastern hardwood region and to develop markets for underutilized hardwoods and softwoods in the region.

Other participating USDA agencies provide the bulk of funding for the USDA Wood to Energy 

Initiative. The Forest Service is increasing its investment in this work, but our primary focus is 

delivering subject matter expertise and technical assistance.

FY 2017

Forest Service’s emphasis on biomass, wood products, and wood energy encourages market 

development for woody biomass and provides high quality data to inform business decisions. 

The work planned for FY 2017 is primarily structured around the USDA Wood to Energy 

Initiative. We will continue to support and develop sustainable management and wood 

utilization technologies and practices to effectively integrate biomass production into forest 

management activities. The following describes the work to be accomplished with respect to 

each of the items listed in the table above.

Biomass Production

In FY 2015 the Forest Service continued to help the Farm Services Agency implement the 

Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), which provides eligible farmers, ranchers, and 

foresters with an incentive to harvest forest and agricultural residues and deliver them to 

qualified energy facilities. The program provided transportation subsidies to loggers and energy 

facilities for the removal and delivery of biomass for energy generation. 
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The delivery of these residues advanced an important component of the restoration activities 

occurring on National Forest System Lands.

Across the National Forest System, 2.38 million green tons of biomass were harvested and made 

available for bio-energy production in FY 2015. Highlights of biomass production on NFS lands 

in FY 2015 include:

• In the Northern Sierra Nevadas, the Burney Hat Creek Basins project made nearly 30,000 

green tons from small diameter and low value trees available for bio-energy production. Due 

to the continued biomass supply off this Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration project, 

Hat Creek Construction & Materials (HCC) seeks to develop a 3MW community-scale 

bioenergy facility on their site, located in Burney, California. The Burney-Hat Creek 

Bioenergy Facility (“The Project”) will sustain local jobs, support sustainable forest 

management practices, and promote renewable energy production. 

• The Southern Blues Restoration Coalition project on the Malheur National Forest in Oregon 

made 10,700 green tons of biomass available for bio-energy production in FY 2015. 

Negotiations have also begun on a potential biomass plant to be located in John Day, Oregon 

which could utilize 130,000 tons of biomass towards energy production each year. Once 

built, this plant would greatly expand the demand for biomass from the Southern Blues 

project. 

• The Four Forest Restoration Initiative in Arizona is a large scale restoration effort covering 

2.4 million acres. The project is primarily working with small-diameter, low-value wood 

products and biomass. In FY 2015 4FRI made 96,810 green tons of biomass available for 

bio-energy production. The new business in the 4FRI area called NovoStar, which combines 

manufacturing capability and a cogeneration plant, has the potential to expand biomass use 

further. Novo Star is taking material from national forest, state and private land projects. 

With the addition of the sawmill at the cogeneration plant, Novo Star has added 22 additional 

jobs to the existing 38 employees that work in the Novo Power cogeneration plant, now 

totaling 60 direct hires at the plant. 

Bioenergy and Biobased Products Research

We will continue to provide more accurate national and regional feedstock availability 

projections; models to assist in bioenergy facility site selection; sustainable management 

systems, options, and practices for forest bioenergy feedstocks; logistics and decision support 

tools to improve treatment, harvest, and transport efficiency; integrated models of land use 

patterns and bioenergy markets; and life cycle analysis and assessment tools for forest bioenergy 

and bioproducts supply chains.

We will continue the development of wood-based biofuels, chemicals, and products that 

substitute for petroleum-based materials, including developing biomass deconstruction science 

and technology, conversion technologies for wood-based liquid fuels, including drop-in fuels,

and science and technology for manufacturing chemicals and other co-products from biomass-toenergy conversion.
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• Wood Innovations: Wood Energy and Wood Products Markets 

In 2014, the Forest Service established the Wood Innovations initiative to strategically 

expand wood products and wood energy markets that support forest management and deliver 

economic and environmental benefits to communities. Much of this effort is funded through 

grants and cooperative agreements awarded annually to diverse organizations across the 

country, such as States, Tribes, businesses, local governments, and non-profits. Grant 

amounts are typically up to $250,000 and all grantees must provide a 35 percent match. This 

competitive funding opportunity will continue in 2017.

Since 2013, 20 States have established Statewide Wood Energy Teams through Forest 

Service cooperative agreements to expand wood energy markets. In total, our agency has 

invested roughly $4.9 million and States have contributed roughly $6.6 million to support 

these teams for up to three years. This funding has leveraged substantial private investment, 

created local jobs, supported forest health priorities, and improved local economies through 

conversion of existing and new facilities to wood energy. Five States have also entered into 

cooperative agreements with the Forest Service to establish Statewide Wood Utilization 

Teams designed to expand traditional and innovative wood products. These teams have been 

extremely effective in identifying successful opportunities in the highest priority areas of 

each State. They provide technical assistance and seed money for projects, but also get 

projects ready for competitive funding through Wood Innovations, Rural Development, or 

other funding opportunities. In 2017, we expect continued enthusiasm by States and partners 

to advance wood energy and wood products markets. We also anticipate a dramatic increase 

in the expansion of cross laminated timber use in commercial building construction in the 

United States. 

• Wood Innovations: Wood Energy and Wood Products Markets: Expand Wood Products 

Markets - In 2016, the Forest Service will issue grants to expand wood products markets in 

traditional and emerging sectors to support forest management needs on National Forest 

System and other forest lands. Preference will be given to projects that make use of wood 

generated from National Forest System and other forest lands with high wildfire risk or 

projects that support commercial building markets or other markets that use innovative wood 

products. Grant amounts will not exceed $250,000 in most cases and all grantees must 

provide a 35 percent match.

• Geographically Target Wood Utilization - This program, in conjunction with geographicallyfocused hazardous fuels work, will support wood utilization to reduce treatment costs 

through technical assistance, grants, and cooperative agreements, if specific needs are 

identified.

• Expand the use of Wood in the Commercial Building Sector - Engineered wood products and 

innovative building designs for commercial high rise buildings are opening extensive new 

markets for the conversion of relatively low-value small dimension lumber into higher-value 

structural materials. This new market has the potential to produce significant benefits for 

climate change; energy conservation; and the reduction of costs for hazardous fuels 
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reduction, forest restoration, and other forest treatments. This promising market promotes

the storage of carbon in long-lived building materials by “making big wood out of small 

wood,” reduces the amount of energy needed for building construction, and generates a

higher monetary value for wood. Funding will be used to work with architects, engineers, 

developers, and others to increase the use of wood construction materials, establish

demonstration projects, conduct Life Cycle Assessments, and pursue Environmental Product 

Declarations, if specific needs are identified.

Wood Education and Resource Center 

The Wood Education and Resource Center (WERC) was started in 1999 when legislation was 

enacted authorizing the Forest Service to assume operation of the former Robert C. Byrd 

Hardwood Technology Center (RCBHTC) in Princeton, West Virginia. Under Forest Service 

management, WERC focuses on primary and secondary wood processing, woody biomass 

utilization using multidisciplinary approaches, efficient utilization of urban tree removals, 

partnerships to solve forest products related issues, as well as the following activities: 

• Maintaining and expanding a competitive hardwood industry that provides jobs and 

markets for local community needs

• Increasing communication, cooperation, and collaborative problem solving within the 

forest products industry

• Supporting woody biomass utilization for energy

• Advancing market development and utilization of trees affected by insects, diseases, and 

weather events

• Supporting appropriate green building initiatives and carbon storage in wood products

WERC programs help maintain and improve wood industry productivity and competitiveness in 

a sustainable manner within the 35 states of the eastern hardwood region. Viable wood products 

markets enable sustainable forest management on private, State, and Federal lands. WERC staff 

includes a Biomass Coordinator position to provide leadership for woody biomass-to-energy 

efforts across the State & Private Forestry’s Northeastern Area. WERC’s biomass coordination 

efforts have resulted in a partnership with several engineering consultants that provide 

preliminary assessments of energy system conversions. These are completed for schools, 

hospitals, office, and business facilities.

Past Performance

The Forest Service has a long history of success in encouraging the expansion of wood products

and wood energy markets, but sees a more urgent need to support these goals. Selected 

accomplishments include the following.

• In FY 2015, Forest Service awarded roughly $9 million in Wood Innovation grants to 

stimulate widespread use of wood residues for renewable energy, wood products, and 

innovative commercial building materials to support management of National Forest System 

lands and other lands with significant forest restoration needs, especially those with elevated 

hazardous fuels conditions. These federal funds leveraged $22 million in partner 

investments.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

• The Wood Education and Resource Center (WERC) plays a critical role in keeping forestrelated businesses in business. In FY 2015, WERC was involved with 14 workshops or 

webinars primarily for industry, prepared or reviewed 40 woody biomass feasibility studies 

for facility owners, and administered the national Wood Innovations funding program.

• In FY 2015, the Agency produced 2.38 million green tons of biomass from NFS lands for use 

in bio-energy production.

• In FY 2015, Forest Service Research and Development (R&D) scientists produced more than 

85 publications and presentations advancing science and technology in biomass production 

and management systems, biofuels and bioproducts, and decision support and policy 

analysis.

• Forest Service R&D scientists partnered with Iowa State University to assess the provision of 

biomass and carbon ecosystem services of purpose-grown woody crops in the Midwest. The 

research synthesized information about the potential of poplars to provide multiple 

ecosystem services on varying soil and climate conditions across landscape gradients from 

urban to rural areas. (http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/49609)

• Forest Service R&D scientists partnered with Tucker Engineering Associates to compare the 

life-cycle impacts associated with generating electricity from synthesis gas produced from a 

new distributed-scale thermochemical conversion system using whole-tree wood chips as 

feedstock to coal and natural gas electricity. (http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/48595)

• Forest Service R&D scientists produced an eBook that addresses rural Alaskans’ needs for a 

sustainable, reliable source of local energy. It is designed to engage communities in the 

discussion and empower them in determining the best choices for meeting their energy needs 

(http://woodenergyproject.com/handbooks.html). The companion Wood Energy Financial 

Calculator allows users to estimate capital investment costs to facilitate project design and 

screening across a variety of wood energy options. 

(http://woodenergyproject.com/calculator/)
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Chief’s Reserve Fund

Background

This exhibit is required by P.L. 109-54, House Report 109-80, page 151, Administrative 

Provisions, which directed:

The Committee also requests that future budget justification displays on this fund include a 

complete presentation of spending from the fund during the most recent complete fiscal year, 

with a brief explanation why the uses were indeed important, unanticipated, and appropriate.

Overview

The Chief’s Reserve Fund (CRF) is managed by the Chief’s Office to fund emergencies or 

unforeseen events that occur throughout the fiscal year. This reserve fund allows units to 

respond quickly to unplanned urgent work without impacting the planned program of work.

FY 2017 Program

At the Chief’s discretion, funds from this reserve are available for unplanned and/or emergency 

circumstances. Requests are evaluated against criteria including the urgent nature of the event, 

relevance of proposed use to priorities, other funding source considerations, and risks from being 

unfunded. Requests must be for work or projects exceeding $25,000. Initial fund mixes are 

determined at the beginning of the fiscal year, but may be remixed during the year to meet 

unanticipated needs. Funds are only spent in accordance with the purposes for which they were 

appropriated. Unused funds are distributed to the Regions, Stations, and Northeastern Area as 

carryover in the following year.

FY 2015 to FY 2017 Funding

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2015

Actual

FY 2016

Enacted 

Budget

FY 2017

Estimates

$6,318 $6,318 $6,318

Past Performance

In FY 2015, CRF funds were approved for some unplanned projects and provided additional 

funding for others. Total program amounts assessed and obligated in FY 2015 are illustrated in 

the table below.
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Special Exhibits

FY 2015 Program Amounts

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 Program Approved

Forest & Rangeland Research $280

Forest Health Management-Cooperative 

Lands

126

Forest Health Management-Federal Lands 190

Forest Stewardship 79

Urban & Community Forestry 63

Land Management Planning 253

Inventory & Monitoring 505

Recreation, Heritage, & Wilderness 569

Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management 316

Grazing Management 126

Forest Products 569

Minerals & Geology Management 158

Vegetation & Watershed Management 569

Landownership Management 253

Law Enforcement Operations 131

Hazardous Fuels 253

Cooperative Fire Protection, State Fire 

Assistance

142

Preparedness 478

Suppression 406

Facilities 379

Roads 252

Trails 158

Infrastructure Improvement 63

Total $6,317

Projects funded by the Chief’s Reserve Fund in FY 2015 include:

Spirit Lake Tunnel Project ($640,000)

The CRF provided additional funding for critical maintenance needs for the Spirit Lake Outlet 

Tunnel in the Pacific Northwest Region 6. The Spirit Lake natural outlet was blocked by a 

debris flow as a result of the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens. The decision in 

1984 was to manage the lake level by constructing the Spirit Lake Outlet Tunnel. Annual 

inspection in 2014 discovered critical distress elements that required immediate attention in 

fiscal year 2015 as a failure of the Spirit Lake natural debris dam would result in far reaching 

impacts to downstream cities and well as states connected to the Columbia River. The US Army 

Corps of Engineers recommended immediate quarterly inspections, tunnel survey, update 

hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, a Potential Failure Modes analysis and Semi-Quantitative 

Risk Assessment, a tabletop exercise using the Emergency Action plan, and preparation of plans 

and specifications for an emergency interim repair should inspections indicate continued 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

deterioration of the tunnel. Costa associated with this work was estimated at $920,000. The 

additional funding from the Chief Reserve Fund assisted the region in complying with USACE 

recommendations.

Implement Europay MasterCard and Visa Chip and PIN ($1,031,200)

Executive Order 13681, signed on October 17, 2014 directed Federal agencies to implement 

Europay MasterCard and Visa Chin and PIN, a series of specifications that define a more secure 

method of payment. By October 1, 2015, Department of Treasury expected all Federal agencies 

to have Chip and PIN implemented or the agencies would assume financial responsibility for 

customer’s plastic card information that could be compromised in a data breach. The funding 

from the Chief Reserve Fund assisted the agency in implementing the Chip and PIN technology.

Nanotech Feasibility Study ($2,200,000)

Cellulose nanomaterials offer a revolutionary technology to create new jobs and strengthen 

America’s forest-based economy as well as providing means to enable forests to remain healthy 

and sustainable through accelerated restoration. To this end, a commercial-scale demonstration 

facility in America is the next step as we strive to provide high value, high volume markets from 

lower value wood (i.e., hazardous fuel); cost-effective biomass use. Based on preliminary site 

visits, Yreka, California offers a logical location. Prior to any facility construction, two critical 

actions need to be completed during the next 18 to 24 months: five alternative cellulose 

nanomaterial production pilot trials with associated preliminary facility cost studies followed by 

a comprehensive in depth feasibility study for the preferred alternative. About $2.2 million is 

required for these two actions. The funding from the Chief Reserve Fund assisted the Forest 

Products Laboratory and the Pacific Southwest Region, in fulfilling their key coordination role 

with a wide-range of other interests to ensure these next steps are effectively achieved. 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Conservation Education

Background

This exhibit is not required by Congressional direction; however, it is included to provide 

information about this program, which is funded by multiple budget line items.

Overview

Since 1905, the Forest Service has recognized a role and responsibility to educate people about 

management and conservation of our Nation’s forests and grasslands. Increasingly, citizen 

knowledge of forests, sustainable ecosystems and cultural resources continues to be critical to the 

successful accomplishment of the Forest Service mission. The Forest Service provides expertise 

in science, land management, and outdoor experiences as the foundation of environmental 

literacy efforts. 

Private landowners, local community leaders, elected officials, forest visitors, homeowners, 

students, and educators are among the audiences reached by Forest Service Conservation 

Education (CE) programs. Through these opportunities, the Forest Service plays an effective 

role in developing an environmentally literate citizenry more knowledgeable about how to

sustain our Nation’s forests and grasslands, public and private forests, for future generations. 

The goal is develop future generations of conservation leaders by connecting people to our 

Nation’s forests and grasslands.

The Forest Service connects more than five million people each year with nature and public 

lands through its CE programs. CE teaches people about natural resource management and gives 

them the tools to make informed decisions and take action to sustain natural and cultural 

resources. CE efforts provide a full range of educational experiences, including awareness and 

knowledge-building, engagement, and action-based programs for youth, and their educators in 

classroom and non-formal settings. 

The CE programs are delivered by a network of land managers, scientists, educators, and 

interpreters representing all branches of the agency, and are supported by extensive partnerships 

with nongovernmental organizations, State, Tribal, and local agencies, and educational 

institutions. Learning experiences include outdoor recreation and interpretive activities, formal 

school-based programs that adhere to national and local standards of learning, capacity building 

for educators, and service-learning projects. Some of the CE program focus areas include

education about climate change, reconnecting children with nature, and preparing youth for jobs 

in the green economy. 

FY 2017 Program

In FY 2017, CE will continue to connect people to the outdoors through meaningful outdoors 

experiences and use the National Guidelines for Excellence as a guide to develop new programs 

and materials and to evaluate existing agency programs and materials. We will continue 

working through trusted professionals to connect children to nature and provide experiential 

learning opportunities. Conservation Education will continue to: 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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• Expand the Discover the Forest Campaign and strengthen capacity in social media, outreach 

to Hispanics and urban audiences and celebrating American cultural diversity. 

• Support the agency’s climate change emphasis area, specifically through climate change 

educational materials and “Green Schools!” activities.

• Support the agency’s pollinator education, specifically through pollinator education materials 

for elementary and middle school students.

• Contribute to the general body of knowledge regarding the field of environmental education 

by continuing distribution of an updated Environmental Literacy in America report, and 

supporting the study of evaluation of environmental education programs.

• Foster first hand experiences in nature through innovative uses of technology.

• Build outreach to underserved populations, especially urban and Hispanic audiences, into our 

programs.

• Expand programming directed at early childhood populations.

• Support social media campaign, especially featuring Woodsy Owl.

• Develop the Forest Service Conservation Education distance learning programing with a unit 

on Grasslands.

• Use online technology to connect youth with nature with Agents of Discovery, a mobile 

gaming app. The game leads youth and their families on a trail or urban walk, while they are 

asked questions that lead to observation and learning about nature. Agents of Discovery 

games have been developed for several National Forest trails and the National Mall in DC. 

Plans are underway to develop the game for Forest Service sites designated as special places.

• Distribute an invasive species information guide to 4th and 5th grade teachers to generate 

awareness and initiate a dialog among children about invasive species and their impacts on

nature and the economy.

• Produce and distribute Natural Inquirer and Investi-gator science journals for students.

• Encourage the expanded adoption of the revised Junior Snow Ranger program.

• Support the participation of underserved populations in environmental education events, such 

as Environmentors and the Envirothon.

• Support large event days such as National Public Lands Day.

• Outreach to Head Start to reach the early learner and underserved populations through 

Woodsy Owl themed materials. Studies show that outdoor play promotes young children’s 

physical and emotional health and enhances their learning capabilities and brain function.

• Partner with the National Garden Clubs, Inc. for the Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl poster 

contest. Annually, over 25,000 children nationwide participate in this contest.

Past Performance 

In 2015, the “Discover the Forest” campaign specifically targeted urban populations. The 

campaign encouraged them to reconnect with nature and our Nation’s forests. A new set of 

Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) was launched as a result of a private-public partnership 

between the Forest Service and the Ad Council. All of these assets encourage parents and their 

children to reconnect with nature. From FY 2008 through mid FY 2015, the campaign has 

received over $309 million in donated media. 
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Special Exhibits

In FY 2015, over 7 million people participated in environmental education, recreation, and 

related literacy programs on public lands and waters to increase understanding of the natural 

world and its benefits to society. 

Allocation and Integration

CE is one of the most broadly integrated programs in the Forest Service and operates with an alllands approach. The CE program in the national office supports field offices in the 

implementation of agency and Department priorities related to conservation education. At the 

national forest and Region/Station/Area levels, conservation education efforts are funded through 

leveraged investments of over a dozen agency programs including: Recreation, Heritage, and 

Wilderness; Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air, and Rare Plants; Forest and Rangeland Research; 

Forest Health Management; Urban and Community Forestry; Hazardous Fuels; and Wildfire 

Prevention. 

Partnerships

Partnerships are critical to the success of CE in the Forest Service. More than 2,500 individual 

organizations at the national, State, Tribal, and local levels help to ensure that Conservation 

Education efforts meet local needs through both financial and in-kind contributions that leverage 

the agency’s investment of resources each year. The Forest Service creates and nurtures 

partnerships nationwide that provide technical assistance to the network of providers across the 

agency and improve our outreach to diverse, underserved, and urban populations. The Discover 

the Forest Campaign, developed in partnership with the Ad Council, has leveraged a Forest 

Service $8.15 million investment over the past 6 and 1/2 years to provide over $309 million in 

donated media exposure for this outreach campaign.

CE and its partners also fund many other new and ongoing projects, including:

• The Natural Inquirer journals where scientists share their research with students;

• Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl, America’s conservation icons whose messages continue to 

resonate with youth;

• Nature Explore classrooms and learning spaces to connect children with nature in 

economically disadvantaged urban areas;

• The Green Schools! program, designed to raise environmental literacy;

• The Envirothon, which develops an understanding of the principles and practices of natural 

resource management and ecology in young people through practice dealing with complex 

resource management decisions; and

• Hands on the Land, a national network of field classrooms that connects students, teachers, 

and parents to their public lands and waterways.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Cost Pool Totals (both Direct and Indirect)

Background

This exhibit is required by P.L. 107-63, 115 Stat. 452, as follows:

The Forest Service shall fund indirect expenses, that is expenses not directly 

related to specific programs or to the accomplishment of specific work on-theground, from any funds available to the Forest Service: Provided, that the Forest 

Service shall implement and adhere to the definitions of indirect expenditures 

established pursuant to Public Law 105–277 on a nationwide basis without 

flexibility for modification by any organizational level except the Washington 

Office, and when changed by the Washington Office, such changes in definition 

shall be reported in budget requests submitted by the Forest Service: Provided 

further, that the Forest Service shall provide in all future budget justifications, 

planned indirect expenditures in accordance with the definitions, summarized and 

displayed to the Regional, Station, Area, and detached unit office level. The 

justification shall display the estimated source and amount of indirect 

expenditures, by expanded budget line item, of funds in the agency’s annual 

budget justification. The display shall include appropriated funds and the 

Knutson-Vandenberg, Brush Disposal, Cooperative Work-Other, and Salvage 

Sale funds. Changes between estimated and actual indirect expenditures shall be 

reported in subsequent budget justifications.

Overview

Cost pool expenses support every Forest Service employee at every level of the agency. Cost 

pools are a financial management tool. The purpose is to allocate funding for items directly 

related to delivery of Forest Service programs that are not directly related to a specific program. 

Cost pools fund line officers’ salaries (e.g. District Rangers) and expenses, administrative 

support, information technology, human resources, computers, telephones, rent, utilities, and 

other common services.

The Forest Service receives appropriations by program and does not receive a general 

administration or management appropriation. Cost pools are not a source for funding, but are a 

mechanism to charge expenses that cannot reasonably be charged directly to a single program. 

The cost pools are designed to maintain accurate reporting of the true costs by program, by 

having each program contribute into the cost pools an amount based on its share of indirect, 

support, and common services charges. 

Appropriate application of cost pools allows the Forest Service to accurately reflect the cost of 

doing business in compliance with the federal financial reporting standards articulated by the 

Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB). Accurately reflecting the true cost of 

doing business improves the government's ability to account for public funds, provides 

information for evaluating agency costs, accomplishments, and impacts of accomplishments, and 

provides a basis to assess agency financial systems and controls.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Direct and Indirect Costs

Forest Service definitions of direct and indirect costs are consistent with FASAB Statement #4. 

The agency published the definitions in the FY 2000 Budget Justification. The Department of 

Agriculture Chief Financial Officer and the Office of Management and Budget cleared, and the 

Government Accountability Office, United States Department of Commerce’s Office of 

Inspector General and Office of General Counsel, and the Department of Justice reviewed the 

definitions prior to publishing.

Direct Costs

Direct costs are specifically identified with the delivery of a program or a program’s 

accomplishments. Direct costs include expenses associated with employees working directly on 

the production of an output. Program management is an integral cost of the production of an 

output and therefore is included as a direct cost. Direct costs might also include costs not 

associated with employees involved in the production of output(s), such as office and other 

facility space, computer equipment, and utilities, as well as materials, supplies, and equipment. 

Direct costs are generally charged directly to a single primary purpose budget line item.

Indirect Costs

Indirect costs are costs that are necessary for the operation of the Forest Service as an 

organization but are not traceable to any specific outputs. These include Legislative and Public 

Communication, Ongoing Business Services, and Common Services (cost pools 3, 4, and the 

indirect portion of cost pool 5).

Cost Pools 

For management and tracking purposes, categories of similar expenses are combined into five 

cost pools. Cost pools 1 and 2 track those expenses defined as direct costs, cost pools 3 and 4 

include those expenses classified as indirect costs, and cost pool 5 includes both indirect and 

direct components. 

The terms cost pool 6 and cost pool 7 have been previously used to describe the pooled costs for 

Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) and Unemployment Compensation 

Insurance (UCI) respectively. Please see the section on Other Pooled Costs below for more 

details.

There is no cost pool 8.

Cost pool 9 collects facilities maintenance assessment funds and assesses Forest Service 

programs separately from pools 1 through 5.

In addition to being a cost allocation mechanism, cost pools also serve as an accounting tool, 

providing the Forest Service with financial data on categories of similar expenses. This permits 

the Forest Service to plan for and manage support, indirect and direct pool costs at different 

levels of the organization. A description of these pools and their associated costs are listed 

below. 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Cost Pool 1 - General Management

This cost pool includes salaries, associated employee benefits, and related costs for general line 

managers and officers (including secretarial staff) at the Washington Office (WO), 

Regions/Stations/Area (R/S/A), national forest, and ranger district levels. In addition, union 

officials, civil rights positions, and safety officers are included in Cost Pool 1 to show their direct 

connection and link to line management. Related costs include uniforms, travel, transfer of 

station, vehicles, cell phones for the positions that charge to this cost pool, specialized supplies 

and equipment, and discretionary expenses associated with these positions. Cost Pool 1 consists 

entirely of direct costs and is based on total Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) charged in the 

previous 12 months.

Cost Pool 2 - Direct Project Approved Activities

This cost pool includes salaries, benefits, and related costs for a limited set of nationally 

designated cross-cutting projects, currently limited to Conservation Education, Tribal Relations, 

Freedom of Information Act, Resource Advisory Council administration, and Grey Towers. 

Cost Pool 2 consists entirely of direct costs. It is based on total FTEs charged in the previous 12 

months.

Cost Pool 3 - Legislative and Public Communications

This cost pool includes salaries, associated employee benefits, and related costs for public 

affairs, and legislative liaisons at the WO, R/S/A, national forest, and ranger district levels. 

Related costs include uniforms, travel, transfer of station, vehicles, cell phones for the positions 

that charge to this cost pool, specialized supplies and equipment, and discretionary expenses 

associated with these positions. Cost Pool 3 consists entirely of indirect costs and is based on 

total FTEs charged in the previous 12 months.

Cost Pool 4 - Ongoing Business Services

Cost Pool 4 includes salaries, associated employee benefits, and related costs for business 

operations at the WO, R/S/A, national forest, and ranger district levels. Business operations 

include budget, finance, acquisition, human capital management, some procurement and grants 

and agreements, general receptionists and information systems management. Cost Pool 4 

consists entirely of indirect costs and is based on total FTEs charged in the previous 12 months.

Cost Pool 5 - Common Services

This cost pool generally includes rent, utilities, corporate communications, equipment, supplies, 

radios, and corporate computer and phone related expenses for all employees. Cost Pool 5 

consists of both indirect and direct pool costs. The distribution of costs in pool 5 is based on 

FTEs for permanent employees only; the division between direct and indirect costs is based on 

the ratio of direct to indirect employees. For example, if the common services for a unit with 

100 employees, consisting of 80 direct and 20 indirect, is $500,000, then $400,000 of these costs 

would be direct and $100,000 would be indirect.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Cost Pool 9 - Facilities Maintenance Assessment Fund

This cost pool contains the Facilities Maintenance Assessment Fund. This is a direct cost pool 

used to allocate facilities maintenance work funded by assessing each R/S/A based on gross 

square foot of facilities. These charges are then allocated by BLI using the same basis as Cost 

Pool 5 in compliance with the FY 2006 Appropriations Act and accompanying conference report 

language. Refer to the Facilities Maintenance Assessment Special Exhibit for more information.

Other Pooled Costs

OWCP and UCI do not assess Forest Service programs. These are for required payments and 

unlike cost pools 1-5 and 9, are charged directly to a program and then pooled to make required 

payments out of a single BLI. These pooled costs are used as methods of payment, and are not 

mechanisms to allocate costs.

Both OWCP and UCI costs are charged directly to the program in which they were incurred. 

OWCP costs are distributed based on the work being performed at the time of the injury and UCI 

costs are distributed based on the work performed while employed. 

Cost Allocations 

The Forest Service allocates indirect and direct pool costs among programs through the cost 

allocation process, which assesses each Forest Service budget line item a certain percentage of 

total cost pool expenses. Cost pools are generally allocated using direct labor hours (DLH). 

DLH are converted to FTEs; 1 FTE = 2,096 DLHs (the DLH number varies depending on the 

year). For cost pools 1 to 4, DLHs are used for all employees charging to direct costs (all 

employees includes those holding permanent, temporary, intermittent, and other types of 

positions). 

This approach for Cost Pools 1 to 4 is used because these costs generally reflect the entire 

organization. For Cost Pools 5 and 9, only permanent employees DLHs are used, because these 

costs (rent, communication, utilities, etc.) are driven primarily by the need to support the 

permanent workforce. Planning estimates for OWCP and UCI are based on actual past cases. 

Because of their nature, the FTEs associated with supplemental, transfer, and emergency funds 

are dropped from the cost pools and are not used in calculating indirect costs.

The Forest Service uses cost allocation to charge expenses back to a single budget line item. 

Cost allocation is used for expenses that:

• are indirect (e.g., Cost Pools 3 and 4),

• simultaneously support multiple programs in a way that cannot be efficiently charged 

directly to a budget line item (BLI) (e.g., Cost Pools 1 and 2), 

• involve multiple transactions that need to be summarized for payment purposes (e.g., 

OWCP and UCI), and

• are otherwise directed by congressional or administrative action (e.g., Cost Pool 9).

Cost allocation compliance review is performed to determine the consistency in which the field 

organization and the WO headquarters implement cost pool policy and to identify areas for 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

improvement. The agency uses the information gathered from the reviews to improve the cost 

allocation process and update cost allocation directions for the following fiscal year.

FY 2017 Program Changes 

The FY 2017 President’s Budget proposes a ceiling of $957 million for cost pool expenses. This 

level of cost pool funding represents a $100 million decrease from FY 2012 levels. This 

reduction has been achieved through a variety of measures such as reduced management 

contracts, utilities, travel and training. Rent savings were realized through building 

consolidations. The Forest Service will continue to strive for efficiency and to keep cost pool 

expenses low.

FY 2015 to FY 2017 Cost Pool (1-5) Assessments

(dollars in thousands)

Budget Line Item

FY 2015

Enacted

FY 2016

Enacted

FY 2017

Estimates

Cost Pool Assessment $957,000 $957,000 $957,000

Percent of Total Forest Service Budget 17.3% 15.6% 15.7%

Forest Service Cost Pool Exhibits

In FY 2017, the Forest Service is estimating that cost pools will be $957,000,000, representing 

15.7 percent of the FY 2017 President’s Budget. For an estimate of FY 2017 Total Cost Pool 1-5 

Assessments by Budget Line Item, see Exhibit 1.

In FY 2015, the Forest Service estimated that $957,000,000 would be charged to the cost pools, 

representing 17.3 percent of the Enacted Budget. Actual costs totaled $945,126,975. For a 

comparison of FY 2015 Planned and Actual Cost Pool 1-5 Assessments and FY 2016 Estimated 

Cost Pool 1-5 Assessments by Budget Line Item, see Exhibit 2.

Actual cost pool expenditures decreased from $967,000,000 in FY 2014 to $945,126,975 in FY 

2015. For a display of Cost Pool Actuals for FY 2014 and FY 2015 by Pool and Region, see 

Exhibit 3.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Exhibit 1

Estimate of FY 2017 Total Cost Pool 1-5 Assessments by Budget Line Item

(dollars in thousands)

Only includes appropriations (BLIs) which will be assessed for cost pools 1-5 in FY 2017. 

Supplemental, emergency, transfer, or Payments to States funds are not assessed for cost pools 1-5.

BD/KV/SSF budget amounts based upon FY 2016 RSA estimated obligation data

Budget Line Item Amount

 Fund 

FY 2017 

President's 

Budget

Estimated 

Total Cost 

Pool 

Assessments 

by BLI

Cost Pool 

Assessments 

as Percent of 

BLI

Assessed 

as 

Percent of 

Total 

Cost 

Pools

Forest and Rangeland Research $291,982 $39,237 13.4% 4.1%

Total Research $291,982 $39,237 13.4% 4.1%

Forest Health Fed Lands $51,382 $9,570 18.6% 1.0%

Forest Health Coop Lands 40,678 4,785 11.8% 0.5%

Forest Stewardship 22,398 1,914 8.5% 0.2%

Forest Legacy 53,375 957 1.8% 0.1%

Urban and Community Forestry 23,686 1,914 8.1% 0.2%

International Forestry 8,000 957 12.0% 0.1%

Total State and Private Forestry $199,519 $20,097 10.1% 2.1%

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration 40,000 11,484 28.7% 1.2%

Land Management Planning, Assessment, and 

Monitoring 183,928 39,237 21.3% 4.1%

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 263,942 81,345 30.8% 8.5%

Wildlife & Fisheries Habitat Management 140,466 34,351 24.5% 3.6%

Grazing Management 50,000 16,269 32.5% 1.7%

Forest Products 339,130 103,555 30.5% 10.8%

Vegetation & Watershed Management 184,716 41,022 22.2% 4.3%

Minerals and Geology Management 77,569 18,183 23.4% 1.9%

Landownership Management 71,440 21,054 29.5% 2.2%

Law Enforcement Operations 131,630 18,183 13.8% 1.9%

Total National Forest System $1,482,821 $384,683 25.9% 40.2%

Preparedness $1,232,620 $251,691 20.4% 26.3%

Suppression 723,904 80,388 11.1% 8.4%

Hazardous Fuels 361,749 66,738 18.4% 7.0%

State Fire Assistance 78,000 1,914 2.5% 0.2%

Total Wildland Fire $2,396,273 $400,731 16.7% 41.9%

Facilities $71,600 $17,226 24.1% 1.8%

Roads 151,000 37,323 24.7% 3.9%

Trails 77,530 22,968 29.6% 2.4%

Legacy Roads & Trails 40,000 5,068 12.7% 0.5%

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $340,130 $82,585 24.3% 8.6%

Land Acquisition $47,500 $1,914 4.0% 0.2%

Total Land Acquisition $47,500 $1,914 4.0% 0.2%

Brush Disposal $12,048 $2,871 23.8% 0.3%

Timber Salvage Sales 31,364 7,656 24.4% 0.8%

Cooperative Work, Knutson-Vandenburg Trust 

Fund 69,739 12,441 17.8% 1.3%

Reforestation Trust Fund 30,000 4,785 16.0% 0.5%

Total Permanent and Trust Funds $143,151 $27,753 19.4% 2.9%

Total Assessed BLI's $4,901,376 $957,000 19.5% 99.4%

TOTAL FOREST SERVICE $6,109,721 $957,000 15.7% 100.0%
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Exhibit 2

Comparison of FY 2015 Planned and Actual Total Cost Pool Assessments 1-5 and

FY 2016 Estimated Cost Pool 1-5 Assessments by Budget Line Item

(dollars in thousands)

Only includes appropriations (BLIs) which were assessed for cost pools 1-5. 

Supplemental, emergency, transfer, or Payments to States funds are not assessed for cost pools 1-5.

Displays BLI's after transfers for the Integrated Resource Restoration pilot.

BD/KV/SSF budget amounts based upon FY 2016 RSA estimated obligation data

Budget Line Item

 Fund Prog 

FY 2015 

Enacted 

Budget

Estimated 

Cost Pools

1-5

Cost Pools 

as a 

Percent of 

BLI

FY 2015 

Actual 

Cost Pools 

1-5

Cost Pools 

as a 

Percent of 

BLI

Percent of 

Total FS 

Cost Pools

1-5

FY 2016 

Enacted 

Budget

Estimated 

Cost Pools

1-5

Cost Pools 

as a 

Percent of 

BLI

Percent of 

Total FS 

Cost Pools

1-5

Forest and Rangeland Research FRRE $296,000 $44,022 14.9% $43,476 14.7% 4.6% $291,000 $39,237 13.5% 4.1%

Total Research $296,000 $44,022 14.9% $43,476 14.7% 4.6% $291,000 $39,237 13.5% 4.1%

Forest Health Fed Lands SPFH $58,922 $12,441 21.1% $12,287 20.9% 1.3% $58,922 $9,570 16.2% 1.0%

Forest Health Coop Lands SPCH 45,655 1,914 4.2% $1,890 4.1% 0.2% 40,678 4,785 11.8% 0.5%

Forest Stewardship SPST 23,036 1,914 8.3% $1,890 8.2% 0.2% 23,036 1,914 8.3% 0.2%

Forest Legacy LGCY 53,000 957 1.8% $945 1.8% 0.1% 62,347 957 1.5% 0.1%

Urban and Community Forestry SPUF 28,040 1,914 6.8% $1,890 6.7% 0.2% 28,040 1,914 6.8% 0.2%

State Fire Assistance SPCF 0 0 0.0% $0 0.0% 0.0% 0 0 0.0% 0.0%

Forest Resources Information and Analysis SPIA 0 0 0.0% $0 0.0% 0.0% 0 0 0.0% 0.0%

International Forestry SPIF 8,000 957 12.0% $945 11.8% 0.1% 8,000 957 12.0% 0.1%

Total State & Priv Forestry $216,653 $20,097 9.3% $19,847 9.2% 2.1% $221,023 $20,097 9.1% 2.1%

Integrated Resource Restoration NFRR $190,321 $172,260 90.5% $26,464 13.9% 2.8% $186,244 $187,572 100.7% 19.6%

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration CFLN 40,000 10,527 26.3% $10,396 26.0% 1.1% 40,000 11,484 28.7% 1.2%

Land Management Planning, Assessment, and 

Monitoring

NFPN/ 

NFIM

188,773 41,151 21.8% $40,640 21.5% 4.3% 184,996 39,237 21.2% 4.1%

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness NFRW 261,719 86,130 32.9% $85,061 32.5% 9.0% 261,719 81,345 31.1% 8.5%

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management NFWF 109,106 0 0.0% $28,354 26.0% 3.0% 109,035 0 0.0% 0.0%

Grazing Management NFRG 55,356 15,312 27.7% $15,122 27.3% 1.6% 56,856 16,269 28.6% 1.7%

Forest Products NFTM 273,570 0 0.0% $78,446 28.7% 8.3% 294,245 0 0.0% 0.0%

Vegetation and Watershed Management NFVW 134,135 0 0.0% $33,079 24.7% 3.5% 134,206 0 0.0% 0.0%

Minerals and Geology Management NFMG 76,423 19,140 25.0% $18,903 24.7% 2.0% 76,423 18,183 23.8% 1.9%

Landownership Management NFLM 77,730 21,054 27.1% $20,793 26.8% 2.2% 77,730 21,054 27.1% 2.2%

Law Enforcement Operations NFLE 126,653 20,097 15.9% $19,848 15.7% 2.1% 126,653 18,183 14.4% 1.9%

Total Nat. Forest System $1,533,786 $385,671 25.1% $377,106 24.6% 39.9% $1,548,107 $393,327 25.4% 41.1%

Preparedness WFPR $1,145,840 $243,078 21.2% $240,062 21.0% 25.4% $1,082,620 $251,691 23.2% 26.3%

Suppression WFSU 708,000 87,087 12.3% $86,007 12.1% 9.1% 811,000 80,388 9.9% 8.4%

Hazardous Fuels Management WFHF 333,672 66,990 20.1% $66,159 19.8% 7.0% 351,000 63,162 18.0% 6.6%

State Fire Assistance WFCF 78,000 1,914 2.5% $1,890 2.4% 0.2% 78,000 1,914 2.5% 0.2%

Total Wildland Fire $2,265,512 $399,069 17.6% $394,118 17.4% 41.7% $2,322,620 $397,155 17.1% 41.5%

Facilities CMFC $71,600 $16,269 22.7% $16,067 22.4% 1.7% $71,390 $17,226 24.1% 1.8%

Roads CMRD 168,094 39,237 23.3% $38,750 23.1% 4.1% 172,094 37,323 21.7% 3.9%

Trails CMTL 77,530 21,054 27.2% $20,793 26.8% 2.2% 77,530 22,968 29.6% 2.4%

Legacy Roads and Trails CMLG 25,257 0 0.0% $3,781 15.0% 0.4% 25,257 0 0.0% 0.0%

Total Capital Improve & Maint $342,481 $76,560 22.4% $79,391 23.2% 8.4% $346,271 $77,517 22.4% 8.1%

Land Acquisition LALW $47,500 $1,914 4.0% $1,890 4.0% 0.2% $63,435 $1,914 3.0% 0.2%

Total Land Acquisition $47,500 $1,914 4.0% $1,890 4.0% 0.2% $63,435 $1,914 3.0% 0.2%

Brush Disposal BDBD $12,048 $1,914 15.9% $1,890 15.7% 0.2% $12,048 $2,871 23.8% 0.3%

Timber Salvage Sales SSSS 31,364 8,613 27.5% $8,506 27.1% 0.9% 31,364 7,656 24.4% 0.8%

Cooperative Work, Knutson-Vandenburg 

Trust Fund

CWKV 69,739 13,398 19.2% $13,232 19.0% 1.4% 69,739 12,441 17.8% 1.3%

Reforestation Trust Fund RTRT 30,000 5,742 19.1% $5,671 18.9% 0.6% 30,000 4,785 16.0% 0.5%

Total Permanent and Trust Funds $143,151 $29,667 20.7% $29,299 20.5% 3.1% $143,151 $27,753 19.4% 2.9%

Total Assessed BLI's $4,845,083 $957,000 19.8% $945,127 19.5% 100.0% $4,935,607 $957,000 19.4% 100.0%

TOTAL FOREST SERVICE $5,516,303 $957,000 17.3% $945,127 17.1% 100.0% $6,122,386 $957,000 15.6% 100.0%

FY 2015 Planned FY2015 Actual FY 2016 Planned
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Exhibit 3

Cost Pool Expenditures for FY 2014 and FY 2015 by Pool and Region

(dollars in thousands)

Region 13 Washington Office –HQ funds support staff, programs, operations, and facilities of the National Headquarters office 

located in Washington, D.C. and units considered attached to the National Headquarters and includes the National Interagency 

Fire Center (NIFC); NIFC Aircraft Working Capital Fund; Geospatial- Salt Lake City; the National Advisory Resource 

Technical Center; the Chief’s Office; Washington Office Operations and Common Services; Washington Office National Forest 

System, State and Private Forestry, and Research; International Forestry; Chief Financial Officer; Law Enforcement and 

Investigations; San Dimas Technology and Development Center; Missoula Technology and Development Center; and Working 

Capital Fund.

Region 15 National Operations funds are held and allocated at the national level and support work and programs nationwide 

such as FLAME, Law Enforcement, and portions of other funds including USDA Working Capital Fund National Services, 

National Operations, Budget and Finance Service Wide Cost Pools, Grey Towers, Facilities Maintenance Cost Pool, and other 

Service Wide Cost Pools.

Region 25 Central Business Services include Albuquerque Service Center (ASC) Budget & Finance, ASC Human Resources, 

Chief Information Officer, IT – Information Solutions Organization, Acquisition Management Support for IT & Fire, and 

Competitive Sourcing and Business Process Reengineering Implementation Unit.

FY 2014 FY 2015

Cost Pool 1 General Management $161,636 $162,176

Cost Pool 2 Direct Project Approved Activities 13,492 13,503

Cost Pool 3 Legislative and Public Communications 34,344 32,937

Cost Pool 4 Ongoing Business Services 345,965 345,840

Cost Pool 5 Common Services 411,564 390,671

TOTAL COST POOL EXPENDITURES $967,000 $945,127

Cost Pool

FY 2014 FY 2015

Region 1 Northern $41,975 $41,515

Region 2 Rocky Mountain 37,237 36,509

Region 3 Southwestern 41,203 41,204

Region 4 Intermountain 41,943 41,355

Region 5 Pacific Southwest 63,880 64,050

Region 6 Pacific Northwest 71,906 70,718

Region 8 Southern 45,673 44,833

Region 9 Eastern 40,140 38,324

Region 10 Alaska 16,890 16,607

Region 12 International Institute of Tropical Forestry 1,485 1,407

Region 13 Washington Office-HQ 75,901 71,968

Region 14 Chief's Reserve 0 0

Region 15 National Operations 101,283 105,574

Region 17 Accounting Adjustments

Region 25 Central Business Services 385,879 369,372

Region 26 Pacific Northwest Research Station 189 213

Region 42 Northeastern Area 1,416 1,478

$967,000 $945,127

Region/Station/Area

TOTAL COST POOL EXPENDITURES
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

407

Special Exhibits

Deferred Maintenance and Asset Management

Background

This special exhibit is included to address requirements of P.L. 111-88 House Report 111-80 

page 132, which directed: “The Committee notes that the budget justification indicates a 

deferred maintenance backlog. The Forest Service should continue to update this information in 

its future budget requests.”

Overview

Deferred maintenance is maintenance scheduled to be performed on an asset that was delayed 

due to a backlog of priority work, funding availability, or other reasons. Repairs, replacements, 

and rehabilitation to restore functionality are actions that can be taken to preserve an asset so that 

it continues to provide acceptable service and achieve its expected lifespan. Maintenance 

excludes activities aimed at expanding the capacity of an asset or otherwise upgrading it to 

service needs different from those originally intended.

Over the past decade, the Forest Service has implemented a national effort to collect detailed 

data on infrastructure condition and maintenance and improvement needs. This effort was 

initiated in response to both financial reporting requirements and direction from Congress, but 

has also shown significant value in support of additional agency priorities.

The Forest Service uses condition surveys to estimate deferred maintenance on all major classes 

of its property, plants, and equipment. No deferred maintenance exists for fleet vehicles and 

computers. Deferred maintenance estimates for most assets are based on condition surveys 

performed on a five-year maximum revolving schedule, with the exception of the Bridges Asset 

Class which is on a two-year maximum revolving schedule. To date, surveys of all 

administrative buildings, dams, bridges, roads open to passenger cars, and recreation sites have 

been accomplished. The agency’s deferred maintenance for the national forest passenger car 

road system (Maintenance Levels 3 through 5) is determined annually from random sample 

surveys providing a 90 percent level of confidence. 

Specific programmatic tools in support of asset management include:

Asset Management Planning

Executive Order 13327 - “Federal Real Property Asset Management” established a framework 

for improved use and management of real property owned, leased, or managed by the Federal 

Government. The agency recognizes the importance of real property resources and has increased 

management attention and established clear goals, objectives, policies, and levels of 

accountability. We expect to implement active management of our infrastructure portfolio based 

upon asset management principles established by the Office of Management and Budget.

All facility projects exceeding the General Services Administration prospectus level ($2.79 

million) and up to $10 million are reviewed by a Forest Service Asset Management Review 

Board (Forest Service-AMRB). Similarly, projects exceeding $10 million are reviewed by both 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

the Forest Service-AMRB and USDA-AMRB. All projects proposed for Deferred Maintenance 

funding are reviewed and prioritized by the Forest Service-AMRB.

We continue to evaluate the road management objective levels for each road in our system 

through site specific project analysis utilizing the Travel Analysis Process. Our goals are to 

operate and maintain a road system that is financially sustainable and consistent with forest land 

management plan objectives, and to align funds to address critical deferred maintenance.

Facility Master Planning

Forest Service field units continue to complete or update their facility master plans which 

identify fire, administrative, research, visitor center, and recreation facilities for 

decommissioning, retention, alternate use, or acquisition. These plans will be used to actively 

manage the facility inventory and decommission unneeded facilities.

For recreation sites, such as campgrounds, units are taking advantage of a range of tools, 

including limited national funding for demolition and disposal, to both work towards financially 

sustainable recreation programs at the local level and ultimately reduce the deferred maintenance 

backlog. Regions and forests continue to implement Recreation Facility Analysis 

recommendations as a guide to help reposition the recreation sites program to better meet the 

current and future needs of recreation visitors. 

Forest Service Facility Realignment and Enhancement Act

In FY 2006, the Forest Service Facility Realignment and Enhancement Act (Title V, 

Appropriations Act, P.L. 109-54) was enacted. This legislation authorizes the sale of unneeded 

administrative sites and the use of receipts for acquisition, maintenance, reconstruction, and 

construction of administrative infrastructure, creating incentives to dispose of these unneeded 

facilities. To date, activities under this authority, including pilot projects authorized under P.L. 

107-63, Section 329 as amended, have generated over $69 million in revenues and reduced 

facilities deferred maintenance by more than $23 million.

The Forest Service Facility Realignment and Enhancement Act (see Authorities below) expires 

September 30, 2016, and the program will be funded in FY 2017 with proceeds retained in 

FY 2016. Retaining proceeds from these conveyances has provided the Forest Service with 

funds for maintenance, rehabilitation, and construction for specified projects, while we continue 

to right-size the agency’s real property portfolio.

Facilities Maintenance Assessment

The Forest Service Facility Realignment Enhancement Act Outcomes

(dollars in thousands)

Fiscal Year Receipts Deferred Maintenance Reduction

2004-2014 $66,357 $23,304

2015 $3,026

Total $69,363 $23,304
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Beginning in FY 2006, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies 

Appropriations Act of 2006 authorized the agency to assess all funds available to the agency for 

the purpose of performing facilities maintenance on fire, administrative, and other facilities and 

major visitor centers (Title III, Administrative Provisions, P.L. 109-54). Using a program 

assessment to fund facility maintenance provides an incentive to identify and invest in only those 

facilities that are needed to accomplish the agency’s mission, dispose of unneeded buildings, and 

exercise restraint on starting new construction because the cost of facilities maintenance is borne 

by an assessment of program funds. In FY 2017, we plan to assess $65 million for maintenance, 

which is an increase of $10 million allowed in FY 2015. Refer to the Facility Assessment 

Special Exhibit for additional information.

The table below displays facilities maintenance - Cost Pool 09 (CP09) by Budget Line Item 

(BLI) for FY 2015.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

FY 2015 Facilities Maintenance (CP09) Assessment by Budget Line Item

(dollars in thousands)

BLI Description BLI

FY 2015 Facilities 

Maintenance 

Assessment

Forest & Rangeland Research

Total Forest & Rangeland Research FRRE $3,960

State & Private Forestry 

Forest Stewardship SPST 55

Forest Health Mgmt - Cooperative Lands SPCH 110

Forest Health Mgmt - Federal Lands SPFH 660

Urban and Community Forestry SPUF 55

Total State & Private Forestry $880

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration CFLN 605

Land Management Planning NFPN 605

Grazing Management NFRG 1,045

Forest Products NFTM 5,170

Inventory & Monitoring NFIM 1,705

Landownership Management NFLM 1,430

Minerals and Geology Management NFMG 1,210

Recreation, Heritage, & Wilderness NFRW 5,225

Integrated Resource Restoration NFRR 4,015

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management NFWF 1,925

Vegetation and Watershed Management NFVW 2,035

Subsistence Management - Alaska SMSM 0

Unit Recreation Enhancement FDDS 0

Total National Forest System $24,970

Capital Improvement and Maintenance

Facilities CMFC $1,045

Roads CMRD $2,640

Trails CMTL $1,210

Legacy Road Remediation CMLG $220

Total Capital Improvement and Maintenance $5,115

Land Acquisition

Total Land Acquisition LALW $110

Wildland Fire Management

Preparedness WFPR 13,915

Hazardous Fuels Reduction WFHF 4,070

Coop Fire Plan - State Fire Assistance WFCF 55

Total Wildland Fire Management $18,040

Permanent Appropriations

Brush Disposal BDBD 110

Timber Salvage Sales SSSS 5605

Total Permanent Appropriations $5715
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

411

Special Exhibits

FY 2015 Facilities Maintenance (CP09) Assessment by Budget Line Item

(dollars in thousands)

BLI Description BLI

FY 2015 Facilities 

Maintenance 

Assessment

Trust Fund Appropriations

Cooperative Work – Knutson-Vandenberg CWKV $825

Reforestation Trust Fund RTRT 385

Total Trust Fund Appropriations $1,210

TOTAL $55,000

The table below displays deferred maintenance by asset class as reflected in the agency’s 

financial statement. 

Deferred Maintenance by Asset Class as of September 30, 2015

Asset Class Critical1 Non-critical2 Total

Bridge $38,481,576 $166,550,778 $205,032,354

Building 52,511,704 1,096,321,559 1,148,833,263

Dam 8,924,308 28,716,853 37,641,162

Fence 255,980,737 383,891 256,364,628

Handling Facility 21,858,292 21,797 21,880,089

Heritage 3,684,400 20,435,912 24,120,312

Minor Constructed Features 90,754,486 90,754,486

Roads3 325,000,000 2,673,000,000 2,998,000,000

Trail 3,276,365 275,430,865 278,707,230

Trail Bridge 3,393,435 5,727,676 9,121,111

Wastewater System 15,808,887 15,063,342 30,872,228

Water System 46,954,572 45,251,681 92,206,254

Wildlife, Fish, and TES 4,537,218 1,969,418 6,506,635

Grand Total $780,411,494 $4,419,628,258 $5,200,039,752 1 Critical Deferred Maintenance: Deferred maintenance that results in a serious threat to public 

health or safety, a natural resource, or the ability to carry out the agency mission.

2 Non-critical Deferred Maintenance: Deferred maintenance that results in a potential risk to public 

or employee safety or health, compliance with codes, standards, regulations, and so forth; or needs 

that address potential adverse consequences to natural resources or mission accomplishment.

3 The roads deferred maintenance amount is for passenger-car roads (Levels 3 through 5). 

Maintenance Level 1 and 2 roads have been classified as stewardship assets.

The overall condition of major asset classes range from poor to good depending on the location, 

age, and type of property. The standards for various classes of general property, plant, and 

equipment, stewardship, and heritage assets are as follows:

Roads and Bridges - Conditions within the National Forest System (NFS) road system are 

measured by various standards, including: Federal Highway Administration regulations for the 

Federal Highway Safety Act, best management practices for the non-point source provisions of 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

the Clean Water Act from the Environmental Protection Agency and States, road management 

objectives developed through the National Forest Management Act forest planning process, and 

Forest Service directives.

Administrative Buildings - Administrative facilities are Forest Service buildings on designated 

administrative sites. The condition of administrative facilities ranges from poor to good based 

on the facilities condition index (FCI). The FCI is one minus the ratio of repair needs to the 

facility current replacement value. Good or Fair facilities have an FCI of greater than 90 percent.

Dams - The condition of a dam is acceptable when the dam meets current design standards and 

does not have any deficiencies that threaten the safety of the structure or the public. For dams to 

be rated in acceptable condition, the agency needs to restore the dams to the original functional 

purpose, correct unsightly conditions, or do work to prevent more costly repairs in the future.

Range Structures - The condition assessment for range structures (fences and stock handling 

facilities) is based on a determination by knowledgeable range specialists or other district 

personnel of whether the structure would perform the originally intended function, and a 

determination through the use of a protocol system to assess conditions based on age. A longstanding range methodology is used to gather this data.

Heritage Assets - Condition surveys are performed annually on a minimum of 20 percent of the 

agency’s priority heritage assets. Deferred maintenance is considered critical if there is a 

potential health or safety risk, or an imminent threat of loss of significant resource value. 

Heritage assets include archaeological sites that require determination of status by the National 

Register of Historic Places, National Historic Landmarks, and significant historic properties.

Recreation Sites - Quality standards for operating and maintaining recreation sites are established 

as measurable outputs for health and cleanliness, setting, safety and security, responsiveness, and 

the condition of the facility. Recreation sites include developed recreation sites, recreation areas 

within general forest areas, campgrounds, trailheads, trails, water and wastewater systems, 

interpretive facilities, and visitor centers. These components are included in several asset classes 

of the deferred maintenance exhibit.

Trails and Trail Bridges - Conditions within the NFS trail system are measured by various 

standards including: trail national quality standards, trail management objectives, and Forest 

Service directives. Condition surveys are conducted to provide up to date information about the 

condition of all physical features and to provide data to identify deficiencies and any corrective 

measures that need to be taken. Deferred maintenance is identified for trails and trail bridges 

that are in disrepair due to lack of scheduled maintenance and are in violation of applicable 

safety codes or other regulatory requirements such as applicable accessibility guidelines, or 

which are beyond their designed service life.

Wildlife, Fish, and Threatened and Endangered Species Structures - Conditions are determined 

by field biologists using their professional judgment. The deferred maintenance is considered 

critical if resource damage or species endangerment would likely occur if maintenance were 

deferred much longer.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

413

Special Exhibits

Equal Access to Justice Act

Background

This special exhibit is included to address requirements of House Report 112-151 page 8; 

Conference Report 112-331, page 1046, which directed:

Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) Fee Payments - The Committee has learned 

that the Forest Service does not comprehensively track EAJA fee payments, 

identify the funds used to pay EAJA fees, nor routinely make this information 

publicly available. Accordingly, the Committee directs the Forest Service to 

provide to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations and make 

publicly available, and with each Agency’s annual budget submission thereafter, 

the following information: detailed reports on the amount of program funds used; 

the names of the fee recipients; the names of the Federal judges; the disposition of 

the applications (including any appeals of action taken on the applications); and 

the hourly rates of attorneys ad expert witnesses states in the applications that was 

awarded, for all EAJA fee payments awarded as a result of litigation against the 

Forest Service, or their respective employees. The report shall also include the 

information listed above for litigation relating to the Endangered Species Act and 

the amounts, outside of EAJA awards, paid in settlement for all litigation, 

regardless of the statute litigated.

Overview

The Equal Access to Justice Act was enacted in 1980 to provide individuals, small businesses 

and non-profit organizations with the means to ensure Federal agencies make their decisions 

transparent and in accordance with law. Since 2009, the Forest Service has tracked the payment 

of both EAJA and other attorney’s fees.

FY 2011 through FY 2015 Funding and Reporting

In FY 2012, the Forest Service provided EAJA information to Government Accountability 

Office (GAO), in response to a request, on EAJA case names and docket/court number, the name 

of the award recipient, the amount of program funds used, and dates paid. The final EAJA report 

to Congress is available on the internet at the following world-wide web address. 

http://www.fs.fed.us/aboutus/budget/requests/7105962_Equal%20Access%20to%20Justice%20

Act_Letters%20and%20Report.pdf

Subsequent FY 2015 EAJA information is reported in Table 1 of this Special Exhibit.

The Forest Service does not track and therefore cannot report on the following information:

• the Federal judges making the awards,
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

• the disposition of the applications for EAJA fees (including any appeals of action taken 

on the applications), and

• the hourly rates of the attorneys and expert witnesses stated in the applications for which 

an award was made.

Table 1. Forest Service Equal Access to Justice Act Statistics for FY 2011 through FY 2015

Date Rec Docket, 

Court Case Project Name

Vendor 

Name

Date 

Certified Program Amount

12/21/2010

CV 1:09-

cv-00003-

JWS, D. 

AK

Tongass 

Conservation 

Society, Sierra 

Club... v. Forrest 

Cole Tongass NF, 

USFS, USDA

Orion North 

Reoffer timber 

sale, Tongass NF

Earthjustice 12/28/2010 Forest Products $53,000

1/13/2011

08-01185-

MHP, D. N 

Cal

California 

Resources Agency 

v. USDA

Inventoried 

Roadless Areas, 

CA NFs

Earthjustice 2/9/2011

Land 

Management 

Planning

250,000

3/10/2011

CV-04-127-

M-DWM, 

D. Mont

Native Ecosystems 

Inc v. Tidwell

Grazing Permits, 

BeaverheadDeerlodge NF

Alliance for the 

Wild Rockies 3/11/2011 Grazing 

Management 85,000

3/11/2011

08-01927 

CW, D. N 

Cal

Citizens for Better 

Forestry v. USDA

National Forest 

Management Act 

Western 

Environmental 

Law Center

3/17/2011

Land 

Management 

Planning

170,047

3/11/2011

08-01927 

CW, D. N 

Cal

Citizens for Better 

Forestry v. USDA

National Forest 

Management Act Earthjustice 3/17/2011

Land 

Management 

Planning

251,312

4/6/2011 10-cv01514-JDB

Public Employees 

for Environmental 

Responsibility v. 

USDA, USFS

Public 

Employees for 

Environmental 

Responsibility

4/8/2011 Cost Pools 1,848

4/25/2011 CV 08-43-

M-DWM

Forest Service 

Employees for 

Environmental 

Ethics v. USFS and 

National Marine 

Fisheries Service

Bechtold Law 

Firm PLLC 4/25/2011 Wildland Fire 

Suppression 95,000

5/2/2011

CV 07-

1043-JBACT, D. 

NM

Wildearth 

Guardians v. USFS, 

New Mexico Cattle 

Growers 

Association

Livestock 

grazing, Gila NF

Wildearth 

Guardians 5/12/2011 Grazing 

Management 27,500

5/25/2011

CV 09-164-

N-EJL, D. 

ID

The Lands Council 

v. Leslie Weldon 

Region 1, Ranotta 

MaNair Idaho 

Panhandle NF, 

USFS

Bussel 484, 

Idaho Panhandle 

NF

Public Interest 

Defense 6/9/2011 Forest Products 50,064

5/26/2011 5:08-CV00091-TBR

Forest Service 

Employees for 

Environmental 

Ethics v. USFS

Continued 

Maintenance of 

Open Lands, 

Land Between 

the Lakes

Bechtold Law 

Firm PLLC 5/26/2011

Land Between 

the Lakes 

Management 

Fund

29,400

6/13/2011

09-cv00160-

DWM

Alliance for the 

Wild Rockies v. 

Paul Bradford 

Kootenai NF

Grizzly 

Vegetation and 

Transportation 

Management 

Project

Public Interest 

Defense 6/16/2011 Timber Salvage 

Sales 28,000
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

415

Special Exhibits

Date Rec Docket, 

Court Case Project Name

Vendor 

Name

Date 

Certified Program Amount

6/20/2011 05-107M 

(DWM)

Rock Creek 

Alliance v. USFS 2001 EIS

Western 

Mining Action 

Proj

6/22/2011

Minerals & 

Geology 

Management

186,500

7/25/2011 08-1067-

JCC

Conservation 

Northwest v. Harris 

Sherman and D.R. 

Johnson Lumber 

Co.

EIS Survey and 

Manage 

Mitigation 

Measure 

Standards and 

Guidelines, 2007 

Supplement

Western 

Environmental 

Law Center

7/27/2011 Forest Products 155,555

9/8/2011 CV F 09-

392 LJO

Sequoia 

Forestkeeper v. 

USFS

Special Use 

Permit to Robert 

Sellers and 

Quarter Circle 

Five Ranch

Paul Hastings 

LLP 9/13/2011 Landownership 

Management 74,640

9/8/2011 CV F 09-

392 LJO

Sequoia 

Forestkeeper v. 

USFS

Special Use 

Permit to Robert 

Sellers and 

Quarter Circle 

Five Ranch

Rene Voss 9/13/2011 Landownership 

Management 13,800

Subtotal FY 2011 $1,471,666 

Date Rec Docket, 

Court Case Project Name Vendor 

Name

Date 

Certified Program Amount

10/6/2011 10-cv01514-JDB

Public Employees 

for Environmental 

Responsibility v. 

USDA, USFS

Public 

Employees for 

Environmental 

Responsibility

10/11/2011 Cost Pools $1,848 

1/23/2012 09-cv-1500-

SU

Hells Canyon 

Preservation 

Council v. USFS

Sled Springs Off 

Highway Vehicle 

Trail System and 

Road 

Management Plan

Hells Canyon 

Preservation 

Council

1/27/2012

Recreation, 

Wilderness, & 

Wild and 

Scenic Rivers

79,874 

1/27/2012 10-cv-6337-

TC

Cascadia 

Wildlands v. USFS Daniel Kruse 1/30/2012 Forest 

Products 56,500 

2/15/2012 2:10-cv02830-WBS

Center for 

Biological 

Diversity v. Mike 

Crawley, USFS

Motor vehicle use 

on Bridgeport 

Ranger District

Center for 

Biological 

Diversity

2/16/2012 Roads 9,000 

3/6/2012 CV 09-107-

M

Alliance for the 

Wild Rockies v. 

Leslie Weldon, 

USFS

Rat Creek Salvage

Western 

Environmental 

Law Center

3/6/2012

Integrated 

Resource 

Restoration

53,000 

5/29/2012 CV 07-39-

M-DWM

Montana 

Wilderness 

Association v. 

Vicki Christiansen, 

USFS

Earthjustice 6/4/2012

Recreation, 

Wilderness, & 

Wild and 

Scenic Rivers

137,000 

6/14/2012 CV 08-92-

DWM Smith Creek Bechtold Law 

Firm 6/19/2012

Integrated 

Resource 

Restoration

48,489 

7/5/2012 3:09-CV03048

Wilderness Society 

v. US DOI

West-Wide 

Energy Corridors Earthjustice 7/5/2012 Landownership 

Management 10,000 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

416

Special Exhibits

Date Rec Docket, 

Court Case Project Name Vendor 

Name

Date 

Certified Program Amount

8/8/2012 10-CV00026

Idaho 

Conservation 

League and The 

Wilderness Society 

v. Frank Guzman 

and USFS

Travel 

Management Plan 

for the SalmoChallis NF

Earthjustice 8/10/2012

Integrated 

Resource 

Restoration

90,000 

8/22/2012 11-VC-830-

RCC

Defenders of 

Wildlife v. USFS Hardshell Project Defenders of 

Wildlife 8/28/2012

Minerals and 

Geology 

Management

10,500 

9/18/2012 09-CV-131 

CW

Sierra Club v. 

USFS

Ogden Ranger 

District's 

Motorized Travel 

Plan

Western

Wildlife 

Conservancy

9/18/2012

Recreation, 

Wilderness, & 

Wild and 

Scenic Rivers

69,027 

Subtotal FY 2012 $565,237

Date Rec Docket, 

Court Case Project Name Vendor Name

Date 

Certified Program Amount

10/11/2012 No.10-2039-

WHA CV-10-2039

Orleans

Community Fuels 

Reduction (OCFR) 

& Forest Health

Marianne 

Dugan 10/11/2012 Hazardous 

Fuels

 

$30,000 

1/7/2013 CV-11-125-

M-DWM

Friends of the 

Wild SWAN

Colt Summit 

NEPA Litigation

Western 

Environmental 

Law

1/18/2013

Land 

Management 

Planning

 

40,000 

2/12/2013 12-CV-286-

BLW

Advocates for the 

West Inc

Advocates for 

the West Inc 2/12/2013

Wildlife & 

Fish 

Management

 

52,000 

2/28/2013 CV-01477-

GEB-CMK

Californians for 

Alternatives to 

Toxics

Paiute Cutthroat 

Trout Restoration

Western 

Environmental 

Law

3/1/2013

Wildlife & 

Fish 

Management

 

8,000 

2/28/2013 CV 11-99-

M-DWM

Native 

Ecosystems Rebecca Smith 3/1/2013

Wildlife & 

Fish 

Management

 

33,279 

2/28/2013 CV 11-99-

M-DWM

Native 

Ecosystems Tim Berchtold 3/1/2013

Wildlife & 

Fish 

Management

 

13,598 

3/1/2013 CV-1212-CL Oregon Natural 

Desert Assoc.

Environment & 

Natural Resources

Advocates for 

the West Inc 3/1/2013

Wildlife & 

Fish 

Management

 

137,000 

5/9/2013 CV-00048-

WJM

National Ski 

Areas Assn. Inc.

Natural Resources 

& Environment

Ducker 

Montgomery 

Lewis /Bess, 

Williams & 

Weese, P.C.

5/9/2013

Recreation, 

Wilderness, & 

Wild and 

Scenic Rivers

 

125,000 

5/23/2013 10-CV01797-JCC

Wilderness 

Watch 

Glacier Peak 

Wilderness Are. 

Green Mountain 

Lookout.

Wilderness 

Watch 5/24/2013 Facilities 

70,804 

5/23/2013 12-CV01757-TC

Central Oregon 

LandWatch

Bend Waterpipe 

Deschutes NF

Central Oregon 

LandWatch 5/24/2013

Vegetation & 

Watershed 

Management, 

Wildlife & 

Fish 

Management

 

66,350 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

417

Special Exhibits

Date Rec Docket, 

Court Case Project Name Vendor Name

Date 

Certified Program Amount

6/18/2013 08-CV-1460 

PJH

Watersheds 

Project

Western 

Watersheds Project

Advocates for 

the West Inc 6/19/2013 Grazing 

Management

 

264,358 

6/18/2013 08-CV-1460 

PJH

Watersheds 

Project

Western 

Watersheds Project

Keher and Van 

Nest LLP 6/19/2013 Grazing 

Management

 

172,703 

9/10/2013 09-cv01272-WJM

WildEarth 

Guardians

Email sent 

09/18/13 

requesting FS6500-224

WildEarth 

Guardians 9/18/2013

Vegetation & 

Watershed 

Management

 

141,886 

9/11/2013 11-CV-95-

BLW

Idaho Rivers 

United

Idaho Rivers 

United

Advocates for 

the West Inc 9/14/2013

Roads, 

Wildlife & 

Fish 

Management

 

45,500 

09//19/2013 11-CV-23-

PK

Hells Canyon 

Preservation 

Council

Grazing CE's Hells 

Canyon

Hells Canyon 

Preservation 

Council

9/17/2013

Recreation, 

Wilderness, & 

Wild and 

Scenic Rivers

 

136,500 

9/24/2013 09-cv-2523-

LKK-JFM

Center for Sierra 

Nevada 

Conservation

National Forest 

Management 

Act/Endangered 

Species Act

Bahr Law 

Offices, P.C. 9/25/2013 Trails 110,000 

9/25/2013

10-cv00612-EJLREBWestern 

Watersheds 

Project

FC #7600034286 

created & posted 

09/25/13 - Waiting 

for final settlement 

approval amount 

to pay

Advocates for 

the West Inc 11/14/2013 Hazardous Fuels

 

125,000 

9/5/2013

11-cv02921-MCEDAD

Snowlands 

Network, Winter 

Wildlands 

Alliance & 

Center for 

Biological 

Diversity

Over snow vehicle 

(OSV) recreation

Advocates for 

the West Inc 9/6/2013

Vegetation & 

Watershed 

Management

 

15,000 

 Subtotal FY 2013 $1,586,978

Date Rec Docket, 

Court Case Project Name Vendor Name

Date 

Certified Program Amount

9/25/2013 10-cv-00612-

EJL-REB

Western 

Watersheds 

Project

Western 

Watersheds 

Project

Advocates for 

the West Inc 11/14/2013

Hazardous 

Fuels 

Reduction

 

$125,000 

1/10/2014 3-11-CV-895-

ST

Friends of the 

Columbia Gorge 

Inc

Special 

Management 

Area

Friends of the 

Columbia 

Gorge Inc

1/10/2014 Land 

Management 

Planning, & 

Landownership 

Management

17,855 

3/14/2014 CV-12-27-MDLC

Native 

Ecosystems for 

the Wild Rockies

Fleecer Mointains 

Project

Public Interest 

Defense 3/19/2014

Integrated 

Resource 

Restoration

 

19,802 

3/19/2014 CV-10-2141 BreakerAttorney's Fees Martin Breaker Siegel Brill 

P.A Trust 3/21/2014 Landownership Management

 

155,000 

3/21/2014 13-CV-1827-

CL

Murphy Co High 

Cascade Inc

Stipulation for 

Temporary Stay 

American 

Forest 3/24/2014 Forest Products 7,500 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

418

Special Exhibits

Date Rec Docket, 

Court Case Project Name Vendor Name

Date 

Certified Program Amount

of Proceedings Resource 

Council

4/24/2014

13-CV01157-TLNAC

Porcupine 

Vegetation & 

Road 

Management 

Project

Porcupine 

Vegetation & 

Road 

Management 

Project

Sean Malone -

Attorney at 

Law

5/8/2014 Forest Products 

3,500 

5/1/2014 12-CV00804-AA

Goose ProjectWillamette

Cascadia 

Wildlands and 

Oregon Wild

Western 

Environmental 

Law Center

5/2/2014 Forest Products 

60,000 

5/22/2014 PIOGA

Pennsylvania 

Independent Oil 

& Gas Assoc

Pennsylvania 

Independent Oil 

& Gas Assoc

Pennsylvania 

Independent 

Oil & Gas 

Assoc

5/23/2014

Minerals 

Geology 

Management

 

530,000 

6/5/2014

10-CV02172-KJMAC

Central Sierra 

Environmental 

Resource Center, 

The Wilderness 

Society, and 

Public Employees 

for 

Environmental 

Responsibility

California 

Association of 4-

wheel Drive 

Clubs (Alleged 

violations of 

NEPA & APA)

Earthjustice 5/23/2014

Recreation 

Heritage 

Wilderness, & 

Vegetation 

Watershed 

Management

 

100,000 

6/24/2014

12-CV02416-WBSKJN

Conservation 

Congress v. 

USFS. Tatham 

Project 

(NEPA),(ESA).

Tatham Project 

(NEPA)

Marianne G 

Dugan PC 

Attorney Trust

6/24/2014 Forest Products 

36,500 

9/12/2014 4:08-CV00363-EJL

The Wilderness 

Society & Prairie 

Falcon Audubon, 

Inc. v. USFS & 

Magic Valley 

Trail Machine 

Assoc.

Western 

Environmental 

Law Center

9/15/2014

Roads Capital 

Imprv Mtnce,

Trails Capital 

Imprv Mtnce,

Grazing 

Management, 

Recreation 

Heritage 

Wilderness, & 

Integrated 

Resource 

Restoration 

 

120,000 

9/11/2014 Citizens for 

Healthy 

Communities

Funds 

Committed, 

Pending 

Final 

Judgment 

Information

Minerals 

Geology 

Management

60,000 

9/26/2014

11-CV00679-LJODLB

11-CV-00679-

LJO-DLB

Matt Kenna, 

Attorney 9/26/2014

Land 

Management 

Planning

 

100,000 

FY 2014 Subtotal 1,335,757
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

419

Special Exhibits

Date Rec Docket, 

Court Case Project Name Vendor Name Date Certified Program Amount

10/30/2014 4:12-CV00384-REB

Greater 

YELLOSTONE 

Coalition v. 

Forest Service

Western 

Environmental 

Law Center 

IOLTA

11/24/2014 Trails Capital 

Impr Mtnce $32,000.00

12/11/2014 3:10-CV01397-SILeague of 

Wilderness 

Defenders/Blue 

Mountains 

Biodiversity 

Project v. USFS

Blue Mountains 

Biodiversity 

League of 

Wilderness 

Defenders

2/18/2015 Vegetation 

Watershed 

Management

179,699.90

01/18/2015 2:14-CV00729

Western 

Watersheds 

Western 

Watersheds Ryberg Erik 1/21/2015

Integrated 

Resource 

Restoration

5,350.00

01/12/2015

2:13-CV0832-KJMDAD

Mill Fire Salvage 

& Hazard Tree 

Removal 

Mill Fire 

Salvage & 

Hazard Tree 

Removal

Ryberg Erik 1/21/2015 Forest Products 86,000.00

01/27/2015 14-CV00284-JLK

Citizens for 

Healthy

Communities v. 

USFS

Western 

Environmental 

Law Center 

IOLTA

1/29/2015

Minerals 

Geology 

Management

25,000.00

01/29/2015 10-CV03004-CL

Eric Navickas, et 

al

Ashland Forest 

Resiliency Sean T Malone 2/23/2015 Forest Products 45,000.00

2/06/2015 13-CV01723-RBJ

High Country 

Conservation 

Advocates

Attorney’s Fees Earthjustice 3/11/2015

Minerals 

Geology 

Management

116,136.60

4/30/2015 3:10-CV01397-SI

League of 

Wilderness 

Defenders/Blue 

Mountains 

Biodiversity 

Project v. USFS

Blue Mountains 

Biodiversity

League of 

Wilderness 

Defenders

8/07/2015

Vegetation 

Watershed 

Management

155,000.00

8/14/2015 CV-14-1198 

(CKK)

Public Employees 

for 

Environmental 

Responsibility

Attorney’s Fees

Public 

Employees for 

Environmental 

Responsibility

8/13/2015 Pool 1 Cultural 

Transformation 4,000.00

8/28/2015 CV-11-95-

M-DWM Mark Kowack

Joint Stipulation 

to Settlement 

For Attorney’s 

Fees

Antonioli & 

Wade PC 8/28/2015

PD Civil 

Rights & HR 

ER LR

32,166.80

FY 2015 Subtotal $680,353.30 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

420

Special Exhibits

Facilities Maintenance Assessment

Background

This exhibit is included to address requirements of P.L. 109-54 Conference Report 109-188 page 

125, which directed:

There should also be a display which indicates, by national forest, research station and 

area, the funding being allocated for facilities maintenance. The budget justification 

displays shall indicate, for every budget line item, the funding amount being assessed for 

facilities maintenance. This information should be readily visible along with each 

program description.

Overview

In FY 2006, Congress authorized a multi-program assessment for maintenance of agency-owned 

buildings in the categories of fire, administrative, and other (FA&O) facilities, including 

recreation visitor centers (Title III, Administrative Provisions, P.L. 109-54). Appropriated funds 

from Forest and Rangeland Research, State and Private Forestry, National Forest System, 

Wildland Fire Management, Capital Improvement and Maintenance, Land Acquisition, Other 

Appropriations, and eligible Permanent Appropriations and Trust Fund accounts were assessed 

up to $35 million. In FY 2013, the assessment was increased to $55 million and in FY 2016 it 

was increased to $65 million. Details of the Facilities Maintenance (CP09) Assessment by 

budget line item for FY 2014 and FY 2015 are included in a table at the end of this exhibit

FA&O facilities include: fire facilities, such as air tanker bases, lookouts, airports, heliports, and 

fire management centers; administrative facilities, such as administrative offices (ranger district 

offices, forest supervisor offices, regional offices, research stations, and laboratories), service 

centers, storage buildings, and nurseries; and other facilities, such as telecommunication 

facilities, towers, dams, and major recreation visitor centers. Generally, routine maintenance 

costs for these facilities come from funds collected by this assessment, while more expensive 

maintenance needs are funded through the Capital Improvement and Maintenance Facilities or 

Deferred Maintenance budget line items.

The Forest Service currently maintains approximately 16,400 administrative buildings. The 

agency also maintains an inventory of approximately 1,750 Forest Service owned, special use 

permitted, and other dams as well as numerous other facilities including approximately 4,800

water and 4,770 wastewater systems and numerous communication facilities. The current 

inventory is a legacy of former management needs and practices with many facilities in disrepair 

as evidenced by a significant deferred maintenance backlog.

Using program assessments to fund facility maintenance provides an incentive to identify and 

invest in only those facilities that are needed to accomplish the agency’s mission, to dispose of 

surplus buildings, and to exercise restraint on starting new construction because the programs 

bear the cost of maintaining these facilities. This provides financial accountability to represent 

the cost of conducting business operations for land management purposes.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

421

Special Exhibits

Federal mandates such as the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and Energy Policy 

Act (EPAct) of 2005 in combination with Executive Orders (EO) 13514 and 13423 require 

energy, water, and other environmental impact reductions. Facilities Maintenance Assessment 

funds are also used to accomplish the following:

• Conduct energy and water efficiency evaluations to identify energy and water 

conservation measures per the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and to 

reduce building energy intensity to meet greenhouse gas emission targets per EO 13514.

• Conduct assessments of existing buildings and incorporate necessary improvements to 

existing buildings to meet the guiding principles per EO 13514 including increasing 

energy efficiency; reducing greenhouse gas emissions; protecting water resources 

through efficiency, reuse, and stormwater management; eliminating waste, recycling, and 

preventing pollution; and designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating sustainable 

buildings.

• Install renewable energy sources where economically feasible per the EPAct of 2005.

• Install advanced metering systems to measure, verify, and improve utility consumption 

per the EPAct of 2005.

• Decommission or dispose of surplus facilities thereby reducing deferred maintenance and 

amount of square footage requiring maintenance.

Assessments and Allocations

The FY 2015 initial facilities maintenance assessment was based on the final FY 2012 square 

footage of approximately 21.4 million square feet. The facility maintenance assessment applies 

only to owned administrative space and does not include leased space or recreation space. 

Assessments are distributed across eligible budget line items based on each program’s prior year 

direct labor hour charges. In FY 2015, units (Region, Station, or other units) requested 

assessments totaling $55 million. The initial assessment varies from a minimum of $1.34 per 

square foot up to $4.27 per square foot, which falls within the limits of four percent of the 

facility replacement value and seven dollars per square foot.

In FY 2016 and 2017, will use an increased assessment of $65 million. The assessment by 

region and program will be based on the final FY 2016 square footage corrected for salary 

charges by budget line item. Consistent with FY 2015, the assessed amount is limited to four

percent of the facility replacement value and seven dollars per square foot. We will base 

allocations on each unit’s requested assessment amounts. The following tables display the FY 

2015 allocations by unit as well as the distribution of the assessment by program for FY 2014

and FY 2015.

Past Performance

Accomplishments related to buildings and similar structures are included under the Capital 

Improvement and Maintenance Facilities Section. 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

422

Special Exhibits

Facilities Maintenance (CP09) Assessment by BLI

FY 2014 and FY 2015

(dollars in thousands)

BLI Description

Budget 

Line 

Item

FY 2014 Facilities 

Maintenance 

Assessment

FY 2015 Facilities 

Maintenance 

Assessment

Forest & Rangeland Research

Total Forest & Rangeland Research FRRE $3,960 $3,960

State & Private Forestry 

Forest Stewardship SPST $55 $55

State Fire Assistance SPCF 0 0

Forest Health Mgmt. – Coop. Lands SPCH 220 110

Forest Health Mgmt. - Federal Lands SPFH 550 660

Urban and Community Forestry SPUF 55 55

Total State & Private Forestry $880 $880

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Rest. CFLN $330 $605

Land Management Planning NFPN 550 605

Grazing Management NFRG 1,100 1,045

Forest Products NFTM 5,555 5,170

Landownership Management NFLM 1,980 1,430

Inventory & Monitoring NFIM 1,485 1,705

Minerals and Geology Mgmt. NFMG 1,265 1,210

Integrated Resource Restoration NFRR 5,500 4,015

Recreation, Heritage, & Wilderness NFRW 3,795 5,225

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Mgmt. NFWF 1,760 1,925

Vegetation and Watershed Mgmt. NFVW 1,870 2,035

Subsistence Management - Alaska SMSM 55 0

Unit Recreation Enhancement FDDS 55 0

Total National Forest System $25,300 $24,970

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities CMFC $1,100 $1,045

Roads CMRD 2,750 2,640

Trails CMTL 1,320 1,210

Legacy Road Remediation CMLG 220 220

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $5,699 $5,115

Land Acquisition

Total Land Acquisition LALW $165 $110

Wildland Fire Management

Preparedness WFPR $13,475 $13,915

Hazardous Fuels Reduction WFHF 3,905 4,070

National Fire Plan – State Fire Assist. SPS2 0 0

Coop Fire Plan - State Fire Assistance WFCF 110 55

Total Wildland Fire Management $17,490 $18,040
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

423

Special Exhibits

Facilities Maintenance (CP09) Assessment by BLI

FY 2014 and FY 2015

(dollars in thousands)

BLI Description

Budget 

Line 

Item

FY 2014 Facilities 

Maintenance 

Assessment

FY 2015 Facilities 

Maintenance 

Assessment

Permanent Appropriations

Brush Disposal BDBD $110 $110

Timber Salvage Sales SSSS 550 605

Total Permanent Appropriations $660 $715

Trust Fund Appropriations

Cooperative Work - KV CWKV $770 $825

Reforestation Trust Fund RTRT 385 385

Total Trust Fund Appropriations $1,155 $1,210

TOTAL $55,000 $55,000

FY 2015 Facilities Maintenance Initial Assessment and Allocation by Unit

Based on Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015

Unit Name Total Gross Square 

Feet (GSF)

Dollars per

GSF

Total Initial 

Assessment 

& Allocation 

(dollars in 

thousands)

Northern Region 2,400,500 2.27 $5,453

Rocky Mountain Region 1,270,696 2.66 3,381

Southwestern Region 1,410,905 4.39 6,200

Intermountain Region 1,913,589 2.42 4,637

Pacific Southwest Region 3,590,670 2.40 8,600

Pacific Northwest Region 3,797,688 2.40 9,113

Southern Region 1,858,421 2.69 5,000

Eastern Region 2,734,771 2.19 6,000

Alaska Region 501,446 4.45 2,229

Region Subtotal ($/ft2 = avg.) 19,478,686 2.87 $50,613

Forest Products Lab 453,797 1.40 $635

Int’l Inst. of Tropical Forestry 27,401 3.21 88

Rocky Mountain Station 453,671 1.83 828

Northern Station 458,074 1.53 700

Pacific Northwest Station 258,672 2.20 568

Pacific Southwest Station 255,583 1.17 300

Southern Research Station 447,849 1.93 865

Research Station Subtotal 2,355,047 1.90 $3,984

San Dimas Tech. Dev. Center 32,495 2.31 $75

Missoula Tech. Dev. Center 71,715 1.34 96
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

424

Special Exhibits

FY 2015 Facilities Maintenance Initial Assessment and Allocation by Unit

Based on Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015

Unit Name Total Gross Square 

Feet (GSF)

Dollars per

GSF

Total Initial 

Assessment 

& Allocation 

(dollars in 

thousands)

Grey Towers 48,550 3.93 135

Wood Education 66,691 1.45 97

Other Units Subtotal 219,451 1.97 $403

TOTAL 22,053,184 2.35 $55,000

FY 2016 Facilities Assessment allocations by budget line item will be based on FY 2015 salary 

charges by budget line item. The facility maintenance assessment applies only to owned 

administrative space and does not include leased space or recreation space.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

425

Special Exhibits

Fire Transfers

Background

This exhibit is not required by Congressional direction; however, it is included to provide an 

update on the status of funds borrowed from other budget line item accounts and transferred to 

the Wildland Fire Management Suppression account for the purpose of emergency fire 

suppression.

Overview

Transfers for fire suppression occur when the agency has exhausted all available fire resources 

from the Suppression and FLAME accounts. Congressional appropriations currently fund the 

agency at around the 10-year average for wildland fire suppression costs. If wildland fire 

suppression costs exceed the 10-year average and any available suppression balances, the Forest 

Service must receive a supplemental appropriation or execute fire transfer(s) from other program 

accounts for fire suppression expenditures. 

FY 2015 was the most expensive fire season on record. Fire suppression cost the Forest Service 

more than $1.7 billion in FY 2015. At the height of the season, the cost of wildland fire 

suppression was as much as $243 million in a week. Overall spending for the month of August 

was nearly $650 million. The Forest Service, in coordination with our fire response partners, 

mobilized over 27,000 firefighters along with numerous airtankers, helicopters, fire engines, and 

other assets through our integrated, interagency suppression efforts. In FY 2015 we mobilized 

more Type 1 teams then we have in any year since 2007. There were also more large "campaign" 

fires where multiple Incident Management Teams managed a singular incident then any year 

since 2008. We also had 5 Area Command and 11 National Incident Management Organization

assignments. During this fire season, there were 24 days at National Preparedness Level 5 -- the 

highest level -- meaning all available ground and air assets are committed to priority work. 

The financial impacts to the agency remain significant given the uncertainty around fire risk and 

funding. Severe drought across the west has increased fire severity in several states. Washington 

State among others, has recorded a record season of severe wildfires. Drought-ridden California

has also experienced tremendous fire activity. Every State and Puerto Rico, along with the 

military and international support, provided people and equipment this season to help manage 

over 50,000 wildfires. Nearly nine million acres burned across the United States and destroyed 

over 2,500 single residences. Our forests and grasslands lost opportunities to undertake 

important project work - including fire prevention work - and deferred important spending in 

support of this very active fire season. The greatest losses, however, involved the fatalities of 13 

wildland firefighters who paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect the lives of others.

In the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2016 passed on September 30, 2015, $700 million was 

appropriated for emergency fire suppression and the repayment of funds that were previously 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

426

Special Exhibits

transferred to wildland fire suppression. The entire $700 million was used to repay funds 

transferred to support the FY 2015 fire season.

The following table lists the funds that were not fully repaid from fire transfers that occurred 

from FY 2002 through FY 2014. 

Funds Withdrawn for Transfer for Wildland Fire Suppression

and Not Repaid from FY 2002 to FY 2014

(dollars in thousands)

Approp. Budget Line Item Amount

FRFR Forest & Rangeland Research

Funds: Strategic program areas of Forest & Rangeland 

Research

$32 

SPSP State and Private Forestry

Funds: Cooperating with and providing assistance to States 

for forest health, cooperative forestry, and education. Also 

funds international programs 

3,099 

NFNF National Forest System

Funds: Management, protection, improvement, and 

utilization of the National Forest System

106,167 

CMCM Capital Improvements and Maintenance

Funds: Construction or improvement of roads, trails, and 

facilities

35,305 

LALW Land Acquisitions

Funds: Acquisition of land or waters

9,308 

BDBD Brush Disposal

Receipts collected fund: Fuel reduction after timber harvest

64 

FDFD Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Fund

Fees collected fund: Recreation operation, interpretation, and 

law enforcement

45 

PEPE Timber Purchaser Election Road Construction

Funds: Construction or improvement of roads in support of 

timber harvest by small business operators

30,090 

SFSF Timber Salvage Sales

Funds: Analysis, preparation, and offer of salvage sales

112 

RIRI Restoration of Forest Lands and Improvements 20,000 

WCWC Working Capital Fund

Funds: Replacement and repair of motor vehicles, nursery 

services, enterprise services.

86,029 

WFPR Wildland Fire Preparedness 93,786 

FLEP Forest Land Enhancement Program 40,032 

Total $424,069 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

427

Special Exhibits

Fire, Preparedness, and Suppression Costs

Background

This exhibit is required by P.L. 113-76, Committee Report 113-32, Joint Explanatory Statement 

Division G, page 44, Wildland Fire Management, which directed:

In FY 2015 and all future budget submissions, the Committees direct the Forest 

Service to include a detailed table of actual and proposed spending on fire 

operations, which should also include a breakout of spending on aviation 

resources, for both preparedness and suppression appropriations. 

Overview

The following table shows a breakdown of spending for fire operations, including aviation 

resources, from FY 2015 to FY 2017 for both Preparedness and Suppression programs. 

In FY 2015, suppression and preparedness expenditures reflect the amount of funding that was 

appropriated as well as the amount of previously appropriated Suppression funding that was 

utilized for fire suppression operations during the 2015 fire season. In FY 2016, planned 

preparedness and suppression expenditures align with the 10-year average for Suppression in FY 

2016 and the amount enacted in FY 2016, plus funding provided for acquisition of a large 

airtanker in FY 2015 (which we expect to obligate in FY 2016), in Preparedness. 

In FY 2017, estimated preparedness and suppression expenditures reflect the amounts proposed 

for each program in this budget request. The estimated suppression expenditures are shown as a 

range from the 10-year average to the amount of funding requested in the cap adjustment. 

Preparedness and Suppression Costs

(dollars in millions)

Preparedness FY 2015 

Expenditures

FY 2016 Enacted FY 2017 Estimates

Firefighters $424 $365 $378

Firefighting Equipment and Support $196 $188 $217

Aviation Contracts/Support $237 $350 $244

Agency Cost Pools $272 $243 $243

Total Preparedness Spending $1,129 $1,146 $1,082

Suppression1 FY 2015 

Expenditures

FY 2016 Planned FY 2017 Estimates

Firefighters $485 $350 $433 - $520

Fire Suppression Operations and Logistics $911 $502 $548 - $760

Aviation Operations $134 $75 $82 – $125

Interagency and State Fire Support2 $162 $73 $73 – $185

Burned Area Emergency Response $7 $25 $25 – $43

Agency Cost Pools $106 $101 $87-$105

Total Suppression Spending3 $1,805 $1,126 $1,248 – $1,738

1 Includes both Suppression and FLAME funding.
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2 Includes costs incurred by the Forest Service while providing support to DOI and State fire operations. See paragraph below 

for more detail.

3 Total FY 2015 Suppression obligations include $144 million of prior year funds. Of this,$93 million is not included in the 10-

year average calculation as it was used to execute the Next Generation 2.0 Exclusive Use large airtanker contract. 

The budget formulation process is informed by decision support tools as well as predicted fire 

activity and anticipated wildfire workloads to help determine specific resources and geographic 

placement to ensure timely and effective responses to wildfire incidents. Aviation assets and 

associated costs are managed nationally to gain maximum efficiencies and provide for strategic 

placement of resources. 

Suppression costs are dependent on the severity of the fire season and other variables that are 

difficult to forecast including weather conditions and the location of fires. These factors play a 

critical role in determining the appropriate mix and numbers of firefighting resources required to 

safely and effectively manage wildfire incidents. As such, the FY 2016 and FY 2017 estimates 

for suppression costs are based on cost centers that tend to remain fairly proportional from year 

to year. However, fires will continue to be managed in accordance with risk management 

protocols that emphasize firefighter and public safety and determine the most appropriate and 

effective response to protect values at risk and manage national forest system lands.

Interagency fire support includes support for fires on both the Department of the Interior (DOI) 

and State lands. Per agreement with DOI and under the auspices of the Economy Act, Federal 

agencies do not reimburse each other for costs incurred during fire operations. Thus, the Forest 

Service does not recover any costs incurred while providing support to DOI fire operations and 

the same is true for DOI when providing support to Forest Service fire operations. However, 

costs incurred while supporting State fire operations are reimbursable and States are billed for 

these costs. 

Additional information on Agency Administrative Cost Pools can be found in the Cost Pool 

Special Exhibit.
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National Scenic and Historic Trails

Background 

This special exhibit is included to address requirements of P.L. 111-88 House Report 111-180 

page 132, which directed:

The Committee recommendation retains previous base funding for maintenance, 

construction, and operation of the network of national scenic and historic trails 

but encourages additional funding for required work of the newly authorized 

national trails. Future budget justifications should continue to provide specific 

trail operation, maintenance and construction funding and accomplishment data 

for the national scenic and historic trails. The Forest Service should provide full 

time administrators and prepare the required comprehensive management plans 

for the newly authorized national trails.

Overview

Since the enactment of the National Trails System Act in 1968, the Forest Service has designated 

trail administrators for six National Scenic and Historic Trails (NS&HT): Arizona, Continental 

Divide, Florida, Nez Perce (Nee Mee Poo), Pacific Crest, and Pacific Northwest. The Forest 

Service manages portions of 15 additional NS&HTs on National Forest System (NFS) lands, in 

cooperation with the Department of the Interior (DOI), State and county governments, and

private partners. Funding for administration and management of these trails is included within 

the Capital Improvement and Maintenance - Trails budget line item. Acquisition of trail 

segments is included within the Land Acquisition budget line item. In previous years, the Forest 

Service has had full administrative responsibility for the Appalachian Trail. Currently, the 

Appalachian Trail is managed in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS). The Forest 

Service Southern Region (Region 8) provides a liaison for trail management and activities, so 

accomplishments are the result of collaboration between the NPS and the Forest Service. 

Appalachian National Scenic Trail (AT)

This 2,176-mile footpath crosses along the ridgecrests and across the major valleys of the 

Appalachian Mountains from Mt. Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in northern Georgia. 

The trail traverses Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and 

Georgia. The trail is used by day, weekend, and other short-term hikers, section-hikers, and 

through-hikers who hike the entire length of the trail in one season. The trail is currently 

protected along more than 99 percent of its course by Federal or State ownership or rights-ofway and is administratively managed by the National Park Service.

Arizona National Scenic Trail (ANST)

Designated on March 30, 2009, through the Omnibus Public Land Management Act (P.L. 111-

11), the ANST extends 807 miles across the State of Arizona showcasing its diverse vegetation, 
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wildlife, geology and scenery, and providing unparalleled opportunities for hikers, mountain 

bikers and equestrians. The Arizona Trail Association has partnered with four national forests, 

two Bureau of Land Management field offices, four National Park Service units, and State and 

local government partners to complete a connected route across the State. 

Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDT)

Designated November 10, 1978, the 3,100 mile long CDT spans the wild, spectacular mountain 

country along the spine of the Rocky Mountains from Mexico to Canada. The route connects 20 

National Forests, three National Parks, one National Monument, 13 Bureau of Land 

Management field offices, historic and traditional cultural sites, and primitive wildlands. 

Approximately 90 percent of the trail is located within publicly owned lands; however, many 

trail segments are currently co-located along with open roads or motorized trails. Easements are 

lacking across numerous parcels of private and State land (including 32 State-owned parcels in 

New Mexico alone) and are needed to secure a continuous route available for permanent public 

use. 

Florida National Scenic Trail (FNST)

Added to the national trails system in 1983, the FNST consists of a 1,300 mile planning corridor 

stretching from Big Cypress National Preserve in the Everglades to Gulf Islands National 

Seashore in the panhandle of Florida. A FY 2015 inventory shows 1,022 miles of certified 

FNST on the ground, leaving just under 300 miles in gaps. The FNST is the only national scenic 

trail that gives the public the opportunity to experience a wide range of subtropical 

environments, karst spring and riverine systems, and a beach walk on a national seashore. 

Nez Perce National Historic Trail (NPNHT)

In 1986, Congress acknowledged the significance of the Nez Perce Conflict of 1877 by 

establishing the 1,170 mile NPNHT. The route winds through remote, rugged, and scenic 

terrain. With the cooperation of State Highway Department and County Commissioners in the 

states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, over 1,500 miles of Federal, 

State, and county roads are designated as the NPNHT Auto Tour Route. The route roughly 

parallels the course travelled by the five Nez Perce bands during their historic 1877 odyssey, 

beginning near Wallowa Lake, Oregon, and ending at Bear Paw Mountains south of Chinook, 

Montana. National designation protects the actual historic trail to foot and equestrian travel 

only. The diversity of this trail lies in the details, where low level roads overlay the historic trail, 

and opportunities for off-highway vehicles, biking and snowmobile use exists.

Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail (PCT)

The PCT is a 2,650-mile congressionally designated trail that follows the crest of the Sierra 

Nevada and Cascade Mountain ranges from the Mexican to Canadian borders through California, 

Oregon, and Washington. Established in 1968, the trail was completed in 1993 and lies within 

publicly owned lands except for approximately 300 miles where it crosses private lands 

(easements have been acquired for the trail tread). 
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Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail (PNNST)

Designated on March 30, 2009, through the Omnibus Public Land Management Act (P.L. 111-

11) the PNNST consists of approximately 1,200 miles, extending from the Continental Divide in 

Glacier National Park, Montana, to the Pacific Ocean Coast in Olympic National Park, 

Washington. The PNNST connects people and communities of the Pacific Northwest as it 

travels through three national parks, seven national forests, six Washington State parks, three 

regions of the Washington Department of Natural Resources, land managed by the Idaho 

Department of Lands, and across land managed by a variety of other public and private land 

owners. 

Other National Scenic and Historic Trails (NSHT)

There are an additional 15 national scenic and historic trails totaling over 6,700 miles for which 

the Forest Service coordinates management with other Federal public land agencies. These trails 

are: California, Camino Real Tejas, Camino Tierra Adentro, De Anza, Ice Age, Iditarod, Lewis 

and Clark, Mormon Pioneer, North Country, Old Spanish, Oregon, Overmountain Victory, Pony 

Express, Santa Fe, and Trail of Tears. 

Funding for NSHTs

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2015 Enacted FY 2016 Enacted FY 2017 

Estimates

Name Trails

Land Subtotal TrailsLand Subtotal TrailsLand SubAcq. Acq. Acq. total

Appalachian 183 330 513 183 825 1,008 183 750 933 

Arizona 348 0 348 348 0 348 348 0 348 

Continental 

Divide 1,688 0 1,688 1,688 0 1,688 1,688 0 1,688 

Florida 1,266 0 1,266 1,266 0 1,266 1,266 0 1,266 

Nez Perce 620 0 620 620 525 1,145 620 0 620 

Pacific Crest 1,688 5,388 7,076 1,829 3,200 5,029 1,829 4,905 6,734 

Pacific 

Northwest 148 2,848 2,996 148 0 148 148 0 148 

All-others** 693 4,793 5,486 693 2,820 3,513 693 0 693 

TOTAL $6,634 $13,359 $19,993 $6,775 $7,370 $14,145 $6,775 $5,655 $12,430

** Others for FY 2015 and FY 2016 include Bonneville Shoreline Trail, Old Spanish Trail, North 

Country Trail, Uwharrie National Recreation Trail
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FY 2015 Innovative Actions and Accomplishments (by specific Trail)

Appalachian National Scenic Trail (AT) 

Partners: Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Appalachian Mountain Club, National Park Service, 

and other Federal, State, and nongovernmental organization

• Routine Trail Maintenance. The AT was kept safe and enjoyable for visitors along its entire 

length through the Southern Region (approximately 700 miles). Nearly every mile received 

maintenance attention, and most received the benefits of multiple work trips. These efforts 

were primarily accomplished by 1,367 volunteers who safely contributed 72,496 hours across 

the region. 

Arizona National Scenic Trail

Partners: Arizona Trail Association (ATA), Federal, State, local government and 

nongovernmental organizations.

• A regional interdisciplinary team began documenting existing conditions of the ANST 

corridor in preparation for drafting a comprehensive plan. Through the existing Forest 

Service cost-share agreement, the Arizona Trail Association (ATA) was engaged to assist 

in the collection of trail use and conditions data, including information on facilities, 

cultural and natural history, and scenery resources. 

• Collaboration with American Conservation Experience (ACE) has allowed the ATA to 

initiate a comprehensive trail steward training program implemented through several 2-day 

Crew working in the Sheyenne National Grasslands

Through a Volunteer Vacation organized by the American Hiking Society, this crew of 

volunteers joined a few Forest Service staff to help maintain part of the North Country 

Trail (NCT). They mowed 30 miles of the NCT, reset marker posts, installed mileage 

markers, and installed NCT emblem plaques on marker posts with faded brands. 
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sessions. ACE is sharing their extensive experience in construction and maintenance of 

trails, teaching stewards everything from arid lands hydrology and how it relates to trail 

sustainability, to building rock check dams and realigning poorly built trails. The ATA 

continued their Seeds of Stewardship program, providing 30 outings along the ANST for 

school children from gateway communities along the trail. Thirty two major ATA volunteer 

projects took place trail-wide including gate installation, sign and kiosk fabrication and 

installation, and trail maintenance and realignment. The Forest Service partnered with youth 

corps on 11 maintenance and realignment projects trail-wide. 

Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST)

Partners: Continental Divide Trail Coalition, Montana Wilderness Association, Colorado Trail 

Foundation, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, Montana Conservation Corps, Rocky Mountain 

Youth Corps, Conservation Legacy, Backcountry Horsemen and numerous other Federal, State, 

and local nongovernmental organizations.

• Reinstated the CDT Federal Interagency Leadership Council structure for the trail to 

provide for consistent and coordinated management and leadership across the Federal 

agencies. 

• Compiled existing planning direction for BLM, NPS and Forest Service units along the 

Trail. Developed a schedule of Forests undergoing Revision; worked collaboratively with 

partners and agency personnel to begin developing a template of forest plan components 

to aid forest planners and establish consistent plan direction for the trail as forests 

undergo revision. 

• CDTC designated three Gateway Communities in 2015: Chama, NM; SouthFork, CO; 

Pagosa Springs, CO. CDTC is also supporting the development of five additional 

communities that will become designated communities in 2016. To support this work, 

CDTC was awarded an AmeriCorps Vista Position through the Office of Surface Mining 

and Reclamation for the next three years. CDTC hosted the First Annual CDT Trail Days 

celebration in April 2015 in Silver City, NM.

• CDTC officially launched the Trail Adopter Program across the CDT. 

• CDTC organized the First Annual CDT Rockies Ruck, held in March of 2015. CDTC 

GIS Volunteers produced maps for a new “20 Best Hikes of the CDT in CO” publication 

due out in 2016 in partnership with the Colorado Mountain Club. 

• CDTC applied for and “won” a $25,000 grant from Michelob Ultra and American Hiking 

Society in support of the Superior Trails Challenge. 

• CDTC expanded their shuttle program to transport through-hikers to the southern 

terminus of the Trail.

• The CDT Montana program of the Montana Wilderness Association continued several 

programs for working with at-risk high school youth on the CDT.

Florida National Scenic Trail (FNST)

Partners: Florida Trail Association, USDI National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service, Florida Forest Service, Florida State Parks, and other Federal, State, and 

nongovernmental organizations.
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Plum Creek Land Exchange

• In an unprecedented land exchange by the U.S. Forest Service, the National Forests in 

Florida finalized a land exchange in Columbia, Baker and Union Counties with timber 

and land company Plum Creek to secure permanent easements for the Florida National 

Scenic Trail and Florida’s Strategic Intermodal System.

The National Forests in Florida and the Osceola National Forest worked with Columbia 

County, Plum Creek representatives, with the help of the Western Land Group, to 

develop a land exchange to benefit the county, stakeholders and community. Plum Creek 

exchanged and donated a total of 12.35 acres of land for an easement, re-routing access to 

the Florida National Scenic Trail in perpetuity. 

Kissimmee River Relocation

• The National Forests in Florida worked closely with staff at the Kissimmee Prairie 

Preserve State Park, South Florida Water Management District, Avon Park Air Force 

Range, and Florida Trail Association to relocate a 36-mile corridor of the Florida 

National Scenic Trail from the western to the eastern side of the Kissimmee River.

The new location provides a sustainable, and scenic route for the Florida National Scenic 

Trail, eliminating the need for major infrastructure investments such as elevated 

boardwalks and bridges.

Nez Perce National Historic Trail (Nee-Mee-Poo)

Partners: The Nez Perce Trail Foundation, Nez Perce Appaloosa Horse Club, the Idaho Chapter 

of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, The Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail 

Interpretive Center, The Bitter Root Cultural Heritage Trust, Eastern Oregon University, 

Montana Natural History Center.

In September and October of 2014 The Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail 

(NPNHT) staff held 12 Comprehensive Plan (CP) Revision public meetings across the length of 

the Trail. In 2015 NPNHT Administrator and Comprehensive Plan Coordinator, met with 

officials from the State of Idaho. Continue to promote the NPNHT through educators and social 

media. We have 700 Followers on Twitter @npnht. The NPNHT website saw more than 

105,000 visits last year.

Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail (PCT)

Partners: Pacific Crest Trail Association, California Conservation Corps, Student Conservation 

Association, Oregon Equestrian Trails, Backcountry Horsemen of California, Oregon, 

Washington, and other Federal, State, and nongovernmental organizations.

Ecological Restoration and Sustainability

Trail maintenance and construction efforts were focused on areas that have resource

concerns or are impacted by fire or other natural disasters such as flooding or mass

wasting. Information on restoration efforts between forests, BLM resource areas, and

states to develop Best Management Practices and strategies to address trail sustainability
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concerns. 

Prioritize and support Land Acquisition along the PCT Corridor (Conserve Open Space)

Land acquisition program continues with partners and federal agencies to protect the trail. 

Options signed and lands acquired (1,132 acres) in Washington and California.

Federal Planning Efforts to Define and Protect the PCT Corridor

Pacific Crest NST Management updated in the revision of early adopter forests plans in

California (Inyo, Sequoia and Sierra National Forests) The plans draft desired condition, 

define the trail corridor, and establish plan components.

Strengthen communities 

Hosted two Connecting through Stewardship Collaborative Trail Dialogues.

Fostering citizen stewardship, volunteer opportunities, and youth engagement

PCT program of work will emphasize partnerships with a wide variety of youth and

diverse partners for volunteer and youth corps engagement. 

Advance knowledge

Continue to place emphasis of safety within the volunteer program from Job Hazard

Analysis, After Action Reviews, and national policy development (for saws).

Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail 

Partners: Pacific Northwest Trail Association (PNTA), National Park Service, Bureau of Land 

Manager, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Washington State Parks, Idaho 

Department of Lands, Tribal governments, many county and municipal governments and 

agencies along the length of the trail.

• 28 members of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail Advisory Council (PNNST) were 

approved by the Secretary of Agriculture in 2015. This public-private collaborative group 

will provide advice and recommendations on future management and administration of the 

PNNST to the Secretary of Agriculture through the Chief of the Forest Service. PNNST staff 

participated in forest planning efforts on the Idaho Panhandle, Kootenai, Flathead, Colville, 

and Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forests.

• Forest Service Landscape Architects completed a scenic inventory of the entire length of the 

PNNST. Forest Service Lands and Realty Specialists completed a private lands inventory of 

the length of the trail. The Pacific Northwest Trail Association fielded more than 15 trail 

crews along the PNNST and constructed, improved, or maintained more than 400 miles of 

trail. The Pacific Northwest Trail Association hired a regional coordinator for the Idaho and 

Montana sections of the PNNST.
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FY 2015 Partner Contributions and Associated Accomplishments

Volunteers

Location Hours In-kind 

Contributions

Non-Cash 

Contributions

Miles of 

Trail 

Maintained

Miles of 

Trail 

Improved

Acres 

Acquired

Major 

Structures 

Constructed 

Appalachian 72,496 $0 $0 700 0 168* 0

Arizona 12,981 0 0 82 1 0 1

Continental 

Divide 17,245 0 16,950 865 85 95 203

Florida 21,745 0 0 13 40 0 18

Nez Perce 15,000 0 0 90 109 0 0

Pacific Crest 85,427 1,970,801 438,724 1,389 26.2 1132.2 5

Pacific 

Northwest 36,184 0 0 360 61 0 9

Other** (known) 0 228

Total 246,928 0 16,950 3,628 342 975 233

** Acres Acquired – Other, includes: Trail of Tears NHT, Cherokee National Forest (222 acres) and Bonneville Shoreline 

Trail in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache NF in Utah (6 acres)

*168 acre conservation easement donation protecting the Appalachian Trail on the George Washington and Jefferson NFs in 

VA
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Office of General Counsel Reimbursement

Background

This special exhibit is required by P.L. 110-161, page 121, Administrative Provisions, which 

directed:

“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any appropriations or funds available to the 

Forest Service not to exceed $500,000 may be used to reimburse the Office of the 

General Counsel (OGC), Department of Agriculture, for travel and related expenses 

incurred as a result of OGC assistance or participation requested by the Forest Service at 

meetings, training sessions, management reviews, land purchase negotiations and similar 

non-litigation related matters. Future budget justifications for both the Forest Service and 

the Department of Agriculture should clearly display the sums previously transferred and 

the requested funding transfers.”

Overview

The USDA Office of General Counsel bills the Forest Service quarterly for non-litigation travel

and related costs. The FY 2015 actual reimbursement in the table below reflects billings 

received to date.

Office of General Counsel Reimbursement FY 2015 to FY 2017

FY 2015 Actual

Reimbursement

FY 2016 Estimated

Reimbursement

FY 2017 Planned

Reimbursement

$50,000 $50,000 $50,000
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Office of Tribal Relations

Background

This exhibit is not required by Congressional direction; however, it is included to provide 

information about this program. 

Overview

The Office of Tribal Relations (OTR) provides policy advice and direction in implementing 

agency programs and activities in a manner that honors Indian Tribes’ treaty rights and 

recognizes the inherent sovereignty of American Indians and Alaska Natives. The OTR also 

helps the agency fulfill its trust responsibility while building, maintaining, and enhancing 

government-to-government relationships with federally recognized Indian Tribal governments 

and government-to-corporation relationships with Alaska Native Corporations. The OTR 

supports the mission of all agency programs and disciplines through general and issue-specific 

efforts. 

The OTR has responsibilities that span all of the Deputy areas within the Forest Service. The 

Forest Service manages National Forest System (NFS) lands and resources for the benefit of the 

general public, while respecting the special trust responsibility of the United States to the 566 

federally recognized Indian Tribes. All lands currently managed by the agency were historically 

owned and managed by Tribes. Consequently, tribes have a vested interest in cultural resources, 

sacred sites, reserved treaty rights, and resource stewardship on lands managed by the Forest 

Service. Additionally, NFS shares nearly 4,000 miles of coterminous boundaries with tribal 

lands with the potential for cross-jurisdictional management issues. In some cases, Tribal 

governments retained rights on what are present-day national forests or grasslands when the 

Tribes relinquished lands to the United States Government. Additionally, State and Private 

Forestry (S&PF) programs provide assistance to non-Federal landowners, including Tribal 

governments and American Indians and Alaska Natives; Research and Development (R&D) 

programs include a variety of programs and projects that incorporate tribal perspectives and 

include Indian Tribes in development of research projects; and Forest Service Business 

Operations (BusOps) authorities include responsibilities and processes to work with Indian 

Tribes. 

The OTR supports and integrates Tribal Relations components of policy analysis and 

development, technical, and administrative assistance, training, and oversight. The program also 

advises national Forest Service leadership in matters pertaining to interactions with Indian Tribes 

and tribal representatives. The OTR also helps develop regulations for and tracks 

implementation of the Tribal Relations components of specific legislation, for example, the Farm 

Bill and the Tribal Forest Protection Act. 

2015 Accomplishments

The USDA Tribal Consultation Policy aims for the entire agency to regularize the practice of 

engaging and consulting with tribes in order to uphold the federal trust responsibility and 
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effectuate mutually beneficial results. The OTR has assisted in this effort by focusing on two 

ways to better prepare all Forest Service employees to effectively work with tribes – through 

policy and training/resource tools. 

The OTR has overseen the development of two major policies: (1) the US Forest Service Tribal 

Relations Directives, which institutionalize and tailor the agency-wide practices of tribal 

consultation and engagement into Forest Service manual and handbook; and (2) The Cultural 

Heritage Cooperative Authority (CHCA) Technical Guide, which outlines how to implement 

provisions included in the 2008 Farm Bill, such as reburial of human remains and cultural items 

as well as temporary closures for traditional and cultural purposes. These policies are helpful 

resources for employees because they correlate the theory and intent of the laws upon which 

policy is based with real-life examples and best practices/lessons learned from the field. 

OTR has also worked to provide training/resource tools:

• Tribal Connections Mapping Tool – The Lands Map Viewer shows Indian Lands along 

National Forest System boundaries. Historic Indian Cessation maps are included to 

informally provide an overview of Indian land, see link below: 

http://usfs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=fe311f69cb1d43558227d

73bc34f3a32 . The tool was initially developed to provide Forest Service employees 

information about which Tribes should be consulted, as part of existing agency land 

decisions. However, many federal partners from land management agencies and the 

public are also using this reference to better understand historical treaties and the role 

they play in making current land management decisions.

• Sacred Sites Report and Implementation - The Sacred Sites review and report supports 

President Obama’s commitment to fulfill this nation’s trust responsibilities to Indian 

Tribes. Implementing the recommendations are helping to better protect sacred sites 

across the 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands; build positive 

relationships with Indian Tribes; fulfill our trust and treaty obligations; and meet the 

requirements of pertinent Federal laws. The OTR finalized a contract in August 2015 to 

create a training series to provide an overview of the Federal-Tribal trust relationship, the 

meaning of tribal sovereignty, and how federal agencies can work with tribes to 

proactively address sacred sites issues. . 

• R&D Tribal Engagement Roadmap – The Roadmap outlines an agenda for Forest 

Service R&D staff regarding services to, engagement with, and learning from Indian 

Tribes and other indigenous groups. The OTR has been collaborating with Forest Service 

R&D to review its work using a tribal-specific lens. The Roadmap catalogues the 

resources and pathways R&D uses to support and implement the goals and objectives 

outlined in the agency’s Tribal Relations Strategic Plan. 

• Tribal Climate Flagship Partnership - The Forest Service is creating at least one 

flagship tribal partnership in every Forest Service Region to develop and implement 

climate adaptation strategies for tribal lands and adjacent national forests and grasslands. 

Through increased intra- and inter-agency collaboration, these partnerships will develop 
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new and existing opportunities to assist tribal communities in preparing for and 

recovering from the effects of climate change. These partnerships will leverage an 

existing, coordinated effort in tribally focused research – Tribes and Climate Change 

Research Project –that incorporates traditional knowledge and western science to meet 

tribal natural resource needs. 

The OTR is structuring its budget to align with the four major components of the 2015-2020 

Forest Service Strategic Plan. Included below is a snapshot of some of the initiatives OTR has 

outlined:

(1) Sustain our Nation’s Forests and Grasslands

The OTR aims to bolster its efforts to mitigate climate change in tribal communities by 

leveraging successes from region-based tribal projects and scaling them up through the 

Environmental Justice federal workgroup and the Climate Change Subgroup of the White 

House Council on Native American Affairs to procure cross-agency funding streams for 

expanding and sustaining tribal projects. 

(2) Deliver Benefits to the Public

The OTR will continue to provide resources and training to facilitate tribal consultation 

throughout the agency. Through the interagency sacred sites workgroup, OTR is also 

working to provide a universal training program on sacred sites that will be available to 

the entire Federal family.

(3) Apply Knowledge Globally

The OTR is working to incorporate the use of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) 

into established Forest Service processes such as forest planning, climate change 

mitigation strategies, invasive species assessments, and data collection/information 

management. The OTR has memorandums of understanding with both the College of the 

Menominee Nation and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal College. Each 

institution has forestry-specific coursework that include sources beyond conventional 

Western science. The OTR aims to deepen Forest Service ties with these colleges and 

reach out to additional Tribal Colleges and Universities that are developing and launching 

agroforestry, botany, and natural resources programs to find ways to document and 

include TEK in fellow divisions of the Forest Service, such as Forest Service R&D and 

S&PF.

(4) Excel as a High-Performing Agency

The OTR would like to bolster its efforts to gain traction with Native American youth. 

We hope to partner with other Forest Service divisions to provide more internships and 

fellowships for Native students and Native organizations such as the American Indian 

Science and Engineering Society to create a future Forest Service workforce that is 

reflective of the populations it serves. The OTR is strategizing how to take proven, 

effective programs, such as Job Corps, and expand their presence throughout Indian 
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Country to reach the target audience of those college-aged, but not necessarily collegebound, to find employment opportunities with the Forest Service. The OTR hopes to 

improve communication of the many programs and opportunities Forest Service has 

available to Indian Country youth in all areas of the country.

Allocation and Integration

The OTR is funded by a direct cost pool (Cost Pool 2), using all of the funds available to the 

Forest Service. Specific projects are funded accorded to the purpose of the projects.

Partnerships

The OTR collaborates closely with internal staff areas through the Forest Service OTR Liaison 

group convened at the Washington Office. The OTR Liaisons represent 20 different staff areas 

from NFS, S&PF, R&D, and BusOps. The OTR convenes quarterly meetings with these 

representatives to coordinate and collaborate on Tribal Relations components. The OTR also 

convenes an internal monthly teleconference with regional Tribal Relations staff to coordinate 

outreach efforts and collaborate on national policies and projects.

Additionally, the OTR maintains external partnerships with Tribal governments, intertribal 

organizations, other Federal and State agencies, and other organizations. The Strategic Plan for 

the National Tribal Relations program includes three goals and guides OTR’s interactions both 

internally and externally. These goals are: 

• to ensure the agency redeems its trust responsibility and protects American Indian and 

Alaska Native reserved rights as they pertain to Forest Service programs, projects, and 

policies;

• leverage partnerships to maximize mutual success; and

• promote integration and utility of the Tribal Relations Program throughout the agency.
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Partnerships

Background

This exhibit is included to provide information requested in House Report 109-465 page 151, 

House Report 108-195 page 99, and House Report 107-564 page 107. 

Overview

Since our inception, the Forest Service has maintained a commitment to working with a variety 

of organizations and interests while fulfilling our motto of “caring for the land and serving 

people.” We accomplish much of our work through collaboration with diverse partners –

leveraging significant energy and support to meet critical Forest Service mission activities. 

Strategic investments in partner-focused efforts allow the Forest Service to accomplish more 

work across broad landscapes and even broader constituencies.

In FY 2015, the Forest Service entered into more than 21,250 grants and agreements with 

partners, who contributed more than $554 million. When leveraged by the agency’s nearly $942

million contribution, the total value of these partnerships was nearly $1.5 billion. The ongoing 

expansion in our use of grants and agreements in FY 2015, along with other types of 

partnerships, demonstrates the increasing importance of partnerships in furthering the mission of 

the Forest Service. In FY 2014, the most recent year for which data are available, nearly

110,000 volunteers and service participants contributed 4.64 million service hours valued at $101

million; representing a six percent increase above FY 2013 outcomes. Their hourly contributions 

were equal to 2,577 full-time equivalents.

These partnerships do more than just bring mutually leveraged funding and resources to bear for 

the benefit of the American public. Partnerships enhance on-the-ground accomplishments, 

demonstrate relevancy of land management to the lives of demographically diverse citizens, and 

create positive relationships with public, private, and civic entities. Healthy landscapes and 

healthy communities are inextricably linked and the Forest Service has a responsibility to help 

create and sustain both. The Forest Service could not realize its mission without our partner

relationships, including our Congressionally-chartered nonprofit partners: the National Forest 

Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. 

The Forest Service continues to employ many creative and innovative partnership approaches to 

accomplish our strategic goals of sustaining our Nation’s forests and grasslands and delivering 

benefits to the public. In FY 2016 and beyond we will focus on partnerships that:

• continue using Public Land Corps authorities and youth oriented initiatives and education 

efforts with proven, evidence-based effectiveness 

• provide technical and financial assistance to help urban and rural communities, local 

governments, non-profits, and land owners improve their stewardship of urban and rural 

forests to produce multiple benefits
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• support restoration and resilience within and outside National Forest System (NFS)

boundaries;

• mitigate wildfire risk and support development of resilient landscapes and communities;

• maximize wildfire response capabilities to meet multiple land management objectives 

across ownership boundaries;

• facilitate, encourage, enable and execute action to conserve open space;

• promote voluntary, landscape-scale conservation in both rural and urban landscapes;

• provide continual, abundant, clean water and a suite of related benefits;

• leverage multiple funding sources to support community-led restoration on-the-ground;

• support economic development and ecological resiliency, particularly in economically 

distressed or under-served areas; and

• assist State agencies, Tribes, and private landowners in accessing and using the latest 

research findings, technical information, and collecting reliable data needed to guide our 

efforts to sustain forests and grasslands.

Public-Private Partnerships

The Forest Service continues to achieve success through its Public-Private Partnership Strategy. 

Partnerships and alliances are essential to carrying out today’s conservation mission and are 

designed to capitalize on the mutually beneficial interests of both the Forest Service and its 

partners. Examples of some innovative, effective, and mutually-beneficial partnerships are 

described in more detail below.

Forest Service Public-Private Partnerships in FY 2015 - Forest Service partnerships accelerated

hazardous fuel reduction on hundreds of acres of national forest; advanced research in climate 

change, urban biodiversity, forest management, and genetic data; and strengthened watershed 

and forest management planning nationwide. We reached thousands of families and kids on 

National Get Outdoors Day, secured significant new partner funding for watershed restoration in 

California, and opened several new Nature Explore Outdoor Classrooms with school partners. 

Forest Service partnerships benefited Greater Sage Grouse and Mule Deer while supporting 

forest stewardship, watersheds, wildlife habitat protection, and historic sites and leveraging more 

investments in innovative ways. New partnerships to promote jobs and youth employment 

complemented advances in youth engagement outdoors and collaboration with underserved and 

tribal communities. High Performance Partnerships supported hazardous fuel and energy 

corridor treatments, reduced wildfire risks, and restored burned areas in critical watersheds. 
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Forest Service Research and Development Partnerships

Climate Change Hubs - The mission of the Hubs is to develop science-based, region-specific 

information and technologies for agricultural and natural resource managers that enable climatesmart decision-making and provide assistance to managers as they implement those decisions. 

The effort centers around technology transfer of scientific information and tools. Partners 

include the Farm Services Agency, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Forest Service

Research and Development (R). U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative Extension,

Agricultural Experiment Stations, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Regional 

Integrated Sciences and Assessments and Regional Climate Centers, Department of the Interior 

(DOI) Climate Science Centers, and Landscape Conservation Coops.

The National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation – The Center is a state-of-the 

art facility for advanced research providing expertise in DNA sequencing and environmental and 

forensic DNA sampling. The Center is designed for cross-agency partnerships to provide costeffective and reliable genetic and genomic data for species monitoring. Staffed by Forest 

Service scientists, the center is located on the campus of the University of Montana, and has 

engaged in over 60 collaborations with states, tribes, universities, and private groups. 

(http://www.fs.fed.us/research/genomics-center/)

Fire Science Collaboration with Department of the Interior - The Forest Service Wildland Fire 

and Fuels R&D Program works in collaboration with the DOI Office of Wildland Fire, Bureau 

Fire Management Programs, and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to ensure that wildland fire 

management programs within DOI and the Forest Service have access to the best available 

science for planning, implementation, and response. The focus is to integrate science and 

technology from both USGS and the Forest Service in order to leverage the capacity of specific 

programs. Examples include fire management and restoration in arid landscapes, innovative 

geospatial approaches for characterizing wildland fuels, and using remotely sensed data to 

characterize the extent and ecological effects of wildfires. 

The Native American Research Assistantship Partnership – This Partnership is a commitment 

between the Forest Service and the Wildlife Society that serves to develop the professional skills 

of university biologists, provides assistance to Forest Service scientists, and provides a bridge for 

the potential employment of Native American wildlife biologists with the Forest Service. Now 

in its third year, the program facilitates mentoring opportunities for our scientists with students to

promote student advancement and training for careers in natural resource and conservationrelated fields.

The Great Basin Native Plant Project - This multi-state, collaborative research project was 

initiated in 2001 by Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service’s Grassland, Shrubland and 

Desert Ecosystem Research Program. Major objectives are to improve the availability of native 

plant materials and to provide the knowledge and technology required for their use in restoring 

diverse native plant communities across the Great Basin. More than 20 Federal, State, and 

private cooperators are now involved in this project. (http://www.greatbasinnpp.org/)

Flagship partnerships - In every region there is a Tribal partnership to develop and implement 

climate adaptation strategies for Tribal lands and adjacent national forests and grasslands. 
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Through increased intra- and inter-agency collaboration, these partnerships will develop new and 

existing opportunities to assist tribal communities in preparing for and recovering from the 

impacts of climate change. These partnerships will leverage an existing, coordinated effort in 

tribally focused research—the Tribes and Climate Change Research Project—that incorporates 

traditional knowledge and western science to meet Tribal natural resource needs.

Congressionally Authorized Foundations

National Forest Foundation Partnerships

Founded by Congressional charter in 1991, the National Forest Foundation (NFF) engages 

America in community-based and national programs that promote the health and public 

enjoyment of all 193 million acres of NFS lands. The NFF accepts and administers gifts of funds 

and lands and provides financial and technical support to facilitate community-based 

conservation benefiting the NFS.

The NFF works closely with corporations, foundations, and individuals to raise funds for 

important stewardship work on NFS lands. Through a variety of funding mechanisms the NFF 

adds value to national forests and grasslands by both maintaining a robust communications 

program and supporting work that would not happen without this infusion of private funding. Of 

the funds invested in projects between 2012 and 2014, appropriated funds were leveraged at a 

4.3 to 1 ratio. Over that same period of time, the NFF has also has involved 39,000 volunteers in 

projects and programs that are aligned with the Forest Service’s priorities. NFF funded projects 

include reforestation, watershed restoration, reducing wildfire risk, improving streams and 

wetlands, enhancing wildlife habitat, restoring native plants, and limiting erosion and 

sedimentation into streams, rivers, and reservoirs on national forests. Large NFF partnerships in 

FY 2015 include the following:

San Gabriel Mountains National Monument - In FY 2015 NFF created a $3 million San Gabriel 

Mountains National Monument Fund (SGMNMF) for high priority work on the new San Gabriel 

Mountains National Monument. The SGMNMF will jump start critical restoration and 

stewardship projects on the national monument. The NFF also secured a major $700,000 

commitment from the Coca-Cola Foundation for watershed restoration and youth engagement on

the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. 

Ski Conservation Fund - The NFF’s Ski Conservation Fund gives ski areas and lodges an easy 

way for guests to be stewards of the lands they enjoy. Ski-related businesses collect small, 

voluntary donations from their guests to support conservation and restoration work on local 

national forests. Together with businesses and forest visitors, the NFF meets local conservation 

challenges such as improving wildlife habitat, securing riverbanks, planting native seeds, or 

fixing trails. Every dollar contributed by guests is matched by the NFF with $0.50, which 

increases the impact of this signature program.

Northern Arizona Forest Fund - Developed by the Salt River Project and the NFF, the Northern 

Arizona Forest Fund (NAFF) provides an easy way for businesses and residents of Arizona to 

invest in the lands and watersheds they depend on. The NAFF’s projects will reduce wildfire 

risk, improve streams and wetlands, enhance wildlife habitat, restore native plants, and limit 
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erosion and sediment into Arizona streams, rivers, and reservoirs. The NAFF’s projects will also 

create jobs and provide volunteer opportunities in local communities through partnerships with 

local conservation and stewardship groups.

Treasured Landscapes - From wildfire to invasive species to climate change, many factors 

threaten the resources we need and the wild places we cherish. With millions of acres in need of 

restoration and millions of people unaware of how national forests enrich their lives, the NFF is 

engaging on a campaign of restoration of national forests. The NFF is working to restore our 

damaged forests and restore Americans connection to these public lands.

Matching Awards Program - The NFF Matching Awards Program (MAP) provides funding for 

results-oriented on-the-ground projects that enhance forest health and outdoor experiences on 

National Forests and Grasslands. The MAP supports results-oriented, on-the-ground, projects 

that improve the quality, condition, and care of Outdoor Experiences on National Forests. The 

MAP program improves and maintains recreation resource connectivity including and similar to: 

trail maintenance, bridge and crossing construction or repair, and installation of trail drainage 

structures; engaging young people ages 15-25, volunteers, or diverse, underserved or underengaged populations in hands-on stewardship activities; and employing young people ages 15-25

and/or Veterans crews to implement on-the-ground conservation, and stewardship and/or 

restoration work.

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Partnerships

The Forest Service’s partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is one

of our most important, largest, and longest-standing affiliations. Congress’ FY 2016

appropriation to NFWF, through the Forest Service, was $3 million. This same amount has been

appropriated annually over many years. These funds will be matched at least 1:1 with nonFederal funds, and will be allocated to on-the-ground, high-priority conservation projects over

the next five years. 

Longleaf Pine Restoration in the Southeast - In FY 2015 NFWF provided $4.6 million in grants

to support the longleaf ecosystem and advance the objectives of the Range-Wide Conservation

Plan for Longleaf Pine. Funding for 22 projects, across the historic longleaf range, will

ultimately restore more than 11,600 acres and enhance more than 163,000 additional acres of

longleaf pine habitat, while leveraging over $6.4 million in additional funds from grant partners.

Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund - In FY 2015 NFWF announced a first round of grants

totaling $3.3 million from its recently launched Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund. The 22

grants, which will be matched by more than $6.7 million in grantee contributions, will support

the restoration of up to 33,000 acres of habitat in areas identified by experts as key to monarch

recovery.

Urban Waters Restoration Program - In FY 2015 NFWF initiated 64 community-led wetland,

stream and coastal restoration projects across the Nation, awarding more than $2.3 million in

grants. In addition, the grantees have committed an additional $4.8 million in local project

support, creating a total investment of more than $7 million in projects that will restore wildlife

habitat and urban waters and will engage thousands of volunteers, students, and local residents in

community-based environmental stewardship projects.
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Special Exhibits

Bring Back the Natives/More Fish - In 2015, the NFWF supported Bring Back the Natives/More

Fish program will support projects that identify measureable conservation outcomes for native

fish species of special concern. Because the leading factors in native fish species decline are

habitat alteration, lack of adequate in-stream flows, and invasive and/or non-native species,

projects that address these threats will be prioritized.

Youth Conservation Corp Crew on the 

Cherokee National Forest

Youth crews like this group from Southeast Conservation Corps 

on the Cherokee National Forest are innovative partnerships that 

help us to accomplish our strategic goals of sustaining our 

Nation’s forests and grasslands and delivering benefits to the 

public.

Technical and financial assistance to help 

urban communities

The Forest Service provides leading science and 

new technology that informs urban natural 

resources stewardship and improves 

environmental health and community well-being 

in urban areas.
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Special Exhibits

FY 2015 National Grants and Agreements (G&A) 

Summary by Instrument Type1

(dollars)

Instrument Type

Instrument Description

PARTNER

FOREST 

SERVICE TO

Challenge Cost Share 

Agreement

A mutual interest/mutual benefit agreement citing one 

of multiple partnership authorities. 92,054,509 274,680,700 366,

Collection Agreement

Partnership instrument used for the acceptance of 

money by the Forest Service from a non-Federal 

source to carry out a mutually beneficial project on 

NFS lands. 38,206,655 53,912,742 92,1

Cooperative Agreement

A legal financial assistance instrument utilized by the 

Forest Service to document a transaction for the 

public good where the Forest Service is substantially 

involved in the performance of the project. 19,559,982 30,688,822 50,2

Cooperative Research 

and Development 

Agreement

A partnership agreement in which the Forest Service 

and other public and private entities pool resources in 

support of scientific research and development for 

mutual interest and benefit of the parties to the 

agreement. 274,027 393,189 66

Cost Reimbursable 

Agreement

An agreement used when the primary purpose of the 

agreement is to procure goods and/or services to carry 

out research and teaching activities from authorized 

partners. 9,080,346 8,304,826 17,3

Domestic Grant

A legal financial assistance instrument utilized by the 

Forest Service to document a transaction for the 

public good where the Forest Service is not 

substantially involved with the project. 58,802,455 112,601,151 171,
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Instrument Type

Instrument Description

PARTNER

FOREST 

SERVICE TO

Fire Agreement

An agreement in which the Forest Service works with 

other Federal and State agencies to provide wildland 

fire protection, perform approved severity activities,

and respond to states of emergency or disaster under 

Federal Emergency Management Agency authorities. 14,002,455 16,520,802 30,5

Good Neighbor 

Agreement

An agreement to work cooperatively with States and 

Puerto Rico to carry out authorized forest, rangeland 

and watershed restoration services on or for the 

benefit of NFS lands. 16,067 298,545 31

Interagency Agreement

Interagency agreements are used when one Federal 

agency is in a position to provide materials, supplies, 

equipment, work or services of any kind that another 

agency needs to accomplish its mission. 88,671,304 194,024,559 282,

International 

Cooperative Agreement

Federal Financial Assistance instruments entered into 

between the Forest Service and a foreign recipient 

located, chartered to do business, and operating 

outside of the United States and its territories, 

regardless of whether it is performed domestically or 

internationally. An International Cooperative 

Agreement would include substantial involvement on 

the part of the Forest Service in carrying out the 

project. 58,553 312,673 37

International Grant

Federal Financial Assistance instruments entered into 

between the Forest Service and a foreign recipient 

located, chartered to do business, and operating 

outside of the United States and its territories, 

regardless of whether it is performed domestically or 

internationally. An International Grant would not 

include substantial involvement on the part of the 

Forest Service in carrying out the project. 343,528 603,136 94
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Instrument Type

Instrument Description

PARTNER

FOREST 

SERVICE TO

International Joint 

Venture Agreement

A mutual interest/mutual benefit agreement entered 

into with a foreign partner for the purposes of 

conducting agricultural research activities and 

agricultural teaching activities. 200,532 1,983,004 2,1

Joint Venture 

Agreement

A mutual interest/mutual benefit agreement entered 

into for the purposes of conducting agricultural 

research activities and agricultural teaching activities. 57,483,116 34,989,238 92,4

Law Enforcement 

Agreement

An agreement in which the Forest Service works 

cooperatively with State and local law enforcement 

agencies to enhance enforcement and/or supervision 

of their laws and ordinances on lands within or part of 

any unit of the NFS. 57,451,652 39,542,902 96,9

Memorandum of 

Understanding (MOU)

An MOU is a non-obligating document entered into 

by interested parties to document a framework for 

cooperation. Each party carries out separate activities 

in a mutually beneficial manner and nothing of 

financial value transfers between parties. 5,178,885 11,023,405 16,2

Participating Agreement

A mutual interest/mutual benefit agreement citing one 

of multiple partnership authorities. 102,644,962 143,733,800 246,

Roads Agreement

An agreement in which the Forest Service works 

cooperatively with State, county, or local public road 

authorities for the cooperative planning, survey, 

design, construction, reconstruction, improvement 

and maintenance of forest roads. 6,911,754 15,483,563 22,3

Stewardship Agreement

A partnership agreement with the purpose of 

achieving land management goals on NFS lands that 

will accomplish landscape restoration objectives. 3,071,275 2,724,291 5,7

Grand Total 554,012,054 941,821,348 1,495
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1. Data are compiled from the Forest Service Grants & Agreements (G&A) database. These include all G&A instruments active in 

Special Exhibits

FY 

payments", "letter of intent agreements", and one internal Memorandum of Understanding.
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Special Exhibits

Reforestation

Background 

This exhibit is included to address requirements of P.L. 109-54 House Report 109-80 page 138, 

which directed the Forest Service:

...[T]o provide clear presentations of reforestation needs and accomplishments in 

future budget justifications, including the specific use and distribution of the 

mandatory funding from the Reforestation Fund, as well as partner efforts, such as 

the new American Forests initiative.

Overview

The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (RPA) (P.L. 93-378), as 

amended by the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA) Section 3(d)1, directs that all 

forested lands in the National Forest System (NFS) be maintained in appropriate forest cover 

with regard to species of trees, degree of stocking, rate of growth, and conditions of stand to 

secure the maximum benefits of multiple use sustained yield management in accordance with 

land management plans. The Act further requires the Secretary of Agriculture to identify and 

report the amount, location (by national forest and State), and productivity class (where 

applicable) of areas that have been cut-over or otherwise denuded or deforested and need to be 

reforested to Congress at the time of submission of the President’s Budget together with the 

annual report provided under section 8(c) of the Act.

The Forest Service reforestation program has four major goals:

• maintain all forest lands within the NFS in appropriate forest cover;

• improve the quality and yield of new timber stands;

• promptly achieve desired stocking levels in a cost-efficient manner; and

• develop and demonstrate successful reforestation methods and techniques and encourage 

their use by private landowners.

Prompt reforestation is desirable to prevent soil erosion and protect water quality in streams and 

lakes. Through species and seed source selection, reforestation may increase the resilience of 

forest vegetation communities to the effects of global climate change and provide effective longterm carbon sequestration. Reforestation benefits wildlife and fish species and improves scenic 

quality and recreational experiences. 

There are a variety of activities associated with the reforestation program including planting, 

seeding, and site preparation. Site preparation may be done to prepare the site for planting, for 

seeding, or to facilitate natural regeneration. Forest and stand level management objectives may 

be jeopardized without appropriate reforestation treatments. 
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Special Exhibits

Reforestation work is time-sensitive. Without timely reforestation efforts, undesirable species 

may dominate forest vegetation communities, making the establishment of desired tree species 

difficult. Once undesirable species become established, decades may pass before sufficient 

numbers of desired tree seedlings occupy the site and the opportunity to facilitate adaptation to 

the effects of climate variability or other stressors may be lost. Delays increase the cost of 

reforestation work by necessitating expensive site preparation, reducing timber yields, and 

adversely affecting the Forest Service’s ability to meet other resource objectives. In addition, 

these areas may be less resilient to wildfire and create increased risk to adjacent communities. 

Program Plans and Accomplishments 

The agency’s reforestation capacity is dependent on several program areas, as well as numerous 

partnerships and cooperative agreements. Reforestation needs generated through timber harvest 

activities are generally met through funds collected under the Knutson-Vandenberg (K-V) Act 

authority. Reforestation needs for areas outside of timber sale areas are primarily funded by the 

Reforestation Trust Fund. Non-profit partners and civic groups also contribute to the agency’s 

capacity for reforestation through partnerships and matching fund agreements.

In FY 2015, the agency reforested a total of 192,878 acres. Of this total, the agency 

accomplished 86,337 acres through certification of natural regeneration of sites not requiring 

preparation. At the start of FY 2015, the agency has identified 1,125,931 acres of NFS lands that 

can benefit from reforestation. The identified acres are the result of completed silviculture 

diagnoses and prescriptions. The on-going assessments of areas impacted by wildfire in prior 

years, including the severe fire season of 2015, resulted in additional acres that would benefit 

from reforestation.

The agency’s total reforestation target for FY 2016 is 180,000 acres, which will be funded from 

multiple sources. This includes acres accomplished using the Reforestation Trust Fund and K-V 

Trust Funds, and additional work achieved through partnerships. Actual accomplishments may 

vary significantly depending on the type of treatment necessary to meet restoration objectives 

and the cost of that treatment.

The graph below shows reforestation needs and accomplishments for FY 2000 through FY 2015. 

Since FY 2000, reforestation needs have grown. This is due to large wildfires affecting NFS 

lands in the west and insect epidemics in the East. From FY 2000 through FY 2015, the agency 

has addressed about 24 percent of the reforestation needs nationally. Reforestation capacity and 

the projected accomplishments for FY 2017 will continue to reflect the agency’s restoration 

objectives.
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Special Exhibits

Trends in Reforestation to FY 2000-2015

1/This graph displays the current reforestation needs as of the end of FY 2015. 2/The percent accomplishment is calculated by dividing the current year’s accomplishment by the prior fiscal year 

need. 

The graph of reforestation needs below shows the relative significance of various contributing 

factors on reforestation needs. The majority of the new reforestation areas are the result of 

wildfires, particularly in the western regions. These areas are identified based on the opportunity 

to re-establish desired vegetation through sequenced silviculture prescriptions. This includes 

artificial regeneration either by planting or seeding as well as certification of natural regeneration

when there are sufficient seed-producing trees on the site. To assure that successful regeneration 

is taking place, reforestation areas are scheduled for periodic stocking surveys. The increase in 

reforestation need created by wildfires accelerates in years with severe fire seasons —such as FY 

2015. The number is derived as a result of continued assessments of the need from fires in prior 

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

P

e

r

c

e

n

t

Acres

Fiscal Year

Current Reforestation Needs Reforestation Treatments Percent of Needs Treated
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Special Exhibits

years and the development of detailed silvicultural prescriptions and treatment plans for reestablishing forest vegetation.

Causal Agent for Reforestation Needs

FY 2000-2015

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

1,000,000

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Acres 

Fiscal Year

Fires Regeneration Harvest Insects or Diseases Reforestation Failures
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Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations

Background 

This exhibit is not required by Congressional direction; however, it is included to provide 

historical information on allocations of appropriations at the Fund and Budget Line Item levels to 

Forest Service Regions, Stations and Areas.

Overview

The Office of Management and Budget apportions all funds available to the Forest Service prior 

to obligation or disbursement. Once funds are apportioned to the Forest Service at the fund level, 

they are allocated throughout the agency to Budget Line Items in the Regions, Stations, and 

Areas. 

The Forest Service operates through nine geographical regions, seven research stations, the 

Northeastern Area - State and Private Forestry, the Albuquerque Service Center in Albuquerque, 

New Mexico, and the national headquarters in Washington, DC. Allocations are determined by 

balancing the priorities of Congress, the Administration, agency leadership, and 

Region/Station/Area capabilities. They act as agency administrative divisions of apportionments 

and are used to monitor financial status and prevent deficiency.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $0 $0 $0 $48 $86 $42

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $1,350 $3,685 $3,956 $1,217 $3,307 $3,709

State Fire Assistance 1,354 0 0 2,056 0 0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 1,637 1,870 1,382 2,091 3,077 2,137

Volunteer Fire Assistance 403 0 0 701 0 0

Forest Stewardship 896 581 574 1,308 1,118 1,149

Forest Legacy Program 4,298 5,441 15,424 9,502 320 344

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 367 0 0 0 0 0

Urban and Community Forestry 1,205 746 771 2,341 1,751 1,784

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 0 0 0 47 0 0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 0 475 0 0 1,870

International Forestry 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total State & Private Forestry $11,511 $12,323 $22,582 $19,263 $9,573 $10,993

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $5,961 $6,166 $5,534 $3,744 $3,368 $3,167

Land Management Planning 3,002 3,322 4,028 2,564 1,766 2,033

Inventory and Monitoring 10,387 11,268 10,913 8,382 9,483 9,365

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 14,853 15,529 17,215 23,754 24,015 24,271

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 0 0 0 8,629 9,938 10,140

Grazing Management 5,887 6,270 6,389 8,405 8,945 8,811

Forest Products 0 0 0 23,842 30,217 29,598

Vegetation and Watershed Management 0 0 0 12,913 14,217 14,139

Minerals and Geology Management 9,922 9,856 8,431 7,594 8,386 8,546

Landownership Management 5,659 5,786 6,101 6,406 6,533 6,959

Law Enforcement Operations 0 0 0 0 0 0

Valles Caldera National Preserve 0 0 0 0 0 0

Restoration Partnerships 0 0 0 0 0 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 68,221 69,274 77,604 0 0 0

Total National Forest System $123,892 $127,471 $136,215 $106,234 $116,867 $117,029

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $58,786 $62,146 $62,434 $30,753 $30,713 $31,330

Fire Operations -- Suppression 0 0 0 0 0 0

Hazardous Fuels 15,723 14,043 14,668 25,991 23,832 23,942

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

Joint Fire Sciences 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 2,142 0 0 1,879 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 1,013 0 0 955 0 0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 3,259 0 0 6,089 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 474 0 0 563 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 2,059 5,242 0 3,441 8,411

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 933 778 0 1,323 1,160

Total Wildland Fire Management $81,397 $79,181 $83,122 $66,230 $59,309 $64,843

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $2,432 $3,672 $4,853 $6,209 $6,898 $5,985

Roads 14,855 14,721 14,471 17,897 15,864 16,629

Trails 10,187 10,656 11,126 7,814 8,040 8,396

Infrastructure Improvement 969 1,009 0 0 280 0

Legacy Roads and Trails 0 0 0 3,437 2,782 3,165

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $28,444 $30,058 $30,450 $35,356 $33,864 $34,175

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $854 $797 $2,634 $450 $485 $526

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 0 0 0 0 0 0

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Land Acquisition $854 $797 $2,634 $450 $485 $526

Range Betterment Fund $239 $0 $261 $448 $0 $481

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $246,336 $249,830 $275,264 $228,030 $220,184 $228,089

Permanent Working Funds $14,492 $14,858 $16,632 $11,279 $12,011 $13,913

Trust Funds $12,073 $11,861 $12,263 $10,103 $11,230 $11,369

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $272,901 $276,550 $304,159 $249,412 $243,425 $253,371

(dollars in thousands)

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015

Region 1 - Northern Region Region 2 - Rocky Mountain Region
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

458

Special Exhibits

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

459

Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $3 $12 $1 $5 $0 $1

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $422 $1,620 $1,866 $942 $3,055 $3,133

State Fire Assistance 606 0 0 620 0 0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 819 1,075 1,090 1,161 1,365 1,172

Volunteer Fire Assistance 168 0 0 130 0 0

Forest Stewardship 709 521 521 814 398 406

Forest Legacy Program 143 3,117 2,551 175 180 2,659

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 0 0 0 0 0 0

Urban and Community Forestry 722 724 722 1,330 671 686

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 0 0 0 0 0 0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 0 300 0 0 1,045

International Forestry 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total State & Private Forestry $3,589 $7,059 $7,049 $5,171 $5,669 $9,102

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $5,989 $6,136 $4,849 $2,592 $2,691 $2,635

Land Management Planning 3,865 3,939 4,412 1,411 1,472 1,322

Inventory and Monitoring 8,805 10,648 10,288 10,946 11,314 11,719

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 23,356 22,703 22,945 25,549 25,142 25,521

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Grazing Management 9,568 10,274 10,137 10,047 10,530 10,483

Forest Products 0 0 0 0 0 0

Vegetation and Watershed Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Minerals and Geology Management 6,848 7,572 6,622 10,307 9,716 9,790

Landownership Management 4,906 4,995 5,093 6,689 6,416 6,478

Law Enforcement Operations 0 0 0 0 0 0

Valles Caldera National Preserve 0 0 0 0 0 0

Restoration Partnerships 0 0 0 0 0 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 44,022 46,186 55,310 48,999 51,209 54,631

Total National Forest System $107,359 $112,452 $119,655 $116,539 $118,491 $122,579

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $62,410 $66,118 $66,856 $60,753 $59,337 $59,838

Fire Operations -- Suppression 0 0 0 0 0 1,284

Hazardous Fuels 26,951 26,545 26,528 20,210 20,409 20,558

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

Joint Fire Sciences 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 1,257 0 0 1,627 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 194 0 0 938 0 0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 1,077 0 0 3,037 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 386 0 0 208 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 962 2,419 0 977 2,810

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 605 808 0 364 293

Total Wildland Fire Management $92,274 $94,230 $96,610 $86,773 $81,088 $84,783

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $4,214 $5,061 $6,268 $4,559 $4,982 $5,132

Roads 14,304 14,728 15,107 15,374 15,403 16,749

Trails 3,730 3,790 4,161 7,623 7,695 8,206

Infrastructure Improvement 767 511 343 0 0 80

Legacy Roads and Trails 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $23,016 $24,090 $25,879 $27,557 $28,080 $30,167

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $246 $219 $282 $706 $616 $614

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 0 0 0 0 46 475

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Land Acquisition $246 $219 $282 $706 $662 $1,089

Range Betterment Fund $617 $0 $677 $692 $0 $759

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $227,104 $238,062 $250,154 $237,444 $233,990 $248,479

Permanent Working Funds $13,760 $13,402 $11,894 $32,538 $35,012 $26,132

Trust Funds $4,569 $3,651 $3,704 $4,717 $5,869 $5,907

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $245,433 $255,115 $265,752 $274,699 $274,870 $280,518

(dollars in thousands)

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015

Region 3 - Southwestern Region Region 4 - Intermountain Region
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

460

Special Exhibits

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

461

Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $0 $0 $0 $3 $88 $88

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $565 $3,567 $3,911 $2,307 $6,387 $6,487

State Fire Assistance 1,539 0 0 1,794 0 0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 1,979 2,683 2,401 1,640 2,989 2,773

Volunteer Fire Assistance 338 0 0 208 0 0

Forest Stewardship 1,176 1,063 1,055 832 714 736

Forest Legacy Program 3,543 4,587 1,457 4,748 7,252 4,281

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 0 0 0 1,110 0 0

Urban and Community Forestry 2,699 2,572 2,423 836 815 809

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 2 0 0 478 0 0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 0 75 0 0 600

International Forestry 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total State & Private Forestry $11,841 $14,472 $11,321 $13,953 $18,157 $15,686

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $2,249 $3,201 $2,429 $9,148 $7,947 $7,237

Land Management Planning 3,214 3,362 2,980 3,871 4,029 3,596

Inventory and Monitoring 11,297 11,680 12,421 12,054 12,452 12,853

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 26,560 26,307 26,740 26,081 26,559 26,867

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 13,372 14,142 13,517 17,741 17,393 17,608

Grazing Management 3,510 3,668 3,737 4,047 4,643 4,617

Forest Products 32,924 42,397 33,736 60,575 60,087 59,693

Vegetation and Watershed Management 16,961 18,485 17,368 24,302 24,316 24,270

Minerals and Geology Management 5,943 4,999 5,704 4,223 4,523 4,320

Landownership Management 8,069 8,142 8,184 7,104 7,048 6,850

Law Enforcement Operations 0 0 0 0 0 0

Valles Caldera National Preserve 0 0 0 0 0 0

Restoration Partnerships 0 0 0 0 0 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total National Forest System $124,098 $136,384 $126,815 $169,147 $168,998 $167,911

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $234,969 $248,593 $250,106 $78,832 $83,996 $85,464

Fire Operations -- Suppression 0 0 0 0 0 0

Hazardous Fuels 49,348 51,128 50,732 30,689 29,442 31,856

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

Joint Fire Sciences 0 0 0 34 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 2,587 0 0 3,519 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 1,585 0 0 2,077 0 0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 6,384 0 0 7,141 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 653 0 0 474 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 6,887 7,647 0 5,251 7,569

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 1,075 1,081 0 745 920

Total Wildland Fire Management $295,525 $307,683 $309,566 $122,766 $119,434 $125,809

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $5,606 $6,192 $6,346 $7,330 $5,625 $5,845

Roads 15,984 16,148 16,435 20,957 21,887 21,408

Trails 6,258 6,533 6,933 6,884 7,101 8,007

Infrastructure Improvement 0 0 2,078 601 0 0

Legacy Roads and Trails 6,372 4,914 5,501 7,732 6,429 7,040

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $34,220 $33,787 $37,294 $43,504 $41,043 $42,300

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $631 $687 $826 $626 $687 $668

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 0 866 475 0 0 0

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Land Acquisition $631 $1,553 $1,301 $626 $687 $668

Range Betterment Fund $141 $0 $129 $199 $0 $229

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $466,457 $493,879 $486,426 $350,197 $348,406 $352,691

Permanent Working Funds $45,001 $42,133 $59,361 $42,302 $46,536 $37,895

Trust Funds $60,006 $52,635 $52,604 $29,133 $35,902 $33,290

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $571,464 $588,647 $598,391 $421,632 $430,844 $423,875

(dollars in thousands)

Region 5 - Pacific Southwest Region Region 6 - Pacific Northwest Region

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

462

Special Exhibits

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

463

Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $104 $125 $126 $3 $0 $1

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $8,957 $7,600 $8,315 $86 $23 $25

State Fire Assistance 6,228 0 0 75 0 0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 7,593 8,278 7,836 110 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance 1,740 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Stewardship 7,780 5,116 5,315 3 0 0

Forest Legacy Program 7,121 5,789 8,476 21 0 0

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 25 0 0 0 0 0

Urban and Community Forestry 6,336 5,821 5,705 18 0 0

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 0 0 0 34 0 0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 0 4,587 0 0 0

International Forestry 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total State & Private Forestry $45,779 $32,604 $40,233 $346 $23 $25

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $6,878 $6,259 $7,159 $1,293 $917 $851

Land Management Planning 3,111 3,903 3,188 1,640 1,484 1,413

Inventory and Monitoring 10,642 9,613 9,936 9,237 9,530 9,793

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 27,740 27,664 28,185 22,320 22,025 23,395

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 16,729 19,190 19,800 14,375 16,277 16,544

Grazing Management 551 618 631 545 596 618

Forest Products 29,999 33,911 35,405 34,750 40,990 41,142

Vegetation and Watershed Management 14,504 16,004 17,328 16,320 17,586 19,291

Minerals and Geology Management 4,713 4,884 4,541 5,554 5,780 5,635

Landownership Management 7,721 7,612 7,901 7,681 7,502 7,725

Law Enforcement Operations 0 0 0 0 0 0

Valles Caldera National Preserve 0 0 0 0 0 0

Restoration Partnerships 0 0 0 0 0 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total National Forest System $122,588 $129,660 $134,074 $113,715 $122,687 $126,406

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $36,163 $38,416 $39,048 $23,025 $24,472 $24,611

Fire Operations -- Suppression 0 0 0 0 0 0

Hazardous Fuels 40,979 39,523 41,656 12,988 12,020 12,524

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

Joint Fire Sciences 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 41 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 51 0 0 0 0 0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 12,668 0 0 0 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 1,509 0 0 0 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 16,737 17,202 0 75 75

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 3,411 3,730 0 0 0

Total Wildland Fire Management $91,411 $98,088 $101,636 $36,013 $36,567 $37,210

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $9,234 $7,970 $8,117 $5,441 $8,354 $6,038

Roads 17,415 17,713 18,037 14,007 14,031 14,417

Trails 7,351 7,542 8,133 6,350 6,481 6,883

Infrastructure Improvement 293 700 586 0 437 0

Legacy Roads and Trails 4,542 3,612 4,012 3,428 2,617 2,936

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $38,834 $37,537 $38,885 $29,225 $31,920 $30,274

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $998 $1,119 $1,112 $1,041 $1,255 $1,350

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 0 0 0 0 0 0

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Land Acquisition $998 $1,119 $1,112 $1,041 $1,255 $1,350

Range Betterment Fund $1 $0 $1 $0 $0 $0

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $299,715 $299,133 $316,067 $180,345 $192,452 $195,266

Permanent Working Funds $24,798 $30,629 $27,281 $20,561 $22,240 $22,700

Trust Funds $40,494 $56,340 $40,072 $20,729 $16,733 $17,437

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $365,007 $386,103 $383,420 $221,635 $231,425 $235,403

(dollars in thousands)

Region 8 - Southern Regions Region 9 - Eastern Region

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

464

Special Exhibits

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

465

Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

Region 10 - Alaska Region

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $0 $47 $82 $17,816 $19,722 $20,228

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $745 $1,569 $2,091 $0 $0 $0

State Fire Assistance 667 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 1,060 2,305 1,491 0 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance 139 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Stewardship 639 538 554 0 0 0

Forest Legacy Program 57 60 47 0 0 0

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 0 0 0 0 0 0

Urban and Community Forestry 250 248 252 0 0 0

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 0 0 0 0 0 0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 0 135 0 0 0

International Forestry 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total State & Private Forestry $3,557 $4,720 $4,570 $0 $0 $0

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $31 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Land Management Planning 663 977 1,117 0 0 0

Inventory and Monitoring 6,372 6,314 6,697 0 0 0

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 9,568 9,414 10,721 0 0 0

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 9,445 10,504 10,595 0 0 0

Grazing Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Products 16,459 17,927 18,053 0 0 0

Vegetation and Watershed Management 4,835 5,327 5,004 0 0 0

Minerals and Geology Management 3,301 3,159 3,325 0 0 0

Landownership Management 4,049 4,098 4,336 0 0 0

Law Enforcement Operations 0 0 0 0 0 0

Valles Caldera National Preserve 0 0 0 0 0 0

Restoration Partnerships 0 0 0 0 0 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total National Forest System $54,722 $57,720 $59,849 $0 $0 $0

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $2,873 $2,946 $2,914 $0 $0 $0

Fire Operations -- Suppression 0 0 0 0 0 0

Hazardous Fuels 985 999 976 800 650 650

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 0 0 0 651 651 651

Joint Fire Sciences 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 1,048 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 598 0 0 0 0 0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 1,683 0 0 0 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 207 0 0 0 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 1,075 1,940 0 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 372 111 0 0 0

Total Wildland Fire Management $7,394 $5,392 $5,942 $1,451 $1,301 $1,301

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $4,952 $4,845 $6,267 $0 $1,165 $1,291

Roads 7,424 7,642 10,052 0 0 0

Trails 4,173 4,255 4,503 0 0 0

Infrastructure Improvement 0 0 0 0 0 0

Legacy Roads and Trails 613 478 540 0 0 0

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $17,162 $17,220 $21,363 $0 $1,165 $1,291

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $304 $131 $178 $0 $0 $0

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 0 0 0 0 0 0

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Land Acquisition $304 $131 $178 $0 $0 $0

Range Betterment Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $0 $0 $0 $0 $25 $15

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $1,968 $2,076 $2,500 $0 $0 $0

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $85,107 $87,306 $94,483 $19,267 $22,213 $22,835

Permanent Working Funds $6,806 $7,205 $6,572 $0 $0 $0

Trust Funds $6,509 $6,062 $5,155 $450 $450 $450

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $98,422 $100,572 $106,211 $19,717 $22,663 $23,285

(dollars in thousands)

Forest Products Lab

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

466

Special Exhibits

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

467

Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $37,799 $40,725 $41,877 $51,538 $54,621 $55,027

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $160 $0 $186 $169 $80 $35

State Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 105 946 1,988 212 112 70

Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Stewardship 197 182 252 0 0 0

Forest Legacy Program 10 0 0 65 85 65

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 0 0 0 0 0 0

Urban and Community Forestry 0 0 0 25 25 25

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 828 0 0 1,021 0 0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 0 0 0 0 0

International Forestry 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total State & Private Forestry $1,300 $1,128 $2,426 $1,492 $302 $195

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Land Management Planning 0 0 23 0 0 0

Inventory and Monitoring 0 0 45 0 0 0

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 29 29 245 26 26 26

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 0 0 315 0 0 0

Grazing Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Products 0 0 265 0 0 0

Vegetation and Watershed Management 0 42 307 0 0 0

Minerals and Geology Management 0 0 54 0 0 0

Landownership Management 0 0 36 0 0 0

Law Enforcement Operations 0 0 0 0 0 0

Valles Caldera National Preserve 0 0 0 0 0 0

Restoration Partnerships 0 0 0 0 0 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total National Forest System $29 $71 $1,290 $26 $26 $26

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $1,140 $937 $3,194 $0 $0 $0

Fire Operations -- Suppression 0 0 1,266 0 0 0

Hazardous Fuels 1,118 1,045 1,589 48 48 57

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 7,278 6,911 6,746 3,120 2,944 2,944

Joint Fire Sciences 762 0 0 75 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 16 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 0 0 0 46 0 0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 0 99 0 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Wildland Fire Management $10,314 $8,893 $12,894 $3,289 $2,992 $3,001

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $2,781 $985 $438 $470 $506 $708

Roads 0 0 0 0 0 0

Trails 0 0 0 0 0 0

Infrastructure Improvement 0 0 0 0 0 0

Legacy Roads and Trails 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $2,781 $985 $438 $470 $506 $708

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 0 0 0 0 0 0

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Land Acquisition $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Range Betterment Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $52,223 $51,802 $58,925 $56,815 $58,447 $58,957

Permanent Working Funds $100 $100 $100 $5 $5 $5

Trust Funds $800 $700 $700 $650 $500 $500

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $53,123 $52,602 $59,724 $57,470 $58,952 $59,462

(dollars in thousands)

Rocky Mountain Research Station Northern Research Station

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

468

Special Exhibits

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

469

Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $38,152 $40,287 $40,546 $18,579 $20,090 $19,746

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $15 $349 $171 $10 $49 $35

State Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 380 312 588 60 50 50

Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Stewardship 0 0 0 0 0 49

Forest Legacy Program 0 0 0 0 0 24

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 0 0 0 0 0 0

Urban and Community Forestry 0 0 0 0 0 24

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 827 0 0 0 0 0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 0 0 0 0 0

International Forestry 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total State & Private Forestry $1,222 $661 $759 $70 $99 $182

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Land Management Planning 0 0 0 0 0 32

Inventory and Monitoring 564 452 912 0 0 0

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 0 0 0 0 0 46

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Grazing Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Products 0 0 0 0 0 0

Vegetation and Watershed Management 188 151 0 0 0 27

Minerals and Geology Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Landownership Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Law Enforcement Operations 0 0 0 0 0 0

Valles Caldera National Preserve 0 0 0 0 0 0

Restoration Partnerships 0 0 0 0 0 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total National Forest System $752 $603 $912 $0 $0 $105

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Fire Operations -- Suppression 0 0 0 0 0 0

Hazardous Fuels 346 239 114 198 0 0

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 4,242 4,082 4,082 2,824 2,690 2,690

Joint Fire Sciences 316 0 0 4 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 380 0 0 21 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0 24

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Wildland Fire Management $5,284 $4,321 $4,196 $3,047 $2,690 $2,714

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $0 $830 $228 $500 $689 $1,070

Roads 0 0 0 0 0 0

Trails 0 0 0 0 0 0

Infrastructure Improvement 0 0 0 0 0 0

Legacy Roads and Trails 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $0 $830 $228 $500 $689 $1,070

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 0 0 0 0 0 0

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Land Acquisition $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Range Betterment Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $45,410 $46,702 $46,641 $22,196 $23,568 $23,817

Permanent Working Funds $1,435 $35 $32 $347 $1,120 $220

Trust Funds $350 $500 $500 $1,006 $1,051 $790

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $47,195 $47,237 $47,173 $23,549 $25,739 $24,827

(dollars in thousands)

Pacific Northwest Research Station Pacific Southwest Research Station

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

470

Special Exhibits

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

471

Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $45,097 $48,278 $48,187 $3,586 $3,582 $3,829

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $125 $322 $454 $36 $180 $25

State Fire Assistance 0 0 0 353 0 0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 530 513 230 144 258 358

Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 0 0 54 0 0

Forest Stewardship 0 0 51 327 387 450

Forest Legacy Program 10 2 22 85 85 92

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 0 0 0 0 0 0

Urban and Community Forestry 0 0 6 389 416 476

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 988 0 0 0 0 0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 0 0 0 0 0

International Forestry 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total State & Private Forestry $1,653 $837 $763 $1,388 $1,326 $1,401

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Land Management Planning 0 0 0 0 23 44

Inventory and Monitoring 564 452 361 0 0 0

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 0 0 8 0 0 0

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Grazing Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Products 0 0 0 3 0 0

Vegetation and Watershed Management 188 151 361 0 35 128

Minerals and Geology Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Landownership Management 0 0 0 0 0 0

Law Enforcement Operations 0 0 0 0 0 0

Valles Caldera National Preserve 0 0 0 0 0 0

Restoration Partnerships 0 0 0 0 0 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total National Forest System $752 $603 $730 $3 $58 $172

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $0 $0 $80 $0 $0 $0

Fire Operations -- Suppression 0 0 0 0 0 0

Hazardous Fuels 0 191 325 0 0 0

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 2,397 2,282 2,282 50 100 100

Joint Fire Sciences 42 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 380 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 0 0 0 108 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 0 0 0 52 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 0 0 433 459

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 112 28

Total Wildland Fire Management $2,819 $2,473 $2,687 $210 $645 $587

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $0 $39 $670 $0 $129 $31

Roads 0 0 0 0 0 0

Trails 0 0 0 0 0 0

Infrastructure Improvement 0 0 0 0 0 0

Legacy Roads and Trails 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $0 $39 $670 $0 $129 $31

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 0 0 0 0 0 0

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Land Acquisition $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Range Betterment Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $50,321 $52,230 $53,037 $5,187 $5,741 $6,020

Permanent Working Funds $5 $90 $100 $0 $0 $0

Trust Funds $1,005 $1,005 $405 $0 $0 $0

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $51,331 $53,325 $53,542 $5,187 $5,741 $6,020

(dollars in thousands)

Southern Research Station International Institute of Tropical Forestry

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

472

Special Exhibits

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

473

Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $0 $0 $0 $32,448 $29,438 $29,958

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $11,008 $10,568 $7,342 $5,947 $4,796 $4,607

State Fire Assistance 5,967 0 0 827 0 0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 13,245 14,967 17,349 1,269 1,664 950

Volunteer Fire Assistance 2,439 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Stewardship 10,391 6,618 6,726 896 839 840

Forest Legacy Program 18,748 21,870 12,449 473 488 445

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 390 0 0 0 0 0

Urban and Community Forestry 9,452 8,925 9,018 852 854 828

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 0 0 0 294 0 0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 0 3,427 0 0 0

International Forestry 0 0 0 647 629 613

Total State & Private Forestry $71,639 $62,949 $56,311 $11,207 $9,269 $8,282

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $0 $0 $0 $0 $2,313 $3,530

Land Management Planning 0 0 0 4,021 3,744 3,655

Inventory and Monitoring 0 0 0 14,608 13,707 11,985

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 0 0 0 36,145 35,221 31,673

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 0 0 0 10,437 9,910 9,809

Grazing Management 0 0 0 5,413 6,082 5,278

Forest Products 0 0 0 35,033 33,413 30,069

Vegetation and Watershed Management 0 0 0 13,188 12,408 12,759

Minerals and Geology Management 0 0 0 7,571 7,066 6,843

Landownership Management 0 0 0 9,633 8,402 7,481

Law Enforcement Operations 0 0 0 14,606 12,919 13,891

Valles Caldera National Preserve 0 0 0 0 0 0

Restoration Partnerships 0 0 0 0 0 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total National Forest System $0 $0 $0 $150,656 $145,185 $136,973

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $21 $0 $0 $104,300 $100,723 $100,430

Fire Operations -- Suppression 0 0 0 41,522 58,810 59,596

Hazardous Fuels 105 254 255 27,657 23,852 23,437

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

Joint Fire Sciences 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 4 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 367 0 0 0 0 0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 7,573 0 0 0 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 1,509 0 0 0 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 13,316 13,653 0 784 771

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 4,085 4,091 0 0 0

Total Wildland Fire Management $9,579 $17,655 $17,999 $173,479 $184,170 $184,234

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $1 $0 $0 $9,496 $6,459 $5,534

Roads 0 0 0 16,635 15,486 14,568

Trails 0 0 0 9,327 8,205 6,922

Infrastructure Improvement 0 0 0 0 0 0

Legacy Roads and Trails 0 0 0 1,395 1,372 1,328

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $1 $0 $0 $36,853 $31,521 $28,352

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $0 $0 $0 $1,088 $1,019 $658

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 0 0 0 0 0 0

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Land Acquisition $0 $0 $0 $1,088 $1,019 $658

Range Betterment Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $0 $0 $0 $313 $286 $0

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $81,219 $80,604 $74,310 $406,043 $400,888 $388,457

Permanent Working Funds $100 $42 $846 $3,815 $3,307 $3,546

Trust Funds $0 $0 $0 $6,381 $6,382 $6,417

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $81,319 $80,646 $75,156 $416,239 $410,577 $398,420

(dollars in thousands)

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015

Northeastern Area - State & Private Forestry Albuquerque Service Center 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

474

Special Exhibits

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

475

Special Exhibits

Region, Station, and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

FY13 FY14 FY15 FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $25,516 $22,728 $24,769 $9,156 $12,976 $11,493

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $6,979 $7,378 $7,632 $3,902 $4,387 $4,943

State Fire Assistance 3,062 0 0 611 0 0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 2,269 1,592 910 592 1,598 2,881

Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0 0

Forest Stewardship 3,376 3,161 3,226 1,100 1,163 1,132

Forest Legacy Program 1,348 1,306 1,251 169 382 3,413

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 0 0 0 0 2,000 2,000

Urban and Community Forestry 2,258 2,367 2,558 1,987 2,103 1,955

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 73 0 0 68 0 0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 0 0 0 14,000 1,486

International Forestry 6,612 7,191 7,208 309 180 180

Total State & Private Forestry $25,976 $22,995 $22,786 $8,738 $25,815 $17,989

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $0 $468 $696 $0 $533 $1,913

Land Management Planning 8,758 8,598 8,845 1,083 1,135 1,066

Inventory and Monitoring 43,288 39,310 39,729 3,506 4,796 4,002

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 18,299 18,516 15,492 7,652 8,569 8,369

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 8,182 7,408 7,208 7,779 4,704 3,570

Grazing Management 2,267 2,084 3,184 1,327 1,647 1,471

Forest Products 19,894 17,622 17,557 22,570 9,567 8,052

Vegetation and Watershed Management 19,845 18,134 17,747 8,723 7,859 5,406

Minerals and Geology Management 9,834 8,482 8,778 1,906 2,001 3,833

Landownership Management 9,547 8,629 8,404 2,405 2,566 2,182

Law Enforcement Operations 9,020 8,024 8,323 110,358 105,710 104,439

Valles Caldera National Preserve 0 0 0 3,192 3,364 3,364

Restoration Partnerships 0 0 0 0 2,000 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 289 289 600 -24,900 3,042 2,176

Total National Forest System $149,224 $137,564 $136,565 $145,600 $157,492 $149,844

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $202,624 $258,688 $249,590 $52,002 $80,494 $169,944

Fire Operations -- Suppression 152,224 78,631 94,214 316,066 543,047 551,640

Hazardous Fuels 15,640 13,714 13,110 12,783 24,567 70,697

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 0 0 165 41 135 135

Joint Fire Sciences 0 0 0 5,651 6,914 6,914

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 0 0 0 250 0 0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 50 0 0 57 0 0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 130 0 0 3,523 0 0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 0 0 0 0 0 0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 2,911 2,851 0 23,090 6,829

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total Wildland Fire Management $370,669 $353,944 $359,930 $390,373 $678,247 $806,158

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $0 $0 $0 $298,967 $315,000 $303,060

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $4,883 $3,777 $5,318 $2,465 $2,822 $1,461

Roads 7,264 5,266 5,918 3,844 7,109 4,302

Trails 3,357 2,526 2,349 1,946 2,177 1,911

Infrastructure Improvement 67 63 63 289 0 0

Legacy Roads and Trails 494 387 389 298 409 344

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $16,065 $12,020 $14,037 $8,842 $12,517 $8,018

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $265 $195 $348 $42,553 $36,315 $38,303

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 0 0 0 903 0 0

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 0 0 0 217 217

Total Land Acquisition $265 $195 $348 $43,456 $36,532 $38,520

Range Betterment Fund $0 $0 $0 $0 $3,000 $0

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $0 $0 $0 $45 $15 $30

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $78 $56 $0 $79 $81 $0

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $587,793 $549,502 $558,435 $905,256 $1,241,675 $1,335,112

Permanent Working Funds $16,193 $18,028 $18,417 $5,136 $1,847 $1,415

Trust Funds $2,166 $2,397 $2,365 $1,489 $2,197 $1,798

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $606,152 $569,927 $579,217 $911,881 $1,245,719 $1,338,324

(dollars in thousands)

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015

National Headquarters in Washington, DC (WO) National
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

476

Special Exhibits

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

477

Special Exhibits

Region, Station and Area Allocations FY 2013 to FY 2015

1/ Totals do not include payment to States

FY13 FY14 FY15

Forest and Rangeland Research $279,853 $292,805 $296,000

State & Private Forestry

Forest Health Management - Federal Lands $44,944 $58,922 $58,922

State Fire Assistance 25,759 0 $0

Forest Health Management - Cooperative Lands 36,894 45,655 $45,655

Volunteer Fire Assistance 6,320 0 $0

Forest Stewardship 30,441 22,398 $23,036

Forest Legacy Program 50,515 50,965 $53,000

Community Forest & Open Space Conservation 1,892 2,000 $2,000

Urban and Community Forestry 30,701 28,040 $28,040

Forest Resources Information and Analysis 4,661 0 $0

Landscape Scale Restoration 0 14,000 $14,000

International Forestry 7,569 8,000 $8,000

Total State & Private Forestry $239,695 $229,980 $232,654

National Forest System

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration $37,885 $40,000 $40,000

Land Management Planning 37,203 37,754 37,754

Inventory and Monitoring 150,652 151,019 151,019

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 261,932 261,719 261,719

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 106,689 109,466 109,106

Grazing Management 51,568 55,356 55,356

Forest Products 276,051 286,130 273,570

Vegetation and Watershed Management 131,967 134,716 134,135

Minerals and Geology Management 77,716 76,423 76,423

Landownership Management 79,869 77,730 77,730

Law Enforcement Operations 133,984 126,653 126,653

Valles Caldera National Preserve 3,192 3,364 3,364

Restoration Partnerships 0 2,000 0

Integrated Resource Restoration 136,631 170,000 190,321

Total National Forest System $1,485,338 $1,532,330 $1,537,151

Wildland Fire Management

Fire Preparedness $948,651 $1,057,580 $1,145,840

Fire Operations -- Suppression 509,812 680,488 $708,000

Hazardous Fuels 282,558 282,500 $333,672

Fire Research and Development (NFP) 20,603 19,795 $19,795

Joint Fire Sciences 6,884 6,914 $6,914

Forest Health Management -- Federal Lands (NFP) 15,151 0 $0

Forest Health Management -- Cooperative Lands (NFP) 7,931 0 $0

State Fire Assistance (NFP) 52,672 0 $0

Volunteer Fire Assistance (NFP) 6,035 0 $0

Coop Fire Protection-State Fire Assistance 0 78,000 $78,000

Coop Fire Protection-Volunteer Fire Assistance 0 13,025 $13,000

Total Wildland Fire Management $1,850,298 $2,138,302 $2,305,222

FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund $298,967 $315,000 $303,060

Capital Improvement & Maintenance

Facilities $70,572 $71,000 $71,600

Roads 165,959 166,000 168,094

Trails 74,999 75,000 77,530

Infrastructure Improvement 2,986 3,000 3,150

Legacy Roads and Trails 28,312 23,000 25,257

Total Capital Improvement & Maintenance $342,829 $338,000 $345,630

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition -- Land and Water Conservation Fund $49,762 $43,525 $47,500

Acquisition of Lands for National Forests, Special Acts 903 912 950

Acquisition of Lands to Complete Land Exchanges 0 217 216

Total Land Acquisition $50,665 $44,654 $48,665

Range Betterment Fund $2,337 $3,000 $2,537

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research $45 $40 $45

Management of NF Lands for Subsistence Uses $2,438 $2,500 $2,500

TOTAL Forest Service (DISCRETIONARY) $4,552,465 $4,896,611 $5,073,463

Permanent Working Funds $238,673 $248,600 $247,061

Trust Funds $202,630 $215,466 $195,724

TOTAL ALL FUNDS $4,993,768 $5,360,677 $5,516,249

(dollars in thousands)

Includes direct program + cost pool funding 

allocated to Regions, Stations, Areas, ASC and the 

National Headquarters in Washington, DC

FY 2013 to FY 2015

FOREST SERVICE TOTAL
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

478

Special Exhibits

2/ Permanent & Trust funds amounts = allocations for current year operations, not total receipts

3/ FLAME, Law Enforcement, and Land Acquisition Funds managed at the National level 

4/ Integration Resource Restoration was not assessed for cost pools in FY13 so allocations were adjusted
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

479

Special Exhibits

Research and Development Threat Assessment Centers

Background

This exhibit addresses requirements of P.L. 109-80, H.R. 2361 House Report 109-80, page 129 

which directed:

The Committee expects to see detailed work plans, including costs and staffing, 

for the new Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center in 

Oregon and the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center in North 

Carolina, before funding from any appropriation for these new centers is 

distributed in FY 2006. The Committee also directs the Forest Service to include 

explicit funding amounts for these two centers in future budget requests, 

regardless of the accounts involved. The Committee notes that these centers 

should, as provided in the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, focus primarily on 

hardwood forests and the threats from insects and disease which could destroy 

thousands of valuable acres of timberland and alter landscapes throughout 

surrounding areas. The centers should rely on emerging remote sensing 

technology and geospatial modeling.

Overview

The Eastern Forest and Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Centers (EFETAC 

and WWETAC or Centers) are national leaders in developing knowledge and tools to protect and 

sustain the Nation’s forests and rangelands. The Centers partner with government agencies, 

universities, and nongovernmental organizations to improve the collective national capacity to 

predict, detect, and assess threats to forests and wildlands. The mission of the Centers requires 

them to be responsive to emerging issues and high-priority policy initiatives such as invasive 

species, climate change, carbon sequestration, fuels management, and wildland fire. The work of 

the Centers is essential to ensuring that resource managers and the public are equipped with the 

latest information and state-of-the-art technology.

The Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center

The EFETAC is at the forefront of technology development, application, and transfer in forest 

threat detection and assessment. The Center addresses problems related to the science of 

monitoring, assessment, and communication across four primary classes of environmental 

threats. These include forest pests, weather and climate change, wildland fire, and changes in 

land use or land cover. Forest pests include both native and non-native invasive insects, 

pathogens, and plants. Weather and climate changes include the more direct effects of extreme 

events such as hurricanes, ice storms, tornadoes, floods and droughts, and more broadly, the 

complex interactions of climate change and variability throughout ecosystems and landscapes. 

Wildland fire is a growing concern, presenting complex management tradeoffs related to people, 

ecosystems, communities, and landscapes. Land use/land cover change results from humanrelated development and urbanization, which creates fragmented forests within a mosaic of other 

landscape elements. Center scientists and partners address emerging issues and collaborate to 

create tools and resources related to forest ecosystems, water quality, biodiversity, and 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

480

Special Exhibits

wildfires—all within the context of changing climate, increasing human populations, and 

dynamic socioeconomic conditions.

FY 2015-FY 2017 EFETAC Allocation

(dollars in thousands)

Expenditures

FY 2015 

Enacted*

FY 2016 

Enacted 

FY 2017 

Estimates

Personnel $1,214 $1,226 $1,239 

Partnerships, Technology 

Acquisitions, and Grants & 

Agreements

623 605 591

Equipment & Supplies 9 9 9 

Communications 15 20 18 

Travel 36 37 37 

Rent & Utilities 61 61 62 

Indirect Costs 208 208 210

Total $2,166 $2,166 $2,166

*As a result of consolidating 3 Research Work Unit during the Southern Research Station’s

2007 reorganization, EFETAC’s received a consolidated budget in FY2015 of $4.3 million.

The National Forest System (NFS), State & Private Forestry (S&PF), and Research & 

Development all contribute to the work of the Center. NFS and S&PF/Forest Health Protection 

provide additional supplemental support for specific activities of mutual interest. The Center also 

receives funding from other sources such as the Joint Fire Sciences Program through competitive 

and collaborative processes.

FY 2015 EFETAC Accomplishments

In FY 2015, the EFETAC collaborated with multiple internal and external partners to develop 

and share information, tools, and technology regarding threats to eastern forests and national 

landscapes. Several FY 2015 products led to increased involvement with partners within and 

outside the Forest Service, broadened awareness of the Center’s role in threat assessment, and 

provided tools to land managers and stakeholders to help streamline detection of and response to 

forest health issues.

Accomplishments Overview 

Refereed and non-refereed publications............................................................................117

Presentations and tours to scientific, educational, professional, and lay organizations....173

International activities.........................................................................................................19

Partnership, consultation, and technology transfer activities............................................198

Cultural transformation and public outreach activities.......................................................18

Awards and Honors...............................................................................................................6
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

481

Special Exhibits

Selected Highlights At-A-Glance

• Assessing Emerging Drought Threats to National Forests and Grasslands – used the largescale Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI) simulation model to estimate regional impacts of 

drought on watershed water yield and ecosystem productivity in hardwood forests and other 

national forests and grasslands across the conterminous United States. 

• Understanding how Seasonal Patterns Represent Successional Changes in Forest Recovery 

and Resilience – developing a technique that leverages information theory—a mathematical 

process for quantifying information— against large remote sensing data sets to extract 

information about ecosystem resilience in response to climate change and other threats. 

• Forest Pest Risk Maps Reveal Uncertainties – furthered forest pest risk assessment by 

developing new techniques to account for uncertainty in the inputs and underlying 

assumptions of forest pest risk maps as well as the analytical models used to create them.

• Researchers Devise a New Way to Analyze Massive LiDAR Datasets to Map Forest 

Structure –developed a new way to map forest structures at the landscape scale to simplify 

the depiction of complex remote sensing data sets in ways that provide insight into habitat 

characteristics for many species of animals and plants. 

• Developing Tools for Evaluating Ecosystem Service Sustainability in the Appalachians –

scientists and partners are taking inventory of ecosystem services in the Appalachian 

mountain region to assess their vulnerabilities to environmental stressors, and they are 

developing geospatial and online tools to synthesize existing knowledge for managers and the 

public. 

• Examining the Role of Humans in the Spread of Invasive Species – used new and updated 

data sources to project non-native insect establishment rates until 2045, thereby improving 

economic models estimating potential non-native insect impacts on U.S. forests, particularly 

in the Southeast.

• How Fragmented are the Nation’s Forests? – to support the 2015 update of the 2010 

Resources Planning Act Assessment, developed a protocol for using recent satellite imagery 

and land cover maps to update information about fragmentation and loss of forest interior area 

between 2001 and 2011. 

• ForWarn Provides Past and Present Views of Forest Disturbances – scientists and 

collaborators back-calculated satellite data collected beginning in January 2006 and developed 

retrospective map products that provide online visualization and help monitor disturbances.

• Invasive Plants’ Success Depends on Native Species Richness and Biomass – scientists 

collected and compared extensive data on habitat characteristics and biological invasions from 

diverse ecosystems in U.S. forests and ecosystems around the world to identify factors 

contributing to habitat susceptibility to invasion.

• How do Fires Affect Stream Flow in the Lower 48 United States? – analysis of large-scale, 

long-term post-fire data from more than 30 U.S. watersheds found a variety of runoff 

responses and provided insight into water resource vulnerability due to fire effects. 

• Researchers Map Seasonal Greening in U.S. Forests, Fields, and Urban Areas – ForWarn

researchers released three maps detailing the start of seasonal greening, in forests and 

grasslands, agricultural, and urban lands to allow for earlier detection and recognition of 

disturbances based on the onset and timing of Spring. 

• Support for Native American Graduate Students –The Southern Research Station and 

EFETAC supported five recipients of Native American Natural Resource Scholarships as part 

of ongoing efforts aimed at protecting tribes’ economic, ecological, and cultural interests.
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FY 2016 EFETAC Program

In FY 2016 the EFETAC program will address 3 problem areas:

• Methods for efficiently detecting forest threats, identifying meaningful change, and 

interpreting landscape patterns and processes. 

• Approaches for assessment and prediction needed to improve understanding of the 

realities and implications of ecosystem change.

• Active information exchange essential to ensuring that science is used in management and 

in fostering relevant and useful science. 

Multiple efforts are anticipated, including:

• Developing and promoting advanced tools that utilize remotely sensed data to assess and 

monitor landscape change and resiliency across all lands and within all jurisdictions. 

• Continuing research in areas including wildland fire modeling, threat interaction mapping, 

broad-scale vegetation monitoring, hydrologic modeling, pest risk assessment, and climate 

and land use change.

• Advancing the use of remote sensing for monitoring vegetation across all lands and 

making products available to multiple user groups by expanding web-based tools, 

products, and training opportunities.

• Publishing a new version of the Forecasts of Climate-Associated Shifts in Tree Species 

(ForeCASTS) project report, which can be used to predict and map the location and 

quality of habitat for several hundred North American forest tree species.

• Collaboratively building the joint capacity of university researchers and extension 

specialists to deliver climate science information to the public using TACCAMO.

• Exploring additional domestic and international applications for the WaSSI model to 

evaluate effects of climate change on water resources, carbon sequestration, and changes 

in biodiversity—including a direct linkage to wildland fire management.

• Increasing communications, science delivery, and partnerships to broaden the Center’s 

audience and influence. 

• Increasing collaborative opportunities with the Forest Service Climate Change Resource 

Center and the USDA Climate Change Hubs to continue expanding climate change 

understanding.

FY 2017 EFETAC Work Plan Key Components

• Develop quantitative analysis and techniques to support inventory, monitoring and 

assessment of threats from insects and disease, especially in hardwood forests.

• Continue ecological and environmental fire research, integrated fire and fuels 

management research, social fire science.

• Develop a set of empirical tools that can monitor all lands across the conterminous United 

States and intersect this information with indicators of local socioeconomic conditions and 

land management activities. This work will directly support implementation of the 

National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy so that wildland fire can be 

managed more efficiently in line with social values and ecological realities.
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• Develop and deliver tools and knowledge to policymakers, wildland fire managers and 

communities.

• Engage in activities to detect, respond and eradicate invasive species introductions, and to 

predict and prevent introductions.

• Develop forest and range management technologies and applications to assist 

understanding forest and range ecosystem structure, function, and to support resource 

management.

• Deliver science outputs to support management in water, air, and soil problem areas, 

climate variability and change, and other emerging threats to ecosystem sustainability.

Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center (WWETAC)

WWETAC provides early detection and prediction of the potential effects of multiple interacting 

environmental threats and stresses. The Center identifies key environmental threats to valued 

resources, synthesizes current knowledge, develops models and application tools, assesses levels 

of risk, and communicates these products to a broad array of users. WWETAC collaborates with 

and develops teams of Research Station and University scientists, resource specialists and land 

managers, and state, federal, and non-governmental organizations to accomplish the WWETAC 

mission of making scientific knowledge more accessible. 

FY 2015-FY 2017 WWETAC Allocation

(dollars in thousands)

Expenditures

FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Enacted 

Budget Enacted Estimates

Personnel $650 $730 $730 

Partnerships, Technology Acquisitions, and 

Grants & Agreements 924 878 878

Equipment & Supplies 15 15 15

Communications 130 130 130

Travel 32 32 32

Rent & Utilities 56 51 51

Indirect Costs 359 330 330

Total Budget $2,166 $2,166 $2,166 

FY 2015 WWETAC Accomplishments 

WWETAC continues to develop tools and conducts outreach for the management of natural 

resources on National Forests and Grasslands, and to meet State Foresters’ needs in conjunction 

with the Eastern Threat Assessment Center. WWETAC regularly communicates progress and 

products to appropriate Washington Office directors across all deputy areas, and to the 

WWETAC Board of Directors. We continue to communicate, train and provide user support for 
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WWETAC and joint Threat Center tools. This year, WWETAC implemented a new approach to 

develop products: query S&PF and NFS directors and staff for key needs, and assemble and fund 

teams of research station and university scientists, resource specialists, and land managers to 

develop, implement, and communicate product(s) in one-three years;

Accomplishments Overview

Refereed and non-refereed publications..............................................................................20

Presentations and tours to scientific, educational, professional, and lay organizations......51

International activities...........................................................................................................3

Partnership, consultation, and technology transfer activities..............................................30

Tool web hits.......................................................................................4,855

Cultural transformation and public outreach activities.........................................................0

Awards and Honors...............................................................................................................0

Selected highlights At-A-Glance

• Further developed Socio-economic vulnerability to climate change assessments (SEVAs) 

for Region 6. 

• Initiated a new SEVA for Region 5, PSW Research Station and the WWETAC. A new 

assessment tool, ‘production possibility frontiers,’ was developed and applied to four 

National Forests undergoing Accelerated Restoration to analyze, prioritize, and visualize 

large forest restoration projects. The Landscape Treatment Designer tool (LTD), was 

applied at the project, National Forest, and western-wide regional levels to prioritize areas 

for forest restoration activities. 

• Developed a rapid assessment tool, FIDAR, based on the eastern Threat Center’s MODISbased tool, 

• Modified ForWarn and applied it to National Grasslands to guide the timing and location 

of grazing permits (PhenoCam). 

• Developed and supported statistical and process models to predict outbreaks under current 

and future environmental conditions.

• A statistical tool was developed from existing environmental data and prior-year Aerial 

Detection Surveys to predict within year tree mortality attributable to bark beetle and 

wood borer infestations. 

• Climate change-related tools (TACCIMO, MC2) were maintained.

• Maps were completed for current and future vegetation and carbon dynamics (above- and 

belowground) for the 18 western states using MC2, a dynamic vegetation model. The 

maps were driven by downscaled 2014 IPCC global circulation models at the 4 km 

resolution for all lands. 

• Two new interdisciplinary, inter-agency teams were supported: The first assessed carbon 

dynamics in U.S. interior warm deserts. The second study was a vulnerability assessment 

of sage grouse habitat to climate change and other natural and anthropogenic stressors. 

• A new method was proposed to assess climate change impacts on wildfire risk.

• Four projects on social-ecological relationships were completed this year by teams of 

Forest Service and university scientists. 

• A framework was completed for assessing wildfire risk, emphasizing the interaction 

between social and ecological systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales. 
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• A new study was funded to assess effectiveness of pre-fire fuels reduction treatments in 

subsequent wildfire behavior in the 2014 Carlton Complex. 

FY 2016 WWETAC Program

In FY 2016 the WWETAC program will focus on science communication, tool development, 

landscape-level disturbance assessments, invasive species management, environmental change, 

and wildfire risk and fuels management. Multiple efforts are anticipated, including:

• Verifying a rapid forest disturbance assessment and planning tool, FIDAR. The tool was 

developed to detect and attribute source of disturbance to forests by stand type and tree 

age class. 

• Continuing to support the development of tools for quantifying the risk of terrestrial 

invasive plants for California (Region 5) through STDP, and explore possibilities for 

extending the tool to Region 6.

• Developing a Wikipedia-like website where the tools can be used and information can be 

vetted and modified by users. A number of outreach activities will then be possible, 

including updating the website, regularly scheduled newsletters and webinars, and new 

outreach mechanisms.

• Continuing development of a tool for prioritizing the treatment of terrestrial invasive 

plants for the continental U.S. 

• Maintaining and disseminating the tools: TACCIMO (a searchable bibliography for 

incorporating climate change into Forest Plans), ArcFuels (which rapidly designs and tests 

fuel treatments at the stand and landscape scale), Landscape Treatment Designer, 

FP_DECK (which archives and provides searchable database for Forest Plans), FIDAR 

(for rapid detection and attribution of forest disturbance by stand type and tree size), 

PhenoCam (a range management tool for National Grasslands), Wildland Threat Mapper 

(a GIS library of high value resources on National Forests, drought maps, and climate 

change projections), and Seed Zone mapper.

• Field testing of MODIS-supported tools (FIDAR for forest and PhenoCam for range 

management) on the Medicine Bow-Routte NF and on four National Grasslands, 

respectively. 

• A new approach to use ForWarn to optimize for drought detection in western ecosystems 

will be tested and vetted. 

• Coordinating additional assessments of socio-economic-biophysical vulnerability to 

climate change at different spatial scales in the western US. 

• WWETAC socio-economic products will be synthesized, updated on our website, and 

presented to interested parties at the Regional and Washington Office level.

• WWETAC will continue to support the spatial optimization of the LTD fuels tool 

throughout the western regions.

• Two risk assessments will be completed this year: (1) susceptibility to invasive plants 

after management activities (Region 2); and (2) risk for invasive vs. TES species in steppe 

communities, using an expert knowledge-based approach as opposed to a quantitative 

assessment (Region 6). 

• Completing the meta-analysis of terrestrial plant invasive growth forms, plant attributes, 

and life histories, correlating them to classes of invasive treatment. The meta-analysis will 
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be published, and an online database will be accessible via the WWETAC web site using 

Wikipedia as a model, where users can input and vet new information. 

• WWETAC will continue to support the jointly developed invasive plant mapper produced 

for Region 5 by CalIPC with Region 5 and WWETAC (STDP) funding. The center is 

exploring the possibility of extending this tool to Region 6.

• Developing and marketing a tool to predict within-year tree mortality due to bark beetle 

and wood borer for California, including the submission of project documents for 

publication. The tool will be parameterized for WA and OR. 

• WWETAC will continue to support STDP projects, promoting large-scope, broad-scale 

applications. 

• Facilitating the use of long-term predictions for vegetation change in Forest Plan 

revisions.

• Posting high interest products to the WWETAC and WO CCO websites including the 

vulnerability of sage grouse habitat to climate change and collaboratively developing 

papers on climate change and forest management for the IUFRO Climate Change Task 

Force. 

• Completing wildfire risk assessment at the landscape level (western-wide) in collaboration 

with scientists at RMRS and Oregon State University, and thereby providing a crucial 

component in dynamic vegetation models for estimating forest carbon balance and 

dynamics. 

FY 2017 WWETAC Plan of Work

The following items are on the FY2017 plan of work for WWETAC: 

• Continued coordination of tool development and application for high priority WWETAC 

tools.

• Continued maintenance of existing tools (TACCIMO, WTM), development of new tools 

(MC2, FIDAR, PhenoCam), and application of ForWarn-based applications (FP_DECK

and PhenoCam).

• Marketing to National Forests, States, industry, and private land owners of a tool to detect 

tree drought stress and reduced canopy health, and developing an approach to optimize 

change detection in the western landscape.

• Completing socio-economic-biophysical vulnerability assessments (SEVAs) for priority 

forests.

• Developing a SEVA framework for each biome identifying key resources/ key threats for 

more streamlined approach to vulnerability assessment west-wide; 

• Completing development and marketing of tools to predict tree mortality due to bark 

beetle and wood borer; 

• Maintaining and improving an online access database for terrestrial plant invasive growth 

forms, plant attributes, capacity for invasion, and treatments, where users can input new 

information and attribute source;

• Completing development and vetting of remote sensing tools to detect initiation of 

vegetation change in the landscape; 

• Comparing approaches for assessing (a) standing biomass after wildfire; and (b) 

effectiveness of fuels management activities;
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• Developing a cooperative study to improve choice of trees for thinning for effective fuels 

management.
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Stewardship Contracting

Stewardship Contracting

Background 

This special exhibit is included to address requirements of Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 

2003 (as amended, 16 U.S.C 6591c): 

The Forest Service shall report annually to the Committee on Agriculture, 

Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate and the Committee on Agriculture of the 

House of Representatives on-

• the status of development, execution, and administration of contracts 

under subsection (b);

• the specific accomplishments that have resulted; and

• the role of local communities in development of agreements or contract 

plans.

Overview

Stewardship contracts and agreements are used to manage natural resources by implementing 

ecosystem restoration projects. Stewardship contracts support new and emerging markets for 

utilization of wood removed through restoration activities, including use of woody biomass for 

energy, in addition to sustaining markets that are more traditional. Requests for proposals use 

best value selection that evaluates criteria such as capability, use of local workforce and creation 

of jobs in addition to price. This focus is intended to create green jobs and promote a diverse 

forest products industry to support sustainable communities and the forest contractor 

infrastructure needed to perform critical restoration work. Stewardship contracting helps the 

Forest Service achieve land and natural resource management goals while promoting closer 

public-private working relationships by using the value of forest products to offset the cost of 

services.

The number of stewardship contracts and agreements awarded has levelled out over the past 

three to four years as the economy moderates. However, a better understanding of how to best 

use the tool has resulted in projects of larger size.

The Stewardship Authority 

The stewardship contracting authority authorizes the Forest Service, via agreement or contract, to 

enter into stewardship projects to perform services to achieve land management goals and meet 

local and rural community needs. The temporary authority is found under the Department of the 

Interior and Related Appropriations Act, 1999 (16 U.S.C. 2104 note) (P.L. 105-277, div. A, Sec. 

101(e), [title III, Sec. 347], Oct. 21, 1998, Stat. 2681-231, amended by Department of the Interior 

and Related Appropriations Act, 2003 (P.L. 108-7, div. F, [Title III, Sec. 323], Feb. 20, 2003, 

117 Stat. 275). The Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 Farm Bill) permanently extended 

stewardship contracting authority in the Agricultural Act of 2014 by amendment to the Healthy 

Forest Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591c). 
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Stewardship contracting permits the Forest Service to apply the value of timber or other forest 

products from stewardship sales as an offset against the costs to accomplish additional land and 

resource management objectives. If the offset value exceeds the value of the resource 

improvement treatments, those receipts are retained and deposited in the Stewardship 

Contracting fund and are available, until expended, for other authorized stewardship projects. 

Stewardship contracts are awarded on a best-value basis and may be up to 10 years in duration. 

The Stewardship Contracting fund may be used for: 

• road and trail maintenance or obliteration to restore or maintain water quality;

• work to improve soil productivity, habitat for wildlife and fisheries, or other resource 

values;

• prescribed fires to improve the composition, structure, condition, and health of timber 

stands or improve wildlife habitat;

• removal of vegetation or other activities to promote healthy forests, reduce fire hazards, 

or achieve other land management objectives;

• watershed restoration and maintenance;

• restoration and maintenance of wildlife and fisheries habitat; and

• control of noxious and invasive weeds, and re-establishment of native plant species.

In FY 2015, the agency continued to inform employees, partner organizations, and contractors 

about the use of stewardship contracting through informational brochures, local field trips, and 

both live and on-line training opportunities. This ensures a common understanding of 

stewardship contracting and facilitates its use in attaining land management goals while meeting 

local and rural community needs. 

Introductory Brochure

This brochure, developed during FY 2009 to provide a basic understanding of stewardship 

contracting, describes stewardship contracting concepts and benefits, how stewardship contracts 

are used, what is unique about them, and more. This color tri-fold brochure is available at the 

following Web site: 

http://www.fs.fed.us/restoration/documents/stewardship/stewardship_brochure.pdf .

Training

Webinars from previously delivered training are posted on the National Forest Foundations Web 

site: https://www.nationalforests.org/collaboration-resources/tools-search. These include a joint 

Forest Service and National Forest Foundation webinar titled “Stewardship Contracting: 

Overview, Updates, and Examples” held in July 2014 to explain the differences between types of

stewardship agreements and stewardship contracts, highlight the permanent authority granted 

with the 2014 Farm Bill, and demonstrate some innovative examples of stewardship contracting. 

In addition, the Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation have collaborated on other 

local and regional peer-learning webinars focused on stewardship contracting. 

The Forest Service continues to outreach to stakeholders with local and regional training 

offerings. Finally, various self-paced computer-based tutorials and recordings of webinar 
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trainings are available at the following Stewardship Contracting Program Web site: 

http://www.fs.fed.us/restoration/Stewardship_Contracting/training.shtml.

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP)

Twenty-three projects across the country have been selected for CFLRP funding since FY 2010. 

Stewardship contracting is proving to be essential to implementing these projects. Please refer to 

the National Forest System section for more details on CFLRP.

Specific Accomplishments 

The overall use of stewardship contracting was similar in FY 2015 as compared to FY 2013 and 

FY 2014. In FY 2015, there was an increase in the acres reforested and wildlife habitat 

improved. While the number of contracts and agreements has declined some in the past few 

years, the average acres and volume has increased. From FY 2010 to FY 2015, the volume per 

contract doubled and the acres per contract increased by 50 percent (see details in Table 2 

below). The FY 2015 accomplishments in stewardship illustrate the power and flexibility of the 

authority. Stewardship contracting allows the Forest Service to focus its efforts on a variety of 

land management activities and accomplish restoration work where it is needed. Through the 

use of stewardship contracting, the agency accomplishes a wide variety of forest restoration 

work, including hazardous fuels reduction, wildlife habitat improvement, forest health 

improvement, and nonnative invasive plant species control.

Stewardship contracting has proved to be a valuable tool in many locations to implement 

restoration activities and meet multiple land management objectives. Table 1 below shows 

specific actual accomplishments during FY 2012 to FY 2015. Table 2 below shows the acres 

awarded, number of contract or agreements awarded, and volume awarded from FY 2003 to FY 

2015.

Table 1. Actual Stewardship Contracting

Accomplishments (FY 2012 to FY 2015)

Accomplishment FY 2012

Actual

FY 2013

Actual

FY 2014

Actual

FY 2015

Actual

Acres of forest vegetation established 4,321 3,391 5,167 6,865

Acres of forest vegetation improved 25,763 36,925 50,399 44,702

Acres of noxious weeds/invasive 

plant treatments 2,356 2,746 4,035 3,024

Acres of wildlife habitat restored or 

improved 142,648 72,578 15,679 66,744

Miles of stream habitat restored or 

enhanced 203 44 15 82

Miles of roads decommissioned 48 43 21 29
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Accomplishment FY 2012

Actual

FY 2013

Actual

FY 2014

Actual

FY 2015

Actual

Miles of high clearance system roads 

improved 52 28 19 23

Miles of passenger car system roads 

improved 43 10 59 31

Volume of timber sold (million board 

feet (MMBF)) 672 709 816 829

Green tons of biomass made 

available for energy production 577,590 865,560 247,541 323,830

Acres of stewardship 

contracts/agreements awarded 134,257 171,767 177,208 166,317

Acres of hazardous fuels treated to 

reduce the risk of catastrophic fires 93,804 130,190 82,894 66,169

Acres of wildland-urban interface 

(WUI) high-priority hazardous fuels 

treated

58,394 69,150 96,567 73,072

Number of stewardship 

contracts/agreements contributing to 

watersheds in fully functioning 

condition

9 17 25 1
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Table 2. Acres Awarded, Number of Contract or Agreements

Awarded, and Volume Awarded (FY 2003 to FY 2014)

FY Acres 

Awarded

# of Contracts 

& Agreements

Volume Awarded 

(hundred cubic feet -

CCF)

2003 11,696 35 69,547

2004 43,187 53 102,143

2005 34,491 43 196,079

2006 60,344 91 471,996

2007 77,676 110 655,072

2008 65,890 130 678,328

2009 88,304 141 743,417

2010 152,834 232 1,133,837

2011 100,577 208 962,486

2012 134,257 226 1,314,118 

2013 171,767 195 1,346,470

2014 177,208 161 1,604,097

2015 166,317 168 1,598,892

In many cases, multiple land management objectives are met through a single treatment activity. 

For example, a hazardous fuel reduction treatment can also improve wildlife habitat. These 

accomplishments not only result in ecosystem benefits, but also forest products for 

manufacturing and energy production, and the creation of jobs contributing to sustainable 

communities.

Local Communities 

Collaboration with local communities is a key component of successful stewardship contracting. 

Collaborative efforts start early and continue throughout project planning, implementation, and 

monitoring. Collaboration during the development of stewardship contracting projects results in 

a sense of ownership in the project by the community, a better understanding by communities of 

natural resource issues, and increased public support. Collaboration also means the Forest 

Service can tailor stewardship offerings that address local issues, needs, and capabilities. 

We have contracted with the Pinchot Institute for Conservation to conduct a programmatic 

multiparty monitoring process for FY 2015. In prior years, the Pinchot Institute found that 

stewardship contracting was maturing, and support has grown significantly. One of the major 

benefits identified is that stewardship contracting offers increased opportunities to frame a set of 

collaboratively defined desired future conditions. Participants increasingly welcome the use of 

stewardship agreements as a way to involve more stakeholders, increase learning opportunities, 

and positively influence forest management planning. In the FY 2014 report, Pinchot concluded 

that while individual project results may vary, partnerships and working relationships tend to 

grow through collaboration and allow projects to move forward. The results of the FY 2015

programmatic monitoring efforts by the Pinchot Institute will be available in late winter or early 
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spring 2016. When available, the entire report will be online at: 

http://www.pinchot.org/gp/Stewardship_Contracting

Stewardship Contracting Success Stories

Colorado

Stewardship authority has enabled the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison (GMUG) 

National Forests to successfully provide valuable forest products to local industry, while 

accomplishing a wide variety of important forest restoration work. The Highway 149 

Stewardship Project was awarded in 2015 to create a fuelbreak along State Highway 149, which 

serves as an emergency evacuation route south of Lake City, Colorado, and is also designated as 

the Silver Thread Scenic Byway. Since 2010, forests in the area have gone through a major 

spruce beetle epidemic that has killed nearly 100 percent of the Engelmann spruce trees over 3 

inches diameter. This project involved salvage harvest of Engelmann spruce trees as well as 

piling of logging slash and small, non-merchantable conifers. Stewardship service activities 

were used to treat non-merchantable fuel loadings and steep slopes within the highway corridor 

where commercial extraction was not possible.

Public and local political interest in this project was high as a result of the Papoose fire that 

burned more than 49,000 acres of spruce beetle killed timber nearby in 2013. The Forest Service 

received support from county commissioners and Colorado Department of Transportation 

(CDOT). The CDOT provided some funding for the project. The Forest Service coordinated 

closely with CDOT to obtain temporary access permits and implement traffic control measures 

along the highway to access the project areas and ensure public safety during the project. 

Wyoming

The Bighorn National Forest has awarded five individual stewardship contracts between 2010

and 2015. An example of one their contracts is the Babione (baby-un) Stewardship Contract. 

This five-year stewardship contract accomplishes the following land management activities:

• integrates multi-product timber removal with fuels reduction;

• commercially harvests 1,020 acres using traditional marking, designation by prescription, 

and load count scaling for efficiency of operations; 

• reduces hazardous fuels on 368 acres adjacent to private lands and infrastructure;

• prepares sites for natural and artificial regeneration on 254 acres;

• non-commercially thins 142 acres of young, regenerated lodgepole stands; and

• installs a gate to reduce illegal travel along a forest system road.

The 2005 Forest Plan revision has a strategy to “evaluate each vegetation project for its potential 

and feasibility as a stewardship contract, where appropriate, design treatments to facilitate 

stewardship projects.” To meet this strategy the forest has used Integrated Resource Timber and 

Service Contracts. Changing markets and direction make this a challenge, but being able to 

accomplish the work with one contract in one entry has gained the forest support for this 

approach. 
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Montana

The Regional Forester and Montana State Forester entered into Master Stewardship Agreement 

signed on September 26, 2013, for the purpose of cooperatively working together on landscape 

restoration activities within the State of Montana. Under this Master Agreement, a Supplemental 

Project Agreement was signed on May 5, 2014, to begin implementation activities within the 

Red Mountain Flume Chessman Reservoir Project. 

The Red Mountain Flume Chessman Reservoir stewardship project goals are to reduce hazardous 

fuels from trees killed by bark beetle epidemics, reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, and 

ensure the availability of clean, economically efficient water supply through the protection of 

critical infrastructure within the Helena municipal watershed. Under this agreement, the State of 

Montana is responsible for implementation and work started on approximately 470 acres of 

vegetative treatments in the fall of 2014. 

Project restoration activities include timber harvesting, thinning, mechanical fuels reduction, 

road maintenance, road decommissioning, and noxious weed treatments that will provide jobs for 

the local workforce. Forest vegetation treatments are also supplying approximately 10,227 

hundred cubic feet of forest products to the local processing facility. 

Kentucky and Tennessee – Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area

Land Between the Lakes (LBL) National Recreation Area began a cooperative agreement with 

the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) in January 2008. In 2009, when a catastrophic ice 

storm devastated the area during the winter, the NWTF was able to help facilitate multiple 

logging clean-up crews along all the roads and facilities. Since that time, multiple supplemental 

program agreements have occurred, and there are two active agreements in place that focus on 

forest and open lands restoration. A variety of activities occur under these agreements such as 

timber stand improvement, wildlife stand improvement, non-native invasive removal, pesticide 

application, mowing, grinding/mulching, planting, fertilization, pasture improvement, and 

restoration of native grasses. This partnership has expanded into the local community to the 

extent where local NWTF chapter members do free in-kind work such as developing fire breaks, 

maintaining fields, and improving access. Furthermore, this has led to an “Adopt-an-Acre” 

program, where these volunteers actively manage fields annually. One example of local 

community impacts is that wood chips are provided to a local school and hospital to help them 

heat their facilities during the winter. In fiscal year 2015, approximately 4,700 acres were

directly impacted from stewardship activities. Finally, partnership efforts have been expanded 

into multiple media outlets that help attract more people to recreate on this highly used area each 

year. LBL attracts upwards of 1.4 million visitors annually.

Michigan

In 2015, the Ottawa National Forest completed a stewardship project at the popular Lake Nesbit 

Organizational Camp (Camp Nesbit) and Norway Lake Recreation Area. The successful 

completion of the Nesbit – Norway Stewardship Project mitigated major hazardous fuels and 

watershed concerns at both Camp Nesbit and Norway Lake Recreation Area. Some of the large 

projects accomplished through this stewardship project are: salvage and thinning of nearby red 
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pine stands, including piling and chipping logging slash and pruning residual stands; new 

lakeside retaining walls at both Camp Nesbit and Norway Lake beach areas to address erosion 

and sedimentation issues that were occurring due to the previously failing retaining walls; 

removal of large hazard trees and slash located within the Norway Lake Campground to reduce 

hazardous fuels and improve safety within the campground; and boat landing rehabilitation to 

reduce sedimentation and improve user safety. In addition to the natural resource benefits, local 

youth, and the public that use these areas for education and recreation will benefit for years to 

come.
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Unobligated Balances

Unobligated Balances

Background

This exhibit is required by Congressional direction to provide an update on the status of Forest 

Service unobligated balances.

Overview

The following table contains the Forest Service unobligated balances from all prior year 

appropriated funds (regular and emergency) carried forward into FY 2016. The table does not 

include the unobligated balances from offsetting collections such as reimbursable or advanced 

collections. The appropriation totals lines are actual amounts and program distributions are 

estimates.

FY 2015 Forest Service - Unobligated Balances, End of Year

(dollars in thousands)

Forest Service Appropriation Prior Years

Budget Line Item/Programs Unobligated Balances

Forest and Rangeland Research

Research and Development $5,795 

 National Fire Plan (NFP) Research Activities 1,266

 Joint Fire Science 2,469

Total Forest and Rangeland Research $9,530 

State and Private Forestry (S&PF)

Forest Health - Federal Lands $4,391 

Forest Health - Coop Lands 4,411

State Fire Assistance 0

 Volunteer Fire Assistance 0

Forest Stewardship 1,922

Urban and Community Forestry 0

Forest Res Info & Analysis 0

Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program 352

International Forestry 0

NFP Forest Health - Federal Lands 0

 NFP Forest Health - Coop Lands 0

 NFP State Fire Assistance 0

 NFP Volunteer Fire Assistance 0

 Landscape Scale Restoration 0

Total State and Private Forestry $11,076 

S&PF Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)

S&PF LWCF (Forest Legacy) $8,306 

Total S&PF LWCF $8,306

National Forest System

 Land Management Planning $9,469 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

497

Special Exhibits

FY 2015 Forest Service - Unobligated Balances, End of Year

(dollars in thousands)

Forest Service Appropriation Prior Years

Budget Line Item/Programs Unobligated Balances

 Inventory & Monitoring 2,160 

Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness 3,032 

Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management 1,819 

Grazing Management 1,041 

Restoration Partnership 37 

Forest Products 2,499 

Vegetation and Watershed Management 3,011 

Minerals and Geology Management 2,785 

Landownership Management 1,347 

Law Enforcement Operations 1,322 

Integrated Resource Restoration 2,121 

Valles Caldera National Preserve 352 

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration 9,313

Total National Forest System $40,308 

Wildland Fire Management

 Preparedness $47,011 

Suppression 59,872

Hazardous Fuels Management 9,267

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration 17

Coop Fire – Volunteer Fire Assistance 0

Coop Fire – State Fire Assistance 4,401

Total Wildland Fire Management $120,568 

FLAME Fund

Total FLAME Fund $0 

Capital Improvement and Maintenance

 Facilities Capital Improvement/Maintenance $465 

Roads Capital Improvement/Maintenance 412

Trails Capital Improvement/Maintenance 212

Legacy Roads 217

Deferred Maintenance 9,290

Construction Disaster Supplemental 1,444

Total Capital Improvement and Maintenance $12,040

Land Acquisition - LWCF

Land Acquisition $2,246 

Total Land Acquisition LWCF $2,246 

Other Appropriations

 Range Betterment Fund $896 

Gifts, Donations, and Bequests for Research 115 

Subsistence Management (Region 10) 112 

Total Other Appropriations $1,123 

GRAND TOTAL $205,197
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

498

Special Exhibits

USDA Working Capital Fund and Greenbook Charges

Background

This exhibit is included to provide a three-year display of total costs paid by the Forest Service 

for these centrally administered programs.

Overview

The Forest Service, as an organizational entity of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), is 

provided administrative services managed centrally on behalf of the Department. These 

centrally administered programs are broken into two activities, the Working Capital Fund and 

Greenbook. It is important to note that cost estimates for actual usage programs have changed in 

the last three fiscal years in response to demand for services on the part of the Forest Service. 

The Forest Service estimates for the activities assessed on a Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) or 

standard methodology are likely to better reflect Forest Service shares of total costs, but these 

may vary during execution.

USDA Working Capital Fund

The Working Capital Fund (WCF) includes financial and administrative services provided with 

funding under the authority of 7 U.S.C. 2235. The WCF is a financing mechanism that currently 

supports 17 activity centers across five Department-level organizations. These centers provide 

services to all USDA agencies, including the Forest Service, and a large number of non-USDA 

entities. Customers reimburse activity centers for the cost of services provided.

These WCF-supported activities do not receive appropriated funds and are not subsidized from 

other funding sources. All costs are recovered through reimbursements from serviced customers. 

The estimated reimbursement from customers represents their projected share of the costs of 

services delivered. Pursuant to the terms of the general provisions in annual appropriations to 

USDA, agency administrators must authorize billings to their agency for these services. 

Therefore, the Chief of the Forest Service (or his duly appointed representative) must sign an 

agreement at the beginning of the fiscal year authorizing billing for services provided and 

supplying the appropriate accounting data.

The Forest Service acts as one of the overseers in the review of cost estimates for the National 

Finance Center (NFC) through its participation in the WCF Executive Committee, a body 

comprised of representatives from various USDA agencies. The Executive Committee is 

charged with making budget recommendations and advising the Department’s Chief Financial 

Officer as to the financial effectiveness of the WCF. The Forest Service actively works with the 

Department’s Chief Financial Officer to review activities included in the Greenbook and the 

basis for any costs attributed to the Forest Service. 

Tables on the following pages display Forest Service assessments for USDA WCF services and 

describe the range of WCF services that the USDA provides.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

499

Special Exhibits

FY 2014 to FY 2016 Working Capital Fund Assessments for the Forest Service

Core Services

(dollars in thousands)

Core Service

FY 2014 

Actuals

FY 2015 

Planned

FY 2016 

Estimates

Central Excess Property Operation45 $83 $0 $0 

Consolidated Forms and Publications Dist. Center45 511 0 0 

Mail and Reproduction Services 0 221 221

Material Management Service Center45 0 663 580

Credit Card Service Center46 1,002 0 0

Integrated Procurement Systems46 8,588 8,461 8,461 

Central Mail Unit47 194 0 0

Computer Services Unit 102 98 100 

Comptroller Operation Division 10,596 14,167 14,657 

Creative Media and Broadcast Center 108 96 96 

Enterprise Network Services 5,232 3,844 2,608

Financial Systems 37,394 38,734 37,413 

Internal Control Support Services 325 365 365 

Network Services 53 25 26 

Office of the Executive Secretariat 642 579 445 

Telecommunication Customer Services Center 134 148 227 

Total Core Services $64,964 $67,401 $65,199 

USDA Agency Specific Services

USDA Agency Specific Services

FY 2014 

Actuals

FY 2015 

Planned

FY 2016 

Estimates

Central Mail Unit47 $36 $0 $0 

Copier and Duplicating Services47 295 0 0 

Consolidated Forms and Publication Dist. Center45 225 0 0

Mail and Reproduction Services47 0 270 279

Enterprise Network Services 0 597 895

Material Management Service Center45 0 220 213

Procurement Operations Division 0 102 139

Creative Media and Broadcast Center 386 386 374

International Technology Services (ITS) 6,500 10,500 10,000

National Finance Center 9,442 9,659 8,537 

National Information Technology Center (NITC) 21,858 27,915 22,434 

Total USDA Agency Specific Services $38,742 $49,649 $42,871 

Total: Core Services Plus USDA Agency Specific Services

Core Services Plus USDA Agency Specific Services

FY 2014 

Actuals

FY 2015 

Planned

FY 2016 

Estimates

Total Working Capital Fund Assessments $103,706 $117,050 $108,070

The FY 2016 legislative cap for WCF activities, excluding NITC and ITS, is $82.0 million.

FY 2015 and FY 2016 NITC/ITS costs are estimates and subject to change based on agency execution year needs. 

 45 FY 2015 and FY 2016: These activities are merged into a single activity center - Material Management Service Center 46 FY 2015 and FY 2016: These activities are merged into a single activity center - Integrated Procurement Systems 47 FY 2015 and FY 2016: These activities are merged into a single activity center - Mail and Reproduction Services
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

500

Special Exhibits

Working Capital Fund Activities

Cost Recovery Methodologies

Activity Description Cost Distribution

National Finance 

Center Agency 

Specific

Provides: 

• Payroll/personnel services to USDA/nonUSDA agencies

• Applications support to Office of Personnel 

Management

• Record keeper/other services to support the 

Thrift Savings Plan

• Support services for USDA accounting 

applications 

• PKI licenses/support

Beginning in FY 2005, services 

provided by NFC have been 

negotiated between NFC and 

serviced agencies. The nature, 

volume, and cost of services 

serve as the basis for 

Memoranda of Understanding 

between the parties.

National Finance 

Center Government 

Employee Services

Provides:

• Payroll/personnel services to USDA/nonUSDA agencies 

• Applications support to Office of Personnel 

Management 

• Record keeper/other services to support the 

Thrift Savings Plan 

• Support services for USDA accounting 

applications 

• PKI licenses/support

Beginning in FY 2005, services 

provided by NFC have been 

negotiated between NFC and 

serviced agencies. The nature, 

volume, and cost of services 

serve as the basis for 

Memoranda of Understanding 

between the parties.

Financial Systems Operates/maintains the following systems:

• Financial Management Modernization 

Initiative (FMMI - core accounting) 

• Real property 

• Corporate integrated administrative 

payments 

• Other systems as necessary to support 

program agency missions and fulfill 

USDA’s fiduciary responsibilities to 

taxpayers

Financial/Adm. Pmts: Costs 

recovered based on agency 

share of FMMI workload 

(measured in general journal 

records) 

Real Property: Costs recovered 

based on agency shares of 

USDA-owned and 

GSA/commercially-leased 

property

Comptroller 

Operations Services

Provides:

• Core accounting/reporting services 

• Agency-specific services 

• Operates a corporate controller organization 

that integrates accountability and systems 

across USDA

Agencies are billed monthly at 

1/12th their estimated annual 

charges.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

501

Special Exhibits

Activity Description Cost Distribution

Internal Control 

Support Services

Internal Control Support Services (ICSS)

promotes and supports the USDA’s internal 

control program by assisting USDA agencies in 

their internal control compliance efforts. As 

part of its services, ICSS plans and manages the 

Department’s annual assessment of internal 

control over financial reporting and promotes 

best practices across the Department to ensure 

greater consistency in regard to internal control 

of financial processes, administrative processes,

and information technology. ICSS also 

provides training programs, group 

presentations, and other support services in 

order to improve the Department’s internal 

control program and awareness of emerging 

events and current trends related to internal 

control.

Cost is distributed based on 

agency’s FTE percentages.

Creative Media and 

Broadcast Center

The Broadcast Media and Technology Center 

(BMTC) provides a wide array of video 

production and teleconferencing (both audio 

and video) services. The Visual 

Communication Center offers a variety of 

planning, fabrication, and development services 

for graphic productions, exhibits, and visitor 

center needs. The Center also provides web 

page graphic design services.

Agency percentage shares are 

based on the most recently 

completed fiscal year billings 

for services. Actual costs 

reflect use of the service and 

are based on needed labor 

hours, contractual costs, and/or 

direct materials needed for the 

delivery of a product to the 

requesting agency.

NITC - IT Services Provides mainframe computer operations and 

application development and support services to 

support agency programs. NITC also provides 

IT consulting services and training, and data 

warehouse support for FMMI.

Agency percentages are based 

on estimates of services to be 

provided to users during the 

current fiscal year. Actual 

costs are based on the cost of 

services provided to requesting 

agencies under terms of 

interagency agreements.

National Telecom 

Services

Provides centralized telecommunications 

support services nationwide for the USDA, 

manages and provide internet access to USDA 

agencies and data connections between agencies 

(USDA Intranet), and assists agencies in using 

telecommunication services in a cost-effective 

manner.

Agencies’ percentage shares 

are based on their prior year 

utilization of voice and data 

telecommunication services.

Actual costs for technical and 

data services are recovered via 

distribution through the WCF.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

502

Special Exhibits

Activity Description Cost Distribution

Telecom Customer 

Services Center 

(TSCS)

Manages and maintains the USDA’s voice 

telephone services in the Washington, DC 

metropolitan area (WMA); serves as the single 

point of contact for all local requests for 

telephone services and purchases; manages and 

administers the nationwide voice mail system;

provides maintenance services for telephone 

equipment and voice mail services in the 

WMA.

Agency percentage shares are 

based on the number of 

telephone lines in the WMA 

and the number of voice 

mailboxes on the primary node.

Network Services Provides technical/operational assistance on 

data networking telecommunications systems; 

designs, installs, operates, and manages shared 

services provided on departmental networks 

and platforms; participates in the design,

engineering, and operations management of the 

Enterprise Network.

Agency percentage share is 

based on FY 2003 FTEs for the 

USDA facilities serviced by the 

Departmental LAN and e-mail 

usage.

Computer Services 

Network Support

Provides LAN, desktop, application, and web 

development support and maintenance to the 

Office of the Secretary (OSEC).

Basic services for OSEC are 

paid by the Office of the Chief 

Information Officer. The cost 

for support services to the 

Under and Assistant Secretaries 

are distributed among agencies 

based on estimated fiscal year 

nationwide FTEs.

Central Supply Stores Provides required office supplies to the Office 

of the Secretary and USDA agencies in the 

WMA; provides nation-wide supply support to 

the meat and poultry inspectors for the Food 

Safety Inspection Service.

Agency percentage shares are 

based on actual use of store 

services in the most recently 

completed fiscal year. Actual 

costs are recovered on the basis 

of the acquisition cost of 

supplies procured by agencies, 

plus an overhead charge.

Central Forms and 

Pubs - Transport Costs

Provides acquisition (printing), warehouse, and 

worldwide distribution of administrative forms 

and publications for all USDA agencies and 

non-USDA agencies; provides warehouse 

distribution of agency programs and 

publications for all USDA agencies and for 

other participating government agencies.

Based on the most recently 

completed fiscal year.

Copier and Duplicating 

Services

Provides centralized copier facilities and 

equipment for employees in the downtown DC

buildings complex and nearby satellite locations 

(Riverdale Carver Center). A large inventory of 

pool/convenience copiers is distributed 

throughout USDA agency offices in the DC 

area.

Agency shares are based on 

prior year billings.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

503

Special Exhibits

Activity Description Cost Distribution

Mail Prep and Courier 

Services

Provides custom mailing services to USDA 

agencies.

0.0399 cents/piece for each 

piece of mail stuffed. 

Miscellaneous Services: Flat 

fee of $10.00 for courier 

deliveries in the local metro 

area, $0.30/mile for chauffeur 

services (plus overtime for 

drivers)

Procurement Systems 

Operations

Develops, implements, and maintains a suite of 

corporate acquisition software tools, 

streamlining processes and an interface with the 

USDA corporate financial system. Provides

procurement support to USDA agencies.

Cost is distributed based on 

actual agency use of the 

Integrated Acquisition System 

(IAS) and SmartPay. 

Customers are billed monthly 

for 1/12 of their estimated 

annual share of costs.

Mail Distribution 

Services

Central Mail: Central processing of incoming, 

outgoing, and interoffice mail; special handling 

services for priority items in the WMA; doorto-door pickup and delivery service of routine 

and special mailings within the downtown DC 

buildings complex.

Central Mail/Door-to-Door: 

Agency shares are based on 

mail count samples taken by 

the Mail Unit.

Consolidated Forms 

and Public Distribution 

Center

Provides acquisition (printing), warehouse, and 

worldwide distribution of administrative forms 

and publications for all USDA agencies; 

provides warehouse distribution of agency 

programs and publications for all USDA 

agencies and for other participating government 

agencies.

Agency shares are based on 

costs of requisitions processed 

for AD and SF forms during 

the most recently completed 

fiscal year. 

Agency shares for agencyspecific forms are based on 

square footage of space for 

storage of agency forms at the 

warehouse. 

Central Excess 

Property Operations

Provides customer service and disposition for 

all excess property for USDA and other Federal 

agencies in the WMA under the concept of a 

Cooperative Administrative Support Unit 

(CASU); provides property rehabilitation 

services in an effort to promote utilization of 

serviceable excess and rehabilitated property in 

lieu of purchasing new property.

Agency shares are based on FY 

2005 FTEs in the WMA.

Executive Secretariat Provides referral and correspondence control 

services to the Department for mail addressed to 

the Department, the Secretary, and the 

immediate Office of the Secretary.

User percentages are based on 

a moving average of 

correspondence processed by 

the unit.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

504

Special Exhibits

Greenbook

Central Cost Distribution Programs

USDA agencies pay a share of costs for external programs through “Greenbook” assessments. 

The Forest Service share is determined in a manner consistent with that for every other agency in 

the Department. Assessments are broken down into two categories:

Actual Usage - Costs are collected for programs such as GSA space, transit subsidies, 

postage, and unemployment and workers compensation insurance based on actual costs 

incurred by individual agencies.

Outside Assessments - Costs such as Office of Personnel Management Federal 

employment, FirstGov, and GSA blue pages are distributed to executive departments for 

reimbursement. The Department has no discretion as to the cost of the program. 

Departmental Shared Cost Programs

These costs provide funding for department-wide initiatives authorized by the Office of the 

Secretary. Costs for these programs cannot be recovered on a usage basis and are generally 

distributed using an FTE methodology.

FY 2014 to FY 2016 Forest Service Greenbook Costs

(dollars in thousands)

Central Cost Distribution Programs

Central Cost Distribution Programs

FY 2014 

Actual

FY 2015

Planned

FY 2016 

Estimated

GSA Space - Agency $37,019 $37,389 $37,389 

DHS GSA Building Security - Agency specific 3,113 3,144 3,175

U.S. Postal Service Mail - Agency specific 290 293 293

Unemployment Compensation 42,106 41,429 41,429

Workers Compensation 31,489 30,567 30,567

National Archives Records System 500 400 400

Ethics E-Filing 0 56 56

Flexible Spending Accounts FSAFEDS - Agency 

Specific

82 82 82

FEMA Emergency Preparedness 109 121 121

Federal Audit Clearing Service 16 16 16

OPM Federal Employee Svcs and Admin Law Judges 183 183 183

Transit Subsidy 1,422 1,422 1,422

Government-wide Council Activities 172 172 172

GSA HSPD12 Lincpass Maintenance 1,531 1,531 1,531

E-GOV Initiatives 3,243 2,973 3,063

Total Central Cost Programs $121,275 $119,778 $119,899

Departmental Shared Cost Programs

Departmental Shared Cost Programs

FY 2014 

Actual

FY 2015

Planned

FY 2016 

Estimated

Intertribal Technical Assistance Network $994 $985 $985 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

505

Special Exhibits

Departmental Shared Cost Programs

FY 2014 

Actual

FY 2015

Planned

FY 2016 

Estimated

Faith-Based Initiatives & Neighborhood Partnerships 127 125 128 

Office of the Secretary White House Liaison Office 

(Advisory Committee Liaison Service)

261 261 261

Hispanic Serving Institutions National Program 

(Formerly HACU)

648 793 830

1890 USDA Initiative 956 1,214 1,214

USDA 1994 Program (Formerly AIHEC) 255 335 335

USDA Human Resources Transformation 564 552 552

Virtual University 638 623 623

Peoples Garden & Visitors Center 292 311 285 

Honor Awards 25 25 25

TARGET Center (includes Sign Language Interpreter 

Services

408 491 489

Emergency Operations Center 755 755 755

Continuity of Operations Planning 659 668 668

Medical Services 21 40 41

Personnel and Document Security 454 338 339

Federal Bio-based Products Preferred Procurement 

Program (Formerly Bio-based Markets Program)

113 130 135

Facility Infrastructure Review and Assessment 146 143 143

Retirement Processor Web Application 185 192 192

Preauthorized Funding 1,213 1,186 1,186

Identity and Access Management (HSPD-12) 2,196 2,147 2,147

Total Departmental Shared Cost Programs $10,910 $11,314 $11,333 

Total: Central Cost Distribution Programs Plus Departmental Shared Cost Programs

Central Cost Distribution Programs Plus 

Departmental Shared Cost Programs

FY 2014 

Actual

FY 2015

Planned

FY 2016 

Estimated

Total Greenbook $132,185 $131,092 $131,232 

The legislative cap for the Departmental Shared Cost Program activities is $14.5 million.

Greenbook Activities

Central Cost Distribution Programs

Activity Description Cost Distribution

General Service 

Administration (GSA) 

Space - Agency

Provides for the payment of rent to GSA for

agency space, which is paid from agency funds. 

User percentages are based on 

occupied agency space which 

is not covered by the 

departmental standard level 

user charges (SLUC)

Appropriation.

Department of 

Homeland Security 

(DHS) GSA Building 

Security - Agency

Provides for the payment of security to DHS for 

non-appropriated funded agency security, 

which is paid from agency funds.

User Cost Estimates are based 

on security not covered in the 

central (departmental) 

appropriation for security.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

506

Special Exhibits

Activity Description Cost Distribution

U.S. Postal Service 

Mail

Provides reimbursement to the U.S. Postal 

Service (USPS) for mailing services provided to 

USDA agencies. 

User percentages are based on 

prior year usage. Adjustments 

are made prior to the end of the 

fiscal year based on direct 

accountability (i.e., metered 

costs, sampling, and anticipated 

increases in postal rates).

Unemployment 

Compensation

Provides reimbursement to the Department of 

Labor (DOL) unemployment trust fund for 

payment made to unemployed former USDA 

employees.

User percentages are based on 

reconciled agency charges for 

the previous fiscal year.

Worker’s 

Compensation Program

Provides reimbursement to DOL unemployment 

trust fund for payment made to unemployed 

former USDA employees.

Distribution is based on 

reconciled agency cases and 

dollars.

National Archives 

Records System

Effective in FY 2001, the National Archives 

became a fee-for-service records center. Each 

agency is assessed for costs associated with 

records in storage plus an additional amount for 

those departmental staff offices that store 

agency records as a part of their function.

Distribution is based on each 

agency’s volume of records 

stored, plus a percentage of 

department-wide records stored 

based on nation-wide FTEs.

Flexible Spending 

Accounts (FSAFEDS)

- Agency

The National Defense Authorization Act, Public 

Law 108-136, signed November 24, 2003, 

requires all Executive Branch agencies that 

participate in the Flexible Spending Accounts 

for Federal Employees Program (FSAFEDS) to 

cover administrative fees on behalf of their 

employees.

The agency cost shares are 

based on the participation level 

of their employees. Agencies 

are billed for the operating 

costs by OPM and contract 

administration by a commercial 

vendor.

OPM Federal 

Employment and 

Administrative Law 

Judges Service

This program reimburses OPM for Federal 

Employment Services and information provided 

to USDA agencies.

Distribution is based on FY 

2003 nationwide FTEs of each 

agency.

Government-wide 

Council Activities

Reimburses GSA for projects of the Chief 

Financial Officers Council, Chief Information 

Officers Council, and Procurement Executive 

Council.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings in each 

agency.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

507

Special Exhibits

Activity Description Cost Distribution

Intertribal Technical 

Assistance Network

Program addresses the unique challenges faced 

by American Indian and Alaskan Native tribal 

governments, communities and individuals in 

effectively utilizing USDA programs and 

services. These challenges require intensive 

technical assistance and program access 

improvement through in an intertribal 

coordinated network and coordination with the 

Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian 

Affairs, which also has jurisdiction and 

authority over Indian lands. Information on all 

USDA programs will be covered by the 

technical assistance efforts of staff within the 

Network. Program efforts will also focus on 

promoting the Department’s strategic goals 

within Indian Country, including Tribal 

consultation responsibilities, in accordance with 

government-to-government and trust 

responsibilities of USDA.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings for each 

USDA agency.

Faith Based Initiatives 

and Neighborhood 

Partnerships

Provides for Department-level oversight of 

implementation efforts in the areas of faithbased and neighborhood outreach and supports

the White House Office of Faith-Based and 

Community Initiatives regional outreach 

conferences. This office was established at the 

USDA by executive order on December 12, 

2002.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings for each 

USDA agency.

Advisory Committee 

Liaison Services

The Office of the Secretary provides guidance 

and direction to USDA agencies on Advisory 

Committees and Boards. Costs to support this 

function and screening/selection of members 

are reimbursed from agencies to the Office of 

the Secretary.

Costs are distributed on the 

basis of the number of advisory 

committees in each agency.

Hispanic Serving 

Institutions National 

Program 

Fosters educational excellence in the Hispanic 

community and promotes Hispanic participation 

in fulfilling the USDA mission.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings in each 

agency.

1890 USDA Initiative Supports initiatives on Historically Black 

Colleges and Universities and the USDA 1890 

institutions (Land Grant colleges and 

universities). USDA maintains an agricultural 

liaison office at each of the 17 qualifying

campuses, including Tuskegee University.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings for each 

USDA agency.

USDA 1994 Program Promotes, fosters, and encourages 

implementing programs for improving postsecondary and higher education opportunities 

for American Indians, and establishing 

information centers for post-secondary and 

higher education institutions.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings in each 

agency.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

508

Special Exhibits

Activity Description Cost Distribution

USDA Human 

Resources 

Transformation 

Program (Includes 

Diversity Council)

Establishes policy, coordinates and evaluates 

USDA agencies’ efforts to carry out diversity 

programs. Creates a culture of change within 

USDA agencies that ensures the Department’s 

place as a model employer within the Federal 

government in terms of equal opportunity 

without barriers to achievement of diversity and 

inclusivity. Builds diversity awareness through 

formal training, participation in diversity 

programs, special observance events, 

participation in employee forums at listening 

sessions, and national employment conferences. 

Tracks progress of USDA agencies towards 

diversity goals, awareness, and best practices.

Distribution is based on the 

current year’s nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings for each 

USDA agency.

Virtual University The Virtual University program will provide 

Department employees with a central 

educational facility. The facility will focus on 

providing employees with training for today’s 

workplace responsibilities and developmental 

programs to ensure a cadre of highly-skilled 

future leaders. 

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment in each agency.

Peoples Garden and 

Visitors Center

Supports the People’s Garden and serves as a 

showcase for USDA programs and initiatives.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment in each agency.

TARGET Center Supports the Department's workforce diversity 

and Federal Workforce 2001 policies. Provides 

information on technologies to ensure equal 

access to electronic equipment and automated 

systems essential to today’s jobs for people 

with visual, hearing, speech, mobility, or 

dexterity impairments.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings for each 

USDA agency.

Drug Testing Program 

- Agency Specific

This program is mandated by Executive Order

12564 and PL 102-143. Its purpose is to help 

ensure a drug free work place with programs 

such as random, reasonable suspicion, postaccident, volunteer, and applicant testing.

Distribution is based on agency 

actual expenses.

Sign Language 

Interpreter Services

Provides interpretive services for Departmental 

programs and USDA agencies. During fiscal 

years 2010 and prior, the DC Metro Area Sign 

Language Services were handled through 

agency-level agreements. Beginning in FY 

2011, DC Metro Area Sign Language Services 

was included in the Departmental Shared Cost 

Program and a Metro Area FTE cost recovery 

basis is now used. The intent of this change 

was to ensure that all employees have access to 

services.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings for each 

USDA agency. Agencyspecific services will be billed 

directly to serviced agencies.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

509

Special Exhibits

Activity Description Cost Distribution

Emergency Operations 

Center

Operates a secure emergency operations center 

on a 24/7 basis. The center provides critical 

communications and coordination systems.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment in each agency.

Continuity of 

Operations Planning 

(COOP)

Provides for USDA COOP activities including 

awareness training, exercises, and COOP plan 

reviews.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings in each 

agency.

Medical Services Provides preventative health measures such as 

flu shots, health screening, nutritional 

principles, and fitness awareness that lead to a 

higher quality workforce environment for 

employees and contractors in the National 

Capital Region (Headquarters complex, the 

George Washington Carver Center, and the 

Patriot Plaza offices.)

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings in each 

agency.

Personnel and 

Document Security

Responsible for ensuring the proper protection 

of classified national security information 

through the adjudicative process of personnel 

clearances and the proper handling, storage, and 

transmission of classified information.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings in each 

agency.

Federal Biobased 

Products Preferred 

Procurement Program 

(Formerly Biobased 

Markets Program)

Supports the USDA-wide implementation of 

Bio-PreferredSM procurement requirements as 

additional biobased items are designated for 

preferred procurement. Supports the 

development of USDA procurement reporting 

tools and provides information resources and 

training to the USDA procurement community, 

as well as to other Federal agencies, for the 

purchase of biobased products and the inclusion 

of biobased components in contracts.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings in each 

agency.

Radiation Safety Radiation Safety is responsible for 

administering the USDA radiation safety 

program including ensuring compliance with 

licenses issued by the Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) for use of radioactive 

materials in research and other programs. Six 

agencies use radioactive materials that require 

radiation safety oversight.

Distribution is based on usage 

of radioactive materials by 

agency personnel.

Facility and 

Infrastructure Review 

and Assessment

Provides risk-based security assessments with 

countermeasure recommendations for all 

critical infrastructure within USDA agencies.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings in each 

agency.

Retirement Processor 

Web Application 

(Formerly Self Service 

Dashboard (SSD) and 

Retirement Processor 

Web Application)

Serves as an e-authenticated single sign-on 

portal for several USDA human resources 

systems and contains a historical database that,

together with the Retirement Processor Web 

application, enables employees to run various 

retirement calculation scenarios.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings in each 

agency.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Activity Description Cost Distribution

Preauthorized Funding Provides a funding mechanism for reimbursable 

activities involving other Federal Departments 

and the USDA that arise during the current 

fiscal year.

Distribution is based on the 

current year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings for each 

USDA agency.

E-Gov Initiatives Improves information technology (IT) planning 

through the expansion of electronic government 

to deliver significant productivity and 

performance gains across all Federal 

departments.

Distribution is based on 50 

percent of agency FTEs and 50 

percent of the agency IT 

development, modernization, 

and enhancement (DME) 

spending.

E-Gov Initiatives 

HSPD12

Supports the implementation of the Homeland 

Security Presidential Directive 12 (the Common 

Identification Standard for Federal Employees 

and Contractors).

Distribution is based on 100 

percent of agency FTEs. In FY 

2006 the cost Distribution was 

based on a 50/50 blend of 

nationwide FTEs and agency 

IT DME investment budgets 

submitted as part of the Exhibit 

53 submission to the Office of 

the Chief Information Officer.

E-Gov Initiatives -

Content Management 

Services

Content Management Services is comprised of 

three related modules that utilize and rely upon 

the core components of the USDA’s corporate 

document management infrastructure: Stellent, 

Oracle, and WebSphere. The Content Analysis 

Module (CAM) is designed to analyze and 

display content such as public comments 

regarding an issue or proposal.

Distribution is based on 50 

percent of agency FTEs and 50 

percent of the agency IT DME 

spending.

FEMA Emergency 

Preparedness

Supports actions for procurement of an 

emergency relocation site, telecommunications, 

and miscellaneous support in the event of an 

emergency. 

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings for each 

USDA agency.

Consolidated Federal 

Funds Report

Supports the Federal Assistance Awards Data 

System (FAADS) and the Consolidated Federal 

Funds Report (CFFR) and the Federal Audit 

Clearinghouse. The Census Bureau collects the 

information and prepares the report as executive 

agent for the Office of Management and 

Budget.

User percentages are based on 

each agency’s share of Federal 

fund grants for the Department 

and Federal Audit 

Clearinghouse records.

USDA HSPD12 

LincPass Maintenance

Mandates the establishment of a new standard 

for credentialing Federal government 

employees and contractors.

Distribution is based on current 

fiscal year nationwide FTE 

employment ceilings in each 

agency.

Transit Subsidy In accordance with Executive Order 13150, the 

USDA is providing all qualifying employees 

nationwide a direct transit subsidy in order to 

reduce Federal employees’ contribution to 

traffic congestion and air pollution and to 

expand their commuting alternatives.

Distribution is based on each 

agency’s percentage of the 

actual costs for each quarter.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

511

Special Exhibits

Working Capital Fund, Forest Service

Overview

The Forest Service Working Capital Fund (WCF) provides orderly and efficient supply and 

equipment service in support of Forest Service programs. The Department of Agriculture 

Organic Act of August 3, 1956, as amended by the Act of October 23, 1962 (15 U.S.C. 579b), 

established the WCF. The WCF is a self-sustaining revolving fund that provides services to 

national forests, research stations, other Federal agencies, and as provided by law, to State and 

private cooperators. 

The WCF requires no appropriation. Initially, regular Forest Service appropriations purchased 

assets and donated the assets to WCF. The WCF rates are determined so that WCF recovers 

operating and replacement costs. The WCF provides the following services:

• Equipment Leasing Services, which owns and rents vehicles and aircraft, and

• Enterprise Services, which are reinvention teams accomplishing project work that 

improves customer service and reduces costs.

The table below displays the volume of business for major WCF activities:

Volume of Business for Major WCF Activities

(dollars in thousands)

Type FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Enacted* Enacted* Estimates*

Equipment - Fleet $175,588 $186,903 $190,465

Equipment - Aircraft 6,862 9,770 12,969

Nursery 10,304 10,614 10,932

Enterprise Services 44,188 46,397 48,716

Total $236,942 $253,684 $263,082

* FY 2016 Enacted and FY 2017 Estimates were calculated using approved 5-year Cash Flow statements. Each year the 5-year 

estimates can change based on specific needs at the time.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

Working Capital Fund - Forest Service Fleet Management

Background

This exhibit is not required by Congressional direction but is included to report expenses 

necessary for the Working Capital Fund - Fleet Management.

Overview

The Forest Service uses a working capital fund (WCF) to procure and operate motor vehicles and 

other fleet equipment in support of Forest Service programs. The WCF does not receive direct 

appropriations, but is a revolving fund that receives its authority through payment for services 

from appropriated accounts. The WCF rates are determined so that WCF recovers operating and 

replacement costs within a certain time period, and agency Fleet Managers are tasked with 

maintaining the financial solvency of the fund. The WCF supports Equipment Leasing Services, 

an entity that owns and rents vehicles and other fleet equipment.

Program Priorities

The goal of the agency fleet program is to provide safe, efficient, and environmentally sound 

fleet equipment, and to ensure the safe, economical, and legal acquisition, operation, 

maintenance, and disposal of that equipment to meet the needs of the agency. In FY 2007, a 

fleet feasibility study recommended increasing the percentage of WCF Owned fleet. A later (FY 

2011) fleet business process re-engineering study supported the 2007 recommendation. A FY

2015 Department of Agriculture Strategic Sourcing Initiative (AgSSI) established a Total Cost of 

Ownership (TCO) Model for use in comparing costs for General Services Administration (GSA)

Lease vehicles with WCF Owned vehicles. The Forest Service currently owns approximately 90 

percent of its motor vehicles, and rents about 10 percent from the GSA and commercial vendors. 

The goal of AgSSI is to identify the most cost effective mix of GSA Lease vehicles and WCF 

Owned vehicles.

Our improved Fleet Equipment Database (FED) will increase management oversight and 

efficiencies in the Fleet Management Program. The FED will replace both the current and 

obsolete Equipment Management Information System and WCF Data Entry Programs. In FY 

2016, we will provide management data for both WCF Owned and GSA Lease vehicles in one 

system. WCF expenditures have remained fairly constant over time, and the majority of future 

fleet reductions will occur through the elimination of underutilized or excess vehicles.

Executive Order (EO) #13693 requires a 30 percent reduction of fleet greenhouse gas emissions 

by 2025, using 2014 as a baseline. Collaboration between Fleet Management and the Office of 

Sustainability and Climate Change will provide the necessary monitoring and oversight to 

achieve the EO goals through the purchase of alternative fuel vehicles (AFV’s) and use of 

alternative fuels such as E85 fuel, zero emission and plug in hybrid vehicles, and compressed 

natural gas. Washington Office Fleet Management provides the opportunity for Field Units to 

compete for annual AFV Incentives Program funding for use in purchasing AFV’s and fueling 

infrastructure at the local level.

Vehicle Allocation Methodology and Procurement Practices
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

513

Special Exhibits

As part of the annual vehicle replacement process, the Forest Service units conduct assessments 

of fleet operations that analyze vehicle effectiveness, cost-to-serve, life cycle cost, vehicle 

pooling, and operating costs through use of a Vehicle Allocation Methodology (VAM) process. 

The Forest Service will finalize development of an automated VAM system in FY 2016, which 

will include the AgSSI – TCO Model to identify the most efficient and cost effective vehicles to 

meet the mission. The VAM and TCO Model will be applied to each vehicle replacement on a

case by case basis.

Concurrently, vehicles with utilization that falls below agency standards (minimum annual 

mileage or days of use) are placed in motor-pools, transferred to other units, or outplaced. 

Ongoing fleet needs are determined by the Forest Service managers based on transportation and 

equipment needs to achieve their goals within the allotted budget. The AFV are chosen, when 

available. Often the limiting factor in the use of AFVs is the availability of alternative fuel in the 

geographic area.

Utilizing national guidelines, the region and station fleet specialists identify vehicles eligible for 

replacement. The final decision to procure a replacement vehicle is made at the region and 

station level. When a fleet addition or upgrade is required, a formal review and approval 

procedure is followed and documented.

Program Oversight

To assure that the fleet program provides safe, efficient, and environmentally sound fleet 

equipment, and to ensure the safe, economical, and legal acquisition, operation, maintenance, 

and disposal of that equipment, the Forest Service uses a combination of the following:

Financial Incentives - Forest Service organizations, programs, and projects pay monthly 

rates on all WCF equipment assigned to them. This payment structure, coupled with 

VAM requires utilization monitoring and reassigning or excessing non-essential vehicles. 

Potentially underutilized vehicles are reassigned to other units in need, who then assume

the payments on the vehicles.

Business Practices - Standard business practices require national and regional review. 

These include the physical property inventory, the annual assessments of fleet needs for 

scheduling replacements and holdovers, and the annual review and recalculation of 

monthly rates. The Forest Service recently implemented a formalized review and 

approval procedure for all fleet additions and upgrades. Reduction of vehicle upgrades 

and replacing larger vehicles with smaller vehicles could result in significant cost 

savings, in large part due to associated fuel efficiency savings from smaller, more 

efficient replacement vehicles.

Monitoring - Typically, a region reviews fleet management activities on two to four 

national forests each year, and the national office reviews one to two regions.

Unit line officers, with the concurrence of Forest Supervisors, regularly adjust the fleet size, mix, 

and assignment throughout the year. This helps ensure an optimal fleet and helps to keep the 

fleet safe, effective, cost efficient, and in line with legal requirements.
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Service

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Special Exhibits

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FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

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Budget Authorities

Forest Servic

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Acquisition of 

Lands, Special Acts, 

San Bernardino 

National Forest 

Land Conveyance 

and Settlement

Provides authority for the conveyance of a 

small parcel of public domain land in the 

San Bernardino National Forest in the State 

of California and changes the authorization 

for collection and retention of receipts first 

authorized under the Sisk Act P.L. 90-171.

NFS P.L

Agricultural Act of 

2014, Insect and 

Disease Infestation

Amends the Healthy Forests Restoration Act 

(HFRA) to require designation of an insect 

and disease priority treatment area in at least 

one National Forest per State, if requested 

by the Governor. Treatments in those areas 

may be conducted in accordance with the 

authorities provided for fuels treatments in 

HFRA and also may be categorically 

excluded. Also, authorizes $200,000,000 per 

year for these activities through 2024. 

NFS, SPF P.L. 1

Agricultural Act of 

2014, Forest 

Inventory and 

Analysis (FIA)

Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to 

revise the FIA strategic plan within 180 days 

of enactment.

Research P.L. 1
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

516

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Agricultural Act of 

2014, Forest 

Products Advanced 

Utilization Research

Amends the Agricultural Research,

Extension and Education Reform Act of 

1998 to add a Forest Products Advanced 

Utilization provision requiring the Secretary 

of Agriculture to establish a forestry and 

forest products research and extension 

initiative to develop and disseminate 

science-based tools that address the needs of 

the forestry sector. These activities must be 

carried out in coordination with the Forest 

Service, including the Forest Product’s 

Laboratory. 

September 30, 

2018

Research P.L. 1

Agriculture Grants 

and Powers Act of 

1965

Provides authority to erect buildings and 

other structures on non-Federal land, if longterm lease on the land is obtained. Also, 

provides authority to make competitive 

grants to eligible institutions, including 

special grants and grants for facility 

renovation and refurbishment, to further the 

programs of the Department of Agriculture.

ALL P.

106

11
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

517

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Alaska National 

Interest Lands 

Conservation Act of 

1980

Authorizes management of Federal lands in 

Alaska for subsistence uses of fish and 

wildlife, providing the opportunity for rural 

residents to continue their subsistence way 

of life. This Act also allows that receipts 

from oil, gas, timber, coal, and other natural 

resources collected by the Departments of 

Agriculture and the Interior are available to 

prepare, offer, and administer the timber sale 

program on the Tongass National Forest. 

Authorizing up to $5,000,000 in annual 

transfers of receipts to a special fund.

NFS P.L. 9

Anderson-Mansfield 

Reforestation and 

Revegetation Act of 

1949

Requires the agency to accelerate and 

provide a continuing basis for the needed 

reforestation and revegetation of national 

forest lands and other lands under Forest 

Service administration or control. This Act 

authorizes appropriations as needed to 

provide for reasonable continuity of 

reforestation and vegetation programs.

NFS P.L. 8

Archaeological 

Resources 

Protection Act of 

1979

Authorizes the use of appropriated funds for 

the preservation and protection of historical 

and archaeological resources.

NFS P.L. 

Arizona National 

Forest Improvement 

Act of 2000

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

convey certain administrative sites in 

national forests in the State of Arizona, to 

convey certain land to the City of Sedona, 

Arizona for a wastewater treatment facility, 

NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

518

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

and for other purposes.

Bankhead-Jones 

Farm Tenant Act of 

1937

Sections 31 and 32 of this Act authorize and 

direct the Secretary of Agriculture to 

develop a program of land conservation and 

land utilization, to assist in controlling soil 

erosion, reforestation, preserving natural 

resources, and to cooperate with Federal, 

State, territorial, and other public agencies in 

development and implementation of plans. 

This Act also provides authority to dispose 

of, or exchange, land acquired for the land 

utilization and conservation program.

Section 32 also gives the Secretary of 

Agriculture the authority to regulate the use 

and occupancy of the property acquired by, 

or transferred to, the Secretary under or for 

the purposes of the Bankhead-Jones Act. 

This Act authorizes the transfer of lands 

acquired under the Act to other Federal, 

State, or Territorial agencies subject to a 

public reverter provision.

NFS P.L. 7

Bankhead-Jones 

Farm Tenant Act, 

25 percent of 

revenues to counties

Authorizes annual payments on a calendar 

year basis to counties, equal to 25 percent of 

net revenues received during the year 

(excluding receipts from the sale of land).

Counties shall use these payments for 

NFS P.L. 7
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

519

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

schools and/or roads. This Act pertains 

primarily to national grasslands and land 

utilization projects.

Bend Pine Nursery 

Land Conveyance 

Act

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

sell or exchange all or part of certain 

administrative sites and other NFS land in 

the State of Oregon and use the proceeds 

derived from the sale or exchange for NFS 

purposes.

NFS P.L

Black Hills National 

Forest and Rocky 

Mountain Research 

Station 

Improvement Act

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

sell or exchange all or part of certain 

administrative sites and other land in the 

Black Hills National Forest and use funds 

derived from the sale or exchange to acquire 

replacement sites and to acquire or construct 

administrative improvements in connection 

with the Black Hills National Forest.

NFS P.L

Boise Laboratory 

Replacement Act of 

2000

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

sell or exchange the Boise laboratory site (as 

defined by this Act), and use the resultant 

funds to acquire land and facilities to: (1) 

co-locate the laboratory with one of the 

Boise-area State institutions of higher 

learning; (2) replace other laboratory 

functions; and (3) acquire other land or 

interests in Idaho.

NFS P.L. 9

P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

520

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Boundary Waters 

Canoe Area 

Wilderness Act of 

1978

Section 18(e) authorizes the construction of 

dispersed recreation sites and trails outside 

the Boundary Waters Canoe Area 

Wilderness. Section 7(d)(3) authorizes 

funding to acquire land and water within the 

designated wilderness. Also, see ThyeBlatnik Act of June 22, 1948, as amended 

(16 U.S.C. 577h), cited in paragraph 3.

NFS P.L. 9

Brush Disposal Act 

of August 11, 1916

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

require purchasers of national forest timber 

to deposit the estimated cost to dispose of 

brush and other debris resulting from their 

cutting operations.

NFS P.L. 6

Burton-Santini Lake 

Tahoe Basin Act of 

December 23, 1980

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture, 

with the concurrence of the Tahoe Regional 

Planning Agency, to acquire specified 

unimproved, environmentally sensitive land 

to be administered as part of the United 

States National Forest System or, if 

unsuitable for administration as such, to be 

transferred to a unit of State or local 

government with specified restrictions. 

Permits the acquisition of specified portions 

of the Lake Tahoe Basin. This authority 

expires when all Clark County, Nevada, land 

specified in the Act is sold by the U.S. 

Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land 

Management.

NFS P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

521

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Carlson-Foley Act 

of 1968

Authorizes use of noxious plant control 

funds reimburse States for such activity on 

Federal land.

NFS, SPF P.L. 9

Coconino and Tonto 

National Forest 

Land Exchange Act

Provides for the exchange of five certain 

parcels of land in the Coconino and Tonto 

National Forests in Arizona, and for other 

purposes.

NFS P.L

Collaborative Forest 

Landscape 

Restoration (CFLR)

The Omnibus Public Land Management Act 

of 2009 authorizes the Collaborative Forest 

Landscape Restoration Fund, establishing a 

Treasury fund to be used to pay up to 50 

percent of the cost of carrying out and 

monitoring ecological restoration treatments 

on National Forest System land. The Act 

authorizes $40,000,000 for each of fiscal 

years 2009 through 2019, to remain 

available until expended. Actual 

appropriated amounts have varied by year.

9/30/2019 NFS P.L. 1

T

Columbia River 

Gorge National 

Scenic Area Act of 

1986, land 

acquisition 

provisions

Sections 9 and 16a of the Act authorizes 

land acquisition within the Columbia River 

Gorge National Scenic Area.

NFS P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

522

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Columbia River 

Gorge National 

Scenic Area Act of 

November 17 of 

1986, establishment

Establishes the Columbia River Gorge 

National Scenic Area in Washington and 

Oregon. Designates special management and 

urban areas within such scenic area. Directs 

the Secretary to administer the Federal lands 

within the special management areas 

according to forest and multiple-use 

management regulations applicable to the 

national forests. Authorizes the Secretary to 

make grants to each State for grants and 

loans for economic development in counties 

which have adopted conforming land use 

ordinances. Directs the Secretary to provide 

technical assistance to counties to develop 

land use ordinances under this Act. 

Allocates timber receipts from special 

management area funds. Directs the 

Secretary to make payments to local 

governments to compensate for lost real 

property taxes from federally acquired lands. 

SPF, NFS P.L. 9

Commercial 

Filming

The Act of May 26, 2000 authorizes 

retention of fees collected for commercial 

filming and photography land use 

authorizations and the obligation of the 

monies for the maintenance of the filming 

site. Land use fees are based on a schedule 

to use and occupy NFS land for 

filming/photo activities. This fee is separate 

from the cost recovery fee to process 

applications and monitor and the 

NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

523

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

authorization for compliance with the 

commercial filming permit.

Commercial 

Spectrum 

Enhancement Act 

(CSEA)

Title II of this Act created the Spectrum 

Relocation Fund (SRF) to provide a 

centralized and streamlined funding 

mechanism through which Federal agencies 

can recover the costs associated with 

relocating their radio communications 

systems from certain spectrum bands, which 

were authorized to be auctioned for 

commercial purposes.

NFS P.L

Community Forest 

and Open Space 

Conservation 

Program

The 2008 Farm Bill amended the 

Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 

to establish a program to provide federal 

matching grants to help local governments, 

Tribes, or nongovernmental organizations 

acquire private forests that are threatened by 

conversion to non-forest uses. Properties 

acquired are working forests open to public 

access. Authorizes appropriations of such 

sums as necessary.

SPF P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

524

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Community Forest 

Restoration Act

Extends authorization to make funds 

available for use on non-Federal lands under 

State and Private Forestry appropriation.

WFM P.L

Community Wood 

Energy Program

The Agricultural Act of 2014 authorizes 

$5,000,000 in annual appropriations for a 

Community Wood Energy Program through 

FY 2018. Grants of up to $50,000 to State 

and local governments or biomass consumer 

cooperatives to develop plans for, or to 

acquire or upgrade community wood energy 

systems.

09/30/2018 SPF P.L. 1

Comprehensive 

Environmental 

Response, 

Compensation and 

Liability Act of 

1980 (CERCLA)

Forest Service Policy is to use Forest 

Service CERCLA authority and processes to 

respond at sites under Forest Service 

jurisdiction or control where hazardous 

substances, pollutants, or contaminants 

threaten human health or the environment. 

Many abandoned mine sites are CERCLA 

sites, since heavy metals such as arsenic, 

cadmium, and others that may occur in 

surface water at mine sites are listed as 

hazardous substances. Further, the Forest 

Service may invoke CERCLA at mining 

sites where “pollutants or contaminants” 

such as sediment, or metals such as iron or 

aluminum which are not listed hazardous 

substances, are impacting the environment.

NFS P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

525

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Cooperative 

Firefighting Funds 

Retention

Any money collected from the States for fire 

suppression assistance rendered by the 

Forest Service on non-Federal lands not in 

the vicinity of National Forest System lands 

shall hereafter be used to reimburse the 

applicable appropriation and shall remain 

available until expended.

SPF P.L

Cooperative 

Forestry Assistance 

Act of 1978

Authorizes cooperation and assistance to 

non-Federal forest landowners and 

communities in rural forest management, 

urban and community forest management, 

production of timber and other forest 

resources, insect and disease control, rural 

fire prevention and control, forest 

management and planning assistance, and 

technology implementation. Includes 

authorization for many State and Private 

Forestry programs, including the Forest 

Stewardship Program, the Forest Legacy 

Program, and the Urban and Community 

Forestry Program.

SPF P.L. 9

Cooperative 

Forestry Innovation 

Partnership Projects

Allows the Secretary to competitively 

allocate up to 5% of CFAA funds for 

innovative education, outreach, or 

technology transfer projects. Funds would 

be available to States, Tribes, local 

governments, land-grant, or private entities 

with a 50% cost share.

SPF P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

526

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Cooperative Funds 

Act of June 30, 

1914, Forest 

Investigations, 

Protection and

Improvement

Authorizes the acceptance of contributions 

for cooperative work in forest investigations, 

protection, management, and improvement 

of the National Forest System.

NFS 

Cooperative Funds 

Act of June 30, 

1914, Wildland Fire 

Protection

Grants Federal Agencies the authority to 

maintain wildland fire protection 

organizations for the protection of federal 

lands and for the States to assist local fire 

departments in maintaining wildland fire 

protection resources for the protection of 

State and privately owned lands. Structure 

and dump fire protection, which are the 

responsibility of local fire departments, are 

independent of this agreement.

WFM 

Cooperative Funds 

and Deposits Act

Authorizes the Forest Service and 

cooperator(s) to perform work from which 

they would accrue mutual non-monetary 

benefit in the areas of cooperative pollution 

abatement; cooperative manpower, job 

training, and development programs; 

development and publication of cooperative 

environmental educations and forest history 

materials; and, forestry protection. 

Authorizes cooperation for fire protection 

for public good and where there is mutual 

benefit, other than monetary consideration.

WFM P.L. 9

P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

527

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Cradle of Forestry The Act of July 4, 1968 authorizes the 

Secretary of Agriculture to cooperate with, 

and receive the cooperation of, public and 

private agencies and organizations and 

individuals in the development, 

administration, and operation of Cradle of 

Forestry in western North Carolina. The 

Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to 

accept contributions and gifts to further the 

purposes of the Act. The 6,500-acre Cradle 

of Forestry Historic Site in the Pink Beds 

valley, NC, was established by Congress in 

1968 and contains the first official school for 

forestry in America..

NFS P.L. 9

Department of 

Agriculture Grants 

and Powers Act of 

1965

Section 1 authorizes the erection of 

buildings and other structures on non-federal 

land, with long-term lease and right-toremove, and authorizes the use of 

appropriations for expenses necessary to 

acquire long-term lease. Provides authority 

for long-term leases on non-federal land and 

building structures on non-federal land, if a 

long-term lease on the land is obtained.

ALL P.L. 8

Department of 

Agriculture Organic 

Act of 1944

Section 703 authorizes the erection, 

alteration, and repair of buildings and other 

improvements on Federal land that are 

necessary to conduct authorized work, 

provided provision is made in applicable 

appropriations.

CIM P.L. 7
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

528

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Department of 

Agriculture Organic 

Act of 1956

Authorizes the acquisition of land by 

purchase, exchange, or other means, to carry 

out authorized work, provided that provision 

is made in applicable appropriations. This is 

one of the primary authorities for acquisition 

of lands with Land and Water Conservation 

Fund moneys.

NFS P.L. 8

Department of 

Agriculture Organic 

Act - Aviation, 

Lookout Towers, & 

Fire Management

Authorizes the Forest Service, by contract or 

otherwise, to provide for procurement and 

operation of aerial facilities and services for 

the protection and management of the 

national forests and other lands administered 

by the agency.

WFM P.L. 7

Eastern Wilderness 

Act of 1975

Sections 6 and 9 authorize the acquisition, 

exchange, and donation of land for inclusion 

in the Eastern Wilderness system.

NFS P.L. 9

Endangered Species 

Act of 1973

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) 

provides a program for the conservation of 

threatened and endangered plants and 

animals and the habitats in which they are 

found. Section 7 requires federal agencies to 

consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service and/or the NOAA Fisheries Service 

to ensure that actions they authorize, fund or 

carry out are not likely to jeopardize the 

continued existence of any listed species or 

destroy or adversely modify designated 

critical habitat of such species. Sections 5 

and 15 authorize the acquisition of land to 

NFS P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

529

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

protect threatened and endangered species.

Federal Agricultural 

Improvement and 

Reform Act (Forest 

Legacy)

Authorizes grants to States for carrying out 

the Forest Legacy Program, including the 

acquisition by the State of lands and 

interests in lands.

SPF P.L

Federal Agriculture 

Improvement and 

Reform Act of 1996

Authorizes the acceptance of contributions 

for cooperative work in forest investigations,

protection, management, and improvement 

of the National Forest System.

NFS P.L

Federal Highway 

Act

Establishes the Federal Highway Trust 

Fund, managed by the Department of 

Transportation. Federal highway 

construction, maintenance, and other 

projects defined in the Act are financed from 

the Federal Highway Trust Fund. The 

Department of Transportation transfers these 

monies to the Forest Service for highway 

projects pertinent to National Forest System 

lands.

CIM P.L. 8

Federal Land 

Exchange 

Facilitation Act of 

1988

Section 4 of this Act authorizes 

appropriations to consider, process, and 

consummate land exchanges pursuant to the 

Federal Land Policy and Management Act 

of 1976 (43 USC 1701).

NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

530

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Fed

Federal Lands 

Recreation 

Enhancement Act

Provides authority to implement a fee 

program for certain recreation sites on 

Federal lands. Fees collected from users of 

recreation facilities are used to pay for onthe-ground operation, maintenance, and 

improvements of recreation sites and 

services to maintain and enhance recreation 

opportunities, visitor experiences, and 

related habitat. Funds are available until 

expended. The Act directs the creation of 

Recreation Resource Advisory Committees 

to allow for public involvement on 

recreation fee programs.

09/30/2017 NFS P.L

P.L. 1

P.L

164

11

P.L. 11

Federal Water 

Project Recreation 

Act, 1965

Provides up to 50 percent of the costs of 

recreation facility development at certain 

reservoirs when a non-Federal entity entered 

into an agreement to provide the remaining 

development funds; to pay all of the costs of 

operations, maintenance, and replacement 

(OM&R); and to manage the area for public 

recreational use. For reservoirs constructed 

before 1965, the Federal contribution for the 

development of recreation facilities was 

limited to $100,000 for each reservoir.

NFS P.L. 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

531

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

FLAME Act of 

2009

The FLAME Act of 2009 states, " for fiscal 

year 2011 and each fiscal year thereafter, the 

amounts requested by the President for a 

FLAME Fund should be not less than the 

amount estimated by the Secretary 

concerned as the amount necessary for that 

fiscal year for wildfire suppression activities 

of the Secretary that meet the criteria 

specified..." The criteria are fires that 1) 

cover 300 or more acres, 2) pose significant 

complexity, severity, or threat to human life, 

property, or resources.

FLAME P.L. 1

Florida National 

Forest Land 

Management Act

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

sell or exchange certain parcels of land in 

the State of Florida, and for other purposes.

NFS P.L

Food and 

Agriculture Act of 

1977

Designates the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture as the lead agency of the Federal 

government for agricultural research, 

extension, and teaching. It also removes 

restrictions on the use of cooperative 

agreements with universities and permits 

cost reimbursable agreements with State 

cooperating institutions without competition.

ALL P.L. 9

Food Security Act 

of 1985

Authorizes a conservation acreage reserve 

program, and authorizes the Secretary of 

Agriculture to utilize the services of the 

Forest Service and other Federal and State 

agencies to carry out the program.

ALL P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

532

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Food, Agriculture, 

Conservation, and 

Trade Act of 1990

Section 1241 authorizes the Modern Timber 

Bridge Initiative, with an authorization of 

$5,000,000 annually. Section 1271 

authorizes assistance to landowners who 

suffer destruction of 35 percent or more of a 

commercial tree stand due to damaging 

weather, related condition, or wildfire.

Section 2371 authorizes the establishment of 

and economic development and global 

marketing program, including technology 

transfer to natural resource-based industries 

in the United States. The Healthy Forest 

Initiative amended section 2371 the Act to 

create the “Rural Revitalization 

Technologies” program, which provides for 

the accelerated adoption of technologies in 

the biomass industry. Sections 2372-2379 

authorize economic assistance to rural 

communities in or near national forests. 

SPF P.L

Forest and 

Rangeland 

Renewable 

Resources Planning 

Act of 1974

Requires preparation of a renewable 

resource assessment, program plans, 

inventories, and budget request, and an 

update to these plans every 10 years.

ALL P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

533

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Forest and 

Rangeland 

Renewable 

Resources Research 

Act of 1978

Authorizes the Forest Service to conduct, 

support, and cooperate in investigations, 

tests, and other activities necessary to 

obtain, analyze, develop, demonstrate, and 

disseminate scientific information about 

forest and rangeland renewable resources in 

rural, suburban, and urban areas. It 

authorizes competitive grants and advance 

of funds to cooperators and grantees; 

research encouraging improved reforestation 

of cutover lands; and development and 

implementation of improved methods of 

survey and analysis of forest inventory 

information. An amendment made under 

P.L. 101-624 established a forestry student 

grant program for minority and female 

students.

NFS P.

307

10

P.L

Forest Botanical 

Products

The Department of the Interior and Related 

Agencies Appropriation Act of 2000 

authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

charge and collect fees from persons who 

harvest forest botanical products to cover 

costs to the agency. Funds collected are 

deposited in a special fund in the Treasury. 

This authority is authorized through 

September 30, 2019, with the funds 

collected available for expenditure through 

September 30, 2020.

09/30/2019 NFS P.L

113

1

P.L. 1
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

534

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Forest Inventory 

Analysis Data 

Privacy

The FY 2000 Interior and Related Agencies 

Appropriations Act added Forest Inventory 

and Analysis (FIA) Program to the existing 

Food Security Act of 1985, thus providing a 

legal basis for protecting the privacy of the 

data suppliers.

R&D P.L

Forest Service 

Administration of 

Rights-Of-Way and 

Land Uses (Cost 

Recovery)

Provides authority to implement a pilot 

program to improve customer service to 

applicants and holders of special land use 

authorizations and reduce the agency’s 

backlog of expired authorizations. The 

authority allows the Forest Service to charge 

a fee for analysis of special use 

authorizations.

Permanent NFS P.L

113

33

113-6

P.L

16

113-6

1

P.L. 1

Forest Service 

Facility 

Realignment and 

Enhancement Act 

(FSFREA)

Provided authority to convey unneeded 

administrative sites and retain the proceeds 

for building maintenance, rehabilitation, and 

construction. In addition, projects initiated 

under the pilot authority of P.L. 107-63, 

Section 329 may continue under the 

provisions of the FSFREA. The 

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012

extended the authority to September 30, 

2016.

09/30/2016 NFS P.L. 1

P.L. 

P.L. 1

 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

535

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Gifts, Donations, 

and Bequests for 

Research

The Act of June 30, 1978 authorizes the 

acceptance and use of donated funds for

research activities.

R&D P.L. 9

Gifts, Donations, 

and Bequests to the 

Department of 

Agriculture

The Act of October 10, 1978 authorizes 

agencies within the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture to accept donations for nonresearch activities (i.e., land or other real 

property).

ALL P.L. 9

Global Change 

Research Act of 

1990

Establishes the Committee on Earth and 

Environmental Sciences, part of the Federal 

Coordinating Council on Science, 

Engineering, and Technology under the 

Office of Science and Technology Policy of 

the Executive Office of the President. 

Authorizes funded participation in the 

United States Global Change Research 

Program as the Forest Service Global 

Change Research Program.

R&D P.L

Global Climate 

Change Prevention 

Act of 1990

Establishes a Global Climate Change 

Program at USDA to study the effects of 

global climate change on agriculture and 

forestry. The Program Direction shall 

coordinate policy analysis, long range 

planning and research across the Department 

and with other Agencies. The Act also 

establishes the Office of International 

Forestry to be responsible for the 

international forestry activities of the Forest 

Service and establishes the Institutes of 

09/30/2018 Internationa

l Forestry; 

R&D

P.L

624

10

P.L

23
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

536

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Tropical Forestry; authorizes the creation of 

a pilot project in urban forestry.

Good Neighbor 

Authority

The Agricultural Act of 2014 expanded 

Colorado Good Neighbor Act authority 

(CGNA) to Puerto Rico and all States with 

National Forest System lands. (Also 

includes BLM managed lands) Through this 

authority the Secretary of Agriculture, via 

cooperative agreement or contract, can 

permit State agencies to perform watershed 

restoration and forest management services 

on National Forest System lands when 

similar and complementary restoration 

services are being performed on adjacent 

State or private lands. 

Permanent P.L. 1

Granger-Thye Act 

of April 24, 1950

Authorizes cooperation with other parties to 

perform work for permittees, agencies, 

organizations, and persons for work that the 

Forest Service is authorized to do, on lands 

of the United States. Also allows for 

research funds to be advanced to Also 

allows for research funds to be advanced to 

cooperators. Authorizes assistance for work 

on other than Forest Service jurisdictions.

ALL P.L. 8
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

537

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Grazing Permits The terms and conditions contained in the 

expired, transferred, or waived (or renewed 

prior to 2004) permit or lease shall continue 

in effect under the renewed permit or lease 

until such time as the Secretary completes 

processing of such permit or lease in 

compliance with all applicable laws and 

regulations or until the expiration of the 

renewed permit, whichever comes first. At 

which time such permit or lease may be 

canceled, suspended or modified, in whole 

or in part, to meet the requirements of such 

applicable laws and regulations.

09/30/2016 NFS P.L

108

325

111-88

1

P.L. 1

P.L. 1

Grey Towers 

National Historic 

Site Act of 2004

Creates permanently available Grey Towers 

National Historic Site Fund. The Secretary is 

authorized to enter into Agreements for 

grants, contracts, and cooperative 

agreements as appropriate with the Pinchot 

Institute, public and other private agencies, 

organizations, institutions, and individuals to 

provide for the development, administration, 

maintenance, or restoration of land, 

facilities, or Forest Service programs at Grey 

Towers or to otherwise further the purposes 

of this section.

NFS P.L

447
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

538

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Hardwood 

Technology 

Transfer and 

Applied Research

Establishes the Institute of Hardwood 

Technology Transfer and Applied Research 

in Princeton, West Virginia, previously 

named the Robert C. Byrd Hardwood 

Technology Center in West Virginia.

Certain revenues shall be deposited into a 

special Treasury fund to be available for 

obligation until expended.

SPF P.L

Hawaii Tropical 

Forestry Recovery 

Act of 1992

Grants authorities to the Secretary of 

Agriculture to treat invasive plants on 

Federal and non-Federal ownerships in 

Hawaii and in tropical forests on Federal 

lands in other States.

SPF, 

Internationa

l Forestry

P.L

Healthy Forests 

Restoration Act 

(HFRA) of 2003

Title I of HFRA provides for expedited 

environmental review, a pre-decisional 

Forest Service administrative review 

process, and other measures on National 

Forest and Bureau of Land Management 

(BLM) lands that are at-risk of catastrophic 

fire. Titles II through VI authorize various 

forest health restoration programs, including 

promoting the use of woody biomass,

creating the Health Forest Reserve Program, 

and providing watershed forestry assistance.

ALL P.L

148

11

Historic 

Preservation Act of 

1966

Authorizes use of appropriated funds for the 

preservation and protection of historical and 

archaeological resources.

NFS P.L. 8
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

539

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Historic 

Preservation Act of 

1966, Preservation 

of Historical and 

Archaeological Data

Authorizes use of appropriated funds for the 

preservation and protection of historical and 

archaeological resources and protection of 

archaeological data.

NFS P.L. 9

P.L. 

P.L

Illinois Land 

Conservation Act of 

1995

The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to 

charge reasonable user fees for the 

admission, occupancy, and use of the 

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie; and 

may sell for salvage value any facilities and 

improvements which have been transferred 

under this Act. The Secretary may use 

amounts in the fund, in such amounts as are 

provided in advance in Appropriation Acts, 

for restoration and administration of the 

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

NFS P.L

Illinois Land 

Conservation Act of 

1995, Midewin 

National Tallgrass 

Prairie creation

Established the Midewin National Tallgrass 

Prairie in Illinois, to be managed as part of 

the National Forest System. This Act also 

authorized the conversion of Joliet Army 

Ammunition Plant to the Midewin National 

Tallgrass Prairie. Further, certain revenue 

receipts from the Midewin National 

Tallgrass Prairie are authorized for deposit 

into a special Treasury fund to be available 

for obligation until expended.

NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

540

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Illinois Land 

Conservation Act of 

1995, special use 

authorizations

The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to 

issue agricultural special use authorizations 

or grazing permits for purposes primarily 

related to erosion control, provision for food 

and habitat for fish and wildlife, or other 

resource management activities consistent 

with the purposes of the Midewin National 

Tallgrass Prairie.

NFS P.L

International 

Forestry 

Cooperation Act of 

1990

Authorizes support (including cooperation, 

financial, and technical assistance, without 

reimbursement) for international forestry 

and related natural resource activities 

outside the United States and its territories. 

Authorizes expansion of the research 

capabilities of the Institute of Tropical 

Forestry in Puerto Rico. 

Internationa

l Forestry

P.L

513

10

Interpretive 

Associations

(FS Partnership 

Agreements)

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture may 

enter into an agreement with a Federal, 

Tribal, State, or local government or a 

nonprofit entity to develop, produce, 

publish, distribute, or sell educational and 

interpretive materials and products and other 

purposes. 

09/30/2019 P.L. 94

P.L. 1
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

541

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Job Corps Comptroller General Decision B-215842, 

dated June 25, 1986, (65 Comp.Gen.666). In 

accordance with this Comptroller General 

Decision Job Corps reimbursable authority 

is restricted to the activities of collections 

from non-students for meals in the students’ 

dining hall and collections from students for 

lost and/or damaged tools and clothing.

NFS

KnutsonVandenberg Act of 

June 9, 1930

The Knutson-Vandenberg Act established a 

special fund to collect a portion of timber 

sale receipts to pay for reforesting the area 

from which the timber was cut. The Act was 

amended in 1976 to allow the use of these 

funds for other sale area improvement 

activities. The FY 2006 Interior 

Appropriations Act amended this authority 

to allow for the expenditure of unused funds, 

not needed for work on the sale area, on 

other areas in the same Forest Service 

region.

NFS P.L. 7

P.L. 9

P.L. 1

Lake Tahoe 

Restoration Act

Enables the Forest Service to plan and 

implement environmental restoration 

activities and forest management activities 

in the Lake Tahoe Basin, along with other 

Federal, State, local, regional, tribal, and 

private entities to improve water quality.

NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

542

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Land Acquisition 

Act of March 3, 

1925

Authorizes the purchase of land for 

administrative sites and acceptance of 

donations of land when no suitable 

Government land is available. Appropriated 

funds must be available for the purpose for 

which the land is to be used. This authority 

is subject to an annual, service-wide 

limitation of $50,000.

NFS P.L. 6

85 

Land and Facilities 

Conveyance 

(Realignment)

CONVEYANCES AUTHORIZED.—In the 

manner provided by this title, the Secretary 

may convey an administrative site, or an 

interest in an administrative site, that is 

under the jurisdiction of the Secretary. The 

conveyance of an administrative site under 

this title may be made—(1) by sale; (2) by 

lease; (3) by exchange; (4) by a combination 

of sale and exchange; or (5) by such other 

means as the Secretary considers 

appropriate.

9/30/2016 P.L. 10

P.L.1 1

P.L. 11

16 U.S

580d 

Land and Water 

Conservation Fund 

Act of 1965

Created by Congress in 1964, the Land and 

Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) provides 

money to federal, state and local 

governments to purchase land, water and 

wetlands for the benefit of all Americans.

The Fund receives money from fees paid by 

companies drilling offshore for oil and gas. 

Other funding sources include the sale of 

surplus federal real estate and taxes on 

motorboat fuel.

9/30/2015 NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

543

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Land Between the 

Lakes Protection 

Act of 1998

Establishes the Land Between the Lakes 

(LBL) Trust Fund and the LBL Management 

Fund. In accordance with Title V of the Act, 

responsibility for the LBL National 

Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennessee 

transferred from the Tennessee Valley 

Authority (TVA) to the Secretary of 

Agriculture. The Act directed the Tennessee 

Valley Authority to deposit into the LBL 

Trust Fund $1,000,000 for five years, to be 

available until expended. The Act also 

authorizes the Forest Service to retain 

certain recreation revenue receipts from the 

Land Between the Lakes National 

Recreation Area, to be deposited into the 

LBL Management Fund to be available for 

obligation until expended.

NFS P.L

277, T

of Se

McIntire-Stennis 

Act of 1962

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

cooperate and assist State colleges and 

universities in forestry research on a 

matching funds basis. Authorizes the 

Secretary of Agriculture to make 

competitive grants to a State agricultural 

experiment station, college, or university, 

research institution or organization, Federal 

agency, private organization, or corporation 

with the demonstrable capacity to conduct 

forestry, natural resource, and environmental 

research; and to update research facilities 

and equipment available for this type of 

R&D and 

SPF

P.L. 8

P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

544

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

research.

Mineral Materials 

Act of 1947

Provides authority to: (a) dispose of mineral 

material and (b) approve and issue permits 

to explore and develop oil and gas leases.

NFS P.L. 8

Mississippi National 

Forest Improvement 

Act of 1999

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

sell or exchange U.S. right, title, and interest 

in and to specified lands in Mississippi. 

Makes proceeds from such sales or 

exchanges available for the construction of a 

research laboratory and office at the Forest 

Service administrative site at Mississippi 

State University at Starkville, Mississippi; 

the acquisition, construction, or 

improvement of administrative facilities in 

connection with National Forest System 

units in the State; and the acquisition of land 

and interests in land for units of the NFS in 

the State. 

NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

545

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Multiple-Use 

Sustained-Yield Act 

of 1960

Clarifies Forest lands are to be administered 

for outdoor recreation, range, timber, 

watershed, wildlife, and fish. Authorized 

and directed the development and 

administration of the renewable surface 

resources of the National Forests for 

multiple use and sustained yield of the 

several products and services obtained there 

from.

NFS P.L. 8

Mutually Beneficial 

Agreements

Established permanent authority for the 

Forest Service to enter in to mutually 

beneficial agreements with public or private 

agencies, organizations, institutions, or 

persons. Exempts watershed restoration and 

enhancement agreements and agreements 

under the first section of P.L. 94-148 from 

Chapter 63 of Title 31, United States Code.

ALL P.L. 1

sec

National and 

Community Service 

Act of September 

21, 1993

Authorizes the Secretary to enter in to 

contracts or cooperative agreements with 

any qualified youth or conservation corps 

for completion of conservation work.

NFS P.L. 1

National Forest 

Management Act 

(NFMA) of 1976

The NFMA requires that the Forest Service 

prepare and revise at 15-year intervals a land 

management plan (LMP) for each national 

forest to provide for multiple use and 

sustained yield of the products and services 

obtained from the forest. NFMA also 

establishes restrictions on timber harvest, 

NFS P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

546

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

such as provisions that harvest can only 

occur where soil, slope or other watershed 

conditions will not be irreversibly damaged. 

The Act directs the Secretary to develop 

regulations to set out the process for the 

development and revision of land 

management plans.

National Forest 

Roads and Trails 

Act of 1964

Authorizes the acquisition, construction, and 

maintenance of National Forest System 

roads and trails. Also authorizes the 

construction of roads using cooperative 

financing from other agencies.

CIM P.L. 8

National Forest Ski 

Area Permit Act of 

1986

Authorizes the issuance of permits for use 

and occupancy of suitable lands within the 

National Forest System for construction and 

maintenance of buildings, structures, and 

other facilities for hotels, resorts, summer 

homes, stores, industrial or commercial 

purposes, education or other public use, 

alpine and Nordic skiing operations, and so 

forth.

NFS P.L. 9

National Forest 

System Drug 

Control Act of 1986

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to

prevent and control drug abuse on National 

Forest System lands, including investigative 

powers beyond the exterior boundaries of 

the National Forest System. For 

employment, equipment, facilities, training, 

and cooperative programs, $10 million 

annually.

LEI P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

547

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

National Trails 

System Act of 1968

Sections 7 and 10 authorize the acquisition, 

exchange, and donation of land for the 

National Trails System and for development, 

management, and volunteer assistance on 

the system.

CIM P.L. 9

Organic 

Administration Act 

of 1897

Provides authority for the administration, 

protection, and management of the National 

Forests, for the purposes of improving and 

protecting the forest, securing favorable 

conditions of water flows, and to furnish a 

continuous supply of timber for the use and 

necessities of citizens of the United States.

The Act also directs the Secretary of 

Agriculture to protect National Forests 

against destruction by fire and depredations. 

NFS, WFM 

Organizational 

Camp Fees

The Consolidated Appropriations 

Resolution, 2003 provides authority to 

establish a land use fee system for the 

occupancy and use of NFS lands by 

organizational camps that serve young 

people or individuals with a disability.

NFS P.L. 

Payment for 

Receipts for Schools 

and Roads

The Act of May 23, 1908, as amended, 

commonly known as “Payments to States”, 

authorizes annual payments on a fiscal year 

basis to States equal to 25 percent of 

revenues from the sale of goods and services 

by the national forests. States shall use these 

payments for schools and roads.

P.L. 6
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

548

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Pest and Disease 

Revolving Loan 

Fund

Pest and Disease Revolving Loan Fund 

(Section 10205) – establishes a revolving 

loan fund to provide low interest loans to 

local governments to finance purchases of 

authorized equipment to monitor, remove, 

dispose of, and replace infested trees. 

Authorizes appropriations of such sums as 

are necessary.

SPF P.L

Pipelines Act of 

1920, Mineral 

Leasing Act

Rights-of-way through any Federal lands 

may be granted by the Secretary of the 

Interior or appropriate agency head for 

pipeline purposes for the transportation of 

oil, natural gas, synthetic liquid or gaseous 

fuels, or any refined product.

NFS P.L. 6

Private Schooling, 

Puerto Rico

Funds available to the Forest Service may be 

used for the purpose of expenses associated 

with primary and secondary schooling for 

dependents of agency personnel stationed in 

Puerto Rico at a cost not in excess of those 

authorized for the Department of Defense 

for the same area, at the discretion of the 

Chief of the Forest Service.

09/30/2019 ALL P.L

447

109-54

1

P.L. 1

Quarters Operations 

and Maintenance

Authorizes the collection of rental income 

from employees living in government 

residences. Such rents and charges shall be 

deposited in a special Treasury fund, to 

remain available for obligation until 

expended, for maintenance and operation of 

quarters.

ALL P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

549

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Quinault Special 

Management Area

The Act of November 8, 1968 establishes 

the “Quinault Special Management Area” 

from part of the Olympic National Forest, 

and assigns responsibility to the Forest 

Service for managing its natural resources 

and distributing proceeds from the sale of 

forest products according to provisions of 

the Act.

NFS P.L

Reciprocal Fire 

Protection Act, Fire 

Protection 

Agreements and 

Mutual Aid 

Agencies

Authorizes agreements between agencies of 

the United States Government and other 

domestic agencies, including State and local 

entities and instrumentalities for mutual aid 

in fire protection and allows for 

reimbursements for costs incurred by the 

Department of Agriculture for fire protection 

rendered to be credited to the same 

appropriation or fund from which the 

expenses were paid. .

WFM P.L. 

N

ass

Reforestation Trust 

Fund

The Recreational Boating Safety and 

Facilities Act establishes the Reforestation 

Trust Fund which receives monetary 

resources through an annual warrant from 

Treasury, of monies received for certain 

customs duties and tariffs. No more than 

$30,000,000 may be deposited annually. The 

trust fund balance is available for 

reforestation and other “treatment of 

acreage.” The Act’s provisions give 

investment authority to the Forest Service 

NFS P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

550

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

for the trust fund balance.

Research Facilities 

Act of 1963

Authorizes support for agricultural research 

(including forestry) at eligible institutions 

through Federal grant funds, on a matching 

funds basis, to help finance physical 

facilities and equipment as required for the 

effective conduct of agricultural research 

and related academic programs.

R&D P.L. 

P.L. 9

P.L. 9

Research Grants Act 

of 1958

Provides, to agencies authorized to enter into 

contracts for basic scientific research with 

nonprofit institution and organizations,

authority to make grants to such institutions 

and organizations; title to equipment 

purchased with such grants being vested 

with the nonprofit organization or 

institution. Such sums as are necessary; no 

expiration date.

R&D P.L. 8
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

551

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Resource 

Conservation and 

Recovery Act 

(RCRA)

Provides technical and financial assistance 

for the development of management plans 

and facilities for the recovery of energy and 

other resources from discarded materials and 

for the safe disposal of discarded materials, 

and to regulate the management of 

hazardous waste. RCRA was last 

reauthorized by the Hazardous and Solid 

Waste Amendments of 1984. The 

amendments set deadlines for permit 

issuance, prohibited the land disposal of 

many types of hazardous waste without prior 

treatment, required the use of specific 

technologies at land disposal facilities, and 

established a new program regulating 

underground storage tanks. 

ALL P.L. 9

Resource 

Management 

Timber Receipts

The 1990 Appropriations Act made excess 

receipts from timber sales available for 

support costs of National Forest System 

programs as follow: 6 percent for trail 

maintenance, 4 percent for trail construction, 

20 percent for wildlife and fish habitat 

management, 20 percent for soil, water and 

air management, 5 percent for cultural 

resource management, 5 percent for 

wilderness management, 10 percent for 

reforestation and 30 percent for timber sale 

administration and management. No excess 

receipts were generated after 1989 and the 

balance of this fund was expended in FY 

does not expire 

but there have 

been no excess 

receipts 

generated since 

1989; final funds 

spent in FY 

2012.

NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

552

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

2012.

Restoration of 

National Forest 

Lands and 

Improvements Act

Authorizes establishment of a fund for 

improvement, protection, or rehabilitation of 

National Forest System lands. This fund 

receives monies from (a) a forfeiture of a 

bond or deposit by a permittee or timber 

purchaser (b) the result of a judgment, 

compromise, or settlement of any claim, 

involving present or potential damage to 

lands or improvements. Funds are available 

until expended to cover the costs of 

performing the required work. 

NFS P.L. 8

Retention of 

Receipts, Omnibus 

Budget 

Reconciliation Act 

of 1993

Authorizes the Forest Service to retain 15 

percent of certain recreation receipts to 

defray the costs of collecting those receipts.

NFS P.L. 1
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

553

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Rights-of-Way for 

Highways

Forest highways are generally constructed 

by the FHWA and then transferred to State 

ownership and control. This act authorizes 

appropriate transfer, to States, National 

Forest System lands for highway rights-ofway.

CIM P.L. 8

Roads and Trails for 

States (Ten percent 

fund)

Act of March 4, 1913, as amended, 

commonly known as “Ten-percent Roads 

and Trails”, authorizes 10 percent of all 

moneys received from the national forests 

during each fiscal year shall be available to 

be expended for the construction and 

maintenance of roads and trails within the 

national forests in the States from which 

such proceeds are derived. Annual 

appropriation acts have amended this Act to 

allow the Secretary of Agriculture to expend 

funds without regard to the State in which 

the amounts were derived.

NFS P.L. 6

Roads and Trails for 

States (10 Percent) 

Fund), transfer to 

Treasury

The Department of the Interior and Related 

Agencies Appropriations Act of 2010 

directed “That funds becoming available in 

fiscal year 2010 under the Act of March 4, 

1913 (16 U.S.C. 501) shall be transferred to 

the General Fund of the Treasury and for 

any other purpose unless the funds are 

appropriated.”

CIM P.L. 1
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

554

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Robert S. Kerr 

Memorial 

Arboretum and 

Nature Center

The Act of June 6, 1968 authorizes the 

Secretary of Agriculture to cooperate with, 

and receive the cooperation of, agencies, 

organizations and individuals in the 

development, administration, and operation 

of the Robert S. Kerr Memorial Arboretum 

and Nature Center in the Ouachita National 

Forest in Arkansas. The Secretary of 

Agriculture is authorized to accept 

contributions and gifts to further the 

purposes of the Act.

NFS P.L. 9

Rogue River 

Conveyance and 

Improvement Act

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

convey the administrative site for the Rogue 

River National Forest and use the proceeds 

for the construction or improvement of 

offices and support buildings for the Rogue 

River National Forest and the Bureau of 

Land Management.

NFS P.L

Rural Communities 

Technical 

Assistance

Starting in FY 1993, the Administrative or 

General Provisions language of the Interior 

and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 

allows employees to interact with and 

provide technical assistance to rural 

communities for sustainable rural 

development outside the boundaries of 

National Forest System lands.

NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

555

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Rural Revitalization 

Technologies

Authorizes $5,000,000 in annual 

appropriations for forestry rural 

revitalization technologies to: (A) accelerate 

adoption of technologies using biomass and 

small-diameter materials; (B) create 

community-based enterprises through 

marketing activities and demonstration 

projects; and (C) establish small-scale 

business enterprises to make use of biomass 

and small-diameter materials.

09/30/2018 SPF P.L

P.L. 1

Secure Rural 

Schools and 

Community SelfDetermination Act 

of 2000

This Act, originally authorized through FY 

2006 as P.L. 106-393, provides choices to 

counties to either receive a guaranteed level 

of annual payments for roads and schools 

and other authorized purposes, as well as 

funding for specific resource improvement 

projects on the national forest where the 

county is located, or to receive payments 

under the Act of May 23, 1908. The Act was 

reauthorized through FY 2011 on October 3, 

2008 in P.L. 110-343, Division C, Title VI.

It was then reauthorized through FY 2012 on 

July 6, 2012 in P.L. 112-141 with some 

changes to funding levels, and reauthorized 

through FY 2013 by P.L. 113-40. Section 

524 of P.L. 114-10 reauthorized SRS for two 

years, with the final payment for FY 2015 

being made in January 2016.

09/30/2016 NFS, SPF P.L

393

11

P.L

14

1

P.L. 1
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

556

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Service First The Secretaries of the Interior and 

Agriculture, subject to annual review of 

Congress, may establish pilot programs 

involving the land management agencies 

referred to in this section to conduct 

projects, planning, permitting, leasing, 

contracting and other activities, either jointly 

or on behalf of one another.

ALL P.L

29

109-54

111-8

1

Shasta Trinity 

Marina Permit Fee 

Collection

A permit fee for a marina on the ShastaTrinity National Forest shall be deposited in 

a special account in the Treasury established 

for the Secretary of Agriculture, and shall 

remain available to the Secretary of 

Agriculture until expended, without further 

appropriation, for purposes stated in section 

808(a)(3)(A-D) of title VIII of division J of 

Public Law 108-447 (16 U.S.C. 6807), and 

for direct operating or capital costs 

associated with the issuance of a marina 

permit.

9/30/2019 NFS P.L

P.L. 1

P.L. 1

Sisk Act of 1971 Authorizes cooperation with States and 

political subdivisions in enforcement of 

State and local laws on National Forest 

System lands, and reimbursement of States 

and political subdivisions for expenditures 

incurred in such activities.

NFS, SPF P.L. 
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

557

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Small Tracts Act of 

January 12, 1983

Authorizes the sale, exchange, or 

interchange of National Forest System lands 

of forty acres or less and of $150,000 or less 

in value.

NFS P.L. 9

Soil and Water 

Resources 

Conservation Act of 

1977

Authorizes cooperation in soil and water 

resource appraisal and conservation.

12/31/2018 ALL P.L. 9

P.L

Southern Nevada 

Public Land 

Management Act of 

1998

Authorizes proceeds from the sale of public 

lands in Southern Nevada to be used to 

acquire environmentally sensitive lands in 

the State of Nevada. Lands acquired that are 

within the boundaries of a unit of the NFS, 

become part of that unit.

NFS P.L

Southwest Forest 

Health and Wildfire 

Prevention Act of 

2004, Ecological 

Restoration 

Institutes

Establishes institutes to demonstrate and 

promote the use of adaptive ecosystem 

management to reduce the risk of wildfires, 

and restore the health of fire-adapted forest 

and woodland ecosystems of the interior 

west. If the Secretary determines that an 

Institute does not qualify for further Federal 

assistance under this Act, the Institute shall 

receive no further Federal assistance under 

this Act until such time as the qualifications 

of the Institute are reestablished. Authorizes 

$15 million annually.

WFM P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

558

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

State and Private 

Forestry Redesign

Allows for a portion of CFAA funds, 

determined by the Secretary, to be 

competitively allocated to State Forestry 

agencies. No new authorization of 

appropriations.

SPF P.L

State-wide 

Assessment and 

Strategies for Forest 

Resources

Authorization of appropriations for Statewide assessment and strategies for forest 

resources. Authorizes $10,000,000 in annual 

appropriations for State-wide assessments of 

forest resource conditions. Plans must be 

submitted by May 22, 2010 for a State to be 

eligible to receive funds under the 

authorities of the Cooperative Forestry 

Assistance Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-313), as 

amended. Additionally, the Secretary may 

use any other funds made available in the 

FY 2008 farm bill for planning, not to 

exceed $10,000,000 per fiscal year. Annual 

reports from the States on the use of funds 

are required.

09/30/2018 SPF P.L

Stewardship 

Contracting

Authorizes the Forest Service to enter into 

stewardship projects via agreement or 

contract to perform services to achieve land 

management goals and meet local and rural 

community needs. The Agricultural Act of 

2014 made this authority permanent.

Permanent NFS P.L. 

P.L. 1

P.L. 1

P.L. 1
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

559

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Terry Peak Land 

Transfer Act of 

1999

Requires the conveyance of certain NFS 

lands at the Terry Peak Ski Area to the 

private ski area owners and to utilize the 

proceeds to acquire more desirable lands for 

the United States for permanent public use 

and enjoyment.

NFS P.L

Texas National 

Forests 

Improvement Act of 

2000

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

convey certain administrative sites for 

National Forest System lands in the State of 

Texas, to convey certain National Forest 

System land to the New Waverly Gulf Coast 

Trades Center, and for other purposes.

NFS P.L

The Smokey Bear 

Act

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

deposit all fees collected under regulations 

promulgated by the Secretary relating to 

“Smokey Bear”, into a special Treasury 

account to be available to further the 

nationwide forest fire prevention campaign.

Most fees deposited under this Act are 

royalty fees from Smokey Bear characterlicensing collection agreements with 

merchandisers.

P.L. 8
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

560

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

The Woodsy Owl 

Act

Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to 

deposit all use or royalty fees collected for 

the manufacture, reproduction, or use of the 

name or character “Woodsy Owl” and the 

associated slogan, “Give a Hoot, Don’t 

Pollute”. The Secretary shall deposit all fees 

revenue into a special Treasury account, to 

be available for obligation and expenditure 

for the purpose of furthering the “Woodsy 

Owl” campaign to promote the wise use of 

the environment and programs which foster 

maintenance and improvement of 

environmental quality.

P.L. 9

Thye-Blatnik Act of 

June 22, 1948, 

Boundary Water 

Canoe Area 

Wilderness

Established the Boundary Waters Canoe 

Area in the Superior National Forest and 

subsequently revised the designation and 

boundaries to the Boundary Waters Canoe 

Area Wilderness (BWCAW) and Mining 

Protection Area.

NFS P.

35

9

Thye-Blatnik Act of 

June 22, 1948, 

Payments to 

Minnesota Counties

This Act, commonly known as “Payments to 

Minnesota Counties”, authorizes annual 

payments on a fiscal year basis to the State 

of Minnesota from any national forest 

receipts not otherwise appropriated, an 

amount equivalent to three-quarters of 1 

percent of the fair appraised value of certain 

national forest lands specified in the Act, 

situated in three Minnesota counties (sec. 

61.2). Payments under the Act of May 23, 

NFS P.

35

9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

561

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

1908 (sec. 60.1 paragraph 1), shall not be 

applicable to the national forest land to 

which this Act applies.

Timber Salvage 

Sales (authorized by 

NFMA)

NFMA authorizes the Secretary of 

Agriculture to require purchasers of salvage 

timber to make monetary deposits in a 

designated Treasury fund to cover the costs 

for sale preparation and administration, and 

the engineering design and administration of 

any needed roads necessary for the 

harvesting of salvage timber. Funds are 

available until expended.

NFS P.L. 9

Timber Purchaser 

Elect (authorized by 

NFMA)

NFMA authorizes the acquisition, 

construction, and maintenance of National 

Forest System roads and trails; cooperation 

with States, counties, and other subdivisions; 

construction of roads by timber purchasers; 

and election by timber purchasers to have 

the Forest Service construct the roads. 

NFS P.L. 9
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

562

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Timber Roads, 

Purchaser Election

The Department of the Interior and Related 

Agencies Appropriations Act of 1999 

authorizes small business timber purchasers 

to elect to pay the Forest Service to 

construct or reconstruct any permanent roads 

or bridges required by the timber sale. The 

timber purchaser must be classified as a 

small business operator, and the total 

estimated reconstruction and construction 

cost in the timber sale contract must exceed 

$50,000.

NFS P.L

Timber Roads, 

Purchaser Election 

Construction 

Program

The Department of the Interior and Related 

Agencies Appropriations Act of 2008 

authorized the use of $15,000,000 from 

current balances of the Purchaser Election 

Fund for vegetative treatments.

NFS P.L

Timber Sale 

Pipeline Restoration 

Fund

The Department of the Interior and Related 

Agencies Appropriation Action of 1996 

authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to 

collect and deposit revenues from a specific 

set of timber sales. The sales, known under 

the program as first generation sales, had 

been suspended legally for various 

environmental reasons and were released 

under P.L. 104-19, [title II, Sec. 2001(k)], 

July 27, 1995. The revenues are to be used 

prepare timber sales and addressing the 

backlog of recreation projects. Revenues 

from the sale of timber prepared using these 

NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

563

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

funds are also deposited into this fund and 

are available for preparation of additional 

timber sales and recreation backlog projects.

Timber Sale 

Pipeline Restoration 

Fund, Office of 

General Counsel 

opinion

Department of the Interior and Related 

Agencies Appropriations Act of 1996 

authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to 

collect and deposit revenues from a specific 

set of timber sales (i.e. sales released under 

P.L. 104-19) to prepare timber sales and 

address the backlog of recreation projects. 

The Office of General Counsel Opinion 

dated December 13, 2002stated that timber 

sales under the Timber Pipeline Restoration 

program must use sales receipts for 

payments to States before net receipts are 

deposited into the Timber Sale Pipeline 

Restoration Fund.

NFS P.L

P.L. 1

Tongass Timber 

Reform Act of 1990

Established the Tongass Timber Supply 

Fund with related appropriations to finance 

the consistent supply of saw timber from the 

Tongass National Forest to meet the annual 

market demand as defined in the Act and to 

use wood products which might otherwise 

NFS P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

564

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

not be utilized.

Transfer of funds to 

BLM for Wild 

Horse and Burro 

and Cadastral 

surveys

Authorization to transfer up to $10,000,000 

from the National Forest Systems 

appropriation to BLM for removal, 

preparation, and adoption of excess wild 

horses and burros from NFS lands, and for 

cadastral surveys..

Permanent NFS P.L

447

1

P.L. 1

Treasury and 

General 

Government 

Appropriations Act, 

2002

Authorizes Federal agencies to receive and 

use revenue resulting from waste prevention 

and recycling programs. Such revenue shall 

be available until expended for the purpose 

of waste reduction, prevention and 

recycling. The FS uses this authority for its 

"Go Green" program in which funds are 

collected from recycling and can be used to 

accomplish clean-up activities on the unit.

ALL P.L. 1

T

Treatment of 

Contributions of 

Volunteers

The Forest Service may consider the value 

of services performed by person who 

volunteer their services to the Forest Service 

and who are recruited, trained, and 

supported by a cooperator as an in-kind 

contribution of the cooperator for purposes 

of any cost sharing requirement under any 

Forest Service authority to enter into mutual 

benefit agreements.

9/30/2019 ALL P.L. 1
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

565

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Trust Fund 

Authorization

Section 1321 of Title 31 of the United States 

Code authorizes Trust Funds.

NFS 

U.S. Mining Laws 

Act of May 10, 

1872

This Act governs mining activities for 

valuable minerals on public domain lands.

ALL 

Use and Occupancy 

Permits Act of 1915

To permit the use and occupancy of areas 

for the purpose of constructing or 

maintaining hotels, resorts, summer homes, 

commercial purposes, and other structures.

(Note: There are special provisions under 

P.L. 99-522 for ski areas).

NFS P.L. 6

Use of Funds for 

Program 

Information 

Purposes and for 

Nonmonetary 

Awards

Hereafter, any appropriations or funds 

available to the Forest Service may be used 

to disseminate program information to 

private and public individuals and 

organizations through the use of 

nonmonetary items of nominal value. This 

act also provides for nonmonetary awards of 

nominal value and to incurring of necessary 

expenses for the nonmonetary recognition of 

private individuals and organizations 

making contributions to Forest Service 

programs.

P.L
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

566

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

Valles Caldera 

Preservation Act of 

July 25, 2000

Authorizes the Valles Caldera Trust to 

receive and collect funds in support of the 

management and administration of the 

Preserve. Pursuant to the 2015 Defense 

Authorization Act, the Valles Caldera 

Preserve will be transferred to the 

management of the National Park Service in 

FY 2015. Any unobligated balances in the 

fund after the transfer is complete will be 

transferred to the Department of the Interior. 

NFS P.L

Virginia Land 

Conveyance and 

Improvement Act

Authorizes the sale or exchange of all or 

parts of certain administrative sites and other 

lands in the George Washington National 

Forest and the Jefferson National Forest. 

Authorizes the use of sale revenue to acquire 

a replacement site and to construct on the 

site suitable improvements for national 

forest administrative purposes.

NFS P.L

Watershed 

Restoration and 

Enhancement 

Agreements

Appropriations for the Forest Service may 

be used by the Secretary of Agriculture for 

the purpose of entering into cooperative 

agreements with willing Federal, tribal, State 

and local governments, private and nonprofit 

entities and landowners for the protection, 

restoration and enhancement of fish and

wildlife habitat, and other resources on 

public or private land, the reduction of risk 

from natural disaster where public safety is 

ALL P.L

27

323

111-1
FY 2017 Budget Justification USDA Forest Serv

567

Budget Authorities

Title of the Act or 

Program Summary of Authority

Expiration date

(if applicable)

Programs 

Affected

Public 

Cita

threatened, or a combination thereof or both 

that benefit these resources within the 

watershed.

Weeks Act of 1911 Sections 1 and 2 authorize land acquisition 

for watershed protection and timber 

production. One of the primary authorities 

for land acquisition with Land and Water 

Conservation Fund moneys.

NFS P.L. 6

Wild and Scenic 

Rivers Act of 1968

Sections 6 and 16 authorize land acquisition, 

exchange, and donation of land for inclusion 

in the Wild and Scenic River System.

NFS P.L. 9

Wilderness Act of 

1964

Sections 5 and 6 provide authority for 

acquisition, exchange, and donation of land 

for inclusion in the Wilderness System.

NFS P.L. 8

Wildfire 

Suppression Act

Authorizes reciprocal agreements with 

foreign fire organizations for mutual aid in 

wildfire protection.

WFM P.L. 1

Youth and 

Conservation Corps 

activities

Together, the Public Lands Corps Act of 

1993 and the Public Lands Corp Healthy 

Forest Restoration Act of 2005 provide for 

the conduct of projects that protect forests, 

and for other purposes by qualified youth or 

conservation corps up to $12 million per 

year.

NFS P.L