I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4057 
To restore employment and educational opportunities in, and improve the 
economic stability of, counties containing National Forest System land, 
while also reducing Forest Service management costs, by ensuring that 
such counties have a dependable source of revenue from timber sales 
conducted on National Forest System land, to reduce payments under 
the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 
2000 to reflect such counties’ receipt of timber sale revenues, to strength-
en stewardship end result contracting, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 25, 2019 
Mrs. RODGERS of Washington (for herself and Mr. NEWHOUSE) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, 
and in addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to 
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 
A BILL 
To restore employment and educational opportunities in, and 
improve the economic stability of, counties containing 
National Forest System land, while also reducing Forest 
Service management costs, by ensuring that such coun-
ties have a dependable source of revenue from timber 
sales conducted on National Forest System land, to re-
duce payments under the Secure Rural Schools and Com-
munity Self-Determination Act of 2000 to reflect such 
counties’ receipt of timber sale revenues, to strengthen 
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stewardship end result contracting, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Fostering Opportunities for Resources and Education 
Spending through Timber Sales Act of 2019’’ or the 
‘‘FORESTS Act of 2019’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Purposes. 
TITLE I—FOREST ACTIVE MANAGEMENT AREAS 
Sec. 101. Definitions. 
Sec. 102. Establishment of Forest Active Management Areas and annual vol-
ume requirements. 
Sec. 103. Management of Forest Active Management Areas. 
Sec. 104. Environmental analysis process for covered active management 
projects. 
Sec. 105. Expedited compliance with Endangered Species Act. 
Sec. 106. Administrative review. 
Sec. 107. Use of arbitration instead of litigation to address challenge to covered 
active management project developed through collaborative 
process. 
Sec. 108. Distribution of forest active management revenues. 
Sec. 109. Annual report. 
TITLE II—TRANSITION OF SECURE RURAL SCHOOLS AND COM-
MUNITY SELF-DETERMINATION ACT OF 2000 AND 25-PERCENT 
PAYMENTS 
Sec. 201. Extension of secure rural schools and community self-determination 
act of 2000 payments through fiscal year 2020. 
Sec. 202. Effect of receipt of forest active management revenues or stewardship 
project payments. 
Sec. 203. Restoring original calculation method for 25-percent payments. 
Sec. 204. Prohibition on State retention of portion of 25-percent payments 
made on behalf of beneficiary counties. 
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TITLE III—STEWARDSHIP END RESULT CONTRACTING 
AUTHORITY 
Sec. 301. Maximum authorized duration of stewardship end result contracts. 
Sec. 302. Cancellation ceiling authority and requirements. 
Sec. 303. Payment of portion of stewardship project revenues to county in 
which stewardship project occurs. 
Sec. 304. Use of contractors to perform environmental analysis in connection 
with stewardship end result contracting projects. 
TITLE IV—OTHER MATTERS 
Sec. 401. Treatment as supplemental funding. 
Sec. 402. Definition of fire suppression to include certain related activities. 
Sec. 403. Prohibition on certain actions regarding Forest Service roads and 
trails. 
SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are as follows: 
(1) To restore employment and educational op-
portunities in, and improve the economic stability of, 
counties containing National Forest System land. 
(2) To ensure that such counties have a de-
pendable source of revenue from National Forest 
System land. 
(3) To reduce Forest Service management costs 
while also ensuring the protection of United States 
forest resources. 
(4) To reduce the frequency and severity of cat-
astrophic wildfires on Federal lands and to lessen 
the need for the Forest Service to borrow resources 
from other important forest management accounts 
to combat fires. 
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TITLE I—FOREST ACTIVE 
MANAGEMENT AREAS 
SEC. 101. DEFINITIONS. 
In this title: 
(1) ANNUAL VOLUME REQUIREMENT.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘annual vol-
ume requirement’’, with respect to a Forest Ac-
tive Management Area, means a volume of na-
tional forest materials that, subject to adjust-
ment pursuant to section 102(e)(2), is equal to 
not less than 50 percent of the sustained yield 
of the Forest Active Management Area. 
(B) EXCLUSIONS.—In determining the vol-
ume of national forest materials or the sus-
tained yield of a Forest Active Management 
Area, the Secretary may not include non-com-
mercial post and pole sales and personal use 
firewood. 
(2) BENEFICIARY COUNTY.—The term ‘‘bene-
ficiary county’’ means a political subdivision of a 
State that, on account of containing National Forest 
System land, was eligible to receive payments for 
any of the fiscal years 2001 through 2015 through 
the State under title I of the Secure Rural Schools 
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and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (16 
U.S.C. 7111 et seq.). 
(3) COLLABORATIVE PROCESS.—The term ‘‘col-
laborative process’’ refers to a planning, decision-
making, and management process that, as deter-
mined by the forest manager of the unit of the Na-
tional Forest System for which the process will occur 
and as confirmed by the Regional Forester— 
(A) includes multiple interested persons 
representing diverse interests; and 
(B) is transparent and nonexclusive or 
meets the requirements for a resource advisory 
committee under subsections (c) through (f) of 
section 205 of the Secure Rural Schools and 
Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (16 
U.S.C. 7125). 
(4) 
COVERED
ACTIVE
MANAGEMENT 
PROJECT.—The terms ‘‘covered active management 
project’’ and ‘‘covered project’’ mean a project in-
volving the management or sale of national forest 
materials within a Forest Active Management Area 
to generate forest active management revenues and 
achieve the annual volume requirement for the For-
est Active Management Area. 
(5) FOREST ACTIVE MANAGEMENT AREA.— 
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(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘Forest Ac-
tive Management Area’’ means National Forest 
System land in a unit of the National Forest 
System designated for sustainable forest man-
agement for the production of national forest 
materials and forest active management reve-
nues. 
(B) INCLUSIONS.—Subject to subpara-
graph (C) and any adjustment made pursuant 
to section 102(f)(3), but otherwise notwith-
standing any other provision of law, including 
Executive orders and regulations, the Secretary 
shall include in Forest Active Management 
Areas not less than 50 percent of the National 
Forest System lands identified as commercial 
forest land capable of producing twenty cubic 
feet of timber per acre. 
(C) EXCLUSIONS.—A Forest Active Man-
agement Area may not include National Forest 
System land— 
(i) that is a component of the Na-
tional Wilderness Preservation System; 
(ii) on which the removal of vegetation 
is specifically prohibited by Federal stat-
ute; or 
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(iii) that is included within a National 
Monument as of the date of the enactment 
of this Act. 
(6) FOREST
ACTIVE
MANAGEMENT
REVE-
NUES.—The term ‘‘forest active management reve-
nues’’ means revenues derived from the sale of na-
tional forest materials in a Forest Active Manage-
ment Area. 
(7) NATIONAL FOREST MATERIALS.—The term 
‘‘national forest materials’’ has the meaning given 
that term in section 14(e)(1) of the National Forest 
Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 472a(e)(1)). 
(8) NATIONAL
FOREST
SYSTEM.—The term 
‘‘National Forest System’’ has the meaning given 
that term in section 11(a) of the Forest and Range-
land Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 
U.S.C. 1609(a)), except that the term does not in-
clude the National Grasslands and land utilization 
projects designated as National Grasslands adminis-
tered pursuant to the Act of July 22, 1937 (7 
U.S.C. 1010–1012). 
(9) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Agriculture. 
(10) SUSTAINED YIELD.—The term ‘‘sustained 
yield’’ means the maximum annual growth potential 
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of a forest calculated on the basis of the culmination 
of mean annual increment using cubic measurement. 
(11) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ includes the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. 
(12) 25-PERCENT
PAYMENT.—The term ‘‘25- 
percent payment’’ means the payment to States re-
quired by the sixth paragraph under the heading of 
‘‘FOREST SERVICE’’ in the Act of May 23, 1908 
(35 Stat. 260; 16 U.S.C. 500), and section 13 of the 
Act of March 1, 1911 (36 Stat. 963; 16 U.S.C. 
500). 
SEC. 102. ESTABLISHMENT OF FOREST ACTIVE MANAGE-
MENT AREAS AND ANNUAL VOLUME RE-
QUIREMENTS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF FOREST ACTIVE MANAGE-
MENT AREAS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 
law, the Secretary shall establish one or more Forest Ac-
tive Management Areas within each unit of the National 
Forest System. 
(b) DEADLINE FOR ESTABLISHMENT.—To the max-
imum extent practicable, the Secretary shall complete the 
establishment of Forest Active Management Areas not 
later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this 
Act. 
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