SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Colville National For-
est Adaptive Management of Timber Resources Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Forest vegetation on Federal lands in the
intermountain West, including eastern Washington
and particularly the Colville National Forest in the
State of Washington, is in an extremely overstocked
condition due to fire exclusion and nonmanagement,
resulting in unhealthy, low-vigor stands that are sus-
ceptible to disease, insects, and fire.
(2) The value of this forest vegetation far ex-
ceeds the cost of managing these stands for a
healthy, productive ecosystem, but the current regu-
latory structure of overlapping directives and plan-
ning documents hinders management of this forest
vegetation in a manner necessary to achieve, simul-
taneously, healthy and productive ecosystems and
community benefits.
(3) The current regulatory structure and overall
policy direction further hinder the flexibility of the
Forest Service to plan and prepare projects that ef-
fectively consider local conditions and opportunities
or capture market opportunities.
(4) Federal budgetary limitations have reduced
the 
trained 
and 
experienced 
Forest 
Service
workforce below the level necessary to plan for and
maintain healthy and productive ecosystems. At the
same time the Forest Service is forced to spend a
disproportionate amount of its resources on plan-
ning, with insufficient resources remaining to imple-
ment scientifically acceptable forest management ac-
tivities.
(5) Implementation of adaptive management
techniques in selected areas of the Colville National
Forest will provide a healthy ecosystem, provide for
long-term national fiber needs, generate funds in ex-
cess of costs, and stimulate the economies of local,
resource-dependent communities.
(6) The scientific knowledge gained from
projects conducted using the adaptive management
techniques required under this Act will benefit simi-
lar forest stands throughout the intermountain
West.
(7) The economic knowledge gained from such
projects will benefit management projects in all tim-
ber stands.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are the following:
(1) To combat the adverse human and environ-
mental consequences of catastrophic wildfire, includ-
ing immediate-term loss of life, vegetation, soil,
water, and nearby land use, and long-term loss of
land productivity and continuous resource flow.
(2) To use a creditable, science-based, adaptive
management approach to manage fire-generated,
overstocked, small-diameter, stagnated forest stands
to improve forest health, meet current and future
environmental needs, and provide wood fiber for
processing in dependent communities.
(3) To demonstrate the cost-effective use of pri-
vate contractors to perform substantive planning
and plan implementation tasks for the Forest Serv-
ice.
SEC. 4. PREPARATION, IMPLEMENTATION, AND EVALUA-
TION OF ADAPTIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT IN
COLVILLE NATIONAL FOREST.
(a) ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH PLAN RE-
QUIRED.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the en-
actment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall pre-
pare and submit to Congress a research plan, including
supporting environmental documents, that provides for the
implementation and evaluation of controlled silvicultural
treatment in fire-generated, overstocked, small-diameter,
stagnated forest stands in designated areas of the Colville
National Forest in the State of Washington for the pur-
pose of testing the effect of adaptive management tech-
niques in the treatment of such forest stands.
(b) AREAS COVERED BY PLAN.—The research plan
prepared under subsection (a) shall apply to the following
areas of the Colville National Forest:
(1) The approximately 110,000 acres of the
Colville National Forest identified as economically
suited for adaptive management techniques in the
Forest Service study of 1989–1994 regarding creat-
ing opportunities.
(2) Other lands in the Colville National Forest
selected by the Secretary as having characteristics
similar to the lands identified in paragraph (1).
(c) IMPLEMENTATION
OF
PLAN.—The Secretary
shall implement the research plan prepared under sub-
section (a) not later than the second full field season be-
ginning after the date of the enactment of this Act. The
Secretary may begin an initial demonstration project
based on a preliminary draft of the research plan as soon
as practicable in an area of approximately 10,000 acres.
(d) USE OF PRIVATE SECTOR.—Subject to the avail-
ability of funds for this purpose under subsection (e), the
Secretary may use private contractors, including individ-
uals and groups involved in the preparation of the study
referred to in subsection (b)(1), in the preparation and
implementation of the research plan required under sub-
section (a) and in monitoring the effects of the research
plan under subsection (i). To the greatest extent prac-
ticable, such private contractors shall be selected from
communities adversely affected by reductions in the timber
sale program of the National Forest System.
(e) FUNDING.—
(1) ESTABLISHMENT OF SPECIAL ACCOUNT.—
To fund the preparation and implementation of the
research plan required under subsection (a), the Sec-
retary shall establish an account to be known as the
‘‘Ecosystem Adaptive Management Demonstration
Account’’.
(2) FUNDS FOR ACCOUNT.—There shall be allo-
cated or transferred to the account the following:
(A) A portion of the amount annually allo-
cated to the Colville National Forest pursuant
to any other provision of law, to be based on
the proportion of the Colville National Forest
subject to the research plan.
(B) The amounts deposited pursuant to
subsection (g)(3).
(C) Any amounts borrowed under para-
graph (3).
(3) BORROWING
AUTHORITY.—To the extent
necessary to fund startup costs under the research
plan, the Secretary may borrow amounts from sal-
vage sale accounts of the Forest Service or amounts
available under the Act of June 9, 1930 (16 U.S.C.
576 et seq; commonly known as the Knutson-Van-
denberg Act). The Secretary shall repay amounts
borrowed, without interest, using funds deposited in
the account under subsection (g)(3).
(f) USE
OF ACCOUNT.—The Secretary shall use
amounts in the special account established under sub-
section (e) for—
(1) the design and implementation of research
projects conducted under the research plan prepared
under subsection (a), except that the Secretary shall
use funds from other sources to cover any costs re-
lated to appeals or litigation concerning those
projects; and
(2) to the extent amounts remain available in
the special account after expenditures under para-
graph (1), vegetative management activities, fuels
treatment, monitoring, and watershed improvement