ORIGIN OF RESOLUTION:

NASF Federal Lands Committee

ISSUE OF CONCERN:

Management of Federal Lands Policy Statement

BACKGROUND:

The USDA Forest Service and the USDI Bureau of Land Management manage about one fifth of the land area of the United States. Their history of land stewardship is a proud one; although frequently criticized, these agencies have made possible great strides in land management in areas such as watershed protection, grazing, and forestry.

State Foresters have particular interests in the relationship between federal forest lands and state and private lands. These interests include fire protection, forest health and productivity, sustainability, and consideration of entire landscapes irrespective of ownership.

The State Foresters have been working in active collaboration with these agencies, (the Forest Service in particular) for over 70 years. We are proud of what we have accomplished in that partnership. However, in recent years conflicting mandates in Federal environmental protection, planning, and management statutes have increasingly led to gridlock in the management of BLM and USFS federal lands, particularly forest lands. Some have suggested that alternative management schemes should be investigated. Others have suggested that administrative reforms can also reduce this gridlock. To a certain degree, NASF agrees with both of those statements.

To increase efficiency and to align with other sectors of government entering the next century, it appears federal land management is inexorably headed toward a stronger emphasis on adaptive management of federal forests. Adaptive management relies less on prescriptive regulation and more on flexibility, incentives, monitoring and evaluation, and significant, meaningful public involvement. State Foresters have for the most part embraced adaptive management and support application of the concept to federal lands.

NASF has recently investigated internal efforts within the Forest Service to reform the agency bureaucracy, most notably through improvements in strategic planning, budget reform, and forest planning regulations. NASF supports these reform efforts and offers specific recommendations related to reform efforts.

Solutions that lead to improved federal land management can be pursued through both administrative action and legislative action. In our view, the following legislative and administrative actions could resolve problems on these lands.

RESOLUTION:

Legislative Issues: Integration of federal natural resource laws

NASF will, through appropriate organizations, associations, state and tribal governments, promote and advocate an initiative to:

• Assess the current laws, regulations and policies that have provisions of national application in terms of federal land management agencies compliance, authority or discretion to act.
• Identify how these statutes and regulations complement and/or conflict in terms of purpose and mandate.
• Recommend legislative consolidation or amendment of laws to eliminate duplication and disharmony of purpose.

NASF will also undertake this analysis internally and share its findings with Congress, federal agencies, states, and all interested parties.

NASF will work with the National Governors Association (and its regional associations) and Congress on federal natural resource law revision. NASF believes Congress should pass legislation creating a more concise mission statement for the Forest Service and the BLM.

NASF Principles for Revision of Federal Land Management Laws

• Laws, policies and management decisions must be based upon sound resource stewardship, which provides resource sustainability and protection to meet the diverse needs of present and future generations.
• Management of public lands should promote stability and predictability in the production of goods and services, and sustainability of resources on the public lands. At the same time, management must be sufficiently flexible to adapt to changing social, economic, and ecological conditions.
• Federal administration of the public land laws should provide incentives for sustained management and encourage efficiency.
• The role of public involvement in the management of public lands should be meaningful, collaborative, and timely.
• The diversity and significance of natural resources must be acknowledged in land management decisions.
• When value is created by the use of public lands, federal managers should be enabled to recover an appropriate amount of that value to finance management costs.
• Federal budgets, incentives for federal managers, and incentives for good stewardship to users of the federal lands should support the above goals.

Special Projects

• NASF promotes the implementation of special partnerships and contracts (e.g. stewardship contracts), some of which require special legislation.
• NASF will reserve comment on the Forest Service recreation demo fee project until the legislative authority expires.
• NASF supports formulation of a fee-based system for special forest products, contingent upon the agency actively involving community-based forestry groups in the development of the regulations.

Payments to States

• NASF supports the linkage of payments to states from natural resource goods and services on public lands to the communities that surround public lands. The linkage between the "stewardship workforce" of local communities and public lands must be maintained over time. It is important to note that payments from "goods and services" are much broader than just timber receipts.
• NASF supports interim strategies to stabilize payments to states (and local governments) until Congress undertakes long-term reform of the entire suite of payments to states from federal lands.
• NASF believes that in the long term, Congress should look at a wide range of options for future compensation to counties and states.
• NASF believes that any future long-term legislation should be timed for implementation with the next GPRA strategic plan and new USFS planning regulations.

General NASF Federal Land Management Philosophy

NASF believes federal lands are best managed through an adaptive management model. This approach is characterized by strong accountability through adequate monitoring, evaluation, and public involvement. NASF believes a proper mix of incentives, regulations, investment, and flexibility leads to stewardship above and beyond the results of regulation alone.

NASF endorses the concept of pilot projects in states concerning alternative forest management mechanisms in management of federal lands. NASF supports adequate funding for pilot projects.

NASF supports joint efforts by the states and the federal government to assess forest ecosystem conditions within each state or region. Consequently, NASF supports joint state/private/federal efforts to manage entire landscapes, especially concerning cooperative forest health and fire management matters. NASF also recognizes that in coordinated resource management efforts, the state, federal, or private landowner makes final management decisions on their own land. NASF will actively support USDA Forest Service and Congressional legislative efforts to improve and streamline the federal land exchange process.

Administrative Actions Related to Forest Service Reform

Strategic Planning

• NASF supports the current direction of Forest Service GPRA strategic plan development.
• NASF supports concurrent reform of Forest Service budget structure, financial accountability, and development of annual and long-term outcome-based performance measures.
• NASF believes the Forest Service should improve efforts to open up reform efforts to the public and present meaningful, understandable choices.
• NASF will periodically review proposed performance measures and make suggestions to the federal land management agencies.
• NASF and individual state foresters will share their strategic planning experiences with the Forest Service.

Budget Reform

• NASF supports the current budget reform concepts. Especially as they relate to more adaptive management and monitoring.
• NASF believes the Forest Service should experiment with sample dual accounting to offer meaningful comparisons of the old budget structure with the proposed new one.
• NASF believes the Forest Service should develop a field-based formulation process to demonstrate the effectiveness of a bottom-up budget.
• If the agency can develop tools that show that a new budget structure aligned with an evolving strategic plan will more efficiently accomplish broader stewardship objectives and will improve agency oversight, then NASF will aggressively advocate for congressional adoption of the new budget structure.
• NASF will work with the federal land management agencies and the Congress to investigate speculated gains in agency efficiency and accountability from the elimination of off-budget trust funds.

Forest Planning Regulations

• NASF will interface with the SAF task force appointed to review the COS report.

Road Management

• NASF supports the development of the long-term rule for National Forest Road System and believes the draft rule is moving in the right direction.
• NASF strongly believes the 18-month moratorium on new road construction in national forests should not be extended past 18 months.

• NASF supports retention of the "Roads and Trails Fund" money into roads and trails until Congress directs more money to roads and trails or long-term agency reform addresses inadequate road funding.
• NASF believes some road management issues will not be sufficiently addressed through aggregation from local plans and should be prioritized at the national level.

Conclusion:

The USDA Forest Service and the State Foresters have a long relationship that includes many successes. NASF believes that the Forest Service has played an important role in history of America forestry, and with proper and clear guidance from Congress and state legislatures that it will continue to be leader in forestry and land management. Internal agency reform efforts will contribute to improvements in federal land management.

This resolution replaces Resolution Number 96-12. It will also be published as a separate policy statement of the Association.

NASF ACTION:

( X ) Approved

DATE OF ACTION: 9/22/99