[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 131 (Friday, July 9, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37096-37097]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-17439]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Stewardship Contracting Pilot Projects

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Forest Service is implementing pilot projects to study 
whether alternate means of contracting on National Forest System lands 
can better accomplish program objectives. Section 347 of the FY 1999 
Omnibus Appropriations Act authorizes the Forest Service to enter into 
twenty-eight ``stewardship end result contracting demonstration 
projects'' to pilot test an array of new authorities for giving 
national forest managers greater administrative flexibility to improve 
forest conditions and address the needs of local communities.

ADDRESSES: Questions about this notice may be sent to Cliff Hickman, 
via mail at USDA Forest Service, Forest Management, Mail Stop 1105, 
P.O. Box 96090, Washington, DC 20090-6090 or electronically to 
chickman/wo/@fs.fed.us. Electronic copies of Section 347 of the FY 1999 
Omnibus Appropriations Act may be obtained via Internet at 
www.fs.fed.us/land/fm/stewardship/framework.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cliff Hickman, Forest Management 
Staff, (202) 205-1162, or chickman/[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Many forests within the National Forest 
System are currently experiencing conditions that jeopardize long-term 
ecosystem health and sustainability (such as, high fuel loadings, 
impaired watersheds, and habitat loss). The Forest Service seeks to 
respond to these problems in an efficient and cost-effective manner to 
maximize treated acreage without undue administrative delay. In 
addition to natural resource benefits, local economies may benefit as a 
result of the Forest Service using private contractors to implement 
needed ecosystem restoration, maintenance, or protection activities.
    The Forest Service's current contracting authorities are limited in 
their ability to address the agency's changing forest management 
challenges because those laws were originally designed to sell and 
remove forest products of commercial value. To address many of today's 
most pressing forest health concerns (such as excessive fuel loadings), 
the agency needs to remove material of relatively little to no economic 
value. Except within very narrowly defined limits, the agency's current 
timber sale authorities preclude the federal government from requiring 
purchasers to perform land management services not directly associated 
with removing purchased timber. This often results in making multiple 
entries on the same site using multiple service contracts to implement 
desired treatments. The need for multiple entries and contracts 
increases the potential for environmental degradation and adds to the 
administrative costs.
    Stewardship contracts are generally multiserve and multiyear 
procurements, are end result oriented, and generally authorize the 
exchange of goods for services. Given these attributes, stewardship 
contracts may greatly enhance the agency's ability to implement needed 
ecosystem restoration, maintenance, or protection activities.

Background

    In Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993, the Forest Service was given limited 
authority to experiment with stewardship contracting. Language in the 
appropriations act for these 2 years provided that tests cold be 
conducted on five administrative units (the Idaho Panhandle National 
Forest in Region 1, the Coconino and Kaibab National Forests in Region 
3, the Dixie National Forest in Region 4, and the Lake Tahoe Basin 
Management Unit in Region 5) and also authorized the exchange of goods 
for services. Test units conducted such work as: site preparation, 
replanting, silviculture activities, recreation activities, wildlife 
habitat improvement, and other multiple-use enhancements. These 
projects were funded, in part, by the products sold from the test 
sites.
    In its final report to Congress on the results of these tests, the 
agency concluded that: (1) in instances where the primary reason for 
manipulating vegetation was to create specific resource conditions, 
rather than to produce fiber, stewardship contracting could be an 
extremely useful management tool, and (2) certain issues needed to be 
resolved before stewardship contracting could be applied more broadly 
or on a permanent basis. Key concerns identified during the study 
included: the handling of payments to states, the competitive 
disadvantage small businesses may have due to inadequate resources 
(such as, skills, finances, equipment), and the difficulties inherent 
in trying to fund multiyear contracts out of a single year's 
appropriated funds.
    In October of 1996, in recognition of the growing need to find 
better ways to manage vegetation, especially material that is of little 
or no commercial value, the Forest Service held a national scoping 
workshop on the subject of ``Improving Administrative Flexibility and 
Efficiency in the National Forest Timber Sale Program.'' At this 
meeting, a broad array of stakeholders discussed stewardship 
contracting and other potentially innovative ways of managing national 
forest vegetation within an ecosystem context. An outcome of the 
workshop was a new initiative with the following objectives:
     To find new ways to accomplish needed vegetation 
treatments more effectively and efficiently.
     To investigate how the Forest Service's existing 
authorities can be used more creatively to accomplish needed vegetation 
treatments.

[[Page 37097]]

     To demonstrate the role of vegetation management in 
resource stewardship.
     To demonstrate the role that ecosystem restoration, 
maintenance, and protection activities play in helping to sustain rural 
communities.
     To demonstrate the advantages of improved communication 
and joint problem solving among stakeholders concerned with restoring 
the diversity and productivity of forested watersheds.
    This initiative is proceeding along two complementary paths: (1) 
determining how the agency can take maximum advantage of its existing 
authorities, and (2) evaluating what new authorities are needed to 
accomplish resource objectives. The first pathway has resulted in the 
publication of a booklet describing the agency's current authorities 
and their usefulness in implementing innovative land stewardship 
projects. This booklet is available from the Pinchot Institute for 
Conservation, Washington, DC.
    In an effort to explore the second pathway, all National Forest 
System field units were invited in the summer of 1997 to nominate pilot 
projects that could test new and innovative ways of achieving diverse 
vegetation management goals. Field managers were encouraged to suggest 
useful projects that would entail applying processes and procedures 
beyond the scope of the agency's current authorities. A total of 52 
nominations were received, including proposals from each region.
    In November of 1997, an interdisciplinary team of resource 
specialists from both the Washington Office and the field reviewed the 
nominations and recommended that 22 projects be implemented as pilots. 
Criteria considered during the selection process included the 
following: the ability of the project to increase the existing 
knowledge of how to achieve national forest vegetative management goals 
more effectively and efficiently, the potential of the project to yield 
results applicable in a wide range of geographic and ecosystem 
settings, the number of committed cooperators and the level of public 
support for implementation of the project, and the degree to which the 
project would address one or more of the agency's natural resource 
priorities (improving water quality, riparian restoration, forest and 
rangeland ecosystem health, and promoting responsible recreation use).

Stewardship Pilots

    Section 347 of the FY 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Act (Act) 
authorizes the Forest Service to implement up to 28 stewardship end 
result contracts, nine of which by law must be in Region 1. This Act 
also enumerates the new processes and procedures that the agency may 
test, to include: (1) awarding of contracts on the basis of ``best 
value;'' (2) issuing service contracts up to 10 years duration; (3) 
exchanging goods for services; (4) retaining receipts; (5) offering 
sales valued at over $10,000 without advertisement; (6) designating 
timber to be cut by prescription or description; and (7) collecting 
brush disposal and cooperative deposits when the agency conducts 
contract logging with subsequent sale of the cut products.
    The land management goals that may be pursued through a Section 347 
contract are set forth in subsection (b) of the legislation. They 
include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) Road and trail 
maintenance or obliteration to restore or maintain water quality; (2) 
soil productivity, habitat for wildlife and fisheries, or other 
resource values; (3) prescribed fires to improve the composition, 
structure, condition, or health of stands or to improve wildlife 
habitat; (4) noncommercial cutting or removal of trees or other 
activities to promote healthy forest stands, reduce fire hazards, or 
achieve other noncommercial objectives; (5) watershed restoration and 
maintenance; (6) restoration and maintenance of wildlife and fish 
habitat; and (7) control of noxious and exotic weeds or reestablishment 
of native plant species.
    With regard to the noncommercial cutting or removal of trees, the 
Forest Service has interpreted ``noncommercial'' to mean a project 
where the primary purpose is to achieve some nontimber objective, 
established in the forest plan, that requires manipulating the existing 
vegetation, such as, improving forest health, reducing the risk of 
catastrophic wildfire, or creating desired wildlife habitat conditions. 
Sawtimber-sized trees could be removed during such projects and sold, 
but the sale of such timber would be secondary to achieving the forest 
plan objective.
    Because of the limited scope of the pilot testing, the need to 
provide a better basis for evaluating the exchange of goods-for-
services concept, and because the focus of the authorized projects is 
the noncommercial cutting of trees, subsection (d)(3) of the Act states 
that any receipts from the pilot projects are not to be considered in 
determining required payments to states and counties.
    Twenty-seven Stewardship Pilot Projects have been selected: North 
Fork Big Game Habitat Restoration Project (Clearwater NF), Three Mile 
Restoration Project (Custer NF), Paint Emery Stewardship Demonstration 
Project (Flathead NF), Priest Pend Oreille Land Stewardship Project 
(Idaho Panhandle NF), Yaak Community Stewardship Proposal (Kootenai 
NF), Dry Wolf Project (Lewis & Clark NF), Clearwater Project (Lolo NF), 
Knox-Brooks Results Based Stewardship Proposal (Lolo NF), South Fork 
Clearwater River Stewardship Proposal (Nez Perce NF), Winiger Ridge 
Restoration Project (Arapaho-Roosevelt NF), Mt. Evans Collaborative 
Stewardship Project (Arapaho-Roosevelt NF), Upper Blue Stewardship 
Project (White River NF), SW Ecosystem Stewardship Project (San Juan 
NF), Beaver Meadows Restoration Project (San Juan NF), Grand Canyon 
Stewardship Project (Coconino NF), Cottonwood/Sundown Watershed Project 
(Apache-Sitgreaves NF), North Kennedy Forest Health Project (Boise NF), 
Monroe Mountain Ecosystem Restoration Project (Fishlake NF), Grassy 
Flats Project (Shasta-Trinity NF), Pilot Creek Project (Six Rivers NF), 
Baker City Watershed Project (Wallowa-Whitman NF), Antelope Pilot 
Project (Winema NF), Upper Glade LMSC Project (Rogue River NF), 
Littlehorn Wild Sheep Habitat Restoration (Colville NF), Wayah Contract 
Logging Service Project (National Forests in North Carolina), 
Nolichucky-Unaka Stewardship (Cherokee NF), and Contract Logging/
Stewardship Services (George Washington-Jefferson NF).
    The agency is working on a multiparty monitoring and evaluation 
process as required by subsection (g) of the Act. Notice of the process 
will be published in the Federal Register as a separate notice for 
public comment.

    Dated: July 1, 1999.
Robert Lewis, Jr.,
Acting Associate Chief.
[FR Doc. 99-17439 Filed 7-8-99; 8:45 am]
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