Forest Service Priorities: Evolving Mission Favors Resource Protection
Over Production (Letter Report, 06/17/1999, GAO/RCED-99-166).
The Forest Service's mission and funding priorities have evolved over
many years in response to laws, and Congress has never explicitly
accepted them or acknowledged their effects on the availability of
timber or other uses on the national forests. This report describes (1)
the priorities that the Congress set in enacting the National Forest
Management Act of 1976, which guides the development of plans for
managing national forests; (2) the Forest Service's current mission and
funding priorities and how they have evolved during the last two
decades; and (3) the effect of these priorities on the availability of
timber and on the costs of and receipts from timber sales. GAO found
that the act and other multiple-use laws intended to guide the
management of the national forests provide little guidance on how the
agency is to resolve conflicts or make choices among competing uses on
its lands.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: RCED-99-166
TITLE: Forest Service Priorities: Evolving Mission Favors
Resource Protection Over Production
DATE: 06/17/1999
SUBJECT: National forests
Strategic planning
Forest management
Natural resources
Environmental law
Wildlife conservation
Agency missions
Timber sales
Forest conservation
IDENTIFIER: Forest Service Timber Sales Program
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United States General Accounting Office GAO Report
to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Forests and Public Land
Management, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U. S.
Senate June 1999 FOREST SERVICE PRIORITIES Evolving
Mission Favors Resource Protection Over Production GAO/RCED-99-166
GAO United States General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C. 20548 Resources, Community, and Economic
Development Division B-282607 June 17, 1999 The Honorable Larry E.
Craig Chairman, Subcommittee on Forests and Public Land Management
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources United States Senate
Dear Mr. Chairman: In a February 1997 testimony1 and an April 1997
report,2 we stated that statutory changes to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of the Forest Service's decision-
making process cannot be identified until the Congress and the
agency reach agreement on which uses the Forest Service is to
emphasize under its broad multiple-use and sustained-yield mission
and how it is to resolve conflicts or make choices among competing
uses on its lands. During the intervening 2 years, the Forest
Service has clarified its overriding mission and funding
priorities. However, these priorities are still "de facto" in that
they have evolved over many years in response to many laws, and
the Congress has never explicitly accepted them or acknowledged
their effects on the availability of timber and other uses on the
national forests. Therefore, as agreed, our report describes (1)
the priorities that the Congress set in enacting the National
Forest Management Act of 1976, which guides the development of
plans for managing national forests; (2) the Forest Service's
current mission and funding priorities and how they have evolved
over the past 2 decades; and (3) the effect of these priorities on
the availability of timber and on the costs of and receipts from
timber sales. Results in Brief The National Forest Management
Act attempts to facilitate continuous levels of timber production
on Forest Service lands while, at the same time, protecting and
improving other forest resources, such as air, water, and wildlife
and fish habitat. However, the act and other multiple-use laws
intended to guide the management of the national forests provide
little 1Forest Service Decision-Making: Greater Clarity Needed on
Mission Priorities (GAO/T-RCED-97-81, Feb. 25, 1997). 2Forest
Service Decision-Making: A Framework for Improving Performance
(GAO/RCED-97-71, Apr. 29, 1997). Page 1
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607
guidance on how the agency is to resolve conflicts or make choices
among competing uses on its lands. The National Forest Management
Act and other multiple-use laws guiding the management of the
national forests provide little direction for the Forest Service
in resolving conflicts among competing multiple uses on its lands.
However, the requirements in environmental laws and their
implementing regulations and judicial interpretations do. The
Forest Service has responded to these environmental requirements
and judicial interpretations over time. It has also responded to
changing public values and concerns about the management of the
national forests and to increased scientific understanding of the
functioning of natural systems and their components. Over the past
2 decades, the Forest Service has refocused its activities away
from producing goods and services (such as timber) and toward
protecting land health and forest resources. During the past year,
the Forest Service clearly stated that its overriding mission and
funding priority is to maintain or restore the health of the lands
entrusted to its care. Furthermore, according to the Forest
Service, it intends to limit goods and services on the national
forests to the types, levels, and mixes imposed by considerations
of land health and ecological sustainability. As the Forest
Service has increased its emphasis on resource protection and
ecological sustainability, the timber harvested on national
forests has decreased substantially, in both quantity and quality.
At the same time, the per-unit costs to prepare, sell, and harvest
timber have increased dramatically while the receipts have
declined sharply. Background The Forest Service, created in
1905, manages about 192 million acres of land-nearly 9 percent of
the nation's total surface area and about 30 percent of all
federal lands. Laws guiding the management of the forests require
the Forest Service to apply the principles of multiple use and
sustained yield to meet the diverse needs of the American people.
In managing its lands in accordance with these principles, the
agency provides a variety of goods and services. Goods include
timber, natural gas, oil, minerals, and lands for livestock to
graze. Watersheds on Forest Service lands provide drinking water
to thousands of communities, and the national forests themselves
offer opportunities to the public for camping, hiking, and
rafting. The Forest Service's activities are subject not only to
the laws governing multiple uses but also to the requirements of
numerous environmental Page 2 GAO/RCED-
99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607 statutes,
such as the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered
Species Act. These requirements form the basis for defining the
agency's mission and priorities. Act Seeks to Balance
The National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA) reinforces the
Continuous Levels of mission laid out for the Forest
Service in other governing statutes-that the agency will both
provide goods and services, such as timber and Timber Production
recreation, and protect forest resources, such as clean air and
water, With the Protection of aesthetics, and fish and wildlife
habitat. However, NFMA, much like the agency's other governing
statutes, does not provide direction to the Forest Natural
Resources Service for making choices among
competing uses on its lands. Threats to Logging and
Before NFMA's enactment in 1976, three statutes bore primary
Concerns About the responsibility for guiding
multiple uses on the national forests: the Organic Environment
Administration Act of 1897 (the Organic Act), the Multiple-Use
Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, and the Forest and Rangeland
Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974. Under the Organic Act,
the national forests are established to improve and protect the
forests within their boundaries or to secure favorable water flow
conditions and provide a continuous supply of timber to citizens.
The Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act directs the Forest Service to
manage its lands so that they may be used for various purposes-
including recreation; rangeland; wilderness; and the protection of
watersheds, fish, and wildlife-and to ensure that the agency's
management of the lands does not impair their long-term
productivity. The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources
Planning Act requires the Forest Service to prepare assessments,
inventories, and plans to manage its lands. The cumulative effect
of these statutes is to direct the Forest Service to manage its
lands for environmental protection and for recreational
opportunities, as well as to provide continuous levels of certain
goods, including timber, oil and gas, minerals, and forage for
grazing livestock. No one use of the national forests is given
priority in any of these laws. However, the agency is required to
manage its lands to sustain undiminished their ability to produce
these uses for future generations. From its creation in 1905 to
World War II, the Forest Service played a primarily custodial
role, and livestock grazing was the primary commercial use on the
national forests and grasslands. After World War II, rapid
economic growth dramatically increased the nation's demand for
timber. Accordingly, timber sales on Forest Service lands
flourished, rising from Page 3 GAO/RCED-99-
166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607 just under 4
billion board feet in 1950 to about 12 billion board feet in 1969.
As the demand for federal timber rose, so did the number of
Americans using federal lands for recreation. Beginning in the
1950s, as more people visited national forests and saw the results
of timber harvests-primarily clear-cuts-on the national forests,
debate intensified over the extent to which federal lands should
be preserved or used for timber production. Moreover, as timber
production continued to rise, so did the efforts of the
environmental community to protect the nation's lands and natural
resources. The 1960s and 1970s saw the creation of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of numerous
environmental statutes, including the Wilderness Act, the National
Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean
Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
Figure 1 tracks trends in timber production and recreation on
Forest Service lands during the last half century. Page 4
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607
Figure 1: Volume of Timber Sold From and Number of Visitor Days in
National 15 Board feet in billions
Visitor days in thousands 350 Forests, Fiscal Years 1950-97 300 12
250 9
200 150 6 100 3 50 0
0 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971
1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995
1997 Fiscal year Board feet Visitor days Source: Forest Service.
While these environmental statutes were being enacted, a landmark
lawsuit in West Virginia against the Forest Service threatened to
curtail logging on the national forests. In 1975, the Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a 1973 federal district
court decision mandating adherence to a long-ignored provision in
the Organic Act that limited commercial sales of trees to those
that were dead, physiologically mature, or large.3 Essentially,
this decision, which applied only to Forest Service 3West Virginia
Div. of the Izaak Walton League of America v. Butz, 522 F. 2d 945
(4th Cir. 1975). Page 5
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607
land within the court's jurisdiction, banned clear-cutting, the
harvesting method of choice on the national forests at that time.
Had the decision been applied nationally, the Forest Service
estimated that it would have reduced timber harvests on federal
lands by 50 percent. NFMA Seeks to Protect During this period
of concern about the future of timber harvests on the Timber
Harvesting and national forests and of growing support for
protecting the environment, Other Forest Resources the Congress
enacted NFMA. The legislative history shows that, among other
things, the act was an attempt to, at a minimum, maintain existing
timber harvest levels and to protect and improve other forest
resources, such as fish and wildlife habitat. The act aims to
sustain a continuous harvest level by repealing the provision of
the Organic Act that limited logging. According to the report of
the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry that accompanied
the act, the Committee expected that the amount of timber
harvested on federal lands would continue to increase as the
Forest Service implemented NFMA and managed the forests for
multiple uses.4 The Committee also noted the importance of
providing for diverse plant and animal communities and of
protecting soil, water, aesthetic, and wildlife resources. While
establishing long-term goals, NFMA does not provide direction for
achieving them. For example, it does not indicate how much timber
and other commodities should be provided, which uses of national
forests should have priority, or how conflicts among uses should
be resolved. NFMA's legislative history is also silent on these
matters. As a result, the Forest Service is expected to provide
for continuous levels of certain goods and services and for the
protection of other resources, even when providing for one may
conflict with sustaining another. 4S. Rep. No. 94-893 (1976). Page
6 GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's
Evolving Mission B-282607 The Forest Service's While
NFMA and other statutes intended to guide the Forest Service's
Mission and Funding management of the national
forests provide little direction for the agency in resolving
conflicts among competing uses on its lands, the requirements
Priorities Emphasize in environmental laws and their
implementing regulations and judicial Protecting the
interpretations do. Over time, these environmental requirements
and judicial interpretations, together with changing public values
and concerns Environment Over about the management
of the national forests and better ecological Producing Timber and
information, have led the Forest Service to change the mix of its
activities, Other Goods and shifting the focus
from production toward protection. Services The Forest Service Has
The past 2 decades have seen significant changes in how the Forest
Increased Its Emphasis on Service does business. Perhaps
most marked is the change in the agency's Protecting the
own description of its mission. In the mid-1970s, the Forest
Service Environment believed that its role
was primarily to produce timber and, more generally, to serve as a
steward of the land. Today, the agency states that maintaining and
restoring the health of the land is its overriding priority5 and
that outputs of goods and services will be accomplished within the
"ecological sideboards imposed by land health."6 In speeches
outlining the Forest Service's Natural Resource Agenda, the Chief,
in March 1998 and February 1999,7 unambiguously emphasized land
health, including watershed restoration and ecological
sustainability.8 In his February 1999 speech, for instance, he
noted that over 65 percent of the national forest plans will be
revised within the next 5 years and that "watershed health and
restoration will be the overriding priority in all future forest
plan revisions." 5FY2000 Budget Explanatory Notes for the
Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Forest Service. 6"Protecting and Restoring a Nation's Land Health
Legacy," Speech, Chief, U.S. Forest Service (Feb. 3, 1999). 7"A
Gradual Unfolding of a National Purpose: A Natural Resource Agenda
for the 21st Century," Speech, Chief, U.S. Forest Service (Mar. 2,
1998) and "Protecting and Restoring a Nation's Land Health
Legacy," Speech, Chief, U.S. Forest Service (Feb. 3, 1999).
8Ecological sustainability means maintaining the composition
(biological diversity), structure (biological and physical
attributes, such as large trees, unconstrained rivers, and habitat
patterns), and processes (including photosynthesis, water
movement, and disturbance) of an ecological system. Page 7
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607
Statutory Requirements, The Endangered
Species Act has played a substantial role in steering the Changing
Public Values, Forest Service toward
protection. In particular, section 7 of the act and Better
Information represents a congressional
design to give greater priority to the protection Have Increased
the Forest of endangered species than to the
other missions of the Forest Service and 9 Service's Focus on the
other federal agencies. When proposing a project, the Forest
Service bears the burden of demonstrating that its actions will
not likely Environment
jeopardize threatened and endangered species. The number of
threatened and endangered species on national forests and
grasslands has risen more than sevenfold in the 26 years since the
act was passed in 1973. (See fig. 2.) Figure 2: Number of
Threatened and Endangered Species With Habitat on Forest Service
Lands, Fiscal Years 1973-98 400 Number of species 350 300 250 200
150 100 50 0 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981
1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993
1995 1997 Fiscal year Source: Forest Service. The Forest
Service is required by regulations implementing the National
Environmental Policy Act to assess the effects of activities
occurring outside the national forests, such as timber harvesting
on state and private lands, in deciding which uses to emphasize on
its lands. In addition, other environmental laws, their
implementing regulations, and judicial 9TVA v. Hill, 437 U.S.
153,185 (1978). Page 8
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607
interpretations require that the agency protect the diversity of
species and other components of natural systems, including clean
water and clean air. In recent years, the Congress has
increasingly withdrawn lands on the national forests for
conservation-as wilderness, wild and scenic rivers, national
monuments, and recreational areas. By 1994, about one-fourth of
the national forests were being managed for conservation.10
According to the Forest Service, within the "ecological
sideboards" imposed by legal thresholds and land health, a wide
range of management options exists, and the mix of goods and
services provided is as much a social decision as it is a
scientific one. Within this decision space, the agency has
increasingly chosen to emphasize land health and ecological
sustainability, responding in part to changing public values and
concerns about the management of the national forests. For
example, in June 1992, the Forest Service announced plans to
reduce the amount of timber harvested by clear-cutting by as much
as 70 percent from fiscal year 1988 levels in order to manage the
national forests in a more environmentally sensitive manner. In
addition, the Forest Service recently issued an interim rule to
prohibit the construction of new roads in roadless areas on many
national forests for 18 months while the agency develops a policy
for the construction and maintenance of future roads.11 According
to the Chief, the Forest Service "will rarely build roads into
roadless areas," and when it does, "it will be in order to
accomplish broader ecological objectives."12 The agency has also
used its discretionary authority to set aside or withdraw an
increasing percentage of its lands for conservation. For example,
in February 1999, it withdrew an additional 429,000 acres in
Montana from mining and observed that many areas on the national
forests are simply not appropriate for activities such as mining.
Over the years, the Forest Service has also learned more about the
importance of maintaining and restoring natural systems-such as
watersheds, airsheds, soils, and vegetative and animal
communities-to ensure the long-term sustainability of other forest
uses, including timber production. In addition, the agency has
increasingly recognized that its past management decisions have
led to degraded aquatic habitats, declining populations of some
wildlife species, and increased forest health 10Land Ownership:
Information on the Acreage, Management, and Use of Federal and
Other Lands (GAO/RCED-96-40, Mar. 13, 1996) and Federal Land Use
(GAO/RCED-96-139R, May 7, 1996). 1164 Fed. Reg. 7290 (Feb. 12,
1999). 12"Protecting and Restoring a Nation's Land Health Legacy,"
Speech, Chief, U.S. Forest Service (Feb. 3, 1999). Page 9
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607
problems. These decisions include the agency's decades-old policy
of suppressing fires on the national forests, which has increased
the density of undergrowth and trees, creating high levels of
fuels for catastrophic wildfires.13 The Agency Has Adopted
To accommodate the requirements of the Endangered Species Act and
an Ecological Approach to other environmental laws, the Forest
Service and other federal land Management to Avoid or
management agencies have turned to a science-based, ecological
approach Prevail Against Legal for managing their lands and
resources. This approach, called ecosystem Challenges
management, is designed to (1) ensure the sustained functioning of
natural systems by analyzing and planning along their boundaries
rather than along the boundaries of national forests and other
federal land management units and (2) integrate people and
resources from different programs to maintain and restore the
health of forested, aquatic, and rangeland ecosystems.14 According
to the Forest Service, an ecosystem-based approach to management
considers ecological, economic, and social factors in determining
how to best maintain and enhance the quality of the environment to
meet current and future needs for recreation, water, timber,
minerals, fish, wildlife, and wilderness on the national forests.
Federal courts have agreed with the Forest Service's ecological
approach to land management. The Forest Service and the Department
of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management used an ecosystem-
based approach to develop a 1994 plan to manage 22.3 million acres
of federal land in the Pacific Northwest (primarily western
Washington, western Oregon, and northern California). Both
industry and environmental groups challenged the legality of the
plan, contending, among other things, that the agencies had not
adequately complied with environmental laws. However, the District
Court for the Western District of Washington upheld the plan and
the ecosystem approach, finding that the agencies had acted within
the bounds of the law. In reaching its decision, the district
court noted that "[g]iven the current condition of the forests,
there is no way the agencies could comply with the environmental
laws without planning on an 13Western National Forests: A Cohesive
Strategy Is Needed to Address Catastrophic Wildfire Threats
(GAO/RCED-99-65, Apr. 2, 1999.) 14For a more complete description
of ecosystem management, see Ecosystem Management: Additional
Actions Needed to Adequately Test a Promising Approach (GAO/RCED-
94-111, Aug. 16, 1994). Page 10
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607
ecosystem basis."15 The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
affirmed the judgment of the district court. Similarly, in
December 1997, the Secretary of Agriculture convened an
interdisciplinary committee of scientists to review and evaluate
the Forest Service's planning process and to identify changes that
might be needed to the agency's planning regulations. In its March
1999 report,16 the committee stated that conserving habitat for
native species and the productivity of ecological systems remains
the surest path to maintaining ecological sustainability. The
committee suggested that, to conserve these key elements of
sustainability, a scientific assessment of the ecological
integrity of ecosystems be used in tandem with monitoring the
viability of the native species themselves. Emphasizing Land
As the Forest Service has increased its emphasis on land health
and Health Constrains ecological sustainability, the timber
harvested on national forests has declined in quantity and
quality. The costs per thousand board feet to Other Uses on the
prepare and sell the timber, as well as the costs to harvest it,
have National Forests increased, and the receipts generated
have been substantially lower. As Harvesting Has Between
1976, when the Congress enacted NFMA, and 1997, the volume of
Declined, Costs Have timber sold from Forest Service lands
decreased nearly 70 percent. (See Risen for Timber fig. 1.)
The quality of the timber also declined as the agency's purpose in
offering timber sales shifted from providing wood fiber to
improving or maintaining the health of the national forests. For
example, most of the trees that need to be removed to reduce
accumulated fuels and lower the risk of catastrophic fires are
small in diameter and have little or no commercial value.17
Restrictions on the location and age of trees that can be
harvested have also reduced the quality of the timber. Older, more
commercially valuable trees often cannot be harvested because of
their value as species habitat. As the quantity and quality of
timber have declined, the per-unit costs to the Forest Service and
logging companies have increased-in some cases 15Seattle Audubon
Soc-y v. Espy, 871 F. Supp. 1291, 1311 (W.D. Wash. 1994) aff'd
sub. nom. Seattle Audobon Soc-y v. Moseley, 80 F.3d 1401 (9th Cir.
1996). 16Sustaining the People's Lands: Recommendations for
Stewardship of the National Forests and Grasslands into the Next
Century, Committee of Scientists, U.S. Department of Agriculture
(Mar. 15, 1999). 17Western National Forests: A Cohesive Strategy
Is Needed to Address Catastrophic Wildlife Threats (GAO/RCED-99-
65, Apr. 2, 1999.) Page 11
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607
dramatically. For example, the agency's per-unit costs of
preparing and administering timber sales designed to improve
forest health rose over 70 percent from fiscal year 1993 through
fiscal year 1997. In the same 5 years, the costs per thousand
board feet of preparing and administering timber sales designed to
provide wood fiber rose nearly 40 percent. This increase was
largely attributable to the higher proportions of fixed costs
(e.g., the expenses associated with depreciation on existing
facilities and roads) and administrative costs (for activities
such as sale preparation and harvest administration) associated
with lower harvest levels. Moreover, when timber is harvested to
improve land health, the costs of its removal are generally higher
than when it is harvested for other purposes because only trees of
certain sizes and ages may be logged in certain locations. The
Forest Service's June 1992 policy to reduce the amount of timber
harvested by clear-cutting has also increased the costs of logging
for private companies because other methods of harvesting are
generally more expensive than clear-cutting. For private companies
in the Pacific Northwest, the use of more environmentally
sensitive, but costlier, harvest methods increased the per-unit
costs of logging over 150 percent between 1980 and 1997. (See fig.
3.) Page 12 GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest
Service's Evolving Mission B-282607 Figure 3: Cost Per Thousand
Board Feet to Cut and Remove Timber in 300 Dollars National
Forests in Western Washington and Western Oregon, Fiscal Years
1980-97 250 200 150 100 50 0 1980 1982
1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 Fiscal year
Source: Timber Data Company. Revenue from timber sales has also
declined. Timber sales have traditionally generated more than 90
percent of the total receipts on the national forests. However, as
the quantity and quality of timber sold have declined, so too have
total timber sales receipts. For example, from fiscal year 1992
through fiscal year 1997, total timber sales receipts declined 55
percent, from $1.2 billion to $555 million. (See fig. 4.) Page 13
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607
Figure 4: Total Timber Sales Receipts, Fiscal Years 1992-97
1400 Constant dollars in thousands 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0
1992 1993 1994 1995
1996 1997 Fiscal year Source: GAO's analysis of data
from the Forest Service. These declines in the quantity and
quality of timber and in the revenue generated from timber sales
on national forests are not likely to change, given the current
statutory and regulatory framework, recent judicial
interpretations, and the Forest Service's policies. For instance,
the agency estimates that sales of between 170 million and 260
million board feet, currently planned for fiscal years 1999 and
2000, may be delayed because of the 18-month suspension of road
construction. In addition, the Forest Service has noted that
recreation as well as timber will likely be affected by the
agency's increased focus on the environment. In his February 1999
speech,18 the Chief likened recreation to timber 20 years ago and
cautioned that, to avoid what happened to the timber industry,
recreation must occur within the ecological sideboards imposed by
land health. That same month, we reported that the Forest Service
had begun to restrict some recreational uses on the Sawtooth
National 18"Protecting and Restoring a Nation's Land Health
Legacy," Speech, Chief, U.S. Forest Service (Feb. 3, 1999). Page
14 GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest
Service's Evolving Mission B-282607 Recreation Area in central
Idaho to protect threatened and endangered salmon species and
wilderness.19 Agency Comments We provided a draft of this
report to the Forest Service for review and comment. The Forest
Service commented that the report accurately and fairly presented
information on the evolution of the Forest Service's mission. The
Forest Service also provided technical clarifications, which we
incorporated into the report. Scope and We conducted our
review from January 1999 to April 1999 in accordance Methodology
with generally accepted government auditing standards. In
conducting the review, we examined the laws guiding the management
of the Forest Service, including NFMA and its legislative history.
We also reviewed judicial decisions pertaining to the Forest
Service's implementation of these laws. In addition, we examined
the agency's strategic plans, annual reports, speeches, and other
documents describing its mission and priorities. Finally, we
analyzed trends in the Forest Service's production of goods and
services. As arranged with your office, unless you publicly
announce its contents earlier, we plan no further distribution of
this report for 10 days after the date of this letter. We will
then send copies to the Honorable Dan Glickman, Secretary of
Agriculture; and the Honorable Michael Dombeck, Chief of the
Forest Service. We will also make copies available to others on
request. 19National Forests: Funding the Sawtooth National
Recreation Area (GAO/RCED-99-47, Feb. 11, 1999). Page 15
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission B-282607 If
you have any questions about this report, please contact me or
Charlie Cotton at (202) 512-3841. Key contributors to this
assignment were Doreen Feldman and Angela Sanders. Sincerely
yours, Barry T. Hill Associate Director, Energy, Resources, and
Science Issues (141277) Page 16
GAO/RCED-99-166 The Forest Service's Evolving Mission Ordering
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