Western National Forests: Status of Forest Service's Efforts to Reduce
Catastrophic Wildfire Threats (Testimony, 06/29/1999, GAO/T-RCED-99-241).

This testimony discusses the status of efforts by the Forest Service to
develop a cohesive strategy to counter the growing threat that
catastrophic wildfires pose to the national forests in the interior
West. Developing and implementing such a strategy presents a difficult
challenge for the Forest Service because the wildfire issue transcends
the boundaries of both its regions and forests and its resource-specific
programs. GAO's comments are based on earlier reports and testimony.
(See GAO/T-RCED-98-273, Sept. 1998, GAO/T-RCED-99-79, Feb. 1999, and
GAO/RCED-99-65, Apr. 1999.)

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-RCED-99-241
     TITLE:  Western National Forests: Status of Forest Service's
	     Efforts to Reduce Catastrophic Wildfire Threats
      DATE:  06/29/1999
   SUBJECT:  Emergency preparedness
	     Forest conservation
	     Forest management
	     National forests
	     Wildlife conservation
	     Environmental monitoring
IDENTIFIER:  Pacific Northwest Forest Plan

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    United States General Accounting Office GAO
    Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health,
    Committee on Resources, House of Representatives For Release on
    Delivery          WESTERN NATIONAL Expected at 2:00 p.m. EDT
    FORESTS Tuesday June 29, 1999 Status of Forest Service's Efforts
    to Reduce Catastrophic Wildfire Threats Statement of Barry T.
    Hill, Associate Director, Energy, Resources, and Science Issues,
    Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division GAO/T-
    RCED-99-241 Madam Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: We are
    here today to discuss the status of efforts by the Department of
    Agriculture's Forest Service to develop a cohesive strategy to
    reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires on national forests in
    the interior West. Our comments are based primarily on the report
    and two testimonies that we prepared for this Subcommittee over
    the last year1 and the agency's actions to date in response to our
    findings and recommendation. In summary, the Forest Service has
    begun to develop a strategy to address the growing threat that
    catastrophic wildfires pose to forest resources and nearby
    communities. Developing and implementing such a strategy presents
    a difficult challenge to the agency because the wildfire issue
    transcends the boundaries of both its regions and forests and its
    resource-specific programs. Confronted with other issues that
    transcend these boundaries-such as protecting the habitat of the
    threatened northern spotted owl-the Forest Service has, on
    occasion, shown that it can develop and implement a cohesive
    strategy expeditiously and at a relatively low cost. At other
    times, it has begun to develop a strategy but has either studied
    and restudied the issue without ever doing so or developed a
    strategy but left its implementation to the discretion of its
    independent and highly autonomous field offices with mixed
    results. A key factor that separates the strategies that are
    effectively implemented from those that are not is whether the
    agency treats the issue as an agencywide priority. Those issues
    that are treated as priorities (1) benefit from a sense of urgency
    and strong leadership by top-level management in developing and
    implementing a strategy, (2) are addressed through a strategy that
    provides the agency's managers with adequate direction and sets
    standards for holding them accountable, and (3) are allocated the
    resources necessary to implement the strategy. To date, we have
    not seen the strong leadership or the marshalling of funds and
    resources within the agency that would indicate to us that the
    Forest Service feels a sense of urgency and assigns a high
    priority to reducing the threat of catastrophic wildfires.
    1Western National Forests: Catastrophic Wildfires Threaten
    Resources and Communities (GAO/T-RCED-98-273, Sept. 28, 1998);
    Western National Forests: Nearby Communities Are Increasingly
    Threatened by Catastrophic Wildfires (GAO/T-RCED-99-79, Feb. 9,
    1999); and Western National Forests: A Cohesive Strategy Is Needed
    to Address Catastrophic Wildfire Threats (GAO/RCED-99-65, Apr. 2,
    1999). Page 1
    GAO/T-RCED-99-241 The Forest Service               In April 1999,
    we reported that many national forests in the interior West, Has
    Agreed to                    as well as nearby communities, are
    increasingly threatened by large, catastrophic wildfires caused by
    the excessive accumulation of vegetation Develop a Cohesive
    that forms fuels for such fires. Fuels are accumulating, in large
    part, Strategy to Reduce               because for decades the
    agency has suppressed fire in forests where frequent, low-
    intensity fires historically removed such accumulations. We the
    Threat of                    observed that the actions taken by
    the agency to date to deal with this Catastrophic Wildfires
    problem may be too little, too late. Moreover, the Forest Service
    faces several barriers, including (1) difficulties in reconciling
    different fuel reduction methods with other stewardship
    objectives, such as clean air and clean water; (2) programmatic
    incentives that tend to focus efforts on areas that may not
    present the highest fire hazards; (3) statutorily defined
    contracting procedures that impede efforts to reduce fuels; and
    (4) the high costs associated with implementing the different fuel
    reduction methods. We also found that the agency lacks the data
    required to overcome these barriers and to establish meaningful
    goals and measures for fuel reduction. The Forest Service agreed
    with our findings and recommendation that it develop a cohesive
    strategy for addressing these barriers and reducing fuels and
    formally communicate the strategy to the Congress, together with
    estimates of the costs to implement it. According to the Forest
    Service, it intends to develop a strategy by December 31, 1999.
    Developing a Strategy            Developing and implementing a
    strategy to address the growing threat of Presents a Difficult
    catastrophic wildfires in the interior West presents a difficult
    challenge to the Forest Service. We estimate that the cost to the
    agency to reduce fuels Challenge to the                 on the 39
    million acres of national forestland in the interior West that are
    Forest Service                   at high risk could be as much as
    $725 million annually, or more than 10 times the current level of
    funding for reducing fuels. Such a strategy also transcends the
    boundaries of both the Forest Service's field and program
    structures. For example, the 155 national forests are the agency's
    basic planning units, and each forest has considerable autonomy
    and discretion in interpreting and applying the agency's policies
    and directions. However, a strategy to reduce the risk of
    catastrophic fire in the region will need to transcend the
    boundaries of individual forests and involve most, if not all, of
    the 91 national forests located in the interior West. Page 2
    GAO/T-RCED-99-241 Similarly, a strategy to reduce fuels must
    include all three of the Forest Service's major organizational
    areas-the National Forest System, which includes the national
    forests; State and Private Forestry programs, which include those
    for hazardous fuel reduction; and the Research and Development arm
    of the agency, which conducts fire-related research. Within the
    National Forest System, such a strategy will need to draw funds
    and staff from many of the agency's nine resource-specific
    programs, including those responsible for timber, wildlife and
    fish, recreation, and water and air quality. These programs often
    have separate staffs in the agency's headquarters and field
    offices. Forest Service field staff told us that it is often
    difficult to undertake needed fuel reduction efforts because the
    agency's areas and programs often have different goals,
    objectives, and funding sources; use different criteria to
    allocate funds to the field offices; and are not adequately
    coordinated to focus on overarching priorities, such as fuel
    reduction. The Forest Service             Confronted with other
    issues that transcend the boundaries of its field and Has
    Adequately                 program structures, the Forest Service
    has, on occasion, shown that it can develop and implement a
    cohesive strategy. For example, together with Addressed Some
    the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
    the Issues That Transcend Forest Service developed and is
    implementing a regional land management strategy in the Pacific
    Northwest called the Northwest Forest Plan. The Its Boundaries,
    but            plan provides management direction for 22.3 million
    acres of land Not Others                     managed by the two
    agencies-including 19 national forests and 7 BLM districts-in the
    range of the threatened northern spotted owl.2 The agencies
    completed the plan expeditiously and at a relatively low cost
    compared with past national forest planning efforts. The plan not
    only resulted in the federal courts' lifting the injunctions that
    had brought timber sales on federal lands in the Pacific Northwest
    to a virtual halt, but also provided guidance on protecting the
    environment across the ecosystem. Key factors that contributed to
    the timely and cost-effective development of the Northwest Forest
    Plan included the (1) sense of urgency created by the court
    injunctions and (2) strong leadership displayed by top-level
    officials in developing the plan. Moreover, the plan provides the
    agencies' land managers with adequate direction for implementation
    and sets standards for holding them accountable. In addition, the
    plan has been identified as a special project for funding in the
    Forest Service's fiscal year 2Ecosystem Planning: Northwest Forest
    and Interior Columbia River Basin Plans Demonstrate Improvements
    in Land-Use Planning (GAO/RCED-99-64, May 26, 1999). Page 3
    GAO/T-RCED-99-241 budget justifications, and funds are withheld
    from the regions' and forests' budgets to develop and implement
    the plan before they are allocated to resource-specific programs.
    Other agencywide issues, however, have languished for years as the
    Forest Service has undertaken study after study without ever
    developing a strategy or has developed a strategy but left its
    implementation to the discretion of its independent and highly
    autonomous regional offices and forests with mixed results. In
    fiscal year 1991, for example, the Congress asked the Forest
    Service to develop a multiyear strategy to reduce the escalating
    costs of its timber program by not less than 5 percent per year.
    The agency responded by undertaking a cost-reduction study and
    issuing a report in April 1993. However, the Forest Service left
    the implementation of the field-level actions to the discretion of
    each of its nine regional offices, and while some regions rapidly
    pursued the goal of becoming cost-efficient, others did not. In
    April 1997, the agency was preparing to undertake the third major
    examination of its timber program in the last 4 years. Similarly,
    the House Committee on the Budget has an ongoing interest in the
    Forest Service's efforts to be more cost-effective and
    businesslike in its operations. In October 1998, the agency agreed
    to revise the strategic plan that it has developed to comply with
    the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act of
    1993 (the Results Act) to include goals and performance measures
    for obtaining fair market value for goods, recovering costs for
    services, and containing expenses. However, to date the agency has
    not done so. Reducing the Threat        At the Forest Service, a
    key factor that separates the strategies that are of Catastrophic
    effectively implemented from those that are not is whether the
    agency treats the issue as an agencywide priority. For example,
    improving the Wildfires Does Not         condition of the road
    system in the national forests is clearly a high Appear to Be a
    High        priority within the agency and is one of only four
    areas emphasized in the Forest Service's natural resource agenda.
    This agenda sets the agency's Priority for the Forest
    priorities and gives strategic focus to its programs. Under the
    agenda, and Service                    at the direction of the
    Chief of the Forest Service, the agency is developing a long-term
    forest road policy that will guide (1) the building of new roads;
    (2) the elimination of old, unneeded ones; (3) the upgrade and
    maintenance of roads that are important to public access; and (4)
    the development of new and dependable funding for road management.
    To accomplish these objectives, the Forest Service has (1)
    identified the issue Page 4
    GAO/T-RCED-99-241 as a funding priority in its fiscal year 2000
    budget justification, (2) requested an additional $22.6 million
    for maintaining and decommissioning roads during fiscal year 2000,
    (3) proposed a new appropriation for fiscal year 2000 that
    includes moneys for reconstructing and maintaining roads, and (4)
    linked the issue to the goals and objectives in its strategic
    plan. In comparison, reducing the growing threat of catastrophic
    wildfires is not emphasized in the agency's natural resource
    agenda or in its strategic plan, and top-level management has not
    been involved in developing a fuel reduction strategy. In
    addition, only one of the Forest Service's three major
    organizational areas with responsibility for reducing fuels-State
    and Private Forestry programs-has been tasked with developing such
    a strategy. A team from various disciplines within the agency is
    to advise staff from State and Private Forestry. The strategy is
    to be developed by the end of the year, but the team has not yet
    been formed and a leader has not yet been appointed. In addition,
    even though the Forest Service said that it would need an
    additional $37 million in fiscal year 2000 to increase the number
    of acres treated, the agency did not request any additional funds
    and will therefore treat about 60,000 fewer acres next year than
    it will treat this year. Madam Chairman, we recognize that the
    Forest Service has just begun to develop a fuel reduction strategy
    and that priorities can, and do, change. If reducing the threat of
    catastrophic wildfires does become a priority, then we would
    expect it to be reflected in three documents that the agency will
    issue over the next 8 months. The first will be the Forest
    Service's updated strategic plan that is scheduled for release
    this fall. If fuel reduction has become a high priority for the
    agency, then we would expect it to appear in the strategic plan as
    an objective or outcome, or at least to be linked to the plan's
    goals and objectives. The second document will be the strategy
    itself. A good indicator of the priority given to fuel reduction
    will be whether the strategy provides the agency's land managers
    with adequate direction for implementation and sets standards for
    holding them accountable or whether it merely provides broad,
    general objectives and direction that cannot be quantified or
    measured. Finally, and probably most telling of all, will be the
    Forest Service's fiscal year 2001 budget request. If fuel
    reduction is accorded a high priority, then we would expect the
    agency to identify the strategy as a special project for funding
    and to withhold funds from the regions' and forests' budgets to
    develop and implement the strategy before funds are allocated to
    resource-specific programs. Page 5
    GAO/T-RCED-99-241 Madam Chairman, this concludes my formal
    statement. If you or the other Members of the Subcommittee have
    any questions, we will be pleased to answer them. Contact and
    For future contacts regarding this testimony, please contact Barry
    T. Hill Acknowledgment    at (202) 512-8021. Individuals making
    key contributions to this testimony included Charles S. Cotton,
    Chester M. Joy, and Michael J. Daulton. (141349)          Page 6
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