United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-09-29 monographic deposited born digital 30 p. GA 1.13:RCED-00-256 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-256 P0b002ee1803a0a8a f:rc00256 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-256 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-256 RCED-00-256 Agency missions Strategic planning Performance measures National forests Forest management Accountability USDA National Forest System National Park System Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Forest Service's forest plan, focusing on the extent to which the Forest Service's proposed regulations: (1) make clear the agency's mission priorities before beginning the process of revising a forest plan; (2) link forest plans to agencywide goals, objectives, and strategies; and (3) hold the forests more accountable for key elements of forest planning.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) a lack of clear direction on how to resolve conflicts among competing uses on national forest lands has contributed significantly to inefficiency and waste in the Forest Service's development and implementation of forest plans; (2) to address this deficiency, the agency's 1999 proposed planning regulations would make ecological sustainability, rather than economic or social sustainability, the agency's top priority, in order to provide a sustainable flow of products, services, and other values from national forests; (3) elevating the maintenance or restoration of ecological systems over other uses on the national forests is consistent with the agency's evolving mission, which now favors resource protection over production; (4) however, the priority assigned to ecological sustainability is not driven by the statutory authorities specific to the management of the national forests; (5) rather, it has evolved over many years, responding, in part, to the requirements in environmental laws and their implementing regulations and judicial interpretations; (6) as a result, Congress has never explicitly accepted ecological sustainability as the Forest Service's highest priority or acknowledged its effects on the availability of timber, recreation, and other goods and services on the national forests; (7) the Forest Service has made some progress in developing goals, objectives, and strategies that help translate its priorities into on-the-ground projects and activities; (8) the agency is refining its goals and objectives to better focus on outcomes and results to be achieved over time; (9) it is also developing a strategy to reduce the incidence of uncontrollable and often catastrophic wildfires; (10) yet, even though many of these goals, objectives, and strategies are to be implemented through on-the-ground projects and activities governed by individual forest plans, the agency's proposed planning regulations do not require that these forest plans be clearly linked to the goals, objectives, and strategies; (11) in developing and implementing forest plans, national forests have not always: (a) based their decisions on accurate and complete data; (b) adequately involved the public and other government agencies throughout the forest planning process; or (c) lived up to monitoring requirements, particularly those for monitoring the effects of past planning decisions; and (12) this has resulted in legal challenges to the plans and limited the implementation of efforts to expedite the planning process. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-256/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-256.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-256/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-256.pdf GAO/RCED-00-256 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-256 Letter Report GAO/RCED-00-256; Forest Service: Proposed Regulations Adequately Address; Agency missions Strategic planning Performance measures National forests Forest management Accountability USDA National Forest System National Park System