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 1997-04-29 monographic deposited born digital 150 p. GA 1.13:RCED-97-71 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-71 P0b002ee18037238f f:rc97071 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-71 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-71 RCED-97-71 Land management National forests Agency missions Strategic planning Environmental law Land use law Forest management Accountability Interagency relations Wildlife conservation Forest Service Timber Sales Program Black Hills National Forest (SD) Carson National Forest (NM) Eldorado National Forest (CA) Flathead National Forest (MT) Deschutes National Forest (OR) Mt. Hood National Forest (OR) Gifford Pinchot National Forest (WA) Ouachita National Forest (AR) Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest (GA) Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest (NC) Forest Service Emergency Salvage Timber Sale Program Wenatchee National Forest (WA) Knutson-Vandenberg Trust Fund Salvage Sale Fund Columbia River Basin (WA) Boise National Forest (ID) Chapter Report RCED Pursuant to congressional requests, GAO reviewed the Forest Service's decisionmaking process, focusing on: (1) the inadequate attention that the Forest Service has given to improving the process; (2) the lack of agreement, both inside and outside the agency, on how it is to resolve conflicts among competing uses on its lands; (3) unresolved interagency issues that transcend its administrative boundaries and jurisdiction; and (4) differences in the requirements of laws that help frame its decisionmaking.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) some of the inefficiency in developing forest plans and reaching project-level decisions, as well as the ineffectiveness in achieving the plans' objectives, has occurred because the Forest Service has not given adequate attention to improving its decisionmaking process, including improving accountability for its performance; (2) as a result, the Forest Service: (a) must request more funds to accomplish fewer objectives during the yearly budget and appropriation process; and (b) has not corrected long-standing deficiencies within its decisionmaking process that have contributed to increased costs and time and/or the inability to achieve planned objectives; (3) strengthening accountability for performance within the Forest Service and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of its decisionmaking is contingent on establishing long-term strategic goals that are based on clearly defined mission priorities; (4) however, agreement does not exist on the agency's long-term strategic goals; (5) this lack of agreement is the result of a more fundamental disagreement, both inside and outside the Forest Service, over which uses the agency is to emphasize under its broad multiple-use and sustained-yield mandate and how best to ensure the long-term sustainability of these uses; (6) issues that transcend the agency's administrative boundaries and jurisdiction also affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the agency's decisionmaking; (7) in particular, the Forest Service has had difficulty reconciling the administrative boundaries of the national forests with the boundaries of natural systems, such as watersheds and vegetative and animal communities, both in planning and in assessing the effects of federal and nonfederal activities on the environment; (8) finally, the requirements of planning and environmental laws, enacted primarily during the 1960s and 1970s, have not been harmonized; (9) differences among the requirements of various laws and their differing judicial interpretations require some issues to be analyzed or reanalyzed at different stages in the Forest Service's decisionmaking process without any clear sequence leading to their timely resolution; (10) additional differences among the statutorily required approaches for protecting various resources have also sometimes been difficult to reconcile; and (11) however, GAO believes that statutory changes to improve the effici* https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-71/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-71.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-71/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-71.pdf GAO/RCED-97-71 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-71 Chapter Report GAO/RCED-97-71; Forest Service Decision-Making: A Framework for Improving Performance; Land management National forests Agency missions Strategic planning Environmental law Land use law Forest management Accountability Interagency relations Wildlife conservation Forest Service Timber Sales Program Black Hills National Forest (SD) Carson National Forest (NM) Eldorado National Forest (CA) Flathead National Forest (MT) Deschutes National Forest (OR) Mt. Hood National Forest (OR) Gifford Pinchot National Forest (WA) Ouachita National Forest (AR) Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest (GA) Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest (NC) Forest Service Emergency Salvage Timber Sale Program Wenatchee National Forest (WA) Knutson-Vandenberg Trust Fund Salvage Sale Fund Columbia River Basin (WA) Boise National Forest (ID) Public Law 104-19