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Future of Forest Service Fire Policy Senate/House negotiations on the Farm Bill, which the President signed on May 13, failed to include important forest health provisions, on which consensus had existed before a campaign launched by the American Lands Alliance caused influential Senators Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to rally opposition to those provisions. One provision would have authorized 75 forest stewardship projects annually to reduce fuel loading on federal lands; another would have subsidized biomass fuel markets in areas deemed at high fire risk. Both of these innovative, pre-emptive approaches to fire risk management must now await another opportunity. On May 23, the Administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding endorsing the Western Governor Association's "ten-year fire strategy," developed by a strong consensus of Western governors last year. The plan sets specific goals corresponding to various points throughout the coming decade for the federal government to meet certain milestones in fire prevention or suppression and in establishing certain capacities toward those ends. One broad goal, "Promote Community Assistance," includes the short-term objective of promoting commercial uses for small-diameter trees as early as 2003. This objective coordinates well with a vision Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth stated at length in his keynote address, "Small Tree Utilization: Challenge and Opportunity," at the "Smallwood 2002" convention, April 11 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. To read that speech, please click here. In May 1 testimony before the House Resources Committee, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman echoed the theme of "analysis paralysis" in federal forest management that Chief Bosworth has set his stamp on: "Frequently, this onerous process does little to improve the quality of agency decisions," she testified, affirming that "management by doing nothing is not an option." She even ventured to remind the Committee of a neglected element of the Forest Service's mission: that timber, whatever else it is, remains a commodity to be harvested and sold. Return to Public Policy Archive Forest Resources Association
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