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(f ) IMPLEMENTATION.--This section shall take effect upon promulgation of Forest Service regulations for the collection of fees for processing of
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SEC. 332. HARDWOOD TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND APPLIED RESEARCH. (a) The Secretary of Agriculture (hereinafter the ``Secretary'') is hereby and hereafter authorized to conduct technology transfer and development, training, dissemination of information and applied research in the management, processing and utilization of the hardwood forest resource. This authority is in addition to any other authorities which may be available to the Secretary including, but not limited to, the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978, as amended (16 U.S.C. 2101 et seq.), and the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Act of 1978, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1600-1614).
(b) In carrying out this authority, the Secretary may enter into grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements with public and private agencies, organizations, corporations, institutions and individuals. The Secretary may accept gifts and donations pursuant to the Act of October 10, 1978 (7 U.S.C. 2269) including gifts and donations from a donor that conducts business with any agency of the Department of Agriculture or is regulated by the Secretary of Agriculture.
(c) The Secretary is hereby and hereafter authorized to operate and utilize the assets of the Wood Education and Resource Center (previously named the Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technology Center in West Virginia) as part of a newly formed ``Institute of Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied Research'' (hereinafter the ``Institute''). The Institute, in addition to the Wood Education and Resource Center, will consist of a Director, technology transfer specialists from State and Private Forestry, the Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Princeton, West Virginia, and any other organizational unit of the Department of Agriculture as the Secretary deems appropriate. The overall management of the Institute will be the responsibility of the Forest Service, State and Private Forestry.
(d) The Secretary is hereby and hereafter authorized to generate revenue using the authorities provided herein. Any revenue received as part of the operation of the Institute shall be deposited into a special fund in the Treasury of the United States, known as the ``Hardwood Technology Transfer and Applied Research Fund'', which shall be available to the Secretary until expended, without further appropriation, in furtherance of the purposes of this section, including upkeep, management, and operation of the Institute and the payment of salaries and expenses.
(e) There are hereby and hereafter authorized to be appropriated such sums as necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.
SEC. 333. No timber in Region 10 of the Forest Service shall be advertised for sale which, when using domestic Alaska western red cedar selling values and manufacturing costs, fails to provide at least 60 percent of normal profit and risk of the appraised timber, except at the written request by a prospective bidder. Program accomplishments shall be based on volume sold. Should Region 10 sell, in fiscal year 2000, the annual average portion of the decadal allowable sale quantity called for in the current Tongass Land Management Plan which provides greater than 60 percent of normal profit and risk at the time of the sale advertisement, all of the western red cedar timber from those sales which is surplus to the needs of domestic processors in Alaska, shall be made available to domestic processors in the contiguous 48 United States based on values in the Pacific Northwest as determined by the Forest Service and stated in the timber sale contract. Should Region 10 sell, in fiscal year 2000, less than the annual average portion of the decadal allowable sale quantity called for in the current Tongass Land Management Plan meeting the 60 percent of normal profit and risk standard at the time of sale advertisement, the volume of western red cedar timber available to domestic processors at rates specified in the timber sale contract in the contiguous 48 United States shall be that volume: (1) which is surplus to the needs of domestic processors in Alaska; and (2) is that percent of the surplus western red cedar volume determined by calculating the ratio of the total timber volume which has been sold on the Tongass to the annual average portion of the decadal allowable sale quantity called for in the current Tongass Land Management Plan. The percentage shall be calculated by Region 10 on a rolling basis as each sale is sold (for purposes of this amendment, a ``rolling basis'' shall mean that the determination of how much western red cedar is eligible for sale to various markets shall be made at the time each sale is awarded). Western red cedar shall be deemed ``surplus to the needs of domestic processors in Alaska'' when the timber sale holder has presented to the Forest Service documentation of the inability to sell western red cedar logs from a given sale to domestic Alaska processors at a price equal to or greater than the log selling value stated in the contract. All additional western red cedar volume not sold to Alaska or contiguous 48 United States domestic processors may be exported to foreign markets at the election of the timber sale holder. All Alaska yellow cedar may be sold at prevailing export prices at the election of the timber sale holder.
SEC. 334. For fiscal year 2000, with respect to inventorying, monitoring, or surveying requirements for planning or management activities on Federal land, the Secretary of Agriculture may comply with part 219 of volume 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations and a land and resource management plan, and the Secretary of the Interior may comply with a resource management plan by using currently available scientific data concerning any fish, wildlife, or plants not subject to the Endangered Species Act, and by considering the availability of habitat suitable for the particular species: Provided, That the Secretaries may at their discretion determine whether additional species population surveys should also be collected: Provided further, That a project subject to the Northwest Forest Plan for which the record of decision was signed by an agency official prior to the date of the enactment of this Act may, at the discretion of the Secretaries, be deemed to be implemented on the date the decision was signed.
SEC. 335. The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior shall:
(1) prepare the report required of them by section 323(a) of the Fiscal Year 1998 Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (Public Law 105-83; 111 Stat. 1543, 1596-7);
(2) distribute the report and make such report available for public comment for a minimum of 120 days; and
(3) include detailed responses to the public comment in any final environmental impact statement associated with the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project.
SEC. 336. None of the funds appropriated by this Act shall be used to propose or issue rules, regulations, decrees, or orders for the purpose of implementation, or in preparation for implementation, of the Kyoto Protocol which was adopted on December 11, 1997, in Kyoto, Japan at the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has not been submitted to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification pursuant to article II, section 2, clause 2, of the United States Constitution, and which has not entered into force pursuant to article 25 of the Protocol.
SEC. 337. (a) MILLSITES OPINION.--No funds shall be expended by the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture, for fiscal years 2000 and 2001, to limit the number or acreage of millsites based on the ratio between the number or acreage of millsites and the number or acreage of associated lode or placer claims with respect to any patent application grandfathered pursuant to section 113 of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies, Appropriations Act, 1995; any operation or property for which a plan of operations has been previously approved; or any operation or property for which a plan of operations has been submitted to the Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service prior to May 21, 1999.
(b) NO RATIFICATION.--Nothing in this Act or the Emergency Supplemental Act of 1999 shall be construed as an explicit or tacit adoption, ratification, endorsement or approval of the opinion dated November 7, 1997, by the solicitor of the Department of the Interior concerning millsites.
SEC. 338. The Forest Service, in consultation with the Department of Labor, shall review Forest Service campground concessions policy to determine if modifications can be made to Forest Service contracts for campgrounds so that such concessions fall within the regulatory exemption of 29 CFR 4.122(b). The Forest Service shall offer in fiscal year 2000 such concession prospectuses under the regulatory exemption, except that, any prospectus that does not meet the requirements of the regulatory exemption shall be offered as a service contract in accordance with the requirements of 41 U.S.C. 351-358.
SEC. 339. PILOT PROGRAM OF CHARGES AND FEES FOR HARVEST OF FOREST BOTANICAL PRODUCTS. (a) DEFINITION OF FOREST BOTANICAL PRODUCT.--For purposes of this section, the term ``forest botanical product'' means any naturally occurring mushrooms, fungi, flowers, seeds, roots, bark, leaves, and other vegetation (or portion thereof ) that grow on National Forest System lands. The term does not include trees, except as provided in regulations issued under this section by the Secretary of Agriculture.
(b) RECOVERY OF FAIR MARKET VALUE FOR PRODUCTS.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall develop and implement a pilot program to charge and collect not less than the fair market value for forest botanical products harvested on National Forest System lands. The Secretary shall establish appraisal methods and bidding procedures to ensure that the amounts collected for forest botanical products are not less than fair market value.
(c) FEES.--
(1) IMPOSITION AND COLLECTION.--Under the pilot program, the Secretary of Agriculture shall also charge and collect fees from persons who harvest forest botanical products on National Forest System lands to recover all costs to the Department of Agriculture associated with the granting, modifying, or monitoring the authorization for harvest of the forest botanical products, including the costs of any environmental or other analysis.
(2) SECURITY.--The Secretary may require a person assessed a fee under this subsection to provide security to ensure that the Secretary receives the fees imposed under this subsection from the person.
(d) SUSTAINABLE HARVEST LEVELS FOR FOREST BOTANICAL PRODUCTS.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall conduct appropriate analyses to determine whether and how the harvest of forest botanical products on National Forest System lands can be conducted on a sustainable basis. The Secretary may not permit under the pilot program the harvest of forest botanical products at levels in excess of sustainable harvest levels, as defined pursuant to the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960 (16 U.S.C. 528 et seq.). The Secretary shall establish procedures and timeframes to monitor and revise the harvest levels established for forest botanical products.
(e) WAIVER AUTHORITY.--
(1) PERSONAL USE.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall establish a personal use harvest level for each forest botanical product, and the harvest of a forest botanical product below that level by a person for personal use shall not be subject to charges and fees under subsections (b) and (c).
(2) OTHER EXCEPTIONS.--The Secretary may also waive the application of subsection (b) or
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(f ) DEPOSIT AND USE OF FUNDS.--
(1) DEPOSIT.--Funds collected under the pilot program in accordance with subsections (b) and (c) shall be deposited into a special account in the Treasury of the United States.
(2) FUNDS AVAILABLE.--Funds deposited into the special account in accordance with paragraph (1) in excess of the amounts collected for forest botanical products during fiscal year 1999 shall be available for expenditure by the Secretary of Agriculture under paragraph (3) without further appropriation, and shall remain available for expenditure until the date specified in subsection (h)(2).
(3) AUTHORIZED USES.--The funds made available under paragraph (2) shall be expended at units of the National Forest System in proportion to the charges and fees collected at that unit under the pilot program to pay for--
(A) in the case of funds collected under subsection (b), the costs of conducting inventories of forest botanical products, determining sustainable levels of harvest, monitoring and assessing the impacts of harvest levels and methods, and for restoration activities, including any necessary vegetation; and
(B) in the case of fees collected under subsection (c), the costs described in paragraph (1) of such subsection.
(4) TREATMENT OF FEES.--Funds collected under subsections (b) and (c) shall not be taken into account for the purposes of the following laws:
(A) The sixth paragraph under the heading ``FOREST SERVICE'' in the Act of May 23, 1908 (16 U.S.C. 500) and section 13 of the Act of March 1, 1911 (commonly known as the Weeks Act; 16 U.S.C. 500).
(B) The fourteenth paragraph under the heading ``FOREST SERVICE'' in the Act of March 4, 1913 (16 U.S.C. 501).
(C) Section 33 of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act (7 U.S.C. 1012).
(D) The Act of August 8, 1937, and the Act of May 24, 1939 (43 U.S.C. 1181a et seq.).
(E) Section 6 of the Act of June 14, 1926 (commonly known as the Recreation and Public Purposes Act; 43 U.S.C. 869-4).
(F) Chapter 69 of title 31, United States Code.
(G) Section 401 of the Act of June 15, 1935 (16 U.S.C. 715s).
(H) Section 4 of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 (16 U.S.C. 460l-6a).
(I) Any other provision of law relating to revenue allocation.
(g) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.--As soon as practicable after the end of each fiscal year in which the Secretary of Agriculture collects charges and fees under subsections (b) and (c) or expends funds from the special account under subsection (f ), the Secretary shall submit to the Congress a report summarizing the activities of the Secretary under the pilot program, including the funds generated under subsections (b) and (c), the expenses incurred to carry out the pilot program, and the expenditures made from the special account during that fiscal year.
(h) DURATION OF PILOT PROGRAM.--
(1) CHARGES AND FEES.--The Secretary of Agriculture may collect charges and fees under the authority of subsections (b) and (c) only during fiscal years 2000 through 2004.
(2) USE OF SPECIAL ACCOUNT.--The Secretary may make expenditures from the special account under subsection (f ) until September 30 of the fiscal year following the last fiscal year specified in paragraph (1). After that date, amounts remaining in the special account shall be transferred to the general fund of the Treasury.
SEC. 340. Title III, section 3001 of Public Law 106-31 is amended by inserting after ``Alabama,'' the following: ``in fiscal year 1999 or 2000''.
SEC. 341. (a) The authority to enter into stewardship contracting demonstration pilot projects provided to the Forest Service in accordance with section 347 of title III of section 101(e) of division A of Public Law 105-277 is hereby expanded to authorize the Forest Service to enter into an additional nine projects in Region One.
(b) Section 347 of title III of section 101(e) of division A of Public Law 105-277 is hereby amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) by inserting ``, via agreement or contract as appropriate,'' before ``may enter into''; and
(B) by striking ``(28) contracts with private persons and'' and inserting ``(28) stewardship contracting demonstration pilot projects with private persons or other public or private'';
(2) in subsection (b), by striking ``contract'' and inserting ``project'';
(3) in subsection (c)--
(A) in the heading, by inserting ``Agreements or '' before ``Contracts'';
(B) in paragraph (1)--
(i) by striking ``a contract'' and inserting ``an agreement or contract''; and
(ii) by striking ``private contracts'' and inserting ``private agreements or contracts'';
(C) in paragraph (3), by inserting ``agreement or '' before ``contracts''; and
(D) in paragraph (4), by inserting ``agreement or '' before ``contracts'';
(4) in subsection (d)--
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``a contract'' and inserting ``an agreement or contract''; and
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``a contract'' and inserting ``an agreement or contract''; and
(5) in subsection (g)--
(A) in the first sentence by striking ``contract'' and inserting ``pilot project''; and
(B) in the last sentence--
(i) by inserting ``agreements or '' before ``contracts''; and
(ii) by inserting ``agreements or '' before ``contract''.
SEC. 342. Notwithstanding section 343 of Public Law 105-83, increases in recreation residence fees shall be implemented in fiscal year 2000 only to the extent that the fiscal year 2000 fees do not exceed the fiscal year 1999 fee by more than $2,000.
SEC. 343. Federal monies appropriated for the purchase of land or interests in land by the United States Forest Service (``Forest Service'') in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area (``CRGNSA'') shall be used by the Forest Service in compliance with the acquisition protocol set out in this section.
(a)(1) ACQUISITIONS.--The Secretary of Agriculture (``the Secretary'') is directed to make every reasonable effort to acquire on or before March 15, 2000, pursuant to his existing authority, land acquisition projects which the Forest Service has determined to have been delayed for a significant time or which have not yet been completed despite past direction through report language from either the House or Senate Appropriations Committee (``the Committees'').
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