Copyright 2000 Federal News Service, Inc.
Federal News Service
February 29, 2000, Tuesday
SECTION: PREPARED TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 4239 words
HEADLINE:
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MIKE DOMBECK CHIEF, FOREST SERVICE UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
BEFORE THE SENATE
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
SUBJECT - FOREST
SERVICE FISCAL YEAR 2001 BUDGET
BODY:
Chairman Murkowski, Senator Bingaman, and members of the Committee,
thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Forest
Service's proposed budget for fiscal year 2001.
Performance and
financial accountability will be key to building agency credibility, without
which we will be unable to obtain the necessary resources to accomplish the
agency's mission. As I testified before the House Interior and Related Agencies
Subcommittee on February 16, 2000, the Forest Service is implementing a variety
of actions to enhance its financial management, fully integrate strategic
planning and budgeting, and demonstrate organizational effectiveness through the
application of sound business practices.
In my testimony today, I want
to discuss four key areas: 1) sustainable communities; 2) funding and objectives
for the Natural Resource Agenda program areas; 3) actions the Forest Service is
taking to ensure it improves program and financial accountability; and 4) other
highlights from of the President's budget.
The President's budget
supports the Forest Service Natural Resource Agenda and is directly tied to the
Government Performance and Results Act. The budget proposes a simplified budget
structure for the National Forest System appropriation to reflect betterthe
agency's routine activities, as well as its integrated activities to restore and
maintain land health while promoting ecological sustainability. Overall, the
President's budget is requesting $3.1 billion for Forest
Service discretionary spending in fiscal year 2001. This is a 14.8 percent
increase over fiscal year 2000 that is necessary to ensure the Forest Service
accomplishes its multiple-use mission of caring for the land and serving people.
The budget proposes an increase of $13.3 million to enhance the
agency's role in forest and rangeland research. It includes funding for such
things as the use of agricultural products for energy and fiber, the role of
carbon in productivity cycles, and applications of new technology in resource
management. The budget also proposes an increase of 23.8 percent in the State
and Private Forestry appropriation that now includes funding for International
Programs. This increase will help State and private land managers practice
sustainable forestry and conservation of their lands.
SUSTAINABLE
COMMUNITIES
Let me first share some thoughts with you about how we can
work together to ensure we have sustainable communities that thrive, prosper and
promote land health and community well-being. To accommodate these goals the
Forest Service is shifting its focus to pay greater attention to what we leave
behind on the land, as reflected in three of our major policy initiatives.
Roadless Initiative: Our roadless initiative recognizes the unique role
that public lands play in maintaining large blocks of unfragmented forest. In an
increasingly developed landscape, the ecological and social values of roadless
areas are essential for protecting drinking water supplies, providing habitat
for rare and vanishing fish and wildlife species, hunting and fishing and other
recreation opportunities, bulwarks against the spread of invasive species, and
reference areas for research. Less than 5 percent of our planned timber harvest
is projected from these areas.
Roads Policy: Our soon to be released
draft road policy will help us better manage more than 380,000 miles of roads to
ensure safe public access while stemming erosion and protecting water quality.
Providing sufficient access is especially important considering that we soon
expect to see one billion visitors to our National Forests in a year.
Land Management Planning Regulations: Our draft planning regulations
will ensure the protection of ecological sustainability through a framework of
collaborative stewardship and better integration of science and management. To
meet the social and economic needs of local communities, I believe the Forest
Service should operate in an open and transparent manner, so the American people
have every opportunity to influence and shape the way their land legacy is
managed; these new regulations will help accomplish that objective.
Mr.
Chairman, I pledge to you today that we will keep the Congress fully informed as
these policy initiatives mature and develop and invite you to be a part of the
public process.
NATURAL RESOURCE AGENDA
When I became Chief,
many people, including members of Congress, complained that the Forest Service
had lost sense of its mission. In response, I outlined a Forest Service "Natural
Resource Agenda for the 21st Century." The Natural Resource Agenda makes clear
that land and watershed health is the agency's highest priority. This is based
on the simple premise that we cannot meet the social and economic needs of the
people without first securing our goal of healthy, diverse, and productive
ecosystems.
The Natural Resource Agenda sets agency priorities and gives
strategic focus to Forest Service programs, emphasizing watershed health and
restoration, sustainable forest ecosystem management, the National Forest road
system, and recreation.
Watershed Health and Restoration: The Forest
Service is the Nation's largest and most important water provider. National
Forest lands are the largest single source of water in the continental United
States. Over 3,400 communities rely on National Forest lands in 33 states for
their drinking water, serving over 60 million people. We recently determined the
water on National Forest lands to be valued, at a minimum, of more than
$3.7 billion per year. This $3.7 billion does
not include the value of maintaining fish species, recreation values, nor the
savings to municipalities who have low filtration costs because water from
National Forests is so clean.
Although there have been significant
improvements in water quality since the Clean Water Act of 1972, 40 to 50
percent of our watersheds still need restoration and protection. The Forest
Service is a full partner in carrying out the President's Clean Water Action
Plan that aims to protect public health and restore our Nation's precious
waterways by setting strong goals and providing States, communities, farmers,
and landowners with the tools and resources to meet these goals. The fiscal year
2001 budget includes an increase of $84 million for continued
implementation of the Clean Water Action Plan.
The Forest Service will
use cooperative strategies built around watersheds and the communities they
sustain to implement the Clean Water Action Plan, including restoring stream
corridors and riparian areas, cleaning abandoned mine lands and hazardous
material sites, decommissioning and maintaining roads, and improving rangeland
vegetation and grazing management.
In fiscal year 2001, the Forest
Service will focus on twelve large- scale watershed restoration projects begun
in fiscal year 2000, investing more than $18 million to
accelerate implementation of the projects. The Forest Service expects partner
organizations such as conservation, wildlife and forest management groups,
AmericanIndian tribes, State and local governments, and community organizations
to match its funding commitment.
The 12 projects include:
-- Research and development in New York City's municipal watersheds and
the Chesapeake Bay; -- River restoration on the Chattooga, Conasauga, Rio
Penasco, Upper Sevier, Upper South Platte, Warner Mountain/Hackamore, and White
Rivers; and -- Pacific Costal watersheds, the Blue Mountains of Oregon, and the
Lower Mississippi Valley.
In carrying out these projects and the
agency-wide focus on watershed health, the Forest Service will draw upon many
disciplines, including State, Private and International Forestry, the National
Forest System, and Research.
An important aspect of restoring and
improving watershed health addresses the lands at risk. Traditionally, risk has
meant fire danger and insect and disease infestation. Over 58 million acres of
the nation's forest lands are at risk due to mortality from insects and disease
and 40 million acres within the National Forests are at risk of catastrophic
wildfire due to past management practices and fire suppression. The Forest
Service fully intends to use active management to treat these stands to restore
forest health and in the process, provide jobs and wood fiber to local
communities.
We need to look at risk with a different perspective,
thinking of risk in terms of the 40 to 50 percent of agency managed lands that
require attention on a broad scale for a variety of reasons. For example,
recreation facilities, trails, and roads that are poorly maintained result in
national forest lands being at risk due to degraded water quality which harms
fisheries, wetlands and riparian areas. Further, we need to expand the
discussion of risk beyond National Forest System lands to the non-federal forest
lands at risk not only due to watershed quality problems, but also due to
conversion from open space. The Administration has proposed several strategies
to address this broad risk issue including a $9.5 million
effort to research and implement new methods for economical use of small
diameter trees to meet national wood fiber demands.
Watershed
restoration and protection will also serve as the focus of future forest plan
revisions. The fiscal year 2001 funding request for the watershed health and
restoration component of the Natural Resource Agenda totals
$487.7 million, a 9 percent increase over fiscal year 2000.
Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Management: The Forest Service and its
partners are using a comprehensive criteria and indicator framework to achieve
sustainable forest and range management in the Untied States. In 1999, the
agency released new draft planning regulations that provide a framework for
implementing collaborative stewardship. When completed, these regulations will
govern administration of 192 million acres of National Forest System lands.
Sustainable management of all of the Nation's forest and rangelands
requires collaboration among many interests and coordination across the
landscape. The United States has adopted the Sustainable Forest Management
Criteria and Indicators developedthrough the international Montreal Process.
They provide a common framework allowing the Forest Service to work with
interested State and private landowners to evaluate the health, diversity, and
resiliency of our nation's forests. The Forest Service is leading a national
effort to gather and report on the state of the Nation's forests in 2003.
The fiscal year 2001 requested funding for the Sustainable Forest
Ecosystem Management component of the Natural Resource Agenda totals
$406.7 million, a 16 percent increase over fiscal year 2000.
National Forest Road System: Mr. Chairman, I know there is significant
interest about our roadless initiative. We must put the 30-year controversy over
roadless areas to rest. One of the reasons I think it is so important to resolve
the roadless issue is so we can begin to address other pressing demands, such as
forest health.
The National Forest System has more than 380,000 miles of
classified roads and more than 60,000 miles of unclassified roads. However, the
agency only receives about 20 percent of the funding it needs annually to
maintain these roads to Federal safety and environmental standards. As a result,
the deferred maintenance backlog is in the billions of dollars.
Last
fall the President asked the Forest Service to begin developing a proposal to
conserve and protect National Forest roadless areas that have remained unroaded
for a variety of reasons including inaccessibility, rugged terrain, or
environmental sensitivity. These areas also serve as the headwaters to many
watersheds and provide clean water and wildlife habitat as well as aesthetic
values.
The proposal we are developing has two parts. First, we are
considering restricting certain activities, such as road construction and
reconstruction in the unroaded portions of inventoried roadless areas, the areas
inventoried in the 1970's during two Roadless Area Reviews (RARE I and RARE II)
and through the forest planning efforts of the 1980's and 1990's. Today, a large
number of these areas remain roadless.
Second, we will consider
establishing procedures for local forests to consider as they plan activities in
roadless areas. More than 500,000 people have already participated in the
rulemaking. To accommodate this level of interest, we have taken the
unprecedented step of holding public meetings on every National Forest to
discuss the issue.
We will soon release the proposed road management
policy and draft environmental assessment for public comment. The policy
outlines a process by which the Forest Service and local people can work
together to determine the best way to manage local forest transportation
systems, to make the existing forest road system safe, responsive to public
needs, environmentally sound, affordable, and efficient to manage. It would: 1.
Be implemented through extensive public involvement and analysis at the local
level; 2. Require use of a scientific analysis procedure to help land managers
and the public identify both heavily used roads that need to be maintained or
upgraded,and roads that are unused or environmentally damaging that can be
decommissioned; and 3. Place a new emphasis on maintaining and reconstructing
existing roads rather than building new roads, given the extensive road system
that is already in place in most National Forests.
Before the Forest
Service builds news roads in roadless areas, it should invest its limited
resources on projects that have broader support, cost less, and have fewer
environmental effects. Our fiscal year 2001 funding request for the National
Forest Road System of the Natural Resource Agenda totals $129.5
million, an 11 percent increase over fiscal year 2000.
Recreation:
Recreation is the fastest growing use of the National Forests and Grasslands.
The Forest Service is the Nation's largest supplier of public outdoor recreation
opportunities, providing more that 2.5 million jobs and contributing more than
$100 billion to the Nation's gross national product.
The Natural Resource Agenda seeks to provide recreation opportunities
that do not compromise land health and that increase customer satisfaction,
educate Americans about then' public lands, build community partnerships, and
develop new business relationships with partners to expand recreation
opportunities. Some of the recreation assets on our National Forests include:
-- 31 National recreation areas, scenic areas and monuments; -- 133
scenic byways; -- 56 major visitor centers; -- Over 133,000 miles of trails; --
Over 4,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers; -- More than 18,000 campgrounds,
picnic areas and visitor facilities; -- 50% of the habitat for salmon and trout
in the lower 48 States; -- 80% of the habitat for elk, bighorn sheep and
mountain goat in the lower 48 States; -- 63% of the designated wilderness in the
lower 48 States; -- 2.3 million acres of fishable lakes, ponds and reservoirs;
-- 200,000 miles of fishable streams; and -- Hundreds of thousands of listings
on the National Register of Historic Places.
In an urbanized society,
outdoor recreation provides most Americans with an opportunity to connect to the
lands and waters that sustain them. The Forest Service has a unique brand of
nature-based recreation to offer, including undeveloped settings and an array of
services that complement the enjoyment of these special places. Recreation
visitors expect a great deal from the Forest Service and they will expect even
more in the future.
The fiscal year 2001 funding request
includes $30 million proposed for developing tourism,
reengineering the special use permitting process, and developing
trails,recreational facilities and attractions targeted toward lower income or
resource-dependent areas adjacent to National Forests.
The recreation
component of the Natural Resource Agenda has developed a 6-point action plan to
serve better the American public, including: 1. Conduct market research to get
to know the people we serve; 2. Invest in special places, especially those being
"loved to death" by visitation exceeding the capacity of the site; 3. Reduce
deferred maintenance through the application of techniques that assuring
long-term sustainability of the site; 4. Invest in natural resource conservation
education and interpretive services; 5. Take advantage of new business
opportunities and provide services for underserved and low-income people; and 6.
Aggressively secure, provide, and maintain a forest road system that is
ecologically sound and available to all Americans.
Among the most
valuable products of the National Forests are the experiences that live on a
roll of film, or live as childhood memories of family hiking or camping
experiences, or in the exhilaration one feels while running a wild river or
seeing the crystal clear waters of Lake Tahoe. There is something for everyone
to enjoy on the National Forests, We strive to serve new constituencies, urban
populations, underserved and low-income people, and to maintain the relevancy of
National Forests for future generations. The fiscal year 2001 proposed funding
for the recreation component of the Natural Resource Agenda totals
$397.4 million, a 13 percent increase over fiscal year 2000.
PROGRAM AND FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY
I would like to now discuss
our progress in restoring program and financial accountability to the Forest
Service. With the dedicated help of Secretary Dan Glickman, we have worked very
closely with other parts of the Department of Agriculture to implement the
needed financial and programmatic reforms.
As I have said many times, if
the Forest Service were in the private sector, with our 30,000-person workforce
and 3.3 billion dollar budget, we would rival any Fortune 500 company. At the
same time, due to persistent management weaknesses, financial accounting
deficiencies, weak data, and poor strategic planning, I doubt very much we would
last long in that environment.
The Forest Service has not yet received a
clean financial audit. When I arrived here, I had more than 35 individuals
directly reporting to me. Our complex and cumbersome accounting system was
staggering under the weight of 100 million individual financial transactions per
month. Our Byzantine budget structure made it common that a district ranger
interested in accomplishing 15 projects on the ground might have to make 600
budget entries simply to establish the projects in the accounting system.
Meanwhile,because we have paid little heed to strategic planning, appropriated
budgets rarely, if ever, track expected outcomes described in agency forest
plans.
No Chief of the Forest Service in recent history has had to
address the issue of accountability more than I have. I know that a clean audit
by itself will not restore the agency's credibility with Congress and the
American people; the agency must change its culture based on the knowledge we
cannot be effective resource managers if we are not first accountable for the
taxpayers' money and for our own actions on the landscape.
I will not
ask Congress to continue supporting our efforts of budget simplification if we
cannot clearly show how the Forest Service is using the taxpayers' money to
conserve and restore the health, diversity, and resiliency of our lands and
waters and provide services to the American public.
I am happy to report
to you that the Forest Service has:
-- Successfully implemented a new
accounting system; -- Developed a simplified proposed budget structure for the
National Forest System that links on-the-ground performance to implementation of
the agency's strategic plan and the Natural Resource Agenda; -- Submitted a
performance-based fiscal year 2001 budget so you and the public can evaluate it
based on more than the level of funding requested - it now includes 47
performance measures; -- Implemented the Primary Purpose method for changing
expenditures to reduce the number of financial transactions by the millions; --
Developed an integrated set of land health and service to people performance
measures, that link land health and other outcomes on the land to its strategic
plan and budget information; -- Published its draft Strategic Plan (2000
Revision) for comment that shifts the focus of agency management away from
inputs, outputs and process to outcomes on the landscape; * For the first time
in many years, filled all leadership positions and also established the offices
of the Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Financial Officer to take
responsibility for improved program analysis and the linking of budget processes
to agency performance and strategic planning; -- Conducted the first thorough
real property inventory in the agency's history that is critical for our
financial audit; -- Developed and implemented standard definitions for indirect
costs; -- Eliminated the backlog of over 1,000 civil rights complaints; and --
Replaced its crumbling technology infrastructure with a totally new platform for
management of information technology
Mr. Chairman, I do not think that
there should be any doubt that these actions demonstrate Forest Service
leadership is committed to fix program and financial accountability
deficiencies.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET
I want
to emphasize some other important aspects of the President's budget.
President's Lands Legacy Initiative: This initiative
highlights the Administration's continued commitment to protect public open
space by acquiring lands for conservation and recreation.
By working
with States, tribes, local governments and private partners, the Forest Service
acquires lands to protect cultural and historic treasures, conserve open space
for recreation and wildlife habitat, protect clean water supplies and wilderness
areas and preserve forests, farmlands, and coastal areas. The fiscal year 2001
budget includes $253.5 million for the programs within the
Lands Legacy Initiative, an increase of $23.8
million.
The land acquisition portion of the initiative is funded
through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Many of the acquired lands are
located in congressionally designated areas such as Wilderness, National
Recreation Areas, Wild and Scenic Rivers and National Scenic Trails.
Acquisitions also improve forest management through consolidation of boundaries
and providing access to existing National Forests and Grasslands.
Forest
Legacy, Urban and Community Forestry and Economic Action Programs also provide
an avenue for the Forest Service to work with States and willing private
landowners to provide jobs while conserving important forest economic,
ecologicalenvironmental and social values that represent national priorities.
Legislative Proposals: The Administration will advance several new
legislative proposals including Payments to States Stabilization, Healthy
Investments in Rural Environments (HIRE), Land Acquisition Reinvestment Fund,
and Facilities Acquisition and Enhancement Fund. Mr. Chairman, I am especially
excited about our payments to states legislation that we will transmit shortly.
It focuses on providing States with stable and permanent education funding,
while allowing more money to be spent on forest health restoration and rural
economic development.
The President's budget includes special emphasis
on employing rural workers and enhancing the skills of America's youth. The
Administration is proposing the HIRE program in conjunction with a comprehensive
proposal to reform four of our trust funds. This proposal eliminates the trust
funds that have historically been dependent on timber receipts and proposes
establishing a new permanent mandatory appropriation. All the work conducted
under the existing trust fund authorities would be allowed under this new
mandatory appropriation, but with preference for local contracting and employing
of skilled rural workers to accomplish the work. With this expanded authority
and appropriate funding levels, attention will be focused on addressing our
critical facility, road, and watershed restoration backlog. In addition, the
Administration proposes to increase minimum funding for the Youth Conservation
Corps from $1 million to $4million. This will
provide even greater opportunity to accomplish needed restoration and
maintenance work, while providing valuable natural resource management
experience to increasing numbers of America's youth.
The fiscal year
2001 budget also reflects a number of legislative proposals that would reform
selected programs to initiate or increase fee collections and expand the
involvement of the private sector where appropriate.
IN CONCLUSION
Mr. Chairman, this budget effectively provides the resources necessary
to implement our programs consistent with the Forest Service's Natural Resource
Agenda, Presidential Initiatives and other priority funding areas. More
importantly, the proposed new budget structure and performance-based approach
shows the ecosystem conservation activities and public services that will
benefit ours and future generations.
This concludes my written
statement. I would be pleased to answer any questions that you may have.
END
LOAD-DATE: March 8, 2000
