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Federal Document Clearing House
Congressional Testimony
March 9, 2000, Thursday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 7614 words
HEADLINE:
TESTIMONY March 09, 2000 MIKE DOMBECK CHIEF UNITED STATE DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS INTERIOR INTERIOR
APPROPRIATIONS
BODY:
MIKE DOMBECK Chief Forest
Service United States Department of Agriculture Concerning FOREST SERVICE FISCAL
YEAR 2001 BUDGET March 9, 2000 Chairman Regular, Representative Dicks, and
members of the Subcommittee, 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 (Results Act). The
budget proposes a simplified budget structure for the National Forest System
appropriation to reflect better the 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 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 requests a $138.6 million increase in funding for the
National Forest System. This is a 12 percent increase from fiscal year 2000. 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 priorities as the
use of agricultural products for energy and fiber, the role of carbon in
productivity cycles, applications of new technology in resource management and
coordination of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program. The budget also
proposes an increase of over 22 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
al-d 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 the following 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: We released the proposed roads
management policy on March 2, 2000. The proposed 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 2 1 st 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,
American Indian 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 has 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 demand. This expanded concept of risk is also portrayed in
the agency's performance-based budget request for fiscal year 2001. For example,
we are requesting an additional $19.2 million for the performance measure acres
of forest, rangeland and lakes improved. With this additional funding, we
propose to improve 430,000 acres of habitat for inland and anadromous fisheries,
threatened and endangered species, and wildlife, which is an increase of 135,000
acres from fiscal year 2000 enacted. 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 developed through 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. One of the 47 performance measures within the agency's
performance-based budget addresses Forest Service roads and is an example of how
performance measures will be used. The road condition index performance measure
displays year-to-year changes in the condition of the road system based upon
five attributes. The proposed index for fiscal year 2001 is constant with the
prior year, based upon a relatively static fiscal year 2001 funding request. In
out years, the index will likely decline year to year without significant
increases in funding. 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 11) 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 released the proposed road management policy and draft
environmental assessment for public comment on March 2, 2000. 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: I
.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 I 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 $
1 00 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 their 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:
I . Conduct market research to get to better understand what people want; 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 under
served 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, under served 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 250 budget entries simply to establish
the projects in the accounting system. Meanwhile, because we have not
sufficiently focused on strategic planning, appropriated budgets rarely, if
ever, track expected outcomes described in agency forest plans. The fiscal year
2001 President's budget proposes significant reform of the agency's budget
structure. As noted by the National Academy of Public Administration, the
current budget structure does not reflect the nature of agency work performed on
the ground and forces our district rangers to spend too much time balancing the
books and too little time focusing on the natural resources for which they are
responsible. The new proposed structure is performance-based. It presents the
budget directly linked to 47 performance measures, that are in turn, directly
linked to the agency's strategic plan, the Results Act, and the Natural Resource
Agenda. The budget simplification and performance measures proposals are a
cornerstone of our financial and accountability reform efforts. I am confident
that with implementation, we will be able to clearly show how the Forest Service
is using the taxpayers' money to conserve and restore the health, diversity, and
resilencey of our lands and waters, and provide services to the American public.
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. We are making significant progress. I am
happy to report to you that the Forest Service has: - Successfully implemented a
new accounting system; - 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;
Replaced its crumbling technology infrastructure with a totally new platform for
management of information technology, and Implemented controls on trust fund
expenditures to assure compliance with Congressional direction regarding
indirect expenses. A key component of our accountability reform effort involves
the implementation of the Primary Purpose method of expenditures. Beginning in
August of last year, we began informing appropriations and authorizing staff
from both the House and Senate of our intent to implement this program in fiscal
year 2000. Our request for realignment of funds is a result of that
implementation. Operating under the Primary Purpose principle, the agency is now
able to provide an accurate accounting of its expenditures, which it was unable
to do in the past. Mr. Chairman, I do not think 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 $236 million
for the programs within the Lands Legacy Initiative. 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, ecological- environmental 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 restoring
a closer working relationship between rural counties and the Forest Service. 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 authorized 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. 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.
LOAD-DATE: March 16, 2000, Thursday
