Forest Service

Management of Reforestation Program Has Improved, but Problems Continue Gao ID: RCED-94-257 September 15, 1994

In the 1930 Knutson-Vandenberg Act, Congress attempted to sustain the nation's forests by establishing a fund--today totaling more than $800 million--to reforest, improve timber stands, and improve other renewable resources in timber sale areas that have been harvested. The Forest Service annually collects about $230 million from timber purchasers for reforestation and other activities and deposits it in the fund. In response to congressional concerns over the adequacy of Forest Service control of these funds and their use for appropriate projects, GAO reviewed the Forest Service's management of the fund. This report describes (1) how the Forest Service plans, implements, and manages Knutson-Vandenberg projects and (2) what changes the Forest Service has made since 1990 in response to previous internal and Office of Inspector General reviews of the program and what additional changes may be necessary.

GAO found that: (1) K-V fund revenues, which are obtained through timber sales, provide the Forest Service with a constant source of funding for the reforestation of harvested lands, improvement of timber standards, and improvement of renewable resources in timber sale areas; (2) the Forest Service's oversight and management of the K-V program is decentralized; (3) K-V planning and reforestation efforts are lengthy and complex and are closely tied to the timber sales process; (4) over the last 5 years, the Forest Service has spent about $1.1 billion on K-V projects and has reforested over 1.6 million acres using K-V funds; (5) the Forest Service has issued a comprehensive handbook to address various program management problems identified in previous reviews; (6) although the handbook has appeared to significantly reduce the number of inappropriate projects being funded by the K-V program, some management problems, including the lack of adequate documentation and insufficient staff training, remain; and (7) the Forest Service needs to ensure that its K-V program files are thoroughly documented and its staff are given the necessary training to properly plan, implement, and monitor the K-V program.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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