Public Timber

Federal and State Programs Differ Significantly in Pacific Northwest Gao ID: RCED-96-108 May 23, 1996

The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service manage 12.5 million acres of timberland in Oregon and Washington. This acreage accounts for nearly 38 percent of the available timberland in those states. In recent years, the volume of timber sold and harvested from these federal timberlands has fallen because of increased efforts to protect habitat for threatened and endangered species and to achieve a better balance of multiple resource uses. The costs of federal timber sale programs have not decreased proportionately, however, and recent studies have suggested that some states run their timber sale programs at less cost than do federal agencies. This report compares the timber sale programs of the two federal agencies with those of the states. GAO identifies (1) the major differences among the timber programs of the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Region, the Bureau of Land Management, and Oregon and Washington and (2) the effect of these differences on the agencies' planning processes.

GAO found that: (1) the states' timber sale programs are tailored to generate timber production revenues for funding of schools and counties; (2) federal legislation requires agencies to manage their lands for the public benefit, regulate timber harvests and protect other resources, and develop detailed management plans; (3) the states adjust the amount of timber they sell to take advantage of market prices; (4) the agencies sell a steady amount of timber regardless of market forces; (5) the states' timberlands are generally available for timber production, contain only second-growth forests, and have road systems; (6) national forests are not exclusively available for timber production, contain old-growth and second-growth forests, and have road networks and exclusive wilderness areas; (7) the states' timber sales are funded by a legislatively specified percentage of gross timber sale receipts; (8) federal timber sale programs are funded by annual appropriations; (9) the states' long- and short-term planning processes are relatively short and involve generally fewer people than the federal agencies'; (10) federal agencies must develop various alternative plans, satisfy conflicting interests, incorporate the public's input, redevelop or review their plans on a regular basis, and face legal obstacles; and (11) modifying the agencies' timber sales programs to resemble the states' programs would require significant program structural changes and consideration of how to best balance the goals of multiple resource uses.



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