§1601 Renewable Resource Assessment

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture must create a Renewable Resource Assessment by December 31, 1975, update it in 1979, and update it every 10 years after that. The Assessment must look at current and future uses, demand, supply, and prices for forest and related resources; inventory present and potential resources and costs and returns of improving them; describe Forest Service programs and how they relate to public and private activities; discuss laws and policies that will affect forest and rangeland use and ownership; analyze how global climate change could affect these resources; and analyze how rural and urban forestry could help reduce carbon dioxide buildup. Starting in 1979, the Assessments must also report on extra fiber potential in the National Forest System, ways to use forest and urban wood wastes and recycling (with recommendations to Congress), and where mills and wood product facilities are located, how well they turn logs into products, and what technologies and programs could reduce wasted wood. The Secretary must invite public input and work with other agencies when making these reports. Congress expects National Forest lands to be kept in proper forest cover for multiple uses. The Secretary must report each year with the President’s budget, beginning with the budget for fiscal year 1978, on lands needing reforestation or not growing at full potential, by forest, State, and productivity class when possible, and must recheck treated lands after the first and third growing seasons and recertify them. For each of the 10 years after November 15, 2021, the Secretary must send Congress an annual estimate of extra funds needed to replant the acreage cut that year plus enough of the backlog to finish within 10 years. After that, the Secretary must send yearly estimates to prevent the backlog from growing. Those estimates must be included in the President’s budget and also sent to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate beginning with the budget for fiscal year 2021. Congress authorized $200,000,000 per year, starting in fiscal year 1977, for reforesting and treating National Forest lands; the money is available until spent. Reforestation work must follow Forest Service practices. Definitions (one line each): natural regeneration — trees becoming established from seed or sprout, with possible site work; priority land — National Forest land needing reforestation after an unplanned event and unlikely to regrow on its own; reforestation — renewing tree cover by natural regen or planting; Secretary — the Secretary acting through the Chief of the Forest Service; unplanned event — disturbances such as wildfire, insect or disease outbreaks, weather events, or animal damage. The Secretary must also send Congress an annual report on the amounts, types, uses, and effects (good or bad) of herbicides and pesticides used in the National Forest System.