§1602 Renewable Resource Program; Preparation by Secretary and Transmittal to President; Purpose and Development of Program; Time of Preparation, Updating and Contents

Summary

The Secretary must create and send the President a recommended Renewable Resource Program using information from the Forest Service and other Agriculture Department agencies, including data under 7 U.S.C. 1010a. The plan can include alternative options and must cover protection, management, and development of National Forest lands (including roads and trails), cooperative state and private programs, and research. It must follow the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The first Program had to be ready by December 31, 1975, to cover the four-year period starting October 1, 1976, and each of the four fiscal decades after that. It must be updated no later than the first half of the fiscal year ending September 30, 1980, and then in the first half of every fifth fiscal year after that, with each update covering the next four fiscal decades. The Program must list needs and opportunities for public and private investments, saying which are capital projects and which are operational. It must identify expected outputs, results, and benefits so costs can be compared to total benefits and to returns to the Federal Government. It must set priorities with costs and expected results, study the people needed to run and watch programs, and make recommendations that: evaluate major Forest Service goals to determine how renewable resources can be used together and sustained; explain how forest and rangeland owners can join improvement programs; recognize the need to protect and, where appropriate, improve soil, water, and air; set national goals that reflect how resources are linked; study how raw log exports and imports affect domestic timber supplies and prices; and account for the effects of global climate change on forests and rangelands, including possible shifts in species ranges and effects on products.