§2113 Federal, State, and Local Coordination and Cooperation

Summary

The Secretary must create a Forest Resource Coordinating Committee to bring together work on nonindustrial private forestry inside the Department of Agriculture and with state and private partners. The committee is led by the Chief of the Forest Service and includes the chiefs or directors of several USDA agencies plus non-federal members appointed to 3-year terms. The non-federal members must include people like state foresters, a state fish and wildlife representative, a private forest landowner, industry and conservation group reps, a land‑grant college rep, a private forestry consultant, a State Technical Committee rep, and others the Secretary names. Federal members get no extra pay. Non-federal members serve without pay but may be reimbursed for reasonable costs. The committee must meet at least once a year. The committee must plan and coordinate actions to address the national priorities in section 2101(c), especially for owners of nonindustrial private forest land; clarify each agency’s responsibilities for those priorities; advise on how funds (including the competitive set‑aside in section 2109a) should be allocated; and help prepare the report called for in section 2101(d). The Secretary must also set up a State Forest Stewardship Coordinating Committee in each State, run by the State forester, with federal agency reps and state-appointed members (local government, consulting foresters, environmental groups, industry, landowners, land trusts, conservation groups, fish and wildlife, the State Technical Committee, etc.). State committee members serve 3-year staggered terms and may be reappointed. Existing similar state committees can be used. State committees are permanent, and nothing requires a State official to take action.