§583k–2 National Forest System Trails Volunteer and Partnership Strategy

Summary

The Secretary must publish in the Federal Register within 2 years after November 28, 2016, a plan to greatly increase volunteer and partner work on trail maintenance. The plan must help federal employees do or support trail work, create real volunteer and partner opportunities in every Forest Service region, fix barriers volunteers and partners have raised, focus first on regions with the worst trail backlogs that threaten access, and aim to double volunteer and partner trail maintenance by 5 years after November 28, 2016. The Secretary must study using fire crews for trail work in ways that do not harm firefighting, safety, or resource protection and add any useful ideas to the plan. The Secretary also must, within 2 years after November 28, 2016, make rules so the financial risk from volunteer claims is shared across administrative units, consult with volunteer and recreation groups when making the plan, and require each administrative unit to write a local coordination plan that spells out roles and support for volunteers and partners. Not later than 3 years after November 28, 2016, the Secretary must send a report to the Senate Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and on Energy and Natural Resources, and to the House Committees on Agriculture and on Natural Resources. The report must cover how well the plan reduced the trail backlog, the increase in volunteer and partner work, miles of trails they maintained and the approximate value of that work, the status of the stewardship credits pilot (number of sites, total credits offered, estimated value of work, and suggested changes), and recommendations for further increasing volunteer and partner trail maintenance.