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105th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1253
To provide to the Federal land management agencies the authority and
capability to manage effectively the Federal lands in accordance with
the principles of multiple use and sustained yield, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 3, 1997
Mr. Craig introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
November 5, 1997
Ordered, that if and when reported by the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources, S. 1253 be referred to the Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition, and Forestry solely for consideration of matters within its
jurisdiction for not to exceed 40 session days and if not reported by
that time, the committee be discharged and the bill placed on the
calendar
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide to the Federal land management agencies the authority and
capability to manage effectively the Federal lands in accordance with
the principles of multiple use and sustained yield, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Public Lands
Management Improvement Act of 1997''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Definitions.
Sec. 4. Supplemental authority.
Sec. 5. Transition.
TITLE I--ENSURING THE EFFECTIVENESS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF FEDERAL LAND
PLANNING
Sec. 101. Purposes.
Part A--In General
Sec. 102. Mission of the land management agencies.
Sec. 103. Scientific basis for Federal lands decisions.
Part B--Resource Management and Management Activity Planning
Sec. 104. Levels of planning.
Sec. 105. Contents of planning and allocation of decisions to each
planning level.
Sec. 106. Planning deadlines.
Sec. 107. Plan amendments and revisions.
Sec. 108. Disclosure of funding constraints on planning and management.
Sec. 109. Consideration of Federal lands-dependent communities.
Sec. 110. Participation of local, multi-interest committees.
Sec. 111. Ecosystem management principles.
Sec. 112. Fully allocated costs.
Sec. 113. Citizen petitions for plan amendments or revisions.
Sec. 114. Budget and cost disclosures.
Sec. 115. Monitoring and maintenance of planning; adaptive management.
Part C--Challenges to Planning
Sec. 116. Administrative appeals.
Sec. 117. Judicial review.
TITLE II--COORDINATION AND COMPLIANCE WITH OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS
Sec. 201. Purposes.
Sec. 202. Environmental analysis.
Sec. 203. Wildlife protection.
Sec. 204. Water quality protection.
Sec. 205. Air quality protection.
Sec. 206. Meetings with users of the Federal lands.
TITLE III--DEVELOPMENT OF ECOREGION ASSESSMENTS
Sec. 301. Purpose.
Sec. 302. Authorization and notice of assessments.
Sec. 303. Status, effect, and application of assessments.
Sec. 304. Applicability of other laws.
Sec. 305. Report to Congress.
Sec. 306. Pacific Northwest Forest Plan review.
TITLE IV--DEVELOPMENT OF A GLOBAL RENEWABLE RESOURCES ASSESSMENT
Sec. 401. Purposes.
Sec. 402. Global Renewable Resources Assessment.
Sec. 403. National Council on Renewable Resources Policy.
Sec. 404. Repeal of certain provisions of the Forest and Rangeland
Renewable Resources Planning Act.
TITLE V--ADMINISTRATION
Part A--In General
Sec. 501. Confirmation of the Chief of the Forest Service.
Sec. 502. Monitoring funds.
Sec. 503. Interagency transfer and interchange authority.
Sec. 504. Fees for processing records requests.
Sec. 505. Off-budget study.
Part B--NonFederal Lands
Sec. 506. Access to adjacent or intermingled non-Federal lands.
Sec. 507. Exchanges of Federal lands for non-Federal lands.
Part C--The Forest Resource
Sec. 508. Forest health credits in sales of forest products.
Sec. 509. Special funds.
Sec. 510. Private contractors.
Sec. 511. Non-harvested forest products sales.
Sec. 512. Exemption from strict liability for the recovery of fire
suppression costs.
TITLE VI--MISCELLANEOUS
Sec. 601. Regulations.
Sec. 602. Authorization for appropriations.
Sec. 603. Effective date.
Sec. 604. Savings clauses.
Sec. 605. Severability.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds as follows:
(1) The Bureau of Land Management, Department of the
Interior, and the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture,
are comprised of professionals with considerable expertise and
judgment to manage Federal lands within their jurisdictions.
(2) In 1976, the Congress enacted the Federal Land Planning
and Management Act and the National Forest Management Act which
declared multiple use and sustained yield to be the basic
principles under which the two land management agencies are to
manage their Federal lands.
(3) These principles of multiple use and sustained yield
enjoy strong support from the American public and among the
diverse stakeholders in Federal land management.
(4) These same Management Acts established resource
management planning processes as the method for engaging the
land management agencies' expertise and professional judgment
in, applying the multiple use and sustained yield principles
to, and obtaining the views of the public on, management of
these Federal lands.
(5) Nevertheless, in the two decades since the Management
Acts were passed, fundamental flaws in the planning and
decision making processes established by these Acts have become
apparent and have caused all stakeholders, whether they favor
resource protection or resource extraction, to express
increasing dissatisfaction with and distrust of these
processes.
(6) These numerous flaws threaten the integrity of the
Federal lands planning and decision making processes and
undermine the ability of the agencies to fulfill their
statutory land management responsibilities and accomplish
management that is well grounded in science.
(7) The intent of the Congress that the land management
agencies would complete the planning required by the Management
Acts within a discrete time frame and the new resource
management plans would provide secure guidance for subsequent
management activities has not been met.
(8) Although mid-eighties deadlines were set by statute or
regulation for completing the new resource management plan,
initial planning remains unfinished twenty years after
enactment of the Management Acts even as new planning is
undertaken.
(9) The land management agencies are engaged in a perpetual
cycle of planning through the continuous preparation of interim
policies, plan amendments, and plan revisions that preclude the
provision to both agency professionals and the public of any
secure guidance for predictable management of the Federal
lands.
(10) Although the Management Acts anticipated and directed
that only two layers of planning--multiple-use resource
management planning for each national forest, Bureau of Land
Management district, or other designated planning unit, and
site-specific planning for management activities--be
undertaken, the agencies have engaged in planning at multiple
layers--regional, ecoregion, watershed, etc.--without license
or direction from statute or regulation.
(11) These new layers of planning have not been applied
uniformly on the Federal lands; frequently have ignored the
multiple use mandates of the Management Acts and, instead, have
focussed narrowly on a single resource, even a single species
of wildlife; have been undertaken without consistent agency-
wide direction; have been conducted without the meaningful
opportunities for public participation established for planning
by the Management Acts; and have resulted in guidance that
often conflicts with the planning that is prescribed by the
Management Acts.
(12) The procedures and requirements of other environmental
laws often burden with increased costs and delays, conflict
with, and frustrate the planning and management processes
established by the Management Acts; effectively transfer the
planning and management decision making authority from the
professionals in the land management agencies to officials of
other agencies; and sanction decisions by those officials who
are not expert in land management and are less familiar with
the affected resources, activities, and sites. Without doubt,
Congress has failed to reconcile the procedures and
requirements of other environmental laws with the planning and
management processes established by the Management Acts.
(13) Increasingly, even after the land management agencies
reach decisions on the planning and management of Federal lands
implementation of those decisions is barred by administrative
appeals and litigation. These myriad administrative appeals and
lawsuits have delayed substantially completion of planning;
encumbered and, at times, paralyzed plan implementation and
management activities; drained scarce agency resources; and, on
several occasions, compelled the Congress to enact emergency
provisions to restore land management authority to the
agencies.
(14) The loss in goods and services from Federal lands
resulting from these numerous flaws in Federal land planning
and decisionmaking has increased this Nation's dependency on
foreign sources for certain resources and has encouraged
imports from countries with land management policies and
priorities that are far less environmentally responsive.
(15) New concepts in Federal land management, such as
ecosystem management and adaptive management, are not
recognized in the Management Acts and are being imposed on or
incorporated in Federal land planning and management without
statutory authority.
(16) New processes developed by stakeholders to better
participate in Federal land planning and decision making, such
as the community-based collaborative deliberations of the
Quincy Library Group and Applegate Partnership, are not
recognized or encouraged by the Management Acts.
(17) The provisions of section 322 of Public Law 102-381
(106 Stat. 1419) requiring the Forest Service to establish a
streamlined administrative appeals process for management
activities has expired and these well-received Congressional
requirements for processing administrative appeals should be
restored and expanded to include appeals of decisions
concerning planning, as well as decisions on management
activities, made by the Bureau of Land Management, as well as
the Forest Service.
(18) The Management Acts were passed at a time when the
ecosystems on the Federal lands were regarded generally as
healthy, but now many, extensive forested areas of Federal
lands are undergoing or are threatened by an unprecedented
forest health crisis.
(19) These numerous flaws in the laws pertaining to Federal
land management and in the planning and decisionmaking for
Federal lands, particularly the multiple layers and perpetual
existence of planning, the increasing intervention of other
agencies, and the constant barrage of administrative and
judicial challenges, have escalated the land management
agencies' costs of managing the Federal lands even as their
ability to secure actual management accomplishments on these
lands has diminished substantially.
(20) All stakeholders have incurred injuries--both
environmental and economic--from these planning and decision
making flaws, but none more than the local resource dependent
communities, which have little or no protection under the
Management Acts and have experienced the loss of wages,
revenues, and public services, and resultant social
instability.
(21) Although the Management Acts and their implementing
regulations contain detailed instructions to the land
management agencies on planning procedures and contents, they
are virtually silent in providing guidance or authority to
enable the agencies to implement resource management plans,
thereby devaluing the term ``Management'' common to both their
titles.
(22) As described in the United States General Accounting
Office report, ``Forest Service Decision-making: A Framework
for Improving Performance,'' April 1997, these flaws in the
laws pertaining to Federal land management and in the planning
and decision making for Federal lands, and the increasing
distrust in the laws and decision making experienced by
virtually all stakeholders in the Federal lands, have both
contributed to and been compounded by the lack of a clear
mission statement for the land management agencies.
(23) Additional Congressional direction for the planning
of, and implementation of planning on, the Federal lands is
required to ensure that the predictability in Federal land
management intended by the Management Acts is achieved, that
the land management agencies are able to exercise fully their
considerable management expertise and judgment, that the public
can be heard in land management decisions, and that the adverse
environmental effects and economic and social dislocation which
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