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The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have stewardship contracting authority, which allows the agencies to trade goods -- such as timber -- for services (e.g., thinning forests or rangelands) that the agencies would otherwise pay for with appropriated dollars, and to enter into stewardship contracts lasting up to 10 years. The authority is set to expire in 2013. This report determines: (1) the extent to which the agencies are using stewardship contracting; and (2) what successes and challenges the agencies have experienced in using it. In doing so, the auditor assessed agency data, reviewed project files, and visited projects in numerous locations. Illus.
The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have stewardship contracting authority, which allows the agencies to trade goods--such as timber--for services (e.g., thinning forests or rangelands) that the agencies would otherwise pay for with appropriated dollars, and to enter into stewardship contracts lasting up to 10 years. The authority is set to expire in 2013. GAO was asked to determine, among other things, (1) the extent to which the agencies are using stewardship contracting and (2) what successes and challenges the agencies have experienced in using it. In doing so, GAO assessed agency data, reviewed project files, and visited projects in numerous locations. From fiscal years 2003 through 2007, the Forest Service and BLM awarded a combined total of 535 stewardship contracts, with the number increasing each year--from 38 in fiscal year 2003 to 172 in fiscal year 2007. However, for certain aspects of stewardship contracting, such as the acres involved or the value of the services exchanged for goods, reliable data were not available for the full 5-year fiscal period because neither agency has had a comprehensive database of its stewardship contracting activity since 2003. The agencies did not begin to maintain nationwide stewardship data until recently, primarily because of difficulties in adapting their systems to account for all aspects of stewardship contracting. Further, these data are not complete, and reside in myriad systems, not all of which interface with one another. These deficiencies keep the agencies and Congress from accurately assessing the costs and value of stewardship contracting. The agencies credit stewardship contracting with allowing them to accomplish more work--by allowing them to trade goods for services, thereby extending their budgets for thinning and other services--and spurring collaboration with members of the community and environmental groups. But stewardship contracting has its challenges too, including some resistance to its use (e.g., by contractors unfamiliar with it) and a paucity of markets for the small trees typically removed in stewardship projects. Also, although agency officials view long-term multiyear contracts as crucial to market development, these contracts can involve financial challenges. These contracts are attractive because they offer contractors and industry operators some certainty of supply, enabling them to obtain loans for equipment or processing facilities, which can then spur demand for materials resulting from stewardship projects. But such contracts can require a substantial up-front obligation of funds--to protect the contractor's investment if the government later cancels the contract--that may exceed the budget of a field unit (e.g., a national forest). Also, funding the annual work specified in the contract can force a unit to scale back its other programs if the value of the timber removed is not sufficient to pay for that work. Yet neither agency has developed a strategy for using such contracts, a step that could help field units determine which projects are appropriate for these long-term contracts and how they would be funded.
Federal land management : use of stewardship contracting is increasing, but agencies could benefit from better data and contracting strategies : report to congressional requesters.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.
This multi-volume set focuses on a topic of growing interest to academics, policymakers, university administrators, state and regional economic development officials, and students: entrepreneurship. In recent years, we have witnessed a proliferation of entrepreneurship courses, programs, and initiatives at universities. Universities have also become entrepreneurial hubs, as they commercialize research via patents, licenses, and startup companies. It is also important to note that entrepreneurship cuts across numerous fields in business administration, such as management, strategy, operations management, finance, marketing, and accounting, as well as across numerous social science disciplines, including economics, sociology, political science, and psychology.Volume 1 is a comprehensive analysis of entrepreneurial universities, highlighting efforts undertaken by numerous universities to partner with industry and develop an entrepreneurial culture on campus and in the surrounding region. Volume 2 is focused on entrepreneurial finance, containing chapters on salient topics such as venture capital, angel investors, initial public offerings (IPOs), and crowdfunding. Volume 3 presents evidence on entrepreneurial opportunities relating to sustainability and other forms of corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, and ethical issues that arise in the context of entrepreneurial activity. Volume 4 provides global evidence on university technology transfer and academic entrepreneurship. This set is required reading for those who want a full understanding of the managerial, financial, and public policy implications of entrepreneurship.
This book assesses the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) and identifies lessons learned for governance and policy through this new and innovative approach to collaborative forest management. Unlike anything else in US public land management, the CFLRP is a nationwide program that requires collaboration throughout the life of national forest restoration projects, joining agency partners and local stakeholder groups in a kind of decade-long restoration marriage. This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the governance dynamics of the program, examining: questions about collaborative governance processes and the dynamics of trust, accountability and capacity; how scientific information is used in making decisions and integrated into adaptive management processes; and the topic of collaboration through implementation, an underdeveloped area of collaborative governance literature. Bringing together chapters from a community of social science and policy researchers who have conducted studies across multiple CFLRP projects, this volume generates insights, not just about the program, but also about dynamics that are central to collaborative and landscape approaches to land management and relevant for broader practice. This volume is a timely and important contribution to environmental governance scholarship. It will be of interest to researchers and students of natural resource management, environmental governance, and forestry, as well as practitioners and policy makers involved in forest and ecosystem restoration efforts, and collaborative natural resource management more broadly.
This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Increases in the number and intensity of wildland fires have led the Forest Service (FS) to place greater emphasis on thinning forests and rangelands to reduce the buildup of potentially hazardous vegetation that can fuel wildland fires. The public can file a formal objection to a proposed decision, or can appeal a decision the agency has already made. This report determined, for FY 2006-2008; (1) the number of FS fuel reduction decisions and the associated acreage; (2) the number of decisions subject to appeal and objection, the number appealed, objected to, and litigated, and the associated acreage; and (3) the outcomes of appeals, objections, and litigation, and the extent to which they were processed within prescribed time frames. Illustrations.
The Forest Service, within the U.S. Dept. of Ag., manages over 190 million acres of forest and grassland. The agency is responsible for managing its lands for various purposes -- including recreation, grazing, timber harvesting, and others -- while ensuring that such activities do not impair the lands' long-term productivity. Carrying out these often competing responsibilities has been made more difficult by the increasing cost of wildland fires and the budgetary constraints necessitated by our nation's long-term fiscal outlook. This testimony highlights some of the major management challenges the Forest Service faces in carrying out its responsibilities. It is based on numerous reports issued on a wide variety of the agency's activities.