A copy of testimony that the Government Accounting Office was scheduled to give on Wednesday before the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives (Whew!) is available on the GAO web site. The entire 22-page .pdf document is HERE, publication # GAO-09-443T.
This is a brief summary of the testimony, provided by the GAO:
Why the GAO did this study
The Forest Service, within the Department of Agriculture, 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 land management responsibilities. It is based on numerous reports GAO has issued on a wide variety of the agency’s activities.
What Gao Recommends
GAO has made a number of recommendations intended to improve the Forest Service’s wildland fire management, strengthen its collection of data, and increase accountability. The Forest Service has taken steps to implement many of these recommendations—by, for example, improving its processes for allocating funds to reduce potentially hazardous vegetation, and issuing guidance to strengthen financial controls—but has been slow to take action on others.
Thanks Ken.
