120 



3 

 areas and prepare recommendations to the Environmental Protection 

 Agency (EPA) . 



The existing visibility protection programs of the Forest Service are 

 aimed at the characterization and protection of visibility on all 

 lands managed by the agency. The Forest Service Air Resource 

 Management Program has three main objectives: 



(1) To protect the 88 Class I areas that we manage by remedying 

 existing and preventing future adverse impairment due to air 

 pollution; 



(2) To protect forest and grassland resources from significant 

 adverse effects of air pollution and atmospheric deposition 

 through cooperative efforts with air regulatory authorities; 

 and 



(3) To minimize the adverse impacts of land management activities 

 on air quality. 



Each of the nine National Forest System regions is responsible for 

 achieving these objectives. Each Regional Forester and some Forest 

 Supervisors are the delegated Federal Land Manager for purposes of the 

 Clean Air Act. Most Regional Foresters have a program manager who 

 provides staff support. The Supervisor of each National Forest is 

 responsible for air resource management, including the protection of 

 each Class I area. We have expanded our air resource management 

 capability by more than doubling our technical staff and by increasing 

 our sampling in Class I areas since an internal program review in 

 1986. We plan to complete a full inventory of Class I areas within 

 the National Forest System by the year 2000. Given the limitations 

 that all agencies face, we view our program as both effective and 

 adequate to accomplish the necessary tasks. 



