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 STATEWIDE FOREST PRACTICES ACT 



Statewide forest practices acts (FPA) have been passed in adjacent 

 states and unsuccessful attempts have been made to pass similar legis- 

 lation in Montana. Assessments of the Oregon FPA and the Idaho FPA 

 have shown some problems: 



1) Lack of adequate budgeting has caused insufficient staffing 

 in the regulatory agency to enforce the law and rules and 

 regulations. In Idaho about 25 percent of the operations are 

 inspected in a year (correspondence from Idaho Department of 

 Lands, December 19, 1977). It has been estimated that enforce- 

 ment and administration of a Montana FPA will require ten 

 additional full-time employees (pers. comm. , Forestry Division, 

 DNR&C, December 21, 1977). 



2) Cumbersome enforcement provisions result in delays in processing 

 violations. 



3) While rules and regulations (which are equivalent to BMP's) are 

 adequate, administrative problems dealing with the implementation 

 of the rules on the ground have arisen. Three main categories 



of operational improvement were identified in an assessment of 

 Oregon's FPA (Brown et.al, 1977): 1) training of inspectors, 

 2) supervision of operations, and 3) enforcement. 



A Forest Practices Act could be implemented: 



1) only on a statewide basis with uniform administration and enforce- 

 ment or; 



2) on a local basis with Conservation Districts or other agencies 

 required to implement the law or; 



