Preface The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 RPA, P.L. 93- 



378, 88 Stat. 475, as amended, directed the Secretary of Agriculture to prepare a 

 Renewable Resources Assessment by December 31 , 1975, with an update in 1979 

 and each 10th year thereafter. This assessment is to include "an analysis of present 

 and anticipated uses, demand for, and supply of the renewable resources, with 

 consideration of the international resource situation, and an emphasis of pertinent 

 supply, demand and price relationships trends" (sec. 3. (a) ). 



The 1989 RPA Assessment was the third prepared in response to the RPA legislation. 

 This Update builds on the findings of the 1989 RPA assessment. The document 

 summarizes the findings and implications of 19 supporting technical documents. 

 Several of these supporting documents respond to issues that were surfaced as a 

 result of the 1989 RPA Assessment. The technical documents include an updating of 

 forest resource statistics, international dimensions of U.S. forestry, changes in wetland 

 area, customer diversity in recreation demand, species endangerment patterns, water 

 quality, biological diversity, recycling, climate change, state and local regulations, and 

 others 



The Forest Service has been carrying out resource analyses in the United States for 

 over a century. Congressional interest was first expressed in the Appropriations Act 

 of August 15, 1876, which provided $2,000 for the employment of a expert to study 

 and report on forest conditions. Between that time and 1974, Forest Service analysts 

 prepared a number of assessments of the timber resource situation intermittently in 

 response to emerging issues and preceived needs for better resource information. 

 The 1974 RPA legislation established a periodic reporting requirement and broadened 

 the resource coverage from timber alone to all renewable resources from forest and 

 range lands. 



