Policy Considerations for 
the Forest Service 
This 1989 Assessment of the Nation’s 
renewable resources forms the factual 
foundation for the 1990 RPA 
Recommended Program for the Forest 
Service. The RPA Program planning 
effort, rather than the Assessment, is 
the proper place to address the 
recommended Forest Service program. 
The Assessment, however, is a useful 
place to point out the types of policy 
considerations that flow from the 
Assessment findings and that will be 
addressed in the Program. 
The Assessment projects a future of 
increased demands for most resources 
and a considerable capability to 
increase resource supplies. Many of the 
resource management and investment 
opportunities identified in this 
Assessment can be accomplished 
within existing laws and existing public 
policies that apply to the administration 
of the Forest Service. Some 
opportunities are beyond existing 
policies and programs. Other 
opportunities are more appropriate for 
the private sector or are responsibilities 
of State and local governments or are 
within the program bounds of other 
public agencies, such as the Soil 
Conservation Service. Laws and 
policies relating to renewable resources 
have evolved over time in response to 
changes in society’s resource demands 
and changing attitudes toward the 
management of renewable resources. 
Forest Service programs have in turn 
evolved in response to those changes in 
laws and societal needs. As the 
projected renewable resource demands 
unfold in the future and as Forest 
Service programs continue to evolve to 
tap the resource supply opportunities 
more effectively, a number of policy 
considerations will surface. 
Many of these are policy 
considerations that have arisen in the 
past, and current answers to them have 
been developed. Such policy 
considerations must be revisited in the 
context of the projected future that the 
Assessment depicts. Even though the 
current policy direction may be 
reaffirmed for the future, to keep the 
agency’s programs vital, management 
must periodically reassess them in the 
context of projected resource trends. 
There are a number of different ways to 
formulate the type of policy 
considerations that flow from the 
Assessment. Although not exhaustive, 
the following policy considerations 
capture many of the most important 
dimensions of Assessment findings and 
implications. 
What objective should the Forest 
Service have in the production of 
resources on nonindustrial private 
lands? 
Private nonindustrial forests cover a 
greater area than all public and 
industry-owned forests combined. The 
Assessment projects that the 
nonindustrial private lands will supply 
much of the timber and other forest 
resources in the future and that the 
owners of these lands can significantly 
increase resource supplies. But their 
ability to do so is limited by market 
and other barriers, including 
landowners’ potential liability for acts 
that occur on their property. Only a 
relatively small proportion of 
nonindustrial private landowners 
employ professional forestry 
assistance. This indicates that many 
such owners do not use research-based 
knowledge that is now available to 
improve the productivity of their 
woodlands. 
Current Forest Service policies aimed 
at private nonindustrial forests are 
designed to: 
—Provide technical and financial 
assistance to the States for protecting 
forests from wildfire, disease, and 
insects; and 
—Support the States in providing 
technical and financial assistance to 
landowners, mainly aimed at timber 
production. 
The Assessment identifies the 
Opportunity and demand for increased 
production of timber from 
nonindustrial private lands. It also, 
however, identifies growing demands 
for other outputs, including various 
forms of recreation in the Eastern 
United States. Public forest lands 
cannot meet all of the increased 
demands. A key policy to be evaluated 
is the extent to which the Forest 
Service, in cooperation with other 
public agencies, should encourage uses 
other than timber production on 
nonindustrial private lands. Existing 
policies such as fire protection do 
benefit all uses of the forest and 
rangeland base, but direct assistance 
programs often are targeted only at 
landowners’ timber resources. 
What balance of multiple-use 
management will be applied to the 
national forests? 
The Forest Service 1s required by law 
to manage the national forests for 
multiple uses and has done so for 
decades. There have been conflicts 
among constituents who favor 
particular exclusive uses or particular 
multiple-use balances. Many of these 
multiple-resource demands can be met 
through the compatibility possible from 
multiple-use management. 
Lands vary in their productivity for 
specific renewable resource outputs, 
and demands are concentrated on lands 
that have the characteristics desired by 
users. One view of multiple-use 
management sees it as providing for 
