ment plan. Increasingly, "mapping" tech- 

 niques are being used to consider all resource 

 uses simultaneously and to identify problem 

 areas. The data for the various functions usu- 

 ally are separately mapped and then placed on 

 overlays, so that resource managers and deci- 

 sionmakers can get a comprehensive view of a 

 particular area. A problem in this approach is 

 that a map prepared at considerable expense 

 is likely to become a static record rather than 

 a dynamic decisionmaking tool. Changes such 

 as a forest fire or a thinning operation are ex- 

 pensive and difficult to incorporate in the pre- 

 pared map. Some attempts have been made to 

 carry out the mapping technique on digital 

 computers, which are capable of receiving and 

 adjusting for new inputs into the mapping 

 process. Two such systems currently in use 

 are the Wildland Resources Information 

 System (WRIS), currently being tested on the 

 Stanislaus National Forest, and Computer 

 Mapping for Land Use Planning (COMLUP), 

 which is more widely used in the Washington 

 Office project INFORM. The computer map- 

 ping technique has much to recommend it, 

 and as more research is done in this area, tech- 

 nical difficulties will be worked out. 84 



Time and effort by the agency will be re- 

 quired to incorporate such projects into its 

 management decisionmaking process and a 

 goal-oriented, FOREST-type model. Two 

 points should be emphasized here. First, re- 

 search efforts designed to improve the inven- 

 tory process are to be encouraged. Second, fu- 

 ture plans should include similar efforts to- 

 ward increasing the fund of knowledge of 

 forest resources other than timber. The legis- 

 lation calls for integration of the various in- 

 ventories, including watershed, wildlife, range, 

 and recreation into a generalized management 

 plan similar to the FOREST model. The ap- 

 proach indicated by current inventory plans 

 should be extended to cover the entire en- 

 vironmental and ecological system of the Na- 

 tional Forests. With adequate funding and 

 proper administrative direction, such an effort 

 does not appear to be beyond the reach of the 



84 For a discussion of this point in budget hear- 

 ings, see U.S. Congress, House, Department of In- 

 terior and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1972, 

 92d Congr., 1st Sess., Hearings, Part 4, p. 180. 



Forest Service within the decade of the seven- 

 ties. The fact must be recognized that most of 

 the current inventory plans do not contain 

 adequate coverage of the interaction of wild- 

 life on the timber-growing potential of the 

 Forest, for example. Such studies must be 

 made part and parcel of the total management 

 effort. 



Controlling Budget 

 Priorities 



The earlier discussion of budget problems 

 pointed out that the required step toward so- 

 lution is to make budget requests directly re- 

 flect the implications of the FOREST model. 

 If budget requests are tied directly to explicit 

 program and project planning, the agency will 

 be able to support them as actual needs to 

 carry out the mandate of the legislation. This 

 can only be done if the agency forthrightly 

 adopts a goal-oriented, management decision- 

 making program and works directly to im- 

 prove its capability to demonstrate the costs 

 and consequences of alternative management 

 programs, projects, and activities. If the 

 "priority juggling" evident in the budget data 

 is to stop, the Congress, the Office of Manage- 

 ment and Budget, and the Department of 

 Agriculture must be shown the reasoning be- 

 hind the Forest Service budget requests and 

 the evidence to support it. 



If and when the required goal-oriented 

 management effort becomes a reality, the on- 

 ly alterations in the budget requests at the 

 first two levels (Department of Agriculture 

 and Office of Management and Budget) 

 should be in the total size of the budget pack- 

 age, as dictated by public priorities that relate 

 forest land management to other government 

 functions. If the higher level budget review 

 bodies seek to alter priorities established by 

 the agency, they should use the means availa- 

 ble to them to secure changes in the legislative 

 mandate that determines the budget requests. 



The Congress, however, as the re- 

 presentative of the public in a democracy, has 

 a slightly different role. In its reaction to the 

 new direction taken by the Forest Service, the 

 Congress may recognize the goal orientation 

 of the budget requests, yet still proceed to al- 

 ter the relative allocation of funds among the 



70 



