SAF Commends New USFS Shared Stewardship Vision
August 28, 2018
The USDA Forest Service (USFS)
recently announced a new strategy for managing catastrophic wildfires and the impacts of invasive species, drought, and insect and disease epidemics.
The new report,
Toward Shared Stewardship Across Landscapes: An Outcome-Based Investment Strategy, outlines USFS’s plans to work more closely with states to prioritize investment decisions and use the most advanced scientific tools to target treatments in areas with the highest payoffs. This approach will allow USFS to increase the scope and scale of critical forest treatments that protect communities and create resilient forests.
"SAF commends the agency, Secretary Perdue, and forestry champions in Congress (including Sen. Murkowski, Sen. Daines, Sen. Wyden, and Sen. Cantwell) for crafting and releasing this shared stewardship vision and strategy," said John Barnwell, SAF Director of Government Affairs & External Relations.
"Coordinated planning is critical to improve forest health and reduce risks. The scope of work and variety of challenges facing our forests demand that all work together toward a common purpose. The key will be to encourage collaboration but not lose sight of the urgency and the unique role of each entity in realizing these common objectives. As always, forest professionals need to be empowered to make management decisions, and have the resources necessary, to support thriving forests now and in the future."