USDA Announces Modernization Blueprint for Forest Service

The Secretary of Agriculture has issued a memorandum to the United States Forest Service that serves as a blueprint for modernizing the agency’s systems and approaches. “It is the first priority of the Forest Service to serve the American people and work in ways that exemplify the values of Shared Stewardship. We need modern systems and approaches and less complicated regulations to serve our customers and improve our delivery of the goods and services that the American people want and need from the Nation’s Forest System,” said Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. According to the Secretary, the purpose of the blueprint is to establish vision, priorities, and direction on four areas of the agency’s work: increasing the productivity of national forests and grasslands; recognizing and valuing grazing on national grasslands as essential for their management; increasing access to national forest system lands; and expediting environmental reviews. The memo directs the Forest Service to increase the use of natural resources from national forests, encourage grazing on public lands, and further speed up environmental reviews by limiting the number of pages and time spent on completing environmental documents, “including categorical exclusions, environmental assessments, and environmental impact statements.” The guidance has received criticism from conservation groups. “This is a road map to national forest destruction,” sa...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news