Emergency Salvage Sale Program: Forest Service Met Its Target, but More TimberCould Have Been Offered for Sale

摘要

In July 1995 the Congress established the emergency salvage timber sale program.As agreed with your office, we (1) compared the volume of salvage timber offered by the Forest Service under the salvage rider from fiscal year 1995 through December 1996 with volume that it has planned to offer for the same period prior to passage of the rider, and determined the effect of the Secretary of Agriculture's July 2, 1996, memorandum, which placed more restrictions on salvage sales; (2) determined whether four specific provisions of the salvage rider helped the Forest Service to offer salvage timber for sale more timely; and (3) determined if certain salvage sales that were of concern to environmental organizations met the definition of salvage timber as specified in the salvage rider Forest Service's guidelines.