Proposed Rule2023-08429
Organization, Functions, and Procedures; Functions and Procedures; Forest Service Functions
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Published
April 21, 2023
Issuing agencies
Agriculture DepartmentForest Service
Abstract
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service is inviting public feedback and initiating Tribal consultation on the following topic and additional questions: Given that climate change and related stressors are resulting in increasing impacts with rapid and variable rates of change on national forests and grasslands, how should the Forest Service adapt current policies to protect, conserve, and manage the national forests and grasslands for climate resilience, so that the Agency can provide for ecological integrity and support social and economic sustainability over time?
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 77 (Friday, April 21, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 77 (Friday, April 21, 2023)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 24497-24503]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-08429]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
36 CFR Part 200
RIN 0596-AD59
Organization, Functions, and Procedures; Functions and
Procedures; Forest Service Functions
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest
Service is inviting public feedback and initiating
[[Page 24498]]
Tribal consultation on the following topic and additional questions:
Given that climate change and related stressors are resulting in
increasing impacts with rapid and variable rates of change on national
forests and grasslands, how should the Forest Service adapt current
policies to protect, conserve, and manage the national forests and
grasslands for climate resilience, so that the Agency can provide for
ecological integrity and support social and economic sustainability
over time?
DATES: Comments must be received in writing by June 20, 2023.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments by any of the following methods:
<bullet> Preferred: Federal eRulemaking Portal <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>.
<bullet> Mail: Director, Policy Office, 201 14th Street SW,
Mailstop 1108, Washington, DC 20250-1124.
All comments received will be posted to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>,
including any personal information provided. The public may inspect
comments received at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>. Do not submit any information
you consider to be private, Confidential Business Information (CBI), or
other information, the disclosure of which is restricted by statute.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Swanston, Director, Office
of Sustainability and Climate, (202) 205-0822. Individuals who use
telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal
Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339 24 hours a day, every day
of the year, including holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
This advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM):
<bullet> Builds on ongoing work to implement section 2 of Executive
Order (E.O.) 14072, Strengthening the Nation's Forests, Communities,
and Local Economies (87 FR 24851, April 22, 2022), including input
received from Tribal consultation and public comment on the recent
Request for Information (RFI) (87 FR 42493, July 15, 2022) on mature
and old-growth forest definition, identification, and inventory. E.O.
14072 calls particular attention to the importance of Mature and Old-
Growth (MOG) forests on Federal lands for their role in contributing to
nature-based climate solutions by storing large amounts of carbon and
increasing biodiversity.
<bullet> Is consistent with and intended to support implementation
of Secretary Vilsack's Memo 1077-044, Climate Resilience and Carbon
Stewardship of America's National Forests and Grasslands (Secretary's
Memo) (<a href="https://www.usda.gov/directives/sm-1077-004">https://www.usda.gov/directives/sm-1077-004</a>), and the USDA
Forest Service's Wildfire Crisis Strategy, Climate Adaptation Plan, and
Reforestation Strategy for the National Forest System (<a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildfire-crisis">https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildfire-crisis</a>).
<bullet> Builds on the 2012 National Forest System Land Management
Planning Rule (Planning Rule) at 36 CFR part 219 (<a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/planningrule">https://www.fs.usda.gov/planningrule</a>), which requires that revised Forest
Service land management plans provide for ecological, social, and
economic sustainability. The Planning Rule also created an adaptive
management framework for land management planning, including
assessment, plan revision or amendment, and monitoring.
<bullet> Uses the Planning Rule's definitions of ecological
integrity and social and economic sustainability to structure the
concept of climate resilience. Climate resilience is essential for
ecological integrity and social and economic sustainability.
<bullet> Reflects the Forest Service's commitment to continual
learning and organizational improvement by engaging people in
conserving forests and grasslands under threat of loss due to climate
change.
Climate change is leading to increasingly extreme storms and
droughts, extensive pest and disease occurrence, more widespread
chronic stress, and shifting fire regimes across forests and grasslands
in the United States. Climate change also amplifies other existing
stresses, including those from historic forest management and fire
suppression approaches. Increasing activity and development within the
wildland-urban interface further adds to these stressors, leading to
increasingly rapid degradation of the health and ecological integrity
of our forests and grasslands.
More ecosystems and watersheds are becoming vulnerable to severe
disturbance, with some geographies and ecosystem types experiencing
more rapid and compounding impacts than others. Some ecosystem services
provided by forests are functioning, while others are at significant
risk. In some places, high severity burns are resulting in long-term
loss of forest cover, along with the loss of associated plant and
animal communities dependent upon those forest ecosystems, including
MOG-forest communities and at-risk species. In other places, climate
change threatens the persistence of current forest types in some
portions of their historical range.
National Forest management reflects what the American people desire
from their natural resources at any given point in time. In response,
management of the National Forest System (NFS) has evolved over the
Forest Service's 118-year history. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891
shifted Federal land policy from a focus on transferring land out of
Federal ownership to a focus on conservation and sustainability.
Beginning with the Organic Act of 1897, the Federal Government shifted
the focus of forest management towards: (1) improving and protecting
forests; (2) securing favorable conditions for water flows (i.e.,
protecting watersheds); and (3) furnishing a continual supply of
timber.
These laws led to a period of custodial management from roughly
1905 to 1939 when the American people sought to reduce destructive and
wasteful use of forest resources (see Figure 1). The onset of World War
II (WWII) opened an era with an emphasis on increased timber production
to support the war effort and post-war housing needs. Another shift
began to occur in the 1960s with greater environmental awareness. The
Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act (MUSYA) of 1960 instructed the agency
to equally balance outdoor recreation, range, timber, watersheds, fish,
and wildlife with a greater emphasis on accountability to a broader
group of stakeholders, establishing the regime the Forest Service must
manage under today. Additionally, the National Forest Management Act
(NFMA) enacted in 1976 gives the Secretary of Agriculture broad
authority to manage all forests that are in imminent danger of insect
attack or disease and instructs the Secretary to comply with MUSYA. The
NFMA instructs the Secretary to use new research to protect the
Nation's natural resources including soil, water, and air resources as
well as the future productivity of renewable resources.
High harvest levels continued into the early 1990s. Over the
following decades, National Forest System management continued to
evolve with new environmental laws and regulations. In the 1990s and
early 2000s, multiple attempts were made to revise the Forest Service's
1982 Land Management Planning Rule to better reflect the Agency's
continued learning and shifts in management priorities and needs. Those
years also saw rising costs of wildfire suppression as a proportion of
the Forest Service's budget, as climate change and increases in the
numbers of people and value of infrastructure in the wildland-urban
interface exacerbated challenges from past fire suppression, drought,
insects, and disease.
[[Page 24499]]
In 2012, USDA and the Forest Service published a new Planning Rule
(77 FR 21162, April 9, 2012), which required that land management plans
provide for ecological sustainability and contribute to social and
economic sustainability, using public input and the best available
scientific information to inform plan decisions. The 2012 Planning Rule
contained a strong emphasis on protecting and enhancing water
resources, restoring land and water ecosystems, and providing
ecological conditions to support the diversity of plant and animal
communities, while providing for ecosystem services and multiple uses.
It explicitly recognized climate change as one of the challenges for
land management into the future.
The Forest Service currently integrates forest restoration, climate
resilience, watershed protection, wildlife conservation, and
opportunities to contribute to vibrant local economies, along with
continued and growing investments with a focus on equity and
partnerships. In recent years the impacts of climate change as a system
driver have become even clearer. The risks and costs associated with
high-severity wildfires have also continued to grow. This ANPRM
reflects these management priorities and challenges.
To put this evolution of National Forest System management into
context, currently the Forest Service commercially harvests one tenth
of one percent of acres within the National Forest System each year.
Harvests designed to improve stand health and resilience by reducing
forest density or removing trees damaged by insect or disease make up
86 percent of those acres. The remainder are final or regeneration
harvests that are designed to be followed by reforestation.
At the same time, over the past 15 years data shows that
disturbance driven primarily by wildfire and insect and disease has
adversely impacted more than 25 percent of the 193 million acres across
the National Forest System (see Figure 2). This rapidly changing
environment is now the primary driver of forest loss and type
conversion. Wildfire alone causes approximately 80 percent of
reforestation needs on National Forest System lands, and we expect
those needs to continue to grow: More than half of the 4 million acres
of potential reforestation needs on National Forest System lands stems
from wildfires in 2020 and 2021 (see Figure 3).
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Updated and continually evolving science and better understanding
of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) are helping the Agency to clarify these
vulnerabilities and threats. This improved clarity, combined with
innovations in resource inventory, data visualization, and risk
assessment also help to inform and prioritize conservation, adaptive
management, policies, and actions.
The Forest Service is actively developing and deploying spatially
explicit tools to better support climate-informed decision-making, in
line with the Secretary's Memo 1077-044, Climate Resilience and Carbon
Stewardship of America's National Forests and Grasslands.
The Secretary's Memo directs the Forest Service to spatially
identify wildfire and climate change-driven threats and risks to key
resources and values in the National Forest System, including water and
watersheds, biodiversity and species at risk, forest carbon, and
reforestation. Further, section 2 of E.O. 14072 specifically directs
Federal agencies to identify mature and old forests on Forest Service
and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands.
Through this ANPRM, USDA is sharing the beta version of a new
Forest Service Climate Risk Viewer (<a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/87744e6b06c74e82916b9b11da218d28">https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/87744e6b06c74e82916b9b11da218d28</a>) for public feedback (see
Section 1 below). This beta version was developed with 38 high-quality
datasets and begins to illustrate the overlap of multiple resource
values with climate exposure and vulnerability. The viewer also
includes current management direction on National Forest System lands.
The viewer allows for a place-based analysis of the need for climate
adaptation to maintain, restore, and expand valued forest ecosystem and
watershed characteristics. Additionally, the viewer supports
identification of gaps between current management and potential
conservation and adaptation practices. The beta version of the mature
and old-growth (MOG) inventory that is being developed pursuant to E.O.
14072 and the RFI for MOG is also being released to help inform policy
and decision-making on how best to conserve, foster, and expand the
values of mature and old-growth forests on our Federal lands. Core
information from the MOG inventory has been integrated into the viewer.
The Secretary's Memo called for additional fireshed data layers to
inform
[[Page 24502]]
investments under the Forest Service's Wildfire Crisis Strategy (WCS)
(<a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildfire-crisis">https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildfire-crisis</a>), which clearly
lays out risks to people, communities, and ecosystem health related to
wildfire and sets forth a strategy for mitigating and recovering from
those risks. The WCS is a core component of the Forest Service's
Climate Adaptation Plan, which involves reducing risk of catastrophic
wildfire in the near term and creates time and opportunity to foster
long-term climate resilience in these ecosystems.
In January 2023, USDA and the Forest Service announced FY 2023
investments in 11 new landscapes for wildfire risk reduction, along
with additional investments in the 10 initial landscapes announced in
April 2022. These 11 new landscapes were prioritized after a review of
new data layers developed pursuant to the Secretary's Memo that
included a focus on protecting critical infrastructure, public water
sources, and at-risk species habitat; equity; and proximity to Tribal
lands, in addition to wildfire exposure to home and buildings.
Consistent with the President's E.O. 14072, the importance of mature
and old-growth forests were recognized and the Agency highlighted that
the science around large tree retention and conservation is part of its
fuels reduction strategy.
This ANPRM continues the Agency and Department's commitment to
climate-adapted approaches to conserve the nations forests and
grasslands. We invite public input and Tribal consultation on how the
Agency can continue to adapt current policies and management and
develop new policies and practices for conservation and climate
resilience to support ecologic, social and economic sustainability in
light of climate change, human induced changes, and other stressors.
Additional information pertaining to Forest Service sustainability
and climate initiatives can be found here: <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/sc">https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/sc</a>.
Comments Requested
Climate change and related stressors, such as wildfire, drought,
insects and disease, extreme weather events, and chronic stress on
ecosystems are resulting in increasing impacts with rapid and variable
rates of change on national forests and grasslands. These impacts can
be compounded by fire suppression, development in the Wildland Urban
Interface (WUI), and non-climate informed timber harvest and
reforestation practices.
Multiple Forest Service plans, policies, and regulations already
include direction on climate adaptation. However, given (1) increasing
rates of change, and (2) new information and ways of assessing and
visualizing risk, USDA and the Forest Service are issuing this ANPRM to
seek input on how we can develop new policies or build on current
policies to improve our ability to foster climate resilience,
recognizing that impacts are different in different places across the
country.
We are interested in public feedback and requests for Tribal
consultation on a range of potential options to adapt current policies
or develop new policies and actions to better anticipate, identify, and
respond to rapidly changing conditions associated with climate-
amplified impacts. Overarching questions include:
<bullet> How should the Forest Service adapt current policies and
develop new policies and actions to conserve and manage the national
forests and grasslands for climate resilience, so that the Agency can
provide for ecological integrity and support social and economic
sustainability over time?
<bullet> How should the Forest Service assess, plan for and
prioritize conservation and climate resilience at different
organizational levels of planning and management of the National Forest
System (e.g., national strategic direction and planning; regional and
unit planning, projects and activities)?
<bullet> What kinds of conservation, management or adaptation
practices may be effective at fostering climate resilience on forests
and grasslands at different geographic scales?
<bullet> How should Forest Service management, partnerships, and
investments consider cross-jurisdictional impacts of stressors to
forest and grassland resilience at a landscape scale, including
activities in the WUI?
<bullet> What are key outcome-based performance measures and
indicators that would help the Agency track changing conditions, test
assumptions, evaluate effectiveness, and inform continued adaptive
management?
Examples, comments, and Tribal consultation would be especially
helpful on the following topics:
1. Relying on Best Available Science, including Indigenous
Knowledge (IK), to Inform Agency Decision Making.
a. How can the Forest Service braid together IK and western science
to improve and strengthen our management practices and policies to
promote climate resilience? What changes to Agency policy are needed to
improve our ability to integrate IK for climate resilience--for
example, how might we update current direction on best available
scientific information to integrate IK, including in the Forest Service
Handbook (FSH) Section 1909.12?
b. How can Forest Service land managers better operationalize
adaptive management given rapid current and projected rates of change,
and potential uncertainty for portions of the National Forest System?
c. Specifically for the Forest Service Climate Risk Viewer
(described above), what other data layers might be useful, and how
should the Forest Service use this tool to inform policy?
2. Adaptation Planning and Practices. How might explicit,
intentional adaptation planning and practices for climate resilience on
the National Forest System be exemplified, understanding the need for
differences in approach at different organizational levels, at
different ecological scales, and in different ecosystems?
a. Adaptation Planning:
i. How should the Forest Service implement the 2012 Planning Rule
under a rapidly changing climate, including for assessments,
development of plan components, and related monitoring?
1. How might the Forest Service use management and geographic areas
for watershed conservation, at-risk species conservation and wildlife
connectivity, carbon stewardship, and mature and old-growth forest
conservation?
ii. How might the Forest Service think about complementing unit-
level plans with planning at other scales, such as watershed,
landscape, regional, ecoregional, or national scales?
a. Adaptation Practices:
i. How might the Agency maintain or foster climate resilience for a
suite of key ecosystem values including water and watersheds,
biodiversity and species at risk, forest carbon uptake and storage, and
mature and old-growth forests, in addition to overall ecological
integrity? What are effective adaptation practices to protect those
values? How should trade-offs be evaluated, when necessary?
ii. How can the Forest Service mitigate risks to and support
investments in resilience for multiple uses and ecosystem services? For
example, how should the Forest Service think about the resilience of
recreation infrastructure and access; source drinking water areas; and
critical infrastructure in an era of climate change and other
stressors?
iii. How should the Forest Service address the significant and
growing need for post-disaster response, recovery, reforestation and
restoration, including to mitigate cascading disasters
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(for example, post-fire flooding, landslides, and reburns)?
iv. How might Forest Service land managers build on work with
partners to implement adaptation practices on National Forest System
lands and in the WUI that can support climate resilience across
jurisdictional boundaries, including opportunities to build on and
expand Tribal co-stewardship?
v. Eastern forests have not been subject to the dramatic wildfire
events and severe droughts occurring in the west, but eastern forests
are also experiencing extreme weather events and chronic stress,
including from insects and disease, while continuing to rebound from
historic management and land use changes. Are there changes or
additions to policy and management specific to conservation and climate
resilience for forests in the east that the Forest Service should
consider?
3. Mature and Old Growth Forests. The inventory required by E.O.
14072 demonstrated that the Forest Service manages an extensive,
ecologically diverse mature and old-growth forest estate. Older forests
often exhibit structures and functions that contribute ecosystem
resilience to climate change. Along with unique ecological values,
these older forests reflect diverse Tribal, spiritual, cultural, and
social values, many of which also translate into local economic
benefits.
Per direction in E.O. 14072, this section builds on the RFI to seek
public input on policy options to help the Forest Service manage for
future resilience of old and mature forest characteristics. Today there
are concerns about the durability, distribution, and redundancy of
these systems, given changing climate, as well as past and current
management practices, including ecologically inappropriate vegetation
management and fire suppression practices. Recent science shows severe
and increasing rates of ecosystem degradation and tree mortality from
climate-amplified stressors. Older tree mortality due to wildfire,
insects and disease is occurring in all management categories.
The Forest Service is analyzing threats to mature and old-growth
forests to support policy development to reduce those threats and
foster climate resilience. Today's challenge for the Forest Service is
how to maintain and grow older forest conditions while improving and
expanding their distribution and protecting them from the increasing
threats posed by climate change and other stressors, in the context of
its multiple-use mandate.
a. How might the Forest Service use the mature and old-growth
forest inventory (directed by E.O. 14072) together with analyzing
threats and risks to determine and prioritize when, where, and how
different types of management will best enable retention and expansion
of mature and old-growth forests over time?
b. Given our current understanding of the threats to the amount and
distribution of mature and old-growth forest conditions, what policy,
management, or practices would enhance ecosystem resilience and
distribution of these conditions under a changing climate?
4. Fostering Social and Economic Climate Resilience.
a. How might the Forest Service better identify and consider how
the effects of climate change on National Forest System lands impact
Tribes, communities, and rural economies?
b. How can the Forest Service better support adaptive capacity for
underserved communities and ensure equitable investments in climate
resilience, consistent with the Forest Service's Climate Adaptation
Plan, Equity Action Plan and Tribal Action Plan?
c. How might the Forest Service better connect or leverage the
contribution of State, Private and Tribal programs to conservation and
climate resilience across multiple jurisdictions, including in urban
areas and with Tribes, state, local and private landowners?
d. How might the Forest Service improve coordination with Tribes,
communities, and other agencies to support complementary efforts across
jurisdictional boundaries?
e. How might the Forest Service better support diversified forest
economies to help make forest dependent communities more resilient to
changing economic and ecological conditions?
Christopher French,
Deputy Chief, National Forest System, Forest Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-08429 Filed 4-20-23; 8:45 am]
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