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Issues >
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Lands> Printer Version U.S.
Forest Service Salvage Fund
The
U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Salvage Fund was created to expedite
the removal of insect-infested, dead, damaged or down timber.
Salvage sale revenues are deposited in the Salvage Fund. The
USFS is authorized to make expenditures from the Salvage Fund
without an annual appropriations request, giving Congress little
ability to monitor and control this spending. Presently, the
Salvage Fund is financing approximately one third of the logging
on the National Forests completely free from congressional oversight.
Many of these sales fail to cover significant portions of their
costs. Green
Scissors Proposal Program Hurts Taxpayers The USFS has exploited salvage
sales to create a large fund that is unaccountable to Congress
and provides no revenue to taxpayers. According to the Congressional Research Service,
"[n]o Forest Service budget documents have identified transfers
of excess collections from the Salvage Fund to the U.S. Treasury,"
as required by existing law. In fact, the USFS has been sitting
on large amounts of money, as the Salvage Fund balance was more
than $182 million in fiscal year 1997, $171 million in fiscal
year 1998, $142 million in fiscal year 1999 and about $118 million
in 2000. The amount the Fund is planning to use in fiscal year
2003 is $79.9 million. The Fund promotes a timber treadmill
whereby managers are encouraged to promote salvage sales, since
forest managers keep the sales receipts instead of returning
the funds to the Treasury. In addition, shortfalls from one forest
are often made up by excess receipts from another forest. Taxpayers
end up funding excessive timber management so that the USFS can
perpetuate its bureaucracy. The Salvage Fund, which
is fed from timber receipts, provides local managers with an
incentive to enhance sales by adding higher value green trees
with the lower value salvage material. Industry benefits by paying less than market
value for wood while having a portion of the sales financed by
taxpayers. Program Hurts the Environment Increased scrutiny of the USFS Salvage program has uncovered numerous instances of inappropriate sales of live, healthy trees under the guise of salvaging dead and dying trees. Most salvage sales do not consider the impact of logging live and healthy trees as part of the costs of the sale. Salvage logging generates cash available for other timber sales, which gives local forest managers an incentive to choose logging over other management activities. For instance, instead of using prescribed burns to reduce the risk of insect outbreak, a forest manager may choose salvage logging and the resulting timber receipts. Logging often has greater impacts on wildlife, habitat, water quality, forest function, and scenic beauty than other management activities. In the end, the land, taxpayers and Congress are not well served by this slush fund. Contacts
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