Bryan Rice, director of forest management for the U.S. Forest Service, spoke at the bi-annual Roach-Bauer Forestry Forum held at the Kane Country Club on Thursday night to give a presentation called “Perspectives from inside the Beltway.”
However, Rice received the perspectives from some foresters who work on the Allegheny National Forest, and their assessment of the state of the local timber industry differed from Rice’s perspective on a national level quite dramatically. Rice explained how stewardship contracting has actually increased the amount of timber sold throughout the Forest Service while helping in restoration projects in the national forests.
The Forest Service defines stewardship contracting as focusing “on the ‘end result’ ecosystem benefits and outcomes, rather than on what’s removed from the land.”
Rice described there are basically three types of timber sales: Traditional timber sales, integrated resource timber contracts, and integrated resource service contracts. He said the latter two of the group make up an integral part of stewardship contracting.
Rice claimed the timber sold throughout the entire Forest Service was at 2.8 billion board feet, up 18 percent since 2008. He said the Forest Service’s target was 2.9 billion board feet for 2015.
From The Bradford Era: https://www.bradfordera.com/news/article_23206438-df2d-11e4-9413-cf11ed5339ac.html