In 2008, the U.S. Forest Service will begin
implementing a “Redesigned” State and Private
Forestry (S&PF) program. The S&PF Redesign effort
was conceived in response to the combined impacts of increasing
pressures on our nation’s forests and decreasing S&PF
resources and funds. Significant threats to forests, such
as insect and disease infestations, catastrophic fire, and
the loss of critical forested landscapes to development, coupled
with the pressure placed on local economies by the increasingly
global nature of the forest products industry, point to the
need for more progressive strategies for conserving our nation’s
forest resource.
Over the past two years, the U.S. Forest Service
has been working closely with the National Association of
State Foresters (NASF) to:
- Examine the current conditions and trends
affecting forest lands,
- Review existing S&PF programs to determine
how to best address threats to our forests, and
- Develop a strategy, including guiding principles
and components of change, for delivering a relevant and
meaningful set of S&PF programs, skills and opportunities.
The new Redesign approach will focus on three
consensus-based S&PF National
Themes:
Conserve working forest landscapes,
Protect forests from harm, and
Enhance public benefits from trees and forests.
“The S&PF Redesign offers State
Foresters and their partners a tremendous opportunity to work
together in identifying the highest priority landscapes in
their states and regions and develop focused strategies for
addressing the forest resource challenges on those landscapes,”
says E. Austin Short, III, State Forester of Delaware and
President of NASF.
National and state resource assessments will
be used to develop competitive proposals for S&PF funds;
those projects that receive S&PF dollars will respond
directly to the National Themes as well as annual national
direction developed by the U.S. Forest Service. The amount
of S&PF funds competitively awarded will gradually increase
over the next several years, beginning with 15% in 2008.
The Redesigned S&PF will also include
an emphasis on transitioning to a more flexible and adaptive
organization and will examine opportunities to integrate and
maximize current programs with other, similar federal forestry
programs.
“Implementing the S&PF Redesign
will enable us to apply our increasingly limited resources
in a more targeted and meaningful way—improving our
ability to shape and influence forest land use in a way that
maximizes public benefits and addresses nationally significant
priorities,” says Jim Hubbard, Forest Service Deputy
Chief for S&PF.
The national S&PF office will report
annually to Congress and partners on the progress of the Redesigned
S&PF. New emphasis will be placed on improving our collective
ability to demonstrate and communicate accomplishments.
For more information on the S&PF Redesign
effort, please contact
Debbie Pressman (Forest Service, dpressman@fs.fes.us),
or Jan Davis
(TX Forest Service jdavis@tfs.tamu.edu).
-->Click here for this one-page
brief.
Competitive Resource
Allocation Process
The State & Private Forestry (S&PF) Redesign assumes
that our collective efforts will be most effective if available
resources are focused on issues and landscapes of national
importance and prioritized, using state and regional assessments,
on activities that promise meaningful outcomes on the ground.
This concept is captured as: focus + priority + outcome. The
Redesign Board of Directors identified “competitive
resource allocation” as an effective means of ensuring
that federal S&PF dollars are invested in projects that
meet this standard.
Beginning in federal fiscal year 2008 (FY
08), an increasing percentage of the S&PF allocation will
be invested in projects selected through a competitive process.
These processes will be informed by the national guidance
described below, but administered through a joint effort between
the state forestry and USFS leadership in the northeast, south
and west. It is anticipated that each geographic region will
design their competitive process to address geographically
significant issues and landscapes as well as the broad themes
and direction provided at the national level.
Once completed, the FY 2008 Competitive
Allocation Process will be reviewed and assessed by a team
of S&PF and state forestry representatives to identify
any changes that may be needed prior to FY 2009.
-->Click here FY
'09 National Guidance for the Competitive Resource Allocation
-->Click here Cooperative
Forestry Assistance Act Authorities
-->Click here Competitive
Process Q&As Addressing Eligible Activities
-->Click here FY08'
Competitive Allocation Process Briefing Paper
• Northeastern Area Association
of State Foresters
Ian
Macfarlane, Executive Manager,
ian.macfarlane@mail.wvu.edu,
(703) 243-9462
• Southern Group of State Foresters
Mike
Zupko, Executive Director,sgsfexec@mindspring.org
• Western Forestry Leadership Coalition/Council of Western
State Foresters
Jay
Jensen, Program Manager,jay.jensen@colostate.edu;
(303) 445-4364, http://www.wflcweb.org/sapf/index.php
Redesign Components of Change
The key Components of Change embodied in
the Redesign approach are:
National Themes
National Assessment
State Assessments &
State Response Plans
Competitive Resource Allocation
Programs & Staffing
Demonstrating and Communicating
Results
Integrated Program Delivery
Questions & Answers
-->Click here for a current list of questions
and answers concerning the SPF Redesign effort.
For More Information
Redesign
Briefing Issue 1, March 2007
(105KB)
Redesign
Briefing Issue 2, June 2007
(76KB)
Redesign
Overview
(64KB)
Redesign
Presentation
(257KB) overview of the redesign process
Redesign
Timeline
(35KB)
Contacts:
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