Forest Service: Little Progress on Performance Accountability Likely Unless Management Addresses Key Challenges

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

The Forest Service, within the U.S. Dept. of Ag., manages over 190 million acres of forest and grassland. The agency is responsible for managing its lands for various purposes -- including recreation, grazing, timber harvesting, and others -- while ensuring that such activities do not impair the lands' long-term productivity. Carrying out these often competing responsibilities has been made more difficult by the increasing cost of wildland fires and the budgetary constraints necessitated by our nation's long-term fiscal outlook. This testimony highlights some of the major management challenges the Forest Service faces in carrying out its responsibilities. It is based on numerous reports issued on a wide variety of the agency's activities.