RS20985 -- Stewardship Contracting for Federal Forests
Updated April 10, 2003

	Traditional Contracting to Procure Services

Procurement contracts are used by federal agencies to perform a wide variety of tasks, and could be used for many forest stewardshipservices. (7) Because of this need and the high cost of manyactivities, some have proposed a different approach to contracting for forest stewardship: trading goods(commercially valuabletimber) for services (other activities in the same area). (9)
The goods-for-services demonstration projects, and the general expectations of the approach, have been modified timber sales toallow the agencies to impose non-timber harvesting requirements on the purchasers.
Many forests, especially the national forests, are widely thought to have unnaturallyhighamounts of dead and dying trees, dense undergrowth, and dense stands of small trees. This biomass can exacerbateinsect and diseaseinfestations and wildfire threats. Because much of this biomass has little or no commercial value, some haveproposed stewardshipcontracting to reduce these threats. Two approaches have been suggested: traditional service procurement contractsand contracts thatinclude exchanging goods (timber) for stewardship services. Congress authorized goods-for-services contractingthrough FY2013 byamending a previous pilot program in the FY2003 Omnibus Appropriations law. This report discusses theadvantages and limitationsof each of these approaches. It provides background on the issue and is unlikely to be updated.