Hearings to examine oversight of the United States Forest Service.

OK, can we

I'll talk to you in a minute. Yeah.

Are you ready?

Uh, yeah.

Good, good morning and welcome, uh, it's my privilege to call this hearing to examine the work of the United States Forest Service and challenges facing our national forest and communities that depend on them. I welcome our Witness Chief of the US Forest Service, Tom Schulz. Thank you for being here today and to share the work of the Forest Service to support our national forest especially as fire season begins. The Forest Service manages and oversees roughly a hundred and ninety-three million acres of forest and grasslands across this country. My state of Arkansas is home to two of those national forest, the Ozark-St. Francis and the Ouachita, which account for nearly three million acres between the two. These national forests not only support the local communities' economies, but also by provi- by providing recreational access access to Arkansans. The University of Arkansas at Monticello and the Arkansas Department of Agriculture also have the close relationships that support research and local engagement. Needless to say, the impact of the forest service is well known in Arkansas, and we are immensely proud of them. Earlier this year, USDA announced it will be moving Forest Service headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as moving from a region-based structure to a state-based structure. I understand the sentiment of moving people closer to communities they serve, and I look forward to hearing how the Forest Service will continue to support its mission during this move, especially as we are already in the in the early part of peak fire season. As summer begins, the forest service capacity to fight wildfires is top of mind for many people. Wildfires are indifferent to federal, state, tribal and private property lines or political subdivisions. Last year we saw over five million acres burned, with another eight point nine million burned in twenty twenty four. The outlook for this year looks grim, with many predicting another active fire season. I look forward to hearing your insight and strategy on how the Forest Service will handle those challenges this year. The committee also reported the Fix Our Forest acts called FOFA. In October of last year, I want to thank Senators Curtis, Hickenlooper, Sheehy and Padilla for introducing that important legislation in the Senate and thank Chairman Westerman for championing it in the House. I also want to thank my Republicans and Democrat colleagues who voted for Fofa, including ranking member Klobuchar and senators Fetterman, uh, Lujan, Slotkin, Warnock and Welsh. I am committed to working with leadership to get Fofa across the floor and to the president's desk. Fofa will provide the Forest Service much needed and streamlined authorities to reduce catastrophic wildfires and improve and improve forest health. Once again, thank you uh Chief Schultz for appearing before the committee today, and I look forward to our discussion. I now turn to Ranking Member Klobuchar for Opening State.

Well, thank you very much, Chairman, and thank you for holding this hearing. Uh, thank you Chief Schultz uh for serving as the twenty-first Chief of the US Forest Service, and for appearing before the committee, and I also appreciated the briefing we had just last week with secretary rollins and secretary bergham and others about uh the status of various fires and what was happening uh across the country and as i said then i thank the firefighters of the forest service for responding to the recent stewart and flanders fires that uh were scary for many minnesotans in center smith and my home state including uh the residents of two harbors cross lake and now we just this yesterday have a fire near ely minnesota which is actually where my dad grew up and i know that there's coordinated efforts as there were for the past fires over the last month uh with the forest service bureau of indian affairs uh the minnesota dnr and local first responders most important uh who are protecting lives and properties um last may senator smith and i visited an incident command center in two harbors and surveyed the damage dropped by the brimson complex fires, drier hotter spring seasons and an ongoing spruce budworm outbreak are contributing to these fires. And I am focused on ensuring the uh forest service and its partners are ready for this approaching fire season I don't quite remember a season where we've had so many, I would call them flash uh fires they come up uh out of the blue, they've been put out so far but it just does not bode well because of the dry weather um and the conditions for what we're gonna see so Chief Schultz, I appreciate our recent conversations, as I noticed, and I've also raised, uh, the issues with Director Fennessy at DOI. Uh, your agency's focus on the welfare issue is critical and forests across the country, uh, which is why I remain concerned by some of the reductions that we've talked about. I'm troubled that more than fourteen hundred forest service employees with so-called red cards which allow them to fight wildfires without being hired as firefighters, departed the agency last year amid broader workforce reduction, especially when we're seeing these sort of flash sudden fires as well as major fires across the country. These employees are crucial to the agency's wildfire response during challenging seasons like we may be seeing now, and these departures could leave the agency less prepared. And I also look forward to hearing how the Forest Service will treat more acres for hazardous fuels this year, after a year-over-year drop in twenty twenty five. I believe we should be strengthening the agency's wildfire response capabilities. And unfortunately, we've seen these cuts that should be concerning to all. The budget that we've seen from the administration proposes deep cuts to popular state forestry programs, funding for volunteer fire departments, and forestry research. And the budget the administration recommends moves wildfire operations out of the usda's forest service as you know and we are concerned about the unintended consequences of doing that i'm sure you'll address that um the budget proposes eliminating forestry research and cutting nfs funding but at the same time the forest service reorg suggests these mission areas will be reconfigured that leads to confusion the forest service research facility in grand rapids minnesota which carries out invaluable red pine research, is on the list of facilities to be closed as is the site in Ely. Employees have been notified of potential reorganization, but questions remain about where researchers will be located. In April, I along with ranking members Heinrich and Merkley, and more than thirty of my colleagues directly raised concerns with the reorganization of the USDA. If this reorganization is not well executed, it could lead to additional capacity and workforce reductions and again i'm sure you will be addressing that and i have appreciated your willingness to answer my questions over the last few months the departure of red card holding employees a drop in wildfire mitigation and trail maintenance work and confusing re-org plans are concerning development and there is a role for congress my colleague senator bozeman just um mentioned the fix our forest act um which um this committee uh passed through and we're looking forward to its consideration on the floor and we understand um that its passage uh could be eased by some additional changes that we hope we'll be able to develop together but i do appreciate the bipartisan leadership and uh that is why i supported that bill um the uh chief schultz your leadership and the dedicated work of the of the Forest Service personnel are much appreciated or needed more than ever to see the agency through these challenging times and I look forward to hearing your testimony. Thank you.

It's my pleasure to introduce Tom Schultz, the twenty-first Chief of the United States Forest Service. Prior to serving as Chief, he was Vice President of Resources and Government Affairs at the idaho forest group and director of the idaho department of lands chief schultz also worked for the montana department of natural resources and served as an air force officer he holds a bachelor's degree from the university of virginia a master's degree from the university of wyoming and a master's degree in forestry from the university of montana thank you very much for being with us today and you are now recognized for your statement

Chairman Bozeman, Ranking Committee Member, Klobuchar, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here today to testify. The USDA's Forest Service is the nation's foremost federal forestry organization. We have the privilege of managing a hundred and fifty-four national forests, twenty national grasslands, covering a hundred and ninety-three million acres. Since day one, my work as chief has been to refocus our efforts on the fundamental work that delivers the greatest good to the American people. Today I'd like to share the priorities guiding the forest service forward, as well as share key accomplishments from the previous year. Our priorities reflect a back to basics approach that centers on the work we know that matters most, keeping people safe, protecting communities from wildfire, actively managing our forest for health and productivity, supporting communities recovering after disasters, extending access to the outdoors, increasing domestic mineral production, increasing and cutting unnecessary red tape, and strengthening the partnerships that make all of this possible. At the center of everything we do is safety, whether it's firefighter safety, on the line, or an employee in the field, safety is our first and last priority. Proud to say that we reduced OSHA related recordable incidents by more than fifteen percent, year over year. That's a direct reflection of the culture that puts safety first. While for readiness and response remains one of our most urgent responsibilities, we're prioritizing rapid aggressive initial response, so that we can keep fires small. We've invested in staffing, coordination, contracting, and infrastructure to meet the reality that fire season in many cases extends twelve months and we're seeing results in fiscal year twenty five, even though we had the highest number of wildfire starts in the national forest in nearly a decade, the acres that were burned were held to about half of the ten year average. Our initial attack success rate was the strongest in twelve years, and we treated more than three point three million acres to reduce hazardous fuels. And for this fiscal year we have treated nearly two point two million acres nationally already, or sixty-one percent of our target as of May, with over one point six million acres of prescribed fire, nearly five hundred thousand acres more than last year at this time. In addition to these hazardous fields treatments, other forms of active forest management, timber production, grazing, reforestation also remain essential to healthy, resilient forests. In twenty twenty-five we exceeded our timber targets, selling two point nine five billion board feet. This supports domestic mills, strengthens rural economies, and improves forest health. And we are implementing the National Active Forest Management strategy, and we are on target to increase our timber volume offered off the national forest by twenty-five percent with an overall goal of four billion board feet by fiscal year twenty-eight. We're also modernizing grazing processes and expanding access to ensure grazing continues to promote healthy landscapes and resilient rural communities. Last year we completed the highest level of reforestation in over twenty-five years. reforesting almost two hundred and eighty seven thousand acres and improving stands on another hundred and sixty five thousand acres. America's forest also play a critical role in supporting domestic energy and mineral production. The forest service is committed to facilitating responsible development, especially of critical minerals essential to national security, technology and energy, while reducing unnecessary regulatory delays. We're currently working on twenty fast forty-one projects, including six covered and fourteen transparency projects. Disasters, when disasters occur the forest service is a key partner in recovery. Following a twenty twenty four hurricane season we opened up more than fifteen hundred miles of roads and nearly seven hundred miles of trails and thirty four recreation sites across more than a hundred disaster recovery events we awarded eight hundred and eighty five million dollars in contracts and one point five billion dollars in agreements to restore landscapes and infrastructure. We're also working to expand recreation access and improve the visitor experience for the millions of Americans who enjoy their national forest. Under the Great American Outdoors Act, we completed a hundred and twenty-five deferred maintenance projects, improving a hundred and sixty-two wreck sites and seventy-eight roads and bridges. The Forest Service is working alongside states, tribes and local governments to manage the nation's forests more effectively. In the past two years, we have signed and entered into shared stewardship agreements with seven states and three tribal nations. And by the end of fiscal year twenty-five, we'll have had five hundred and forty active good neighbor authority agreements, ninety-nine which were signed in the past year. These partnerships help expand capacity, cut through operational challenges, and deliver restoration work. We're also taking significant steps to reduce red tape and improve organizational efficiency. Our restructuring, relocating headquarters to Salt Lake City, shifting to a state-based leadership model, and creating an operations service center. And unifying research programs that are designed to move decision-making closer to the communities and the landscapes that we serve. The shift represents a structural reset and common sense approach to improve mission delivery. As we look into the twenty twenty-sixth fire year, we enter the season facing elevated fire potential across large areas of the country. We also enter unified and prepared. We have hired more than eleven thousand firefighters, up six percent from last year at this time, and we will reach our eleven thousand three hundred goal by July. We have increased the number of red-carded non-fire staff by more than four hundred and fifty personnel giving us more surge capacity when fires occur. Finally, we are working with Department of Interior and Congress as directed on the administration's broader effort to consolidate the nation's wildland fire system. These efforts moving forward without compromising our operational readiness. Throughout all of this work, our commitment reigns constant in protecting the public's support, our partners, and ensure rapid, effective, and unified response to wildfires across the nation. Chairman Bozen, Ranking Member Klobuchar, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here today. Welcome, your questions.

Thank you, Chief, very much. Um. We'll go to our questions now. As I mentioned in my opening statement, this fire season is expected to be active as we saw a very dry winter in our west and below average rain in the southeast this spring. How has the Forest Service prepared for this year? And what is your strategy for approaching the fire season?

Uh, Mister Chairman, so this year we've actually, we're ahead of about eight percent over what we were last year year, in terms of hiring at this time. So we've hired over eleven thousand at this point in time. We've also got, I mentioned in my opening statement, about four hundred fifty more red-carded personnel than we did previously. So we've increased our ability to basically suppress wildfires aggressively. The other thing that we've done is I've issued a letter of intent to our employees across the forest service um and that's basically advocating for a safe fire season but also one that we're gonna attack aggressively the fires that uh that occur in protecting communities. The other piece that we're also looking at doing, we've been working to implement the president's executive order with regard to wildfire unification. So we've had a lot of support and a lot of success in simplifying and unifying our processes between Department of Interior and the Forest Service, so that we're communicating better and coordinating better this fire season.

Very good. It was announced earlier this year that the Forest Service will move its headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, and move to a state-based structure. What measurable improvements do you expect this reorganization to deliver for the forest service, employees, forest management operations, and can you describe how the agency engaged with local communities and state partners when considering the changes?

Uh, Mister Chairman, so first of all I think we have to take a step back and ask why we're doing this. And I think if you look at the way we've been structured for years, in many cases things have worked, but we've also had a lot of shortfalls in what we've done and how we've made decisions. When the Forest Service was initially set up, the intent was to have decisions made at the local level as much as possible. And what we've seen over time is we have grown the size of the Forest Service. That decision making has gravitated away from local forest to regions and even the Washington office. So what this is, first and foremost, is an attempt to move the decision making back to the ground, back to those local communities, those forests and districts, where those folks that work on the ground know those c- that land the best, work in and live in those communities, know the people the best, make those decisions. So, but how we're doing that is we're creating this state-based system that you reference. Um, so we will have fourteen state or fifteen state directors. Um, that'll be in the west and in the east it's gonna look a little bit different, in the east we have a smaller footprint. But that's the fundamental intention. We're gonna have greater coordination with states, we think we're gonna have greater coordination with tribes, as well as county commissioners and local partners by having that approach. And just as an example right now, we have a single regional forester over california oregon washington and alaska and in this new base model we'll have an individual uh director over each of those states so we think there's gonna be greater communication and and a coordination with those local governments to get things done but that's really what we're trying to do is is really push decision making down and have the agency's presence closer to the people that are impacted by the forest on the ground

very good uh chief last october as was mentioned by myself in we were able to advance the bipartisan Fix Our Forest Act, or FOFA. From the forest service perspective, what measures in legislation like FOFA would be most effective in reducing wildfire risk and improving active forest management across our national forest system?

Uh, Mister Chairman, FOFA has a lot of provisions in there which we think are very beneficial. Um, utility rights ways is a big deal across the country, particularly in the west. uh we've seen that an opportunity to expand how quickly we can remove some of those hazardous fuels for utility lines there's been a lot of support for those provisions there's provisions in there too um reduce some of the litigation issues that we have and limit some of those we think that's gonna be very helpful there's provisions with fire sheds um and some of the work that's being done um to identify those areas and expedite some of the work that can be done on those areas that need to be protected um so we think that overall there's a lot of good things in FOFA as was mentioned in your opening statement there are couple of things i think folks are still looking at trying to tweak around the edges but overall we think FOFA's gonna be very helpful to the agency as we move forward and uh and actually helpful to the american public

very good senior kolobichar

thank you very much mister chair uh we've talked about this before chief schultz but the canada fires of the last few years i understand there may be a chance they won't be as bad this year and you can comment on that um i'm not gonna hold you to it but uh that's the hope given the smoke that they created uh which really in my state and many others um was actually had an incredible impact on so many people um across the country and i understand that last summer more than five hundred us forest service and minnesota dnr wildland firefighters went to canada to help and last month personnel from canada came to help in minnesota with the fires i mentioned previously Um, as we're now in the fire season, how do you balance sharing resources with Canada and could you talk about what you predict what you've seen for what the Canada fires will be like this year?

Uh, Senator Klobuchar, uh, Mister Chairman, um, the agreements we have with Canada are are over forty, it's over forty years old. We've been working with them for forty-three years. And as you mentioned last year, we um, I think it was actually nearly six hundred firefighters, um, and incident command personnel actually supported them in those efforts. Um, and that will continue. And it work, it goes both ways. We we send support staff and resources to Canada. And they reciprocate and send folks to the US as well when we have a difficult fire season. And that that's been a very effective relationship. Um, in terms of this upcoming fire season. Um, as as we've talked about, the the conditions in the US look very difficult. Um, and last year looked very challenging as well as we went into fire season. If you remember Minnesota last year, early in the fire season, a very challenging season. One of the things that can be helpful, you asked about how we allocate resources, is the timing of when the fire season occurs. So um in some cases the Minnesota fire season tends to be a little bit earlier in the year than some of the other like it you kind of think about the fire season, kind of like a u-shape almost, it kind of starts in the east, goes in the southeast, kind of comes up through the southwest and then comes up to the west. So typically the fire season doesn't directly overlap a lot of times with uh Minnesota, in particular. with canada but um we will allocate resources accordingly we have a lot of interagency coordination

ok and the predictions on the canadian smoke this summer

i think it looks a little bit better than last year last was a very tough year but again um it's it's very difficult to predict how the season will go

ok um quickly um what was the reason for putting the grand rapids facility uh set for closure

um

in grand rapids minnesota

center klobuchar uh mr. chairman so what we identified is i think we have roughly ninety different um r and d facilities approximately that have some degree of staffing in them and we're looking at all of our facilities we identified twenty which house about fifty percent of the r and d staff but this is a broader discussion than just r and d so right now we have about a three billion dollar backlog in deferred maintenance across all of our structures in terms of infrastructure um and that's just for whether it's buildings um or infrastructure supporting buildings and we have about a thirty seven million dollar reduction in our budget year over year for facilities so we're taking a hard look not just at r and d facilities but all of our facilities that we've got and so i know there's been some confusion based on language that i have used previously about closures we have not made any determination with regard to closures we are evaluating facilities and looking at opportunities for consolidation in some cases we know we have state partners um or other partners that maybe have interest in buildings But so there's been no determination to just so you know to close anything at this point.

Right. OK. Cuz you know our just concern is forests aren't all the same. They're researching red pine, black prute spruce,

Yes ma'am.

things that you might not be able to do in other facilities. We can talk more about it later. I brought up in my opening how uh the present budget once again requests moving the forest service fire operations to the DOI. When the congressionally directed study regarding this proposal is not completed, why not wait till the study is completed?

Um, Senator Kolbich, Mr. Chairman, so currently where the study is at, so the study is on the street right now. It's open till I think uh June eighth for submission of proposals. Um, and we're actually it's called a RFQ, a request for quotes. Um, my understanding is looking at the House mark, that they are going to wait in the House version of the budget until the study is completed. I think in the President's budget, it clearly we articulated this in twenty six and in twenty seven a desire to move and consolidate the fire program and unify it congress asked us to complete the study which we were going to do that um so i don't i haven't seen a senate mark yet on the budget but the house i think is looking for that study to be completed before the house is proposing to move forward so i think at this point in time um it looks like the study will be completed probably in the november time frame there's a six month time limit to get the work done so i anticipate the study will be completed before final decisions are made

mmm ok um and last what's your plan to minimize the loss of forest service employees with red cards that are subject to the reorganization i mentioned all of these people and our concerns about people who have lost their jobs when we need more people fighting fires

you did um senator klobuchar mr. chairman so appreciate those comments so last year was a lot different than this year um you referenced the fourteen hundred number of folks that are red cards we looked at those numbers last year about it was less than five hundred of those folks had been on a fire in the last five years but this year we actually have four hundred and fifty more red carded personnel than we've had over the last several years even going back to twenty four so we've made an effort to your point to insure that we had more outreach with staff to get more folks red carded as we go into this fire season so we actually have more people that we've hired to date year to date over the last couple years as of this day right now more than eleven thousand have been hired plus we have an additional four hundred and fifty red carded personnel available to fight fire this season so we feel like terms of staffing we're better positioned this year than we have been over the last several years

ok and i will put in writing or when i if we ask a question at the end about state forestry agency's not being able to accept certain awards because of changes to terms and conditions and i'm just concerned last year they the grants went out and given what we're facing right now uh making sure those grants go out but my time's expired so thank you

yes

uh senator hogan

thank you mr. chairman and chief good to see you appreciate you being here as you know prairie dogs are big problem in the dakota prairie grasslands uh in last year's interior appropriations bill we included language uh which i'll read the committee remains concerned about the rapidly increasing levels of prairie dogs in the dakota prairie grasslands as well as encroachment and degradation of adjacent non- federal lands, meaning our grazers. The committee encourages the service to prom- and their private lands, excuse me. The committee encourages the service to promulgate an amendment to the two thousand eighteen prairie dog management plan, which would limit occupied prairie dog habitat to not more than one point five percent of the federal land in any single grazing allotment, and ensure prairie dog control activity is conducted within a one mile buffer between federal land and state and private land. As you know, we have a prairie dog problem. Um, my first question is, when are you going to fully implement this twenty-six language?

So, Senator Hoven, Mister Chairman. Um, we what we did was we had outreach with the Grassland Association. So we met with folks here over the last couple months, and they've come up with a list of recommendations that they've submitted to us. And it was a jointly, uh,

So, where, OK, where are you in the process? What does that mean in terms of actually accomplishing the objective laid out in the language?

Mm-hmm.

And they developed a list of recommendations on how to proceed with that,

Mm-hmm.

and they submitted that back.

That's good.

Mm.

What's your timeline for getting to a determination?

Um. Senator Hovind, I would say within the next month we're gonna have a plan on how to implement those recommendations.

Can you and I go back out and see our grazers then at that point, and go through it with them? uh they're very concerned that they're losing ground uh and as you know in some cases,

Yes sir.

it looks like a lunar landscape when they get a and

Five percent, yes sir.

that means on private land not not non-federal lands on adjacent lands, because the buffer is just not working and so they we need to get you back out so you you're uh you're agreeable to going back out there with me, and uh and again we'll we'll try to time it with your formulation of the response there i think we need to get back out and talk to those grazing associations and and really see if it's gonna work and and hopefully you know what their thoughts are and and obviously it needs to be coordinated with them

yes sir

ok uh and then the other thing is just all the other uh we do appreciate what you're doing on noxious weeds that funding's been there again thanks to you and to chris french but again to go out and see that interface of ranching and energy there's so much going on with energy now uh tourism, fires and everything else, we just need to have you come back out and see our guys.

Yes, sir.

All right. Thank you Chief, I appreciate it very much.

Senator Smith.

Uh thank you, Mister Chair and Ranking Member, and uh welcome uh Chief Schultz, good to see you today. Um I wanna actually quickly follow up on the questioning that um my colleague from Minnesota was asking about the Grand Rapids Research Facility. So, my ears perked up when you talked about sort of two uh combined goals, one keeping decision making at the local level, Which I completely agree with, and also you're always looking for ways that you can save money,

Mm-hmm.

um, which I can also relate to. So I wanna just, on the Grand Rapids facility, two points here. You may not be aware that that facility, the Forest Service leases from the University of Minnesota, and it's a dollar a year for a fifty year lease, and there's forty five years left on that lease. So looks like a pretty good deal for the taxpayers to have those folks there. And then in addition on the goal of local decision making, those folks there have been hosting, you know, decades-long large-scale experiments. It's very local, based on wetlands and peatlands and forests, it is a unique forest land. So, can we follow back up with you as I, I understand this is on the closure list, there's decisions yet to be made. Seems to me like it could be a really good financial decision to leave this research facility in place in northern Minnesota.

Uh, senator smith yes ma'am we can sure visit on that and again i just wanna clarify there there have been no decisions made and then with regard to the research

right

program and there's still been confusion on this our intent is not to eliminate any research programs we're looking at facilities and the best way to manage the facilities reduce our overall footprint so that we can manage within our budgets but in terms of the staffing in terms of the research programs the intent is not to reduce the programs it's look at facilities

so we could have we could maybe find some common ground here as we think the value of the folks in Grand Rapids doing this research on very regionally specific, Yeah. but um um widely applicable research. Um, OK. I'm gonna um switch to another issue. I'd really like to talk with you about a public lands issue that the Forest Service has direct accountability for in Minnesota and this is the Boundary Waters. So this is this large federal wilderness area in the Superior National Forest right on the border of Minnesota and Canada. Yes ma'am. I'm sure you're familiar with this issue, um Chief. Um, there's been a long-standing proposal to build a copper sulfide mine there. There was a mineral lease with a d- uh, uh, with, there was a mineral lease withdrawal which was done in twenty twenty-three after a comprehensive um, science-driven analysis. Public land order was put in place with a twenty-year moratorium on this um, on these mineral leases, um, essentially because the analysis showed that uh, this mine and this place posed unacceptable risks to the um, wilderness area. And then last month the congressional review process was used in an unprecedented way, this public land or order was revoked, overturned, despite widespread opposition in Minnesota. And so here is my question. Now, now, you know, here we sit here today.

Right.

Um, the Forest Service is in a crucial place, both for the decision around a re- um, um, you know, a re- re- re- re-upping these leases and then the permitting process that would follow as a result. So under section one O two of the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, the Forest Service is required to evaluate the environmental impacts of any project under its jurisdiction. There's seems to be no doubt that this project would have significant environmental impact. So can you talk to me about what the Forest Service's plans are here for completing a full and complete um environmental review of this um project?

Uh, Senator Smith, uh, Mister Chairman, So, my understanding is we did do an EIS previously, um, on this, so that as you indicated for that process. Um, what we need to do is take a look at that. We probably need to dust it off and evaluate whether what additional work needs to be done. So I'd, I don't know exactly what work needs to be done, um, to update that EIS with new information of what we w- might need to do. So I don't have an exact answer for you, but we can definitely get back to you on what a timeline might look like, for updating and revising that analysis that was previously done.

So, you know, the concern in Minnesota is that The administration has made some statements about how this process could be done in a matter of weeks, and of course that does not seem um logical or credible to us that that would be a full uh review, given that time period. What about um the opportunity for members of the public to weigh in on this project? Um uh and a a a public comment period. Um what is what are your plans and will you commit to having a robust public comment period for this project?

So Senator Smith's uh, Mister uh, Chairman, so what I will do is I haven't we have not determined a plan yet, a wanna go forward basis yet. So what we will do is we'll get back to you and your staff on that and and let you know exactly what we're thinking about how to proceed. We just haven't had that discussion. As you mentioned, the action by Congress is relatively recent, and we haven't had a time to go back and look and and determine a plan of how to proceed yet.

One other thing as you're going through that process, you should think about the requirement around intergovernmental consultation with the Government of Canada, um, which is This is outlined in a, uh, the Boundary Waters Treaty of nineteen O nine.

OK.

Um, I will of course be following up, um, with great interest because this is an issue of huge interest in in Minnesota and actually around the country. Um, um, as, um, tribal leaders and tribal members, um, uh, outdoor enthusiasts, public land advocates, and also hunting and fishing groups, um, care very much about what happens here. Thank you, Mister Chair.

Mm-hmm.

Senator Hyde-Smith.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, very much, and uh I certainly appreciate you being here, Chief Schultz, and I've enjoyed our relationships that we've had and the opportunities we've had together to visit mills and things cuz Mississippi is a woodbasket.

Yes, ma'am.

And that is very important, but they're facing some pretty critical challenges right now, as we briefly discussed, that uh You and your team have been extremely helpful to our office in tackling the decline of timber demand by building more sustainable market opportunities for our landowners. And uh what we wanna talk about right now is the significant storms that we've experienced from the recent tornadoes and winter storm fern was absolutely brutal. It harmed private and national forest all over the state of Mississippi. I live in west Mississippi and very familiar and spend a lot of time around the Homichita National Forest, which suffered major damage in the tornadoes that we had on May the sixth and the seventh that came through. And I surveyed the damage and it is pretty staggering of what's happened to that. And uh the tornado caused obviously damage on private land as well as our federal land and it's pretty significant. But the impact reaches other national forest lands in Mississippi, including the Holly Springs and the Delta National Forest. The roads, the forest service facilities, the campgrounds and other infrastructures, including the area around Lake Okissa, which I've done an awful lot of work on there, uh bringing a project that has been very significant to southwest Mississippi. And it's very clear that the amount of damage in that area is going to take. a lot of money. We're talking tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. And I'm concerned obviously about the dead timber and the bio biomass that's left behind that we know is perfect create conditions to create a wildfires that we certainly do not need if this material's not removed quickly that's exactly what we're going to be experiencing so being very frank the wildfires and these already hard hit areas which have experience drought conditions would be catastrophic and threatening to the surrounding communities. So I believe Congress should act to prevent this from happening by passing supplemental disaster package for the forestry service to continue response efforts and the package should include legislation this committee approved actually in October to convey lands in the Homichita National Forest to help spur the economic development in this rural region of my state. So, uh, my question is from the Forest Service's perspective, what what additional actions can be taken to accelerate the storm damage cleanup, reduce the risk of wildfires on affected national forest lands in Mississippi, and what additional resources can be provided to the Forest Service to rebuild badly damaged infrastructure in these areas?

Senator Hytsmith, Chairman Bozeman, uh thank you for those questions and thank you pointing out the impact of those recent tornadoes in Mississippi. Unfortunately as you know, tornadoes are not uncommon as are not hurricanes and when you see what happens with a tornado, a lot of times when it hits a community, not only does it impact people's lives and their structures, but the trees are twisted. So a lot of times it can be challenging to be able to salvage those for value. But I am happy to report that it's it's been you mentioned I think May fifth or May sixth was the date. that that tornado hit um here we are less than a month later the forest service has already been selling salvage timber sales to help clean up some of those areas so in my checking this morning um couple of big things one roads so when tornadoes and hurricanes hit road closures are a big deal we've already opened up seventy miles of roads that were impacted by the tornado so people can get access that was a key piece um and in terms of the salvage sales we've actually prepared six different salvage sales across the different forests It's about sixty six thousand CCF of volume. Two of those sales have already sold. Four of them are on the shelf to be sold. I mean, we've priced them at basically as cheap as we can at nine cents a ton. Now what happens is in an area like this, what you see is typically the private lands wanna be salvaged first. So our ability to sell some of the federal ti- federal timber can be challenged. We don't wanna oversupply the market. We wanna insure that those private landowners have first opportunities to make sure that they can salvage dead material for their properties but we have acted quickly

thank you and hurricane season started yesterday so we're holding our breath thank you so much

yes ma'am

Senator Welsh.

Uh, thank you, uh, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I'm delighted to be here. Uh, Chief uh, Schultz, thank you so much for being here. Um, I, you know, the forest re the u the reorganization is always a tough issue because it it's legitimate to have fresh eyes on a situation, but the consolidation has real impacts. And in Vermont, we have this tremendous uh relationship with USDA in general. It's been extremely helpful. It's a governmental agency that's doing important work.

Yeah.

And uh Vermont farmers really depend on it, rely on it, uh as does our forest community. And we have a Jo- a George Aiken Research Center that is in danger of being closed down. And I want to just point out that consolidation and moving people may ultimately result in some quote efficiencies. But on the other hand, there is an enormous value in having people assigned to be placed where they're doing the work. And the partnership we've had with USDA uh in uh and the University of Vermont has been invaluable. So uh can you speak to me about what's gonna happen to the George Aiken uh facility?

Yes, sir. Uh, Senator Welch, Mister Chairman. Um, as I reiterated previously, so we've made no determinations on any closures, and with particular

Can you speak more into the microphone? I'm having trouble hearing you.

Yes, sir. So there's been no determinations made on any closures. We're still evaluating sites. Um, and specific to Vermont, um, my understanding is we do have an agreement with the University of Vermont, as you indicated. Um, and I think the cost is about forty thousand dollars a year. It's not a significant amount. But what we're looking at is all of these agreements, all of these structures, can we renegotiate some of those rates how do we get our cost structure down like i said our biggest issue right now is looking across all of our facilities knowing that we have a shortfall and how can we best consolidate and save funds um so there's been no determination to close that site or that facility