Actions in Progress : Wood Use

• Support the completion of the Northern Arizona Wood Supply Study (due January '08). Define what product is available; what amounts of product are available; and, what process is necessary to allow for product harvest (NEPA, etc).
• Support a pinyon-juniper wood study that:
  1. Defines the supply of material for the area
  2. Prioritizes areas for treatment based on anticipated ecological benefits and public values
  3. Analyzes costs and considerations of harvesting and transporting juniper material
  4. Characterizes and maps the road network available for performing juniper operations
  5. Identifies public finance available to share costs of supply provision and business start-up
• Consider the removal of the requirement under the Federal Acquisition regulations that the Forest Service annually obligate funding to cover costs of canceling the when using Stewardship Contracts (cancellation liability).  This action will require a change in Public Law 108-7 (U.S.C. 2104) to allow the Forest Service the same flexibility provided to Department of Defense to address similar large contract restraints. 
• Seek and encourage partnerships where logical and pragmatic.
• Seek opportunities to bridge communication and knowledge gaps between the different forest interest/user communities.
• Support research that will expand the uses of wood and make current uses more efficient.
• Encourage land management agencies and entities to share information and work together to provide for healthy forests and watersheds.
• Develop an action timetable to advise and enlist support from local, state and federal elected officials, and agencies for above actions as appropriate.
• Develop an ecological services inventory (in tandem with other topic areas being addressed by the land-based industries team) to assist in the valuation of working landscape contributions to sustainable communities.

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