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B-203506 1 (1981-10-19)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabkfn0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ,.- -N COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON D.C. 20548 B-203506 October 19, 1981 /9 go CED 2-14 - The Honorable James H. Weaver Chairman, Subcommittee on Forests, Family Farms, and Energy Committee on Agriculture House of Representatives Dear Mr. Chairman: In response to your October 7, 1981, letter we are providing our views on the proposed bill for forestland vegetation manage- ment. i This bill would, among other things, promote forestry employment and the safe use of herbicides on public forest lands managed by the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management. -The following comments are based primarily on our review of the Service's and Bureau's use of herbicides in their vegetation management programs and our recent report entitled Better Data Needed To Determine the Extent to Which Herbicides Should Be Used on Forest Lands (CED-81-46, Apr. 17, 1981.) In our review we concentrated on the agencies' vegetation management activities at t-wo forest management stages: site preparation and release. (The term release refers to promoting the growth of selected trees by temporarily suppressing compe- ting vegetation.) It is at these stages in managing a forest that herbicides are generally used. The proposed legislation would require the Service and the Bureau to institute stricter guidelines on the use of herbicides in their vegetation manage- ment programs and, as we recommended in our report, would re- quire them to obtain better information before deciding on treatment and the method of treatment. Section 3 of the proposed bill requires site-specific determinations of the need for vegetation management practices. However, as stated in our report (CED-81-46) and discussed in our comments on H.R. 2900, copies enclosed, information gaps exist on both the cost and the relative effectiveness of various options available to carry out site preparation and release work. A particular concern is that, in those forests and districts relying heavily on herbicides, the decision-makers do not have

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