Forest Service Priorities: Evolving Mission Favors Resource Protection Over Production

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Forest Service's evolving mission, focusing on the: (1) priorities that Congress set in enacting the National Forest Management Act of 1976, which guides the development of plans for managing national forests; (2) Forest Service's mission and funding priorities and how they have evolved over the past 2 decades; and (3) effect of these priorities on the availability of timber and on the costs of and receipts from timber sales.