National Forest Wilderness Management Act

Summary

National Forest Wilderness Management Act - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) to establish and maintain a wilderness management program within the Forest Service to protect and restore the pristine wilderness of the national forest portions of the National Wilderness Preservation System (System). Requires the Chief of the Forest Service (Chief) to appoint a Director of Wilderness to supervise the management of the national forest portions of such System. Requires the President's proposed budget to the Congress for each fiscal year after the enactment of this Act to identify specifically, in a line item separate from the Forest Service's recreation program, funds to be expended by the Forest Service on wilderness management. Declares that such appropriated funds shall be spent on wilderness management only. Directs the Chief to appoint a committee of at least five scientists to make recommendations to the Chief and Directors of the Federal agencies that manage wilderness in the Department of the Interior on establishing and maintaining a national wilderness monitoring system. Requires the committee to report on such recommendations to the Chief, such Directors, and specified congressional committees. Directs the Chief to establish a national wilderness monitoring system, based on the best available science, to monitor the condition of the wilderness resource within the national forest portions of the System. Requires the Secretary, beginning in 1995 and every five years thereafter, to report to the President and specified congressional committees on the condition of the wilderness resource on national forest lands, identifying steps the Secretary plans to take to reverse any degradation or deterioration. Directs the Chief to: (1) develop guidelines for a personnel evaluation system for each line officer with wilderness management responsibilities; and (2) take steps to improve the efficiency of the wilderness management program and to give it needed emphasis. Requires the Forest Service to amend the National Forest Management Plan for each national forest with wilderness designated on or before the enactment of this Act to make such Plan consistent with this Act. Directs the Forest Service, within two years after non-designated areas have been designated, to complete wilderness management plans for such areas. Directs the Secretary to establish the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Academy to provide interagency training for wilderness managers. Requires the Secretaries of Agriculture and of the Interior to establish a national wilderness education program to educate the American people on wilderness laws and policies, values of wilderness, wilderness ecological process, and ways to minimize visitor impacts on the wilderness resource. Directs the Forest Service to: (1) conduct cadastral boundary surveys before offering timber on tracts adjacent to national forest land for sale to locate the legal boundaries of any such wilderness areas; and (2) take necessary actions to ensure that timber harvesting is restricted on them. Requires the Secretary to: (1) protect cultural resource sites in wilderness areas; and (2) encourage specified scientific research in them. Establishes within the Forest Service the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute in or near Missoula, Montana. Directs the National Academy of Sciences to assess and report to the Secretaries of Agriculture and of the Interior and specified congressional committees on the status of wilderness research nationwide. Requires the Secretary, through the Cooperative State Research Service, to establish a program to provide wilderness research grants to State supported colleges and universities, and to encourage States to submit wilderness research proposals for such grants. Amends the McIntire-Stennis Act to include the following within the scope of forestry research: protection, management, and maintenance of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Requires the Secretary to establish within wilderness areas at least one global baseline site for each region of the Forest Service to monitor the environmental health of the Earth. Requires the President's budget to the Congress for each fiscal year after the enactment of this Act to identify specifically, in a separate line item from other research programs, funds to be spent by the Forest Service on wilderness research. Defines "special management area" as any area of national forest land, other than wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, and national trails system areas that have been given a special designation by Act of the Congress (such as national recreation area, national scenic area, or national monument). Directs the Secretary, acting through the Forest Service, to take necessary actions to: (1) increase public awareness of such special management areas to make them highly visible; and (2) provide management that sets them apart from general national forest lands consistent with their designation. Requires the Chief: (1) to appoint an area manager for each special management area; and (2) to provide public information for them. Requires the Forest Service to amend the National Forest Management Plan for each national forest which includes a special management area designated on or before the enactment of this Act, to include a management plan for each forest. Directs the Forest Service, within two years after designation of each special management area after the enactment of this Act, to include a management plan for such forest in the National Forest Management Plan. Requires the President's budget to the Congress for each fiscal year after the enactment of this Act, to identify specifically, in a separate line item, funds to be spent by the Forest Service on special management areas. Directs the Chief, beginning in 1995 and every five years thereafter, to report to the Secretary and specified congressional committees on the status of all special management areas and plans for them. Includes all lands in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness within a single separate national forest (known as the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness National Forest) in order to: (1) protect the wilderness resource by giving it a quality wilderness management program; (2) encourage scientific research; and (3) serve as a model wilderness management program. Authorizes appropriations.

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2 official files

• Introduced in House (text)

  Introduced in House · EN

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• Introduced in House

  summary · EN · 26 February 1992

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