Forest Service Looking To Reduce Deferred Maintenance

Ask those that know the forest, and they'll tell you there's been a lot of deferred maintenance and scheduled maintenance that just does not get done.  And that is really starting to build up.  Forest Service Associate Chief Lenise Lago recently told lawmakers, “Our capital improvement budget has not kept up with needed maintenance."

And, she noted, the Forest Service continues to move maintenance money in to fighting wild fires; a term called fire borrowing.  So, what has all of that procrastination done?

"The state of the Forest Service's infrastructure has fallen far behind what's necessary to meet the needs of our forests and our forest users. Today the Forest Service has a deferred maintenance backlog of more than $ 5.2 billion."

Legislation that takes affect next year should at least reduce the need to borrow from the maintenance budget to fight wild fires.  But in the meantime, Lago said the agency is doing  several things to get more maintenance work done more cheaply; including a proposal to streamline the process by with the environmental impact of maintenance projects will be assessed and approved.

Lago said that will lower the cost and, make it easier to maintain and repair roads, trails, campgrounds, and other facilities.

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