Stewardship Agreements/Contracts

1. Stewardship Agreements/Contracts

2. What Stewardship Authority is… • 10-year Authority through 30 Sep 2013 • USDA Forest Service and also BLM may enter into Stewardship Projects through Agreements or Contracts with private persons or public/private entities • To perform services to achieve land management goals for eligible public lands that meet local and rural community goals

3. Stewardship Program MISSION: • Create a new contracting method to reduce costs and improve fiscal responsibility. • Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ecosystem restoration in the National Forest System.

4. Why Stewardship Authority? • Collaboration builds support • Exchange goods for services • Less contracting through bundling • More restoration with product value • Projects completed in less time

5. Why Stewardship Authority? • Use retained receipts in other SA areas • Environmental impacts reduced • Cost/acre of service activities reduced • Provides benefits to local & rural employment and communities

6. What’s in Stewardship for You? • Increased collaboration • Accomplish a variety of land management goals • New contract/agreement tools • New source of project accomplishment • Excess value can be used on other Stewardship projects*

7. What Stewardship can do • Healthy forests = healthy watersheds • It is more cost effective to manage forests/ watersheds than to pay for fire suppression regardless of what Congress anyone thinks • It is safer to manage forests up front than to put wildland fire fighter’s lives at risk later • Healthy forests = increased economic activity • And who doesn’t want more water in AZ?