美国森林服务首席汤姆蒂威尔在今天的房子小组委员会之前作证了，这是一个在森林中的经济价值增加了消防活动，蚕食开发，害虫和疾病时期的经济价值。
与农业小组委员会谈论保护，能源和林业的众议院委员会，Tidwell指出，森林恢复工作，水，wildfire suppression，国家和私人森林的研究，娱乐，矿物质，特殊用途和支持都为农村农村提供了巨大的价值。
森林恢复
Tidwelldescribed the health of America’s forests, with millions of acres damaged by drought and insects and overloaded with dry fuel primed for catastrophic wildfires. He emphasized the importance of forest restoration work by the Forest Service and forest products industry, which helps prevent damaging fire while creating thousands of jobs in rural America.
“这Forest Service认识到需要强大的森林行业来帮助实现森林恢复工作，“Tidwell说。“降低这些恢复治疗成本的最佳机会是通过木材收获和管理契约。”
In the past two decades, there has been a rapid escalation of severe fire behavior and higher fire suppression costs. Nationwide, there are currently 72,400 communities at risk. In fiscal year 2012, the Forest Service spent more than $1.4 billion on wildfire suppression.
通过实施协作森林景观恢复计划 - 依靠管理契约契约，森林服务将创造或维持1,550个就业机会，同时使国家森林更加适应这些野火威胁。
However, he also noted thatForest Service工作不能单独修复国家森林的健康。森林产品行业的900,000名成员劳动力是解决方案的关键部分。
随着房地产市场的加厚，木材的需求越来越高，将使森林服务能够完成更多的恢复治疗，特别是在管理合同下。2012财年，销售的约25％的木材量都在管理合同下。
水
水is a vitally important natural resource flowing from America’s forests, which provides great economic benefit to many rural and urban communities. Forests provide clean drinking water to more than 180 million people, and watersheds on national forests and grasslands are the source of 20 percent of the nation’s drinking water supply. Many major urban centers, like Denver, Portland, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, depend on national forests for their water.
国家森林和草原含有超过20万英里的钓鱼溪流 - 支持全国知名的娱乐渔业和当地工作。
Wildland Fire
许多州最近经历过历史上最大或最具破坏性的火灾。平均而言，与40年前相比，野火每年燃烧每年两岸的两倍。Tidwell报道称，随着火灾季节的增长越来越长，燃烧增加，对地方和国有经济体会增加影响：
- In the absence of treatment, fuels continue to accumulate, setting the stage for future fires to be more extreme.
- 在我们能够治疗燃料和植物的地方，我们能够减少火灾。对燃烧成燃料的野火的评论表明，研究了近1,200例，93％的燃料处理在改变火灾行为和/或抑制方面有效。
- 我们的燃料管理活动的步伐并未跟上推动燃料积累的趋势。
- Human settlement patterns greatly compound the fire management problem.
- Severe fire can lead to reduced habitat for endangered and threatened species such as spotted owls, sage grouse and cold water fish species.
- 野火的出现增加已经对公共卫生的昂贵和严重影响，烟雾水平增加。
Recreation
Over the past few years, the national forests and grasslands have hosted an average of nearly 166 million visits per year. Recreation visits contribute about $13 billion to the U.S. economy each year. The direct visitor spending, combined with the ripple effects in the nearby economies, sustains more than 200,000 full and part-time jobs.
矿物质，石油和天然气
在任何时候，Forest Serviceadministers operations on approximately 160,000 mining claims and manages approximately 2,600 mineral material sale contracts. The value of energy and minerals production from these operations on Forest Service lands typically exceeds $6.5 billion per year.
Returns to the Treasury from lease rentals, royalties on production, bonus bids and mineral material sales on national forests and grasslands typically range from $650 million to $850 million annually.
特殊用途
Tidwell作证说，森林服务管理大约74,000个特殊用途授权，允许使用森林服务管理土地，以便众多目的有利于公众，包括能源传输和通信基础设施，可再生能源相关的用途，滑雪场等公共服务设施，度假村和玛林斯。
国家和私人林业
The Forest Service manages many programs that first work to protect our state and private forests in the face of increasing development and other threats.
The Forest Stewardship Program is delivered directly to landowners through state forest agency partners and a vast network of forestry technical assistance providers, forestry consultants, state forestry agencies, and non-profit partners. Currently, about 20 million acres of private forest land are being sustainably managed under this stewardship program nationally.
The Forest Health Protection Program is helping states, landowners, communities and tribes combat insect pest, disease and invasive plant infestations that, if left unchecked, can have severe local and regional economic impacts.
Forest Research and Development
森林服务研究通过提供流域管理工具和教育计划，帮助维护对社区重要的清洁水。此外，森林服务研究人员将科学掌握在经理，决策者，政策制定者，房主和社区的手中，以用户友好的软件和数据的形式，以及积极野火的训练有素的分析师的实时支持。
森林服务也在扩大木材和可持续和环保材料的使用。这些新材料范围从纳米大小的颗粒中，可用于开发轻质和强大的车身或绿色石油基塑料和薄膜的绿色替代品，以新的施工材料和多层建筑的新型建筑材料和技术。
