I happened to come across the 2018 annual report for the national forest in my neck of the woods, the Mount Hood. Here’s the financial info in the report. It’s interesting to compare the categories.
Anyone know where I might find out how much Congress (and R6) allocated to the Mount Hood?
2 0 1 8 E X P E N D I T U R E S | |
Facilities Maintenance & Construction | $703,212 |
Fire Preparedness | $719,501 |
Fire Suppression | $2,655,847 |
Fleet/Vehicles/Fuel/Maintenance | $1,835,833 |
Fuel Reduction | $1,229,372 |
General Administration | $3,754,131 |
Lands & Realty | $236,094 |
Mineral & Mining Management | $26,756 |
Partnerships | $990,338 |
Planning, Inventory & Monitoring | $203,095 |
Range Administration | $42,043 |
Recreation Management (including rec fees collected) | $1,799,289 |
Road\Trail Maintenance and Construction | $1,734,986 |
State and Private Forestry | $836,144 |
Timber & Vegetation Management | $5,710,167 |
Wildlife\Botany\Fisheries\Watershed Management | $1,309,368 |
Emergency Relief Program (Road Repair) | $855,646 |
T O T A L | $24,641,825 |
2 0 1 8 R E V E N U E S A N D C O L L E C T I O N S | |
Agreements with Partners | $252,785 |
Botanical Products | $23,563 |
Brush Disposal | $67,723 |
Cooperative Work | $2,870,831 |
Cost Recovery | $58,699 |
Gifts | $5,574 |
Quarters | $124,473 |
Recreation & Special Uses | $614,538 |
Stewardship Contracts | $513,806 |
Timber Salvage Sales | $104,777 |
T O T A L | $4,636,768 |
S E C U R E R U R A L S C H O O L S F U N D I N G | |
Clackamas County | $8,410 |
Hood River County | $13,706 |
Multnomah County | $0 |
Wasco County | $23,791 |
T O T A L | $45,907 |
Have you tried asking the Forest? Seems like their Public Affairs folks should be able to help you with that request. And it’s pretty safe to say that most of the “expenditures” reflect what they were allocated, with the exception of some trust funds like K-V and Brush Disposal and Stewardship Retained Receipts, which are generated from timber product sales and spent on the unit they were generated on.
I was hoping to find a web site with amounts allocated to each forest.
FWIW, it is often difficult to find the name and contact info for public affairs folks on many forests. They aren’t listed on forest web pages and many press releases have no contacts listed. I have been trying to ask a question of a public affairs person for the Gifford Pinchot and have found no info in the GF web site. The main phone number I called has no option for a real operator — it’s a frustrating automated system that leads nowhere. I left a voice mail for the asst. forest supervisor — I found the name I found in a news article and looked up contact info in the USFS employee directory. No response 2 weeks later. If I were a reporter on a short deadline, I’d be growling….
Steve- FWIW I have had the best luck calling (I’ve tried an R-5 and R-2 Forest recently) and I’ve gotten real people answer who direct me to the Public Affairs people. Too bad the automated system doesn’t work the way it should.
Perhaps it’s too simple to think you could just subtract the revenues from the outlays and get what the Region allocated?
Which makes me wonder, does every Forest do an annual report? If so do they follow a standard template?
Revenues collected on National Forests go to the treasury for the most part. In any case, retained funds are part of the allocation to each forest. Even though retained funds (recreation fees, reforestation, etc) may be designated for a particular forest, the forest must be “allocated” those funds in order to spend. The expended funds will be close to the allocated amount, but will not be precise – people under spend and over spend.
This is inaccurate. Retained receipts are not part of a forest’s allocation. They are retained, as in, not sent back to the RO or WO.
The vast majority of recreation fees also stay on the unit where they are collected. That’s why you should buy your annual pass on your favorite unit because they keep most of the money.
Steve, Congress does not usually allocate funds to the forests directly, the usual route is allocation to the FS, which the WO allocates to Regions, who in turn allocate to the NF’s. Occasionally a forest will have a direct allocation from Congress or the WO for a specific project. I am not aware of anyplace where that information is on a public web site – you would need to contact the Mt Hood directly and talk with the budget officer.
I believe that Laura Pramuk is the public affairs lead for the Mt. Hood NF. 503-668-1791
Most national forests have a “contact us” link on the left hand side of their website. Here is the one for the Mt. Hood NF: https://www.fs.usda.gov/contactus/mthood/about-forest/contactus
It will take you to a page with an email form to fill out to get a response. my experience is that those work pretty well to get responses.
Thanks, Anon. Why isn’t Laura Pramuk’s contact info listed on the MHNF web site? It would make it much easier for reporters like me to contact them.
FWIW, I tried the Gifford Pinchot’s “contact us” form. I’ll let you know if and when I get and response.