# Minerals and Geology Management

**Agency:** Agriculture (USDA)  
**Account:** National Forest System  
**Source document:** Forest Service · p. 59  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/budget/agriculture/minerals-and-geology-management  

> **Trust:** parsed from the agency Congressional Justification. Approximate, **not summable**, verify at the cited page.

## Funding ($M)

| Fiscal year | Basis | Amount |
| --- | --- | --- |
| FY2026 | enacted | 14.0 |
| FY2027 | request | 14.0 |

## Agriculture (USDA) discretionary budget authority (OMB PBDB — authoritative)

FY2027 $20.40B, FY2026 $33.40B. This is the agency total, not a sum of the parsed lines.


## What this funds

Table FS-53. Minerals and Geology Management Details Table (thousands of dollars) Minerals and Geology Management - Justification of Changes request will focus the Forest Service on the highest priority environmental analyses for critical minerals projects that contribute to a stable supply of energy for current and future generations while continuing to sustain long-term ecosystem health and productivity. These efforts support the policy objectives identified in E.O. 14241, Immediate Measures to contaminated sites, including Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) and other sites such as landfills, marijuana grow sites, shooting ranges, and administrative sites. The AML program seeks to minimize safety hazards associated with abandoned mines while preserving the historic and wildlife habitat resources that abandoned mines provide. Minerals and Geology Management - Status of Programs The Minerals and Geology program manages multiple areas including mineral and energy resource development, geologic resource management, and abandoned mine lands mitigation. These program areas are responsive to multiple Administration priorities including increasing the Nation's supply of domestic critical mineral and energy resources, ensuring efficient and streamlined permitting processes, and protecting the health and safety of the American people as outlined in E.O. 14241, Immediate Measures to Increase 14313, Establishing the President's Make America Beautiful Again Commission, and E.O. 14314, Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks. To accomplish these priorities, the Forest Service collaborates with other Federal and State agencies (e.g., Department of the Interior) in addition to partnering with public and private stakeholders. In 2025, the Forest Service realigned resources to efficiently facilitate mineral and energy development on federal lands. The Forest Service developed an Action Plan to implement Expanding Energy and Mineral Opportunities on Federal Forest Lands 14, that identified the tasks the Forest Service would undertake to reduce burdens on mineral and energy development. The Forest Service also issued direction on the use of emergency authorities on mineral and energy projects as per E.O. 15156, Declaring a National Energy Emergency, as well as developing a new mineral and energy tracking portal for projects subject to the 2025 Presidential actions. Overall, the Forest Service minerals and energy program contributed an estimated $7.9 billion annually to the Nation's economy and supports approximately 38,800 jobs, with a footprint of less than one percent of National Forests and The Forest Service's locatable minerals program meets the Nation's critical minerals needs by processing and administering minerals proposals and providing certified mineral examiner expertise on critical and other locatable minerals projects on NFS lands. The Forest Service's salable mineral program (e.g., sand, gravel, stone) contributes materials for critical infrastructure including disaster relief efforts. For example, in FY 2025, the Forest Service collaborated with U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration to remove permitting barriers to provide 6 million cubic yards of rock from NFS lands for use in recovery and rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Additionally, the Forest Service disposed of approximately 2.3 million tons of mineral materials to the public, valued at $2.7 million. The Forest Service's leasable mineral program manages approximately 3.1 million acres of NFS lands that are currently leased for oil, natural gas, coal, phosphates, geothermal resources, and other leasable mineral commodities. These leased acres produced revenue through royalties and other payments to the United States Treasury ($402 million commodities). This accounts for approximately seven percent of all revenue collected from energy and mineral production on federal onshore lands. Some other leasable program highlights from FY 2025 include: (1) multi-agency production of a report that identified coal resources and reserves, assessed impediments to coal mining, and proposed policies to address such impediments, including the need to update the coal regulations to gain efficiencies in response to both E.O. 14261, Reinvigorating America's Beautiful Clean Coal Industry, E.O. 14241, Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production, and the Working Families Tax Cut Act; and (2) signed a Record of Decision for the Skyline Mine Little Eccles coal project 15 that consented to lease over 6 million tons of federal coal in Utah. The Forest Service continued to manage and inventory 20,000 paleontological sites, 8,000 caves, and 50 geologic special interest areas. In particular, the Forest Service administered 78 paleontological resource collection permits and 16 new or modified museum property agreements in FY 2025. Additionally, the geologic hazards program evaluated sites and provided educational awareness for public safety on hazards associated with natural Abandoned Mine Lands and Environmental Compliance and Protection The AML and Environmental Compliance and Protection (ECAP) programs protect the American public from hazards associated with abandoned mines and facilities, and hazardous material releases on NFS lands. The Forest Service estimates there are 5,324 mine and mill sites that require clean up under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). To date, the ECAP program has closed more than 2,000 abandoned mine sites and negotiated over 120 orders accounting for nearly $900 For non-CERCLA abandoned mine sites, the AML program estimates there are 39,292 inventoried and verified features requiring mitigation. The Minerals and Geology program will sustain its commitment to contribute to the supply of domestic minerals that advance the health, productivity, and overall well-being of all


**Where it sits:** Civilian / Non-Defense › Agriculture (USDA) › Forest Service › National Forest System › Minerals and Geology Management


*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. government. Civilian line dollars are parsed from agency Congressional Justifications and are approximate.*