Vegetation and Watershed Management

What this funds

Table FS-51. Vegetation and Watershed Management Details Table (thousands of dollars) Vegetation and Watershed Management - Justification of Changes 2027 Budget provides program resources to manage and improve landscape and watershed conditions, focusing on the most critical watershed restoration and conservation actions. Land management actions with multiple benefits, such as timber production and recreation management efforts will be achieved. Additionally, the Forest Service will continue to partner with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on the management of wild horses and Vegetation and Watershed Management - Status of Programs The Vegetation and Watershed Management Program (including the Air Resource Management Program) improves and maintains landscape and watershed conditions through diverse active management techniques tailored to local Forest and Grassland needs in accordance with the objectives outlined in E.O. 14313, Establishing the President's Make America Beautiful Again Commission and E.O. 14225, Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production. Examples include detecting, preventing and controlling invasive plants, insects, and diseases; contributing to the recovery of threatened and endangered species, and restoring priority watersheds identified in the Watershed Condition Framework that serves as source watersheds for municipal water supply. plants for pollinators and diverse native plant communities; installing aquatic organism passages (AOP); detecting and monitoring changes in forest health; conducting analysis to prioritize management actions; and promoting water security. The program also supports priority actions for wild horse and burro management and the delivery of abundant clean In FY 2025, the Forest Service completed more than 261,000 acres of soil and water improvements, contributing to essential projects focused on improving overall watershed conditions. Most of the completed acres were prescribed fire and treatment of invasive species, including the control of feral hogs and invasive plants. Other activities included vegetation management for fuels reduction, vegetation reestablishment, aquatic habitat improvements, road improvements or decommissioning, and installation of aquatic AOP crossings. In FY 2025, seven priority watersheds moved to an improved condition class. The Forest Service advanced a process-based restoration approach to watershed restoration aimed at facilitating hazardous fuels reduction and wildland fire objectives. Working with five national partners including the National Forest Foundation and Trout Unlimited, as well resistant by cost-effectively using low value timber and expanding Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) to facilitate a proactive, collaborative management strategy for wildfires and landscape restoration. Projects used wood and slash onsite from hazardous fuels reduction activities to slow down water runoff and help it soak into the ground, which raises groundwater levels. This approach supports wildfire mitigation and post-fire recovery by restoring and expanding wet meadows, wetlands, and wetted valleys - natural features that help reduce fire intensity and spread. These projects delivered multiple benefits to the American people, reduced wildfire risk and community protection, and the support of rural jobs through employment of local contractors. In addition to wildfire management and benefits, including the protection of municipal drinking water supplies for downstream The Forest Service developed and led training opportunities for approximately 200 Forest Service resource specialists and partners on the Forest Service's Stream Simulation Design Method for designing road-stream crossings, enhancing fish habitats, improving road conditions for safe public access to NFS lands, and improving the flood resiliency of road infrastructure. The water program provided direct technical support to the field for post disaster recovery, including the development of damage assessments, recovery plans, peak discharge predictions for infrastructure replacements, hydraulic modeling for design, technical training, design assistance, and sub-regional contract assistance. This program supported hazardous fuels reduction, active forest and rangeland management, and reforestation accomplishments. Through fuels treatments, reforestation, and timber stand improvement activities, it supported active forest management and ensured the broadest benefits from implemented activities for healthy forests and rangelands, wildlife, and communities. In FY 2025, the program reforested 285,000 acres - exceeding the annual target and the highest level since 1998. The Forest Service has now addressed approximately 20 percent of the reforestation backlog since the passage of the In FY 2025, several vegetation and watershed management data applications were at a breaking point due to dependencies on obsolete software platforms as well as the need for new mobile application tools to improve field data collection. These applications contain crucial information for guiding active forest management from project planning stages to tracking accomplishments and benefits. The program pivoted its strategy for modernizing seven of these complex data applications from a customized, high-cost method to a simplified approach in line with the objectives outlined in E.O. 14192, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation. The changes are 1) estimated to save $21 million in modernization costs, 2) improved alignment with federal procurement regulations, 3) reduced time to product from 80 months to 12 months, and 4) upholds more functionality for field-going users and active management. The changes provide a more effectual link of databases to spatial data, which can be immediately used for the planning and implementation of vegetation management projects on the ground. Establishing instream water rights for wilderness areas and wild & scenic river segments allows abundant clean water to flow to downstream communities which depend on National recreation, wildlife and maintaining outdoor traditions such as fishing and hunting. Secured, high quality instream flows are an ec

Extracted from Forest Service, p. 59. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

Ask this budget line

Answers come from the figures on this page and nothing else. These dollars are parsed from Agriculture (USDA)'s Congressional Justification and are approximate — confirm anything that matters against the cited page.