Agriculture to merge Forest Service programs

The Agriculture Department's Forest Service plans to merge three programs next year to better protect forests against the effects of climate change. Tim Tidwell, chief of the Forest Service, said the merger will enable Forest Service managers to consider all aspects of forest maintenance and care — timber harvesting, tree health, watershed health, wildlife and fisheries, and vegetation — within a single program. Creating "a single budget line item ... will encourage folks to look at the [total] landscape" of forest management, Tidwell said in an interview. The program merger is included in the president's $5.4 billion Forest Service budget proposed for 2011, which would represent a $61 million increase over this year's budget...read more