Current Budgetary Challenges for

FS R&D and FIA

Current Budgetary Challenges for

FS R&D and FIARichard W. Guldin

Director, Quantitative SciencesUSDA Forest Service

2011 FIA National Users’ Group MeetingSacramento. CA

Richard W. GuldinDirector, Quantitative Sciences

USDA Forest Service

2011 FIA National Users’ Group MeetingSacramento. CA

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 2

BLUF: Bottom Line, Up Front

The current federal budgetary situation is very fluid.

It appears highly likely that a substantial funding reduction will be imposed on the FIA program in FY 2011.

The fluid budgetary environment has led us to some serious rethinking about what the “core FIA program” is that we will deliver in FY 2011 and FY 2012.

If substantial funding reductions become reality, I propose two core strategies to our FIA stakeholders for FYs 2011 & 2012:

Maintain a consistent national program--active in all 50 states

Continue with an annualized inventory

Delivering these two strategies will require us to sharpen the focus of the FIA program by redefining:

The national core data to be collected and

The analyses, reporting, and techniques research to be conducted

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 3

R&D Budget OverviewFS R&D Appropriation(million dollars)

FY 2010 Enacted

FY 2011 Pres.

Budget

FY 2011House

Bill HR-1

FY 2012 Pres.

Budget

Change FY 2010 to

2012 PB

Strategic R&D Programs

$245.073 $245.073 $233.834 -$11.239

Forest Inventory & Analysis Program

$66.939 $66.939 $61.939 $61.939 -$5.000

FS R&D Appropriation

$312.012 $312.012 $295.773 -$16.239

Other FS Funding for Research Programs

National Fire Plan $23.917 $23.917 $21.734 -$2.183

Joint Fire Sciences Program

$8.000 $8.000 $7.262 -$0.738

S&PF: Grants to States for FIA

$5.035 $5.035 $5.035 $0.000 -$5.035

Total FS Funding for Research Programs

$348.964 $348.964 $324.916 -$24.195

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 4

FY 2012 R&D Program Focus

Maintain critical research on: Nanotechnology; bio-energy, and bio-mass management Watershed restoration Forest restoration and forest resiliency, including selected silviculture, forest

management, forest products, and forest operations research

Significant realignments in other research priorities will occur: Synthesize mature fire research and end it Focus pest research on invasive species; reduce work on established pests Reduce recreation research that can be done by others with local forest dollars Reduce research on traditional game and fish species Reduce inventory and monitoring research of threatened, endangered, and

sensitive species that have reached stable management solutions Reduce low priority air quality and atmospheric interactions research

Where possible, emphasize research that creates jobs and captures efficiencies

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 5

FIA Program Funding for FY 2012Total Federal Funding

FY 2010 Enacted

FY 2011 Estimate

FY 2012 President’s

Budget

Change from FY 2011

R&D Appropriation $66.939 $66.939 $61.939 -$5.000

S&PF Appropriation $5.035 $5.035 $0 -$5.035

Total Federal Funding for FIA

$71.974 $71.974 $61.939 -$10.035

In FY 2010, FIA partners contributed +$7.5 million of cash and in-kind support to the FIA program 9% in additional program funding

In FY 2010, the FIA program provided $13.9 million in grants and cooperative agreements to fund partners to: Collect data Develop new inventory methods, and Conduct analyses

State governments’ funding situations and the FY 2012 proposal puts these partnerships at significant risk

University

State Agency

Forest Service

Other

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 6

FIA Program Highlights For FY 2010

Active for the first time in all 50 States

Only missing Interior Alaska

Nearly achieved goal of 1998 Farm Bill

Online data less than 2 years old for 42 States plus coastal Alaska

3-5 years old in FL, NC, and MS

More than 5 years old in NV, WY, NM, LA, interior Alaska, HI

Started double-intensity inventories on National Forests in the South, through Region 8 contributions

Data collection productivity and quality remains high

19,272 P2 plots visited by field crews; 1,204 included enhanced forest health data

9% of P2 plots revisited by QA/QC crews

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 7

More FY 2010 FIA Program Highlights

Federal-State partnership is productive and highly efficient 392 federal employees

205 State employees & contractors

203 publications; 74 in peer-reviewed journals

10 user group meetings

423 spatial data requests

991 expert consultations

260 weeks of assistance

State reports less than 5 years old:

18 of 24 NRS States

10 of 13 SRS States

3 of 5 PNW States

3 of 8 RMRS States

104,676 on-line FIA database downloads20

0220

0420

0620

0820

100

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

On-Line Database Downloads(thousands)

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 8

Key Projects Completed in FY 2010

Six-state study for Secretary Vilsack identified renewable energy opportunities

Potential of woody biomass in South Carolina as a sustainable biofuel supply

Maps of young forests supported wildlife conservation in Upper Lakes States

Non-native invasive plant distributions in South were documented in “Top 50 Most Cited Papers”

FIA data showed that structural and compositional diversity have little effect on stand productivity in Ponderosa pine forests

Rebutted a commonly held hypothesis that diverse stands are always more productive

Identified tree and stand-level conditions that promote Phellinus tremulae fungus attack in aspen stands

FIA data plus Landsat imagery were used to:

Map forest age in California, Oregon, and Washington; improved estimates and understanding of regional forest carbon dynamics

Make national estimates of biomass losses and accumulation resulting from forest disturbances and regrowth

Lichen community indicator data were used to estimate N-deposition critical loads for western forests

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 9

Status of FY 2011 FIA Funding

The R&D Appropriation total in HR-1 is exactly the same as the FY 2011 President’s Budget

In the President’s Budget justification, we noted that $2 million of the $5 million reduction was for intensification of FIA plots on/adjacent to Experimental Forests. We intend to implement this reduction and stop EF&R plot intensification.

The remaining $3 million reduction we will need to take will require immediate program adjustments the next 6 months. We intend to alter field work, because half of our program cost is data collection.

Total Federal Funding

FY 2010 Enacted

FY 2011 Pres. Budg.

FY 2011 CR Bill HR-1 5.035

Change from FY 2010

R&D Appropriation $66.939 $61.939 $61.939 -$5.000

S&PF Appropriation $5.035 $5.035 $5.035 -$0

Total Federal Funding for FIA

$71.974 $66.974 $66.974 -$5.000

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 10

What We Think Users Want …

Set two prime strategic goals:

Maintain a consistent national program—active in all 50 states

Continue with an annualized inventory

Manage FY 2011 activities towards the future funding outlined in the FY 2012 President’s Budget. Proposals to be considered include:

Critically evaluate what data and analyses we can no longer afford at a reduced funding level

Terminate external research & applications linked to them Move key forest health measures to the summer P2 sub-

panels (e.g., soils, “light” versions of down woody materials and vegetation), because they contribute to carbon analyses

Make other P3 measures regionally optional (e.g., crowns, lichens, ozone), dependent on “soft” funding

Reduce the number of plots measured each year

Are these in sync with users’ thinking? Are there other options?

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 11

Topics for Discussion

Additional presentations today and tomorrow by FIA headquarters staff and regional program managers will delve more deeply into potential adjustments for FY 2011 and 2012

We very much value your input on the tactical steps we will propose to take:

To respond to FY 2011 funding levels proposed in HR-1

To retain flexibility to respond to whatever FY 2012 funding level ultimately emerges

We feel that the urgency of the FY 2011 funding level requires us to take immediate steps this field season

If users have other options they’d like us to consider, now is the time to lay them on the table

2011 FIA National Users’ Group Meeting, Sacramento, CA Slide # 12

What Does the Future Hold for FIA?

I foresee a different FIA program ...

rguldin@fs.fed.uswww.fia.fs.fed.usrguldin@fs.fed.uswww.fia.fs.fed.us