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Carbon Sequestration in Forests

Description: This report examines basic questions concerning carbon sequestration in forests. The first section provides a brief background on congressional interest in forest carbon sequestration. The second describes the basic carbon cycle in forests, with an overview of how carbon cycling and storage vary among different types of forests. The third section then addresses how forest carbon is considered in the global climate change debate.
Date: August 6, 2009
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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U.S. Tree Planting for Carbon Sequestration

Description: This report briefly discusses one of the widely discussed options for domestic carbon dioxide offsets: tree planting. Two terms are generally used for tree planting: reforestation, for planting trees in areas recently cleared of forest through timber harvesting or natural disaster; and afforestation, for planting trees on sites that have long been cleared of forests, such as crop, pasture, and brush lands.
Date: May 4, 2009
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Forest Ecosystem Health: An Overview

Description: Legislative and administrative efforts have generally focused on the national forests, to create new forest health programs and management tools or to authorize alternative treatment approaches. This report will be updated as events warrant.
Date: February 21, 2001
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Forest Fire Protection

Description: This report provider bans historical background on wildfires and describes concerns about the "Urban-Wildland interface" and about forest and rangeland health. It also discusses fuel management, fire control, and fire effects.
Date: December 5, 2000
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Wildfire Protection in the 108th Congress

Description: The 2000 and 2002 fire seasons were, by most standards, among the worst in the past 50 years. Many argue that the threat of severe wildfires has grown in recent years because of unnaturally high fuel loads (e.g., dense undergrowth and dead trees), raising concerns about damage to property and homes in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) — forests near or surrounding homes. Debates about fire control and protection, including funding and fuel treatments (e.g., thinning and prescribed burning), ha… more
Date: November 19, 2004
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Wildfire Protection in the 108th Congress

Description: The 2000 and 2002 fire seasons were, by most standards, among the worst in the past 50 years. Many argue that the threat of severe wildfires has grown in recent years because of unnaturally high fuel loads (e.g., dense undergrowth and dead trees), raising concerns about damage to property and homes in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) — forests near or surrounding homes. Debates about fire control and protection, including funding and fuel treatments (e.g., thinning and prescribed burning), ha… more
Date: July 24, 2003
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Wildfire Protection in the 108th Congress

Description: The 2000 and 2002 fire seasons were, by most standards, among the worst in the past 50 years. Many argue that the threat of severe wildfires has grown in recent years because of unnaturally high fuel loads (e.g., dense undergrowth and dead trees), raising concerns about damage to property and homes in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) — forests near or surrounding homes. Debates about fire control and protection, including funding and fuel treatments (e.g., thinning and prescribed burning), ha… more
Date: August 5, 2003
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Wildfire Protection in the 108th Congress

Description: The 2000 and 2002 fire seasons were, by most standards, among the worst in the past 50 years. Many argue that the threat of severe wildfires has grown in recent years because of unnaturally high fuel loads (e.g., dense undergrowth and dead trees), raising concerns about damage to property and homes in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) — forests near or surrounding homes. Debates about fire control and protection, including funding and fuel treatments (e.g., thinning and prescribed burning), ha… more
Date: September 10, 2003
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Forest Fire/Wildfire Protection

Description: This report provides historical background on wildfires, and describes concerns about the wildland-urban interface and about forest and rangeland health. The report discusses fuel management, fire control, and fire effects. The report then examines federal, state, and landowner roles and responsibilities in protecting lands and resources from wildfires, and concludes by discussing current issues for federal wildfire management.
Date: January 18, 2006
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Wildfire Protection Funding

Description: The severe 2000 fire season prompted a significant rise in funding for wildfire protection that has been sustained; wildfire appropriations in FY2005 were more than $2.9 billion. Most of the funds ($2.8 billion in FY2005) are to protect federal lands, with funds for reducing fuel loads, for equipment and training, for fighting fires, and for restoring burned sites. Federal funding ($98 million in FY2005) also supports state efforts to protect nonfederal lands. Some wildfire funding ($74 million… more
Date: May 2, 2005
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Forest Service Receipt-Sharing Payments: Proposals for Change

Description: In lieu of property taxes, the Forest Service generally shares 25% of receipts from the sale, lease, rental, or other use of the national forests to the states for use on roads and schools in the counties where the national forests are located. This report discusses concerns about the equity and stability of Forest Service receipt-sharing payments, especially with the decline in timber sales over the past decade, and about the incentives of the current system.
Date: April 26, 2000
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Forest Fire/Wildfire Protection

Description: Congress continues to face questions about forestry practices, funding levels, and the federal role in wildland fire protection. The 2000 and 2002 fire seasons were, by most standards, among the worst in the past half-century. National attention began to focus on wildfires when a prescribed burn in May 2000 escaped control and burned 239 homes in Los Alamos, NM. President Clinton responded by requesting a doubling of wildfire management funds, and Congress enacted much of this proposal in the F… more
Date: February 14, 2005
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Wilderness: Overview and Statistics

Description: The U.S. Forest Service established the first protected "wilderness area" under its own discretion in 1924. In 1964, the Wilderness Act established the National Wilderness Preservation System, reserved to Congress the authority to designate wilderness areas, and directed the Secretaries of Agriculture and of the Interior to review certain lands for their wilderness potential. The Act also designated 54 wilderness areas with 9 million acres of Forest Service land. Congress began expanding the Wi… more
Date: March 18, 2005
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Forestry Assistance Programs

Description: This report describes the current forestry assistance programs funded through the State and Private Forestry (S&PF) branch of the Forest Service. Following a brief overview, the report presents basic information on the programs to assist forestry practices, forest protection, and rural economies — purposes of the programs, types of activities funded, eligibility requirements, and authorized program duration and funding level, with recent program appropriations.
Date: August 10, 2004
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Biomass: Comparison of Definitions in Legislation Through the 111th Congress

Description: This report discusses the use of biomass as an energy feedstock, which is emerging as a potentially viable alternative to address U.S. energy security concerns, foreign oil dependence, rural economic development, and diminishing sources of conventional energy. Biomass (organic matter that can be converted into energy) may include food crops, crops for energy (e.g., switchgrass or prairie perennials), crop residues, wood waste and byproducts, and animal manure. This report discusses legislation … more
Date: October 28, 2010
Creator: Bracmort, Kelsi & Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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