WASHINGTON, D.C.—On Dec. 18, Washington Office Forest Management staff held a public webinar to share the latest round of proposed updates to the agency’s Timber Management manuals and handbooks. More than 100 Forest Service employees, non-governmental organization partners, and state and local government representatives participated in the session.

The directives updates are an important component of the broader Forest Products Modernization effort, aimed at improving efficiency in how the agency manages forests, delivers forest products and carries out timber sales to increase acres treated and volume produced. Amending 2400 series manual and handbook directives to reflect new authorities and technologies will allow the agency to better align the forest products program with current and future forest restoration needs. Due to the volume of directives in need of update, proposed changes are being released for public comment on a rolling basis to reduce the volume of documents for public review at any given time.

This is the second set of directives updates and includes the Timber Appraisal Manual, handbook chapters on Knutson-Vandenberg trust funds and stewardship contracting, and a new handbook chapter on Good Neighbor Authority. The webinar kicked off a 60-day public comment period, which ends Feb. 16, 2021. The webinar was recorded for anyone who was unable to join and can be viewed via Adobe Connect. More information on timber management directives updates is available on the Forest Products Modernization webpage.