Welcome to the Forest Service Policy Report! Our goal is to provide updates on agency policy actions, including directives, regulations and information collections.

Recently issued directives

• FSM 2040 National Forest System Monitoring (11/21/2024)
  Establishes a new chapter and new direction for all types of monitoring activities across the National Forest System to track conditions and inform evidence-based decision-making and adaptive management. This chapter replaces existing direction in Forest Service Manual 1940 - Inventory, Monitoring, and Assessment Activities that established an information framework and related business operations for data collection. This chapter complements existing direction in Forest Service Handbook 1909.12 chapter 30 - Land Management Plan Monitoring and Forest Service Manual chapter 3410 - Detection, Monitoring, and Evaluation.

Regulatory updates

• Criminal Prohibitions Final Rule  (11/25/2024)
  The Criminal Prohibitions final rule revises certain criminal prohibitions in 36 CFR part 261, subpart A, to enhance consistency of the Forest Service's law enforcement practices with those of State and other Federal land management agencies. In addition, this final rule streamlines enforcement of some of the criminal prohibitions found in 36 CFR part 261, subpart B, which are enforceable only through issuance of an order, by moving them to 36 CFR part 261, subpart A, which contains criminal prohibitions that are enforceable without issuance of an order.  

Announcements

There are no new announcements regarding upcoming events, but please continue to check this report as new updates may be included in the future. 

If you have questions or recommendations for Policy Report content that would be valuable to you and your colleagues, please contact Miranda Galadima (Miranda.galadima@usda.gov).