§ 6591. Forest stands inventory and monitoring program to improve detection of and response to environmental threats

• (a) The Secretary of Agriculture shall carry out a comprehensive program to inventory, monitor, characterize, assess, and identify forest stands (with emphasis on hardwood forest stands) and potential forest stands—
  • (1) in units of the National Forest System (other than those units created from the public domain); and
  • (2) on private forest land, with the consent of the owner of the land.
• (b) In carrying out the program, the Secretary shall address issues including—
  • (1) early detection, identification, and assessment of environmental threats (including insect, disease, invasive species, fire, and weather-related risks and other episodic events);
  • (2) loss or degradation of forests;
  • (3) degradation of the quality forest stands caused by inadequate forest regeneration practices;
  • (4) quantification of carbon uptake rates; and
  • (5) management practices that focus on preventing further forest degradation.
• (c) In carrying out the program, the Secretary shall develop a comprehensive early warning system for potential catastrophic environmental threats to forests to increase the likelihood that forest managers will be able to—
  • (1) isolate and treat a threat before the threat gets out of control; and
  • (2) prevent epidemics, such as the American chestnut blight in the first half of the twentieth century, that could be environmentally and economically devastating to forests.
• (d) There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2004 through 2008.