Washington outlook.

Every five years or so, a lot of folks in Washington, DC, and around the country gear up to engage in the Farm Bill debate. This debate historically has dealt with policies and programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in support of commodity prices and farm income. In recent years, increasing debate has focused on issues related to the conservation of agricultural lands, including private forestlands.

The Farm Bill debate is intense and unwieldy for a couple of reasons. First, everyone wants to be involved because they know Congress will pass a bill, and second, a huge amount of federal funding is at stake. As in the past, the 2007 Farm Bill presents a great opportunity for those of us interested in conserving private forests both for the ecological services they provide and for their potential contributions to rural development.

The Farm Bill is the primary legislative vehicle for people interested in changing or creating new policies and programs related to nonfederal forests in our country. The first major set of provisions addressing nonfederal forests were included in a "Forestry Title" of the 1990 Farm Bill. This title addressed a range of issues related to the conservation of private forestlands and urban forests through new programs such as Forest Stewardship, Forest Legacy, and Urban and Community Forestry.

In addition to the Forestry Title, the 1990 Farm Bill included a rural development title that helped revitalize forest-dependent communities through forestry assistance.

To succeed in passing provisions like those in the 1990 Farm Bill, many pieces of the policy puzzle need to fall into place, but a key piece is a strong interest on the part of Congressional committee leaders overseeing the process. Those leaders, in turn, rely on committee staff to work with federal agencies and nonfederal entities to develop a set of ideas for a Forestry Title. When a broad array of nonfederal constituencies become involved in the process and develop support for a set of ideas--as occurred in 1990--the legislation has a good chance of passing.

The pieces for a Forestry Title did not come together during the 1995 Farm Bill debate, but emerged once again in 2002, resulting in new programs such as Forest Land Enhancement and Sustainable Forestry Outreach.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has published a Federal Register notice (Fed. Reg. Vol. 70, No. 116, Friday, June 17, 2005) announcing a series of public forums and the opportunity to provide written comments on Farm Bill issues and programs. Those comments will help decide USDA's recommendations to Congress. Questions in the Federal Register notice provide a framework for considering Farm Bill issues. They range from broad global and domestic trade issues and the appropriateness and effectiveness of farm support programs, to the achievement of conservation and environmental goals and the enhancement of rural economies.

Several questions offer an opportunity to address current concerns and propose new ideas about private forest conservation programs. Questions 4, 5, and 6 for example, recognize the importance of:

* Encouraging natural resource stewardship to provide critical ecosystem services, such as clean water and air, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration.

* Investing in community infrastructure such as new technologies, workforce development, and small-business enterprises, to enhance rural development.

* Expanding applied research and markets for innovative and value-added products, including specialty wood products from small-diameter trees, biomass energy, and nontimber forest products.

The deadline for written comments is December 30. We encourage readers to prepare their own comments or to work with local organizations with which they are affiliated to develop and submit comments.

Many national, regional, and local conservation organizations are preparing materials and strategies for the 2007 Farm Bill debate. Some are dealing with big-picture policy issues, such as efforts to redirect to conservation programs a portion of the billions of dollars traditionally spent on commodity support. Other organizations are focusing more narrowly on specific Farm Bill programs, exploring ways to improve existing programs or to bring new program ideas to the policy table.

AMERICAN FORESTS is doing some of each, as we have with previous Farm Bills. We will join in a broad coalition to pursue increased Farm Bill conservation funding. Increased conservation spending might receive some impetus from international trade negotiations through the World Trade Organization, but current demands on Congress for disaster relief for Hurricane Katrina, on top of an already tight federal budget, will make any spending increases difficult.

Hurricane Katrina has left major social, economic, and environmental challenges in its wake, and it is having serious effects on the tenor of policy debate in DC. It is too early to tell, however, what the ultimate effects of the late August storm will be on prospects for conservation spending in the 2007 Farm Bill.

We'll focus AMERICAN FORESTS' Farm Bill efforts on helping community-based forestry partners develop policy objectives and ideas for the debate. We are working with national, regional, and local partners to bring together ideas from different regions of the country. The common thread is the vision of community-based forestry, which focuses on the interdependence of healthy ecosystems and communities, seeking to integrate forest conservation and community development.

Our strategy is to help identify a set of common objectives or an agenda that can be broadly supported by community-based forestry groups. We then hope to use this agenda both to bring these ideas into the Farm Bill debate and to build coalitions with other organizations.

We also plan to convene various commodity and conservation interests to explore common ground related to conservation and stewardship incentives. By finding common ground among unlikely allies and creating support for a few widely shared principles, we hope to improve the likelihood that the Farm Bill will include some innovative policy provisions supporting ecosystem conservation.