The Salvage Sale Fund is one of several U.S. Forest Service “trust funds” that is dependent on the federal timber program. Forest Service trust funds are similar in many ways to a private bank account. These funds allow the Forest Service to deposit and withdraw money without guidance from Congress. Unlike most other government spending, these funds do not receive annual appropriations from Congress, which means they are not subject to Congressional or public oversight. This lack of accountability to Congress and the American public is one of the primary reasons that these funds are so abused by forest managers across the country.

WHAT IS THE “SALVAGE SALE FUND”?
Congress created the Salvage Sale Fund in 1976 with a one-time appropriation of $6 million for the purpose of removing dead and damaged National Forest trees.

PROBLEMS WITH THE SALVAGE SALE FUND:
One of the fundamental problems with this fund is that forest managers can deposit all revenues from timber salvage sales back into the Salvage Sale Fund rather than returning the money to the U.S. Treasury. This has created an incentive among forest managers to classify healthy, green trees as part of a salvage sale in order to make the sale more appealing to timber purchasers, thereby generating more revenue. As a result, this fund has ballooned from a mere $25 million in 1987 to over $150 million today. Now the Salvage Sale Fund is responsible for almost 1/3 of the timber sales on forest service lands.

Additionally, forest managers have been diverting a portion of these funds to pay for agency overhead like computers, salaries, and rent. According to a General Accounting Office report, in 1997 over 27% of Salvage Sale funds were spent on items or projects that could not be directly linked to the sale of dead or damaged timber.

THE SOLUTION:
In order to rectify these abuses, the Salvage Sale Fund should be subject to Congress’ annual appropriations process. Since this would require that Congress earmark a fixed dollar amount for salvage sales, the Forest Service would not be able to spend these funds on anything but their intended purpose, forcing the agency to become accountable to Congress and the American taxpayer. The incentive to classify healthy trees as salvage would also be eliminated.