To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out a program to charge and collect not less than the fair market value for forest botanical products harvested on National Forest System lands, and for other purposes.
This bill establishes a program requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture to charge fair market value fees to anyone harvesting forest botanical products like mushrooms, flowers, seeds, and bark from National Forest lands. The Secretary of Agriculture must set up appraisal methods and bidding procedures to ensure fees recover the full fair market value of harvested products plus the department's administrative and monitoring costs. The legislation exempts small personal use harvesting and allows the Secretary to grant other exceptions through regulations. Revenue collected goes into a special Treasury account that can be spent without additional congressional approval, with funds directed back to the specific national forests where they were collected to pay for inventory work, sustainability monitoring, restoration activities, and program administration. The Secretary must annually report to Congress on funds collected and spent under the program.
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