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Section 8205 of Public Law 113-79, the Agricultural Act of 2014, provided permanent authority for Stewardship End Result Contracting and Agreements. This Final Rule will codify the regulations implementing the stewardship permanent authority. The permanent authority supersedes and is nearly identical to the temporary 10-year authority that was authorized under Consolidated Appropriations Resolutions Act of 1999 (as amended by section 323 of Pub. L. 108-7; 16 U.S.C 2104 Note). In general, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management may enter into stewardship contracting projects with private persons or other public entities to perform services to achieve land management goals for the national forests and the public lands that meet local and rural community needs.

This will codify existing policy (see Specifics) to provide greater uniformity in the administration of the various contract and agreement mechanisms used by the Forest Service to implement stewardship end result contracting projects.

Specifics: Adds new subpart I to the 36 CFR 223, Sale and Disposal of National Forest System Timber, Special Forest Products, and Forest Botanical Products regulation. 

• Notes the applicable Act that provides permanent authority for stewardship end results contracting.    
• Explains the approaches to providing timber and exchanging goods for services through procurement services contracts, sale of public property (timber sales), and agreements.    
• Provides method to determine the type of contract or agreement.    
• Notes that the selection of source for performance of a stewardship agreement or contract be on a best-value basis.    
• Notes that stewardship end result procurement contracts are administrated under the Federal Acquisition Regulation.    
• Provides for a fire liability provision in line with the requirements in the 2014 Farm Bill.    
• Identifies the provisions of subparts of A and B of 36 CFR 223 that apply to procurement contracts utilizing the stewardship end result contracting authority.  
• Identifies the provisions of subparts of A and B of 36 CFR 223 that do not apply to property contracts utilizing the stewardship end result contracting authority.  
• Notes that the Forest Service may enter into an agreement in lieu of a contract and that Federal Financial relationships are not applicable to such agreements.