Fish and Watershed Program Review: USDA Forest Service

In the public's trust, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Forest Service manages 155 National Forests across the country, making up nearly 200 million acres of lands and waters. This national legacy includes 220,000 miles of streams, over 2 million acres of lakes, and 15,000 miles of coastline - some of the more significant and valuable fisheries and aquatic resources in the nation. These fisheries and aquatic resources on National Forests contribute substantially to our local and national economies, help conserve our country's aquatic biodiversity assets, and provide ready accessibility to some of the best sport fishing in the United States. Rivers, streams, and lakes on National Forests contain viable - and in some cases, the only extant populations of endangered aquatic species. Additionally, National Forests provide important aquatic biodiversity reserves. For example, National Forests in the Tennessee-Cumberland River Basins and the Mobile basins contain 35% of all vulnerable and imperiled fish and mussel species in the nation, 70% of which occur nowhere else in the world. In 1996, there were nearly 47 million user-days dedicated to sportfishing on National Forests, generating $8.5 billion in local economic impact. As access to private land becomes increasingly restricted, especially near ever-expanding urban areas, National Forests play a significantly increased role in providing the public sportfishing access and opportunity.