42 U.S.C. § 5188 — Timber sale contracts

This section shifts certain extra construction costs caused by a major disaster to the United States, allows cancellation of some timber contracts, permits shorter public notice for certain national-forest timber sales, and authorizes grants for removing disaster-damaged timber from private land.

(a) Cost-sharing^* arrangement. If an existing timber-sale contract between the Secretary^* of Agriculture or Interior and a timber purchaser does not provide relief for a major physical change not caused by the purchaser’s negligence before construction approval, and a major disaster causes extra construction work on a specified road or other specified development facility, the United States must pay the increased construction cost when the appropriate Secretary estimates it is—

(1) more than $1,000 for a sale of less than 1 million board feet;

(2) more than $1 per thousand board feet for a sale of 1 million to 3 million board feet; or

(3) more than $3,000 for a sale of more than 3 million board feet.

(b) Cancellation of authority. If the appropriate Secretary decides the damage is so great that restoration, rebuilding, or construction is impractical under subsection (a), the Secretary may allow the Department’s contract to be canceled even if the contract says otherwise.

(c) Public notice of sale. The Secretary of Agriculture may reduce to seven days the minimum advance public-notice period required by section 476 of title 16 for selling national-forest timber if the Secretary decides that the sale—

(1) will help construct a State^* area damaged by a major disaster;

(2) will help sustain that area’s economy; or

(3) is needed to salvage the value of timber damaged in the disaster or protect undamaged timber.

(d) State grants for removal of damaged timber; reimbursement limited to salvage value. When the President finds it in the public interest, the President may give a State or local government^* a grant to remove disaster-damaged timber from private land. After an application, the State or local government may use the grant to reimburse a person for expenses the person actually incurred removing the damaged timber. The reimbursement cannot exceed the amount by which those expenses are greater than the timber’s salvage value.

This section does not define “major disaster,” “major physical change,” “negligence,” “board feet,” “public interest,” or “salvage value.”