Our nation's lands are vital to providing clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, sustainable wood, minerals, energy, jobs and places for Americans to enjoy the outdoors. USDA’s Forest Service is responsible for managing 193 million acres of grasslands and forests. For rural America to thrive, we recognize we must partner with land managers and landowners.
To realize that goal, the Forest Service has made several customer experience (CX) improvements since President Biden’s Executive Order instructing all federal agencies to enhance the overall experience for customers accessing government services and benefits.
Since December 2021, the Forest Service took steps to make it easier to develop strategic partnerships through historic changes to its grants and agreements policies – the first significant change since the 1990s. This work opens doors for underserved communities, Tribes and non-traditional partners.
The Forest Service also launched a free, easy-to-use website with interactive maps, charts, and resources to help communities understand, explore and reduce wildfire risk.
Last year, the Forest Service also released the Tribal Action Plan, a new roadmap to serve Tribal nations with a deeper commitment to regular and meaningful consultation. Forest Service employees enacting the plan are members of federally recognized Tribes and are ensuring plan is carried out with the integrity and respect.
Over the next few weeks, we'll continue to feature USDA CX accomplishments and efforts. In case you missed it, you can view our third post: Two-Year Anniversary of Customer Experience Executive Order - Pt. 3: Helping Farmers, Ranchers, and Forest Managers.
CX updates will also be posted on the Office of Customer Experience (OCX) website and reported publicly on Performance.gov. To follow CX stories and posts across agencies, follow #govdelivers on social media.