Stewardship end-result contracting is a flexible set of contracting tools designed to help federal land management agencies and their partners restore public lands and provide local community benefits. Congress created a pilot stewardship-contracting program for the Forest Service in the late 1990s. In the FY 2003 Appropriation Bill (Section 323 of Public Law 108-7), Congress granted the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) the authority, until September 30, 2013, to enter into stewardship-contracting projects for as much as ten years duration. Stewardship contracting has become an increasingly important means for the Forest Service and BLM to undertake complex, long-term projects that seek to restore ecosystems, reduce fire hazard, strengthen or develop the infrastructure to utilize restoration byproducts, and create local economic benefits. Stewardship contracting is a relatively new set of tools, however, and specific contracting approaches are rapidly evolving. For that reason, lessons from one area can help other regions of the country identify approaches that best fit their circumstances
