El Dorado County Resource Advisory Committee

The Secure Rural Schools program provides critical funding for schools, roads, and other municipal services to more than 700 counties across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

The Forest Service was established in 1905 with 56 million acres of land. By 1910, the amount of National Forest System land tripled to 172 million acres. Today, the agency manages approximately 196 million acres. Congress ratified the Act of May 23, 1908, as a measure to support rural counties whose tax base was limited by the growing amount of Federal land. A portion of Forest Service funds generated through multi-use activities, such as grazing, timber production, and special use permits, are distributed to eligible counties to help maintain local roads and schools.

By the year 2000, after decades of declining agency revenues, Congress passed the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act to help stabilize the funds available to rural counties.

Payments are divided into three distinct categories, or Titles: Title I for roads and schools, Title II for projects on Federal lands, and Title III for county projects. 

For further information check out the SRS website:

• www.fs.usda.gov/working-with-us/secure-rural-schools

Under Title II of the Act, the Secretary of Agriculture may establish a Secure Rural Schools resource advisory committee for part of a national forest or for one or more national forests to ensure that each national forest on which special projects are proposed has access to a RAC.

Secure Rural Schools RACs were first established under the “Secure Rural School and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-393). Since 2000, the Secure Rural Schools legislation has been reauthorized and amended several times.  

For further information check out these websites:

• www.fs.usda.gov/working-with-us/secure-rural-schools/act
• HR 2099 Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2021 (link)

Each county in an eligible state must elect to receive one of the following payments:

• a share of the state’s 25-percent payment, OR
• a share of the “State payment”.

25-percent - Since 2008 the 25-percent payment has been based  on a 7-year rolling average national forest receipts, distributed among the counties in which the national forest is situated in proportion to acreage of national forest in the affected counties.  25-percent payments must be used for public schools and roads in accordance with 16 U.S.C. 500. Under 16 U.S.C. 500, the State has broad discretion as to how to allocate the payment for public schools and roads, including authorizing the county to make the allocation.

State payment - The county share of the Secure Rural Schools Act State payment is allocated to public schools and roads (Title I), special projects on national forests (Title II), and county projects to be used for Firewise communities activities, to reimburse counties for emergency services on the national forests and for development of community wildfire protection plans (Title III). 

Title I and Title III funds are received by counties.  Title II funds are retained by the Forest Service for projects that are recommended by a RAC. 

Title II funds may be used for the for protection, restoration, and enhancement of fish and wildlife habitat, and other resource objectives consistent with the Act on Federal land and on non-Federal land where projects would benefit the resources on Federal land.

The purposes of the Act include making additional investments in, and creating employment opportunities through title II funded projects that:

• improve the maintenance of existing infrastructure;
• implement stewardship objectives that enhance forest ecosystems; and
• restore and improve land health and water quality;

The funds may be used for projects that enjoy broad based support and have objectives that may include--

• road, trail, and infrastructure maintenance or obliteration;
• soil productivity improvement;
• improvements in forest ecosystem health;
• watershed restoration and maintenance;
• the restoration, maintenance, and improvement of wildlife and fish habitat;
• the control of noxious and exotic weeds; and
• the re-establishment of native species.

Planning and implementing the projects should help improve cooperative relationships among the people that use and care for Federal land and the agencies that manage the Federal land.

The Eldorado County Resource Advisory Committee was established in 2010. This Committee has worked through multiple funding cycles.

• In 2011, they selected 18 projects for the 2008 to 2010 funding years.
• In 2012, they selected 8 projects for the 2011 to 2012 funding years.
• In 2014, they selected 6 projects for the 2013 funding year.
• In 2016, they selected 13 projects for the 2014 to 2015 funding years.
• In 2020, projects from the previous funding cycle were awarded additional funding from the 2017 to 2018 funding years. These were projects approved and funded or approved if additional funding was available by the previous committee.
  • Designated Federal Official Letter for 2020 Allocations (pdf)
• Although their term was originally for 4 years, the original committee was extended to 6 years and expired in the fall of 2016. The Eldorado National Forest outreached for new Committee members in 2017 and submitted the package for Washington Office approval in 2018/19. The new committee was approved in late August of 2020 and started operation in December of 2020.
• In 2021, they selected 13 projects in the spring and 1 in the fall for the 2019 to 2020 funding years.
• In 2022, they selected 12 projects in the spring for the 2021 funding year. 

Check out the Committee page for more information regarding duties and applying for committee membership.

Agendas, meeting minutes, documents, and location.

• Check out our Meetings page. 

• Check out our Project Application page for information regarding the project application process and project forms.

• Check out our Approved Projects page for information on active and completed projects.

• 2020 Project Accomplishment Report
• 2017 Project Accomplishment Report
• 2016 Project Accomplishment Report