The U.S. Forest Service expects to shoulder $212 million in sequestration cuts this year, but no one can say how that might play out at the local level.

Forest Service Region 1 spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said Monday all requests for information were being referred to the Washington, D.C., press office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

An email from that office provided a Feb. 5 letter from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to the Senate Appropriations Committee outlining the agency’s general plans.

“The information in the letter is what we have available at this time,” department spokeswoman Stephanie Chan wrote in the email. “Also, at this time we do not have USDA state-by-state impacts, but the White House put out state-by-state numbers.”

The White House statement also had no Forest Service examples. Vilsack’s letter broke the Forest Service’s cuts into two categories: wildland fire management and the National Forest System. He proposed cutting $134 million from wildland fire.

From The Missoulian: https://missoulian.com/news/local/usfs-budget-cuts-likely-to-affect-fire-forest-management/article_5784b01a-854a-11e2-a03b-001a4bcf887a.html