Sale and Disposal of National Forest System Timber; Downpayment

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The Forest Service hereby gives notice of its intent to develop a proposed rule and related policy to address a number of financial security provisions related to National Forest System (NFS) timber sale contracts. Specifically, the proposals will address the following: Transfer or refund of the downpayment made pursuant to timber sale contract special provision C(T)4.220#--DOWNPAYMENT; criteria which the Chief will use for determining speculative bidding; and the need for reduction of the performance bond amount before all volume is removed. The proposed policy is needed to ensure that the government has an adequate level of financial security, to assure the timely completion of timber sale contracts by avoiding contract defaults resulting from speculative bidding, and to maintain competition between qualified bidders by monitoring for speculative bidding.