Objective: To provide volunteer coordinators and Forest/District leadership with information necessary to convey and outline the changes in Forest Service (FS) policy in volunteer reimbursements that now comply with IRS allowances and limits.

Application: Use the information below to brief volunteers as a group during pre-season meetings, orientations, and so on about the changes to Forest Service Manual (FSM) 1830, volunteer reimbursements. Add the External FAQ listing as a handout, and be prepared to talk specifics about your forest or district visitor center, interpretive sites, campground hosts, etc.

 The Forest Service, and this forest and district, would not be able to provide the level of recreation, cultural, heritage, or visitor center experiences without our volunteers.

o The Forest Service has almost 18,000 recreation-related sites for boating, trails, camping of all types, cabins, and interpretive sites across the nation.

o We maintain a little more than 150,000 miles of system trails for all types of uses.

o We logged more than 400,000 reservations through the Recreation.gov website, accounting for 1.1 million visitor nights.

o This is about a 10 percent increase over 2009.

 This would not have been possible without our volunteers.

 Unfortunately, one of our policies relating to your reimbursements had to be revised to comply with a number of IRS allowances and limits.

 IRS audit of Federal agency reimbursements from 2 years ago found that Fish & Wildlife Service was in violation of IRS code and reimbursing too much. The ruling applied to the FS as well.

 Beginning this year our FS policy specific to volunteer reimbursements, section 1833.5 of our FS manual 1830, had to be revised to comply with the IRS allowable reimbursements and allowances.

 We have prepared a listing of frequently asked questions and information specific to these reimbursements for your information, as well as an overview of what is allowable, reimbursable, and what benefits or options you have.