Plan Isn’t Out Of The Woods Yet Forest Service Proposal Angers Nw Lawmakers
The U.S. Forest Service’s proposal to eliminate regional offices in Missoula and Juneau, Alaska, has so incensed Northwest lawmakers that there’s talk of gutting the agency’s funding.
U.S. Rep. Don Young, an Alaskan Republican who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, even suggests the Forest Service be moved from the Agriculture Department to the Interior Department and placed under the Bureau of Land Management.
An agency reorganization announced last month isn’t dead yet, but it’s certainly on life support, Capitol Hill insiders said last week.
The plan requires congressional approval.
“If they’re not going to deal cooperatively with the people, then maybe their funding should be cut back,” Young’s spokesman Steve Hansen said in a telephone interview.
“BLM does a better job at a better return for the dollar anyway.”
Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas announced Dec. 6 a plan that would trim 300 employees from the national payroll and save $17 million a year.
Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon would join the entire state of Idaho in reporting to a regional office in Ogden, Utah. The Eastside now reports to Portland, while northern and central Idaho report to Missoula.
Western Montana would report to Denver, with Missoula losing its regional headquarters status.
Alaska would report to Portland.
“Reinvention is dead in the water,” a congressional insider said. “They didn’t get the Hill involved … and it’s really stupid” ecologically.
Repeated attempts last week to reach Chief Thomas and Assistant Agriculture Secretary Jim Lyons, who oversees the Forest Service, were unsuccessful.
The agency’s proposed realignments conform little with ecological boundaries, critics say. Instead, they match more closely proposed office restructuring with a sister agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, formerly the Soil Conservation Service.
Western Montana forests mimic those in Idaho, not in eastern Montana.
Alaska’s two mammoth national forests have their own ecosystems, nearly 2,000 miles from Portland.
U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, “thinks managing the Alaska forests from Portland made about as much sense as managing California forests from St. Louis,” said his spokesman, Mitch Rose.
Other critics include Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, and chairman of the Senate Energy Committee; Oregon Sens. Bob Packwood and Mark Hatfield, both Republicans; Idaho’s congressional delegation; and Montana Sens. Max Baucus, a Democrat, and Conrad Burns.
Baucus visited the Missoula office last week to interview employees about their concerns and apprehensions, Missoula Deputy Regional Forester John Hughes said.
“There is a lot of support for trying to streamline and downsize,” Hughes said. “There’s a pretty good argument for combining some units. But people are asking, ‘Why Denver and not Missoula?’ Of course, that’s human nature.”
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who chairs the Senate Forestry Subcommittee, said he supports shrinking the agency.
But “it may be more important to refocus the mission than it is to close particular offices,” he said.
xxxx What’s next? Lawmakers will hold behind-the-scenes discussions with Forest Service brass to hammer out a compromise. The proposal could be killed or be forwarded to a subcommittee.