Regional Forester Opts For Early Retirement Dave Jolly Was Hailed As Friend By The Timber Industry

Regaled by the timber industry and reviled by environmentalists, Dave Jolly next week will end a tumultuous three-year reign over forests from northeastern Washington to the Minnesota line.

Jolly, the regional forester stationed in Missoula, is taking the agency’s early retirement offer, which was extended to thousands of employees.

In a surprise move, Jolly told his staff this week that his 34-year U.S. Forest Service career would end with the month.

“I’m leaving with a very good feeling about my career with the outfit and am looking forward to life outside the Forest Service,” Jolly, 57, wrote colleagues.

Deputy Regional Forester John Hughes will fill in as acting regional forester, but also will retire after a permanent replacement is named.

Neither Jolly nor Hughes could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Jolly took over the agency’s northern region in January 1992, overseeing 13 forests and grasslands from just west of the Washington-Idaho border to Minnesota.

He replaced even-more controversial John Mumma, who refused a forced transfer to Washington, D.C., in August 1991.

Mumma, who late in his tenure spoke out against the agency’s destructive land management practices, said he was ousted by congressional pressure led by U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

Jolly, a career bureaucrat known for getting along, was brought to Missoula to restore order.

He also tried to open the forests to more logging than conservationists would allow under court challenges.

“He’s a classic, old-line Forest Service gentleman,” said timber industry spokesman Ken Kohli in Coeur d’Alene. “He spent most of his career in the agency when it was clear what the agency’s mandate was from Congress and from the public” - timber.

Timber harvests continued to free fall after Jolly came aboard, but it was a sign of cultural changes and legal restraints, Kohli said. “I don’t think you can blame him.”

Conservationists can hardly contain their glee at Jolly’s leaving.

The Spokane-based Inland Empire Public Lands Council accused Jolly of circumventing environmental laws to deny timber sale appeals.

Under Jolly’s direction, appeals could be denied on procedural and not substantive grounds, said the council’s Barry Rosenberg. “I’m glad he’s gone.”

Dan Funsch of the Missoula-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies said Jolly turned to less-regulated salvage timber sales when live, green trees were locked up by environmental challenges.

“He was a timber beast,” Funsch said.

In an April 1992 interview, Jolly, an East Tennessee native, described himself as a multiple-use advocate.

“The national forests are just an enormously valuable resource,” he said. “We need to take care of it, and it needs to provide things for the people of this country.”

xxxx

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = J. Todd Foster Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.