New Forest Service Chief Stresses Restoration Dombeck Wants To End Perceptions Of Infighting, He Tells Workers

New Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck told his workers Monday to make protection and restoration of national forests their top priority and disregard those who want to gut U.S. environmental laws.

Dombeck, former acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, also said he has several changes planned to strengthen the office of the chief and help end perceptions of “bureaucratic infighting” and “conflicting agendas” in U.S. logging policy.

“We must maintain healthy, diverse and productive ecosystems,” Dombeck said in a speech to about 500 Forest Service workers in an auditorium at the Agriculture Department.

“We cannot meet the needs of the people if we do not first conserve and restore the health of the land. So our first priority is to protect and restore the health of the land. Failing this, nothing else we do really matters,” said the former fisheries biologist and guide from northern Wisconsin.

“My expectation is that everything we do - every environmental impact statement we write, every timber sale, recreation plan, mining plan or allotment management plan we approve - will not compromise the health of the land,” he said in setting the tone for his tenure as the 14th chief of the 91-year-old Forest Service.

Dombeck, 48, was picked last month to succeed retiring Chief Jack Ward Thomas. On Monday, he acknowledged some of the criticisms of perceived contradictions in Clinton administration and Forest Service logging policies.

He said he intends to add a new senior staff member to serve as a liaison between the Forest Service, White House and other federal agencies, and create a new slot of Forest Service chief of staff to help articulate service policies.

“Few believe that we are operating as smoothly as we should,” Dombeck said.

“Effective conservation and the strength and credibility of the Forest Service are weakened by perceptions of bureaucratic infighting, end runs, conflicting agendas, and insufficient attention to basic business areas such as financial controls and communications.”

Although laid back in his style, he indicated he’ll be ready to do battle with Republican leaders in Congress who have pressed in recent years for a weakening of various environmental laws.

“This country is blessed with having elected people of foresight and wisdom who just a few decades ago gave us a legacy that included the most progressive and effective network of conservation laws in the world. And they have worked,” Dombeck said.

“We are a better, more secure and stronger nation because of laws such as the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Forest Management Act.

“These laws represent the conservation values of mainstream America. Do not be disturbed by the debate surrounding their execution. Don’t worry about it. This is background noise to a complex society and a healthy, properly functioning democracy.”

Dombeck emphasized “no Forest Service program has dominance over another.

“Timber is not more important than wildlife and fisheries. Nor is wildlife and fisheries more important than timber or recreation or cultural resources and so on,” he said.

“It wasn’t too many decades ago that managing natural resources was a lot simpler… Because there were fewer people and demands on the land, we could achieve many of our goals with less conflict. Today we are faced with competing demands, new pressures on the land and greater challenges than ever before.”

Dombeck said his chief of staff will be Francis Pandolfi, a former CEO of Times Mirror Magazines, vice president of CBS and a board member of several conservation groups, including Trout Unlimited and the National Audubon Society.